Why are you on this planet? Why did God put you here?
What does your heart YEARN to do?
I want to know. I want to help you succeed. I want you to see ALL of your dreams become realities.
And, so does God.
God put us here to make Him the complete and total center of our lives. Once we do that, He has great and powerful things for us to do in His Kingdom.
Think of it this wayâŠ
We are employed by God. As Paul said he was an “ambassador in chains,” we as God’s employees/ambassadors are the face of the brand. We are the frontline — the very person people see when they think or hear or talk about God.
What kind of ambassador are you being? Would you get a pay raise? A good review?
Are you living the life God created you to live?
It’s not too late. It’s NEVER too late. Let’s do this! What are your dreams today? What do YOU want to do?
My dreams? I’m praying about them. The feel so far fetched and out there. And, I’m realizing through prayer today and time with God that my initial dreams may not be what I think.
I want to know yours! What were put here for? Don’t know yet? I want to know that, too!
I guess that’s why Jesus made it a point to tell us to “love our enemies.”
He knew.
He knows how grumpy and selfish we can all be. Please tell me I’m not the only one? Lol
God gives us a lot of instructing on how to treat others.Â
Romans 15:7 says, “Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God.”
And, in the 10 Commandments, God taught us to:
â
12 âHonor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the Lord your God is giving you.
13 âYou shall not murder.
14 âYou shall not commit adultery.
15 âYou shall not steal.
16 âYou shall not give false testimony against your neighbor.
17 âYou shall not covet your neighborâs house. You shall not covet your neighborâs wife, or his male or female servant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.â (Exodus 20:12-17)
And, in this passage in Matthew 5, Jesus tells us like it is:
43 âYou have heard that it was said, âLove your neighbor and hate your enemy.â 44 But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. 46 If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? 47 And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? 48 Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
Love. It’s an imperfect and hard thing for us, but for our Father in Heaven, it is what HE is. He is love. And, he gave us the examples and encouragement we need to be just like Him.Â
Is there someone who God is telling you to love today? Trust God in it, and tell me how he blessed you below in the comments.
Don’t forget! Subscribe to my email list and you will receive blog posts like this one, special emails and extras from me before anyone else!
“And do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased.” ~Hebrews 13:16 NIV
“God is pleased.” I really like these words. Do you?Â
In a world that seems so selfish at times, God wants us to “do good and share.” Can you do it? Do you do it?Â
I do.Â
Haha. Not really. I’m finding at times these days, I’m extremely selfish. I want what I want. I want self love and self care and all the things that make me muy happy.Â
Don’t we all want to be muy happy? And, self love is a good thing. Trust me. Self love, to me, is so important. It means time with God, and time with myself. I share myself with Him. And, I can share myself more with my family and friends when I take the time to share time with God.Â
I am a better human. I am calmer; more at peace. I can share myself better with the world.Â
One thing I’ve noticed in all this sharing is that God certainly wants me to share more of myself with you. More of my story. More of testimony.Â
All the things I don’t want to share.Â
But, sharing is caring so here I am. In the coming months, I feel like I am to tell you so many things. I’m not ready yet. I will be obedient to God though, so get ready. There may be some things you don’t want to read. đÂ
Don’t worry. He’ll get me ready to share. And, it may truly be a sacrifice.Â
Jeremiah 29:11 says, âFor I know the plans I have for you,â declares the Lord, âplans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.â
I once was involved in a single-parent ministry at a mega church in the Dallas area. And, this was our scripture. The scripture quoted each time we gathered. The scripture quoted each time someone had a crap day to let us know that God has us, that God has plans for us, to lift our spirits and help is remember we are not alone.
God has great plans for us. But, are they always easy to remember?
When your kid wonât go to sleep and itâs 1am and you have to work in the morning?
When illness strikes a family member and you are thrust into the caregiver role when in all reality you want to be camping or reading or anything else.
When your beautiful baby is diagnosed with ADHD, learning disorders and intellectual disabilities even though you didnât do any drugs, drink alcohol or dive off bridges during your pregnancy.
I didnât.
But, she did.
Well, Iâm not sure about the bridges.
You see, Iâm talking about the âbiologicalâ birth person of my child. Mother is a valuable term to me, and it takes more than birthing a baby to be called one in my opinion. Dad and Father are valuable terms too. I think you know what I mean here.
God knows the stories and the destinies when each of us are born. In Ephesians 1:4-5 it tells us, âEven as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will.â
Before God created the foundations of the world, he created you in his heart. How does that make you feel? Big? Significant? It should. You are.
You are mightily important in Godâs scheme of things. He predestined you for greatness. He planned out all the details of your life the way he wanted it to be long before time began. For you to walk and be in his will.
âIn him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory. ~Ephesians 1:11-12
God created you in his heart. He planned your timing. He planned your parents and your lineage. He planned the very second you would come kicking and screaming into this world sucked out of our 98.6 degree haven and thrust into a world with bright lights, new sounds, and these people who think you are the greatest thing since sliced bread.
And, he planned every second of my daughterâs life, too.
But, one thing he doesnât plan out â Our free will.
Now comes the sticky partâŠ
If God plans out all of the great and fabulous things he wants for us, does he plan out the bad too?
No. God is love and wants whatâs best for us.
God didnât plan for my daughter to be adopted. However, he did know that I needed a daughter and this little girl would need a home becomes of the free will of man and woman he blessed her with. Children are a blessing, whether you âdeserveâ them or not. Children are predestined, pre-formed and pre-determined by our Creator. Every child matters. No child is ever a mistake. Remember that today. No person is a mistake. Every single one of us had a destiny planned out before time began.
Oh, how I like to be busy. I like to have my schedule chock full of fun things that I am doing. Between church and Special Olympics events for my daughter, we had something planned every night of the week followed by tournaments on Saturdays and church activities on Sundays.
And, it was killing us. Both of us.
We were too busy.
Until COVID-19 hit us all like a tsunami.
Iâve changed a lot of things in my life since the pandemic began. And, Iâm grateful for the time it has allotted me to make much-needed shifts in our lives. I have learned to be still and breathe.
Well, Iâm better at it anyway.
Today, I want to share with you the three things Iâm focusing on to help me be still and not leap into the âbusy trap.â
First off, Busy â Important
Letâs get back to the novel coronavirus. I donât see whatâs so ânovelâ about it, but thatâs for another day.
My daughter and I were at first devasted with the rest of our fellow Americans when everything was shut down. I already homeschooled her so that didnât stop for us, but when our church had to close its doors and our sports activities came to a screeching halt, we did feel the initial impact of social distancing did to our world. But after a few days, when my childâs anxiety level decreased drastically, . Do you have this lie swimming around your head saying that the busier you are, the more important you are? Let that thing drown! Let we wash away like yesterdayâs eyeliner. Being busy doesnât equal anything but being busy. Does your busy take you away from reading a book to your kids? Does being busy take away from a romantic evening with your partner? Does being busy restrain you rather than propel you forward in your dream?
I urge you to take some time to look are your calendar today, and seriously ask yourself, âWhat can go?â
Good things happen when youâre still.
In Psalm 46:10, God tells us, ââBe still, and know that I am God! I am exalted among the nations, I am exalted in the earth.â Being still is vital to being able to listen. Growing up, I yielded to society. I was always listening to music. I always had the TV on. I always had noise on to distract me.
But now, I mostly drive in silence, and the TVâin my part of the house anywayâis off unless I have something specifically that Iâm going to sit down and enjoy. When Iâm still and in the quiet, I can chat with God. The best part? I can listen without distraction for the next steps He has for me. I want to be able to hear everything God has to tell me.
One aspect of being still is something a lot of us donât want to deal withâwaiting. We want what we want right now. Most of us (including me) are conditioned that the longest we want to wait is for a few seconds for a download or for a few minutes for our food to appear in a drive-thru window.
But, powerful things happen in the âwait.â
Isaiah 40:31 say:
âbut those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.â
And, Psalm 27:14 says:
Wait for the Lord; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the Lord!
Waiting and being still are powerful adversaries working for us to show us what God has for us. Be in the âwaitâ today and be still and see what happens.
Channel your inner âPhoebeââŠkinda
For years, Iâve found myself teetering between and âPhoebeâ and a âMonica.â Do you know what I mean? One moment I am elbow deep in cleaning the fridge; gloves on, bucket of water and baking soda. Later on, Iâm elbow deep in to-go containers, shoving them to the side as I search for the last known packet of ketchup in the back of the fridge to put on my fries. Then I slam the refrigerator door shut for âanother day.â
Where is my middle ground?
I know that neither one is the best option. Iâm either all or nothing. Iâm that person that canât watch âHoardersâ without cleaning and tossing things in boxes to donate. And I canât watch Monk for fear of being so âMonk.â I fight my own inner tendencies, but they all come down to one thing:
I am not in control.
And, you arenât either. Does this scare you? It does me! I like control. I like everything in its place. I like to color-code my time map of each day so I know what I will be doing every second in the name of productivity. (It actually helps me, so if youâd like to know more about it, let me know. )
I am a Time-map junky. But, as hard as I try, there are always shifts in my day. My daughter needs me (Sheâs top priority.) Our dog needs to go outside. And, those inevitable trips to the bathroom in the most inopportune moments.
I am not in control.
So, I breathe. And, remind myself that God is. Proverbs 19:21 says. âThe human mind may devise many plans, but it is the purpose of the Lord that will be established.â (NRSV)
James 4:13-16 tells us:
13 âCome now, you who say, âToday or tomorrow we will go to such and such a town and spend a year there, doing business and making money.â 14 Yet you do not even know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. 15 Instead you ought to say, âIf the Lord wishes, we will live and do this or that.â 16 As it is, you boast in your arrogance; all such boasting is evil.â
God is in control.
I need to lean more toward my inner âPhoebeâ at times and just go with the flow. God has all my plans laid out anyway. Thereâs nothing that a day planner, a pen and an elaborate scheme of highlighters can change.
I pray these three things help you on your journey. I pray that you see what is above at the right hand of God, and I pray that He will be with you always.
I will leave you with this scripture today. Be blessed!
Isaiah 41:10
âSo do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.â