Tag: love

One Small Act…of Kindness

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Hello…it has been a while since I have written anything. There has been so much going on in life, in family, in country and in the world. Maybe it’s just that it feels to be a little more than overwhelming. Maybe I’ve been uninspired to write. Maybe I’ve not been intentional with making the time to write. Maybe it’s all of the above! We all know that the past 2 years have not been easy. It has been plagued with disease, fires, floods, death, mayhem and not just natural disasters, but human disasters as well and the list goes on.

How do we process and deal with the suffering that is happening all over the world? It’s so overwhelming and I know that I sometimes feel so helpless. I ask myself, what am I supposed to do? I’m one person. There are so many homeless, there are people that have lost homes due to wildfires, there are people still sick and dying from Covid and the floods in Germany, and here, in our own United States. What are we to do?

It’s not an easy answer and as I pass by the homeless man sitting on the ground as I walk into Starbucks, I’m sad, but ask myself, what is it that I can do to make his day a little brighter and to at least let him know that he has been seen? The most immediate thing I can do is buy him something to eat and drink. There is no greater satisfaction that I get than when I give of my own resources and see the smile that comes across his face as I hand him his food and drink. It’s not the food that changes his day, it’s the fact that someone acknowledged him, spoke to him, made him feel human, and didn’t just walk by without even looking. Everyone wants to be seen and acknowledged.

The only thing I know to do that will bring a little bit of positive change, is to continue doing the smallest acts of kindness when the opportunity presents itself. No, I can’t go fight fires…but I can give to the fire fighters fund, or make some cookies and take it to my local fire station to thank them. Maybe I can take a trunk full of donated clothes and shoes to the local homeless camp and let them take their pick. Perhaps I can house a family that has been displaced because they have been evacuated or their home just burned down. There are so many ways we can help and bring a bit of sunshine to someones life and to their day.

I am not ashamed to say that I am fortunate to have everything I need to live comfortably, not extravagantly, but comfortable. So, I can’t very well sit by and watch the suffering going on around me. The way that I can suffer with them, is to talk, to acknowledge, to assist, to fund, etc. in whatever way I can to make a difference by one small act of kindness. If every one of us could do this…the world would change!

How do you make a difference? I would love to hear!

Truth vs. Evil

Evil has a way of blurring the lines of truth in every way.

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Today…I am unbelievably embarrassed to be an American! The range of emotions I am feeling today due to the despicable actions of my fellow Americans is keeping me very unsettled. The level of “in-your-face” bullying attitude that comes from our so-called President has successfully been imparted to nearly half of the voting population. Every person who participated in the horrendous violence to our beautiful capital building in Washington D.C. has just shown all of us how low and how vulnerable we are all willing to go, and our ability to fall prey to such an attitude coming from a leader. 

Our President’s inability or unwillingness to accept the truth of this election has reminded me of how evil strives to keep things stirred up to bring division. I have come to the conclusion that there is no longer a clear line of truth in our country. Taking into account the racial injustices, the inconsistency of our justice system and above all, the freedom our leader has to show hatred, strife, putrid self-pride, bullying, greed and a hatred for the truth itself. 

There is a constant battle of good vs. evil on a daily basis. We each have to come to a truth within us that is a pure truth. I’m sure Donald Trump and his followers would say that have a truth within them. Who am I to say they don’t, but in my understanding and logic, a pure truth would NEVER display such actions and behavior. Evil has a way of blurring the lines of truth in every way. Evil is cunning, manipulative, divisive and controlling.

As humankind, we don’t have a choice but to have evil with us. Our choice is whether we are going to partner with the characteristics of evil or will we partner with the pure truth, which in my life I will name GOD. Truth (God) is love!

Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, love endures all things. Love never ends. (I Corinthians 13:4-8)

So I have to ask myself, what am I going to do with the feelings I have that makes me want to judge my fellowman because their radical behavior? I have to go back to that place of peace within myself that is settled in knowing that pure love brings me my peace, and the fact that my fellowmen were also a creation of true love. Truth and evil will always coexist because we are human. We are not perfect. We are not God. 

We will never all agree to or see things the same way. That’s the beauty of God’s creation. We are so diverse, but that does not mean we have to have division. We are all different, but created with the same life-blood and same love of our creator. 

I really don’t believe any of us like division, manipulation or deceit. We were created in the image of God and naturally there is an innate pull to truth and love. We all crave it! But what do we do with evil? Accept that it is always here, but know this, only love will change the world! 

It’s almost too much for our human minds to comprehend how ugly and destructive evil can be, but also how great and vast love is. Both are easy to fall in to. So, as humans, we have a choice. Are we going to fall for evil or for love?

I don’t know about you, but I’m going to fall…for LOVE! Won’t you join me? 

The Wonder of Love

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Oh Holy Night, I wonder what would have happened if Mary had not been aware enough in herself and in her space the night the angel came and spoke to her. What if the shepherds and wise men would have never journeyed to find the manger? I wonder, would they have gone if they had not seen the star shining so bright in the night sky?

Did this night really happen the way it portrays in the Bible? I don’t know. I have come to believe that a lot of the Bible is metaphor. After all, Jesus always taught in parables. I definitely believe that Jesus was born into humanity and I believe Jesus was fully God and fully human at the same time. It’s almost too much for the human mind to comprehend.

If we allow ourselves the grace long enough to pause from our daily rat race and stop to think about how He came, who He was (and is), what He did with His time on this beautiful planet of ours and how He died…we would see how good He really is.

He came as a baby, the most vulnerable of all humanity but also through a young girl who gave room in her heart to believe the message of an angel. If an angel came to you would you believe it? I think I would be so awed by the angel that the message would almost escape me. 

He was a lover of humankind, a giver in every sense of the word and spent his time mingling with the poor and the sinners, but also spent his time with His disciples trying to show them, by modeling it Himself, how to love. THAT is why I believe He came. It was to show each one of us that we can look past our differences in religion, in skin color, in political preferences and in many other ways and see that He is the very essence of LOVE in every one of us, because we were created in His image, and potential likeness. Now our journey, while we are alive, is to be-come His likeness. To be-come ‘like’ Him, is to acquaint our selves with Him in love, life, pain, suffering and in death AND resurrection. It all goes together. We can’t have any of these without the all of them. Jesus never said we would not experience suffering or pain. He never said that we would only experience love and life. 

The point in the journey is to move towards be-coming whole. When we be-come whole we can be content with just ‘being’! Not having to perform to please people or keep up an image we think we should have. It’s about NOT denying if we are in a place of suffering. We have to embrace it all. Sometimes it’s not pleasant, nor easy. Embracing and accepting our humanity as imperfect, and yet, perfect to Him. 

Step into the wonder of His Presence, His Love, His Joy, His Peace, His Healing and His Suffering. Be-come whole in the journey and experience the freedom of living, moving and having your be-ing in Him. 

Merry Christmas and a Joyous New Year filled with His Love!

Love in a World of Change

We are to be whole-makers of love in a world of change.

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Happy Holidays to All Readers…

It’s so hard to believe that the year is almost over. What a year it has been. The world was thrown a curve ball this year from out of nowhere. This year has been one that we have all had to do things we don’t like doing. Early on I started calling 2020 the ‘year from hell’. Sadly, it’s so easy to get caught up in the negative event of Covid-19, the negativity of a crazy and ridiculous presidential election, the negative news, the horrific racial tension, negative social media feeds and the negative attitudes around the country and the world. It is extremely hard to not become angry, bitter and self-centered through all of this. 

I would like to suggest to each one of you reading this that you take just a moment and stop! Just stop long enough to look back to the beginning of 2020 and how chaos began to descend. Being told by our states leaders to stay home and to wear a mask when we went out for essential things. After all the countless lives that have been lost and yet, if you are reading this… YOU are still here! I am still here! WE are still here! I can’t help but be grateful for life! Every time we have walked out our doors there has been a high chance of being exposed, possibly sickened with this ugly virus, but no…and if any of you have been exposed, or have had Covid-19 then I am certain you must be grateful that you walked through the experience and survived. 

Now, I would like to call this year of 2020, the ‘year of opportunity’. We have been given the opportunity the last few months to become more aware of others needs than our own. It was a chance for us to draw close, even though being separated. We have been given the opportunity to allow the creativity that we were each given at birth to surface. It was an opportunity for us to become less self-centered and to think of others more than ourselves! It allowed us the time to take a deeper look at ourselves. It was a time to begin to love like we have never loved before. Life is too easily taken for granted! 

A couple of years ago we subscribed to a daily email from a place called The Center for Action and Contemplation, run by a Franciscan Priest and his name is Father Richard Rohr. This may shock some of you that know us, but then it might not, but we have decided to begin a new journey from the traditional evangelical church and step into what is called “Christian Contemplation”. We have experienced, felt, seen, read and heard so much love from this contemplative walk that we can’t help but be drawn into it. The perspective of the contemplative way is simple… we cannot live a dual life. The dual life is our ego (what we personally create), and our true self (who God created). The contemplative way is the journey of having oneness with our creator God, so much so that we are not maneuvered by our ego. This is the simplest way, for me, to describe it. It’s been a beautiful journey and we are learning so much everyday!

I would like to share an excerpt from one of the recent subscribed to emails we receive from Richard Rohr. It wraps up what this whole season of Christmas is about, to me.

 “We can read the history of our 13.7-billion-year-old universe as the rising up of Divine Love incarnate, which bursts forth in the person of Jesus, who reveals love’s urge toward wholeness through reconciliation, mercy, peace, and forgiveness. Jesus is the love of God incarnate, the wholemaker who shows the way of evolution toward unity in love. In Jesus, God breaks through and points us in a new direction; not one of chance or blindness but one of ever-deepening wholeness in love. In Jesus, God comes to us from the future to be our future. Those who follow Jesus are to become wholemakers, uniting what is scattered, creating a deeper unity in love. Christian life is a commitment to love, to give birth to God in one’s own life and to become midwives of divinity in this evolving cosmos. We are to be wholemakers of love in a world of change.” (Sister Ilia Delio)

Our prayer for you, along with my family and for the new year coming, is that we be the ‘wholemakers of love in a world of change’. Let’s not be negative, contrary, ego-focused or dividers! Let’s allow the love of God to point us in a new direction…into the wholeness of divine love. Be open to a whole new perspective for the new year ahead! Surely it will be better than 2020!! 

Merry Christmas, Happy New Year with lots of love, joy, peace and bright hope for 2021!!

Happy COVID-19 Thanksgiving

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A simple poem I wrote while reflecting on the past year…2020!

What a year this has been,

None of us comprehending how it would end.

In the beginning we saw,

A lot of our emotions becoming raw.

Our feelings of being controlled,

Brought out our inner trolls.

Wearing masks to cover our faces,

Made us wary of our personal spaces.

Our leaders fighting for the survival of their ego,

All the while, people dying and families letting them go.

COVID did it’s best to keep us apart,

But yet we are still close at heart.

Our historic Presidential election,

Seemed to hold captive all our attention.

Our nation teetered on the brink of a decision,

Deciding if we wanted ego or affection.

Now we come to Thanksgiving,

All being grateful for still living.

2020 will be a year of unbelievable sadness,

But 2021 will be a year of abundant gladness!

Let us look forward to beginning again,

With hope, with love and vision regained!

There is so much to be thankful for

But in 2021 there will be so much more!

Forgiveness

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If you look up the word forgiveness in Google, you will find there are many varied definitions. There are too many to go into. My definition of forgiveness is: Releasing your self from someone else’s offense that brought you into their personal emotional and spiritual captivity.

What did Jesus say as he was dying on the cross? He told God to forgive them because they didn’t know what they’re doing. When the disciples were questioning how many times they were supposed to forgive someone, Jesus told them to forgive 70 x 7 times. In other words he meant, endless times. Our tendency is to forgive once and then never again – even if that one time is forgiveness. 

When someone hurts us, usually our own personal defenses are what come to the surface. We instantly want to protect ourselves. We tend to want to start criticizing that person for what they did to offend us. When we are in this place it becomes fertile ground for bitterness, anger, and resentment to begin to grow in us. Before we know it, we are carrying all these feelings and emotions inside resulting in a refusal to forgive that person. We eventually feel like we are justified having the feelings we do. 

The questions we need to be asking ourselves are: Why do I feel this way? What am I trying to protect in me that keeps me from forgiving this person? Who am I to hold this action over one’s head for the rest of their lives? Why do I feel justified to do this? Why does this un-forgiveness in me want to drive me into a downward spiral of bitterness and anger (which may be where the person who offended me is)? Do I love me? Do I love this person that hurt me?

If we can identify the ‘why’, then we can understand what keeps us from forgiving them. Do we love and care about ourselves enough to say, ‘listen, I love myself enough to understand that it is doing me zero good to carry this around’. If we love ourselves that much, then we are able to love the offender that much. 

Forgiveness doesn’t just release you, but also releases them. You are releasing yourself from the hurt that you felt, and you are releasing them from the action they did to hurt you. If we cannot forgive, then we have become like the offender. Refusing to forgive someone is not love. Love says, I can release you from the hurt you have subjected me to. When we forgive, it tells that person that they are worth the opportunity to change. Forgiveness is NOT justifying the actions of the offender, but it is releasing them from the grip it has on you.  

I am a firm believer that God is not sitting on a big chair just waiting to hit me over the head with a hammer because of all my wrongs. God is love! That is the only way I can simply define God for me. If I have been made in His image, then it is my endeavor to come into His likeness. I believe if God can forgive those who killed Him, then I can certainly forgive someone that offended me. I can love that person because I love myself.

Warmly,

Veronica

P.S. I would love to hear from you! Do you struggle with forgiveness? Do you struggle with loving yourself? Throw some thoughts my way on what some of the daily challenges are that you face. Comment below or email me at freelyauthentic@gmail.com

Someone to be the Greatest Love

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We all know how 2020 started! It started out with the promise! The slate had been cleared of all 2019’s mistakes and regrets. A new year always gives us fresh hope, new perspective, new goals and desires. At the end of that year we look back and we can see if we were successful with our goals, and if our perspective on life changed at all. Little did we know that the year 2020 would literally be “the year from hell”.

Now as we hit October 2020 we have seen this year our nation has been catapulted to a place we’ve never been before. I, as I’m sure you, can remember when COVID-19 hit. We watched it rapidly spread all over the world. We have had over a million deaths, but thank God, also several million recoveries. We have seen the world basically shut down. Businesses close, schools close, airlines grounded, unemployment skyrocketed, suicide rates have risen to an alarming amount, domestic abuse cases rose, teenagers going crazy at home being separated from friends and our essential workers exposed and taking great risk on a daily basis. We have had to set our personal opinions aside and follow the direction of our government leaders to help protect each one of us, while they navigated the murky waters of this virus.

Beyond the pandemic, we have seen more land burned in one year than any other year in history. As I write this, it stands at over 4 million acres. Our forests have continued to burn with more fires starting on a daily basis. Is it climate change or is it the failure of our federal and local governments to take care of our forests? It’s both!! Our firefighters are exhausted and we are tired of the destruction, tired of the loss of life. We are tired of the relentless smoky air that penetrates the lungs. The amount of lives, homes, businesses, and the beautiful wineries lost in the Napa Valley is devastating.

As if these were not bad enough, then we had the killing of George Floyd. This began the racial protests in cities around the country. The rise of violence increasing in these hot spots has our police on edge, because they are the ones being protested against. They have become the enemy instead of our protectors. Mothers and fathers have lost children, and children have lost fathers and mothers etc.

To top the year off, we have a presidential election happening. Oh my God, are you freaking serious? Need I say anymore?

Daily we ask ourselves, how much more can we take as people, and as a nation? The world is wracked with grief from this pandemic, and our nation is reeling from racial violence, social injustice, destructive wildfires, lockdowns and a presidential election in the midst of a reign of chaos.

What do we do? How do we become a conduit of change? How can we continue in this seemingly never-ending chaos?

I suggest we look at the bigger picture, but yet a more refined picture. We see the world and what is currently happening. How many of us, stop and look at ourselves? I don’t mean look at what suffering we are going through and what is against us, etc. But, let us look at what who we are!

Deep down, in our true being, beyond our surface and superficiality, we are resilient people. We are strong. We are fighters. We are determined. We have all been victims of something, but we are also survivors. We are passionate. We are compassionate. We are people that care. We are a benevolent people. We are a people that know how to rise from devastation. We are a people that can rise above the destruction, the lofty ideals of mans ego, and rise above the chaos and know that this, too, shall pass. Why? Because we were all born to love. Yes, we can love those that disagree with us. We can love those that cause the violence, devastation and destruction.

My heart breaks for this country. For my grandchildren! What is the world going to be like when they become adults? This is my greatest fear right now. Will they have the freedoms we have now? Will this nation succumb to control? Will this nation stop caring about the climate, our forests, our poor and homeless etc.? There is much to be done to leave this world to our grandchildren in a much better place than it is now.

The only way to begin again is…to love!

To end this, I leave you with a few words from a song by James Blunt, The Greatest. These words are for our children and their children after them. But also, those of us who are still alive and kicking, well, it’s for us as well!

Be the young, the brave, the powerful

‘Cause the world is standing waiting

For someone to come and change it

Be the young, the brave, the powerful

‘Cause we need a soul to save us

We need someone to be the greatest love

Love Is…

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LOVE IS…

Patient…

Kind…

Does not Envy…

Does not Boast…

Is not Proud…

Does not Dishonor…

Is not Self-Seeking…

Is not Angered…

Keeps no records of Wrong…

Does not delight in Evil…

Rejoices in Truth…

Always Protects…

Always Trusts…

Always Hopes…

Always Perseveres…

Love NEVER fails…

 

Do we really know what LOVE is?
We may say it all the time, but I don’t think we actually stop enough and think about what we are saying. Has the word and meaning of love just become another cliché?
Just a reminder, today…stop and think about what it means to you when you say, “I love you” to someone. What act of love will you share today?
Just something on my mind today…would love to hear what love means to you!
~ Veronica

Seeing God in All

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From birth to death is a journey into the unknown. Whether or not we realize it, everyday is a searching for meaning, purpose and belonging. We long to have a strong purpose, to make a difference somehow and make the world a better place, so we have that sense of belonging.

From the moment we are conceived our world begins to develop slowly over a period of 9 months, then we are thrust into a whole new world at birth where the development almost starts all over again. The first time we open our eyes, what do we see? It’s most often going to be the face of our mother or father. Slowly we grow and develop physically as well as emotionally and mentally. Our worlds are beginning to take shape and form because of the way we literally see things. There are no boundaries as an infant, then as we develop into toddlers, the word “no” is introduced and all of a sudden all the parameters and boundaries are put in place. The boundaries are intentionally placed there with love, to protect us from hurting ourselves, and others.

As we grow, the filters that we use to process information through began forming, I believe at the first ‘no’. These filters will sometimes expand and sometimes narrow down and get smaller and tighter. We begin to see the world around us, and our personal world differently with every filter we put into place. These filters can be innocently formed by rejection, loss, disappointment, and unfulfilled expectations, but also by love, acceptance, acknowledgement etc. Each of us personally decide what filter we are going to use to process the information that gets thrown at us on a daily, moment by moment basis. Whatever filter we use will determine our response!

Over the period of the last year or so, I have been on this personal journey to see God in everything and everyone. God IS all and IN all! Our filters have told us what He is in and what He is not in. Growing up in a strict religious home, my filters were put into place at a very early age. I was told what was good and what was evil. I was told what I could or could not do. Told what I could or could not say. So, now as a woman in my 50’s I have been walking down a path not knowing who I was. My life had been so filled with being and pleasing everyone around me, because I didn’t know how to be me!

I’m tired of religion, I’m tired of religious people and churches. It’s all a big production. Sometimes it feels as if God is not even in the churches today. I can find God, or maybe see Him more in the bum on the street, in the person feeding a community of hungry people. I see Him in the nurse that is holding a wife who just lost her husband or in the teacher that has endless patience, devotion and passion to the children he/she is entrusted with everyday.

If you’re like me, you were raised to believe that God is not in the homosexual, He’s not in the abuser, He’s not in the alcoholic or the drug user. God is only in those that are doing the “right thing”! Which to me have been those people that are judgmental, critical and constantly defaming or shaming those that don’t believe like they do. THIS is NOT God! God is love…period!

So where do you see God? Every single human being that has ever been born on this earth since the creation, have ALL been created in the image of God! God is in each one of us, but our filters have told us to decide whom He is in and whom He is not in. I don’t know about you, but I’m really sick of the hypocrisy that the body of believers, called the church, walks in today. We turn away and reject the homeless, the homosexual and the drug addict. Where is the church touching those in need, outside of the 4 walls of the church building?

So again I ask, where do you see God? Do your filters limit your eyes to see those around you? Do your filters cause you to see a line that separates you from ‘them’? We are all children of God, no matter our color, gender, straight or gay, rich or poor, etc. I encourage you to see things a little differently. Try to see God in the next homeless person you come across. Don’t look at their circumstances, because you could be there too. Look into their eyes, and into their heart…I guarantee you will see God in them!

Love,

~ Veronica ~

Just Breathe!

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2015-03-30 06.45.07

I love sunrises!

I was sitting at my kitchen table one morning watching the sunrise mark another day’s beginning. As I watched I asked God, ‘why do I love sunrises so much’? I felt like I heard Him say…”With each sunrise is a new day and I don’t hold you in bondage to yesterday”. I was stunned by that simple thought. There is no way God is going to hold yesterday’s actions, thoughts or deeds over my head until I decide to change.

How many of us continually let yesterday dictate our today? How many times have we done or said something that we wished later on that we could take that back. How many of those times we participated in what our emotions were feeling instead of our heart?

I know as being a parent of 3 children it can sometimes be days of unending demand and by the end of the day I can tend to start snapping back and end up looking forward to bedtime. Yes, they are getting older now, but those days still exist sometimes.

Life has a way of demanding and pulling on us in numerous directions and we end up feeling like a ‘Stretch Armstrong’ doll. Almost everyday there is the pressure to, get to work, get the kids to school, deal with traffic, be abruptly cut off or given a dirty look because you’re not moving fast enough for another driver, do all the errands that need to be done, pay the bills, do the laundry, clean the house, go pick up the kids, help them with their seemingly endless stack of homework (even after being at school for 6-7 hours) but that’s whole ‘nother blog subject…lol. By the time homework is done, dinner is done, dishes have been washed and baths have been given, oh and a load of laundry thrown into the washer…you finally make it to getting the kiddo’s to bed (which takes 30 minutes alone), and you plop down on the couch, put your feet up and then finally….breathe!!

How many of you moms & dads can relate to that day? I’m sure many of you can! Let me encourage you by saying…You are doing an amazing job!!! Sometimes we just need to hear it.

If we are not careful our days can all run together and we forget to enjoy the moments that are so valuable and precious to us as individuals, but also as a family. It is so rewarding when you see all the input that has been given to your children actually come out in their actions. Simple things like, seeing a homeless person on the corner and all of a sudden from the back of the van I hear, “Mom, stop”, I hear rummaging and all of a sudden they stick their hand out the window and give that person a sandwich bag of wheat thins they didn’t finish eating with their lunch. Maybe it’s the time that they made a grumpy person smile just by doing something really silly. How about when they are just loving each other well!! The simple hug or hand on your shoulder.

We are meant for these moments. God desires us to enjoy the moment we are in and not get caught up in all the chores that need to be done. How much time do we give God or allow Him to just love on us? We can spend all day long doing what has been described above, but we might have such a struggle with just stopping to soak in His love and in His presence!

Early mornings are my treasure! I love waking up before everyone else, quietly moving myself downstairs, get my coffee, open the Bible and start reading about how much He loves me. Reading about how much He fights for me, how much He has given me to enjoy, how much He continues to show me my heart and encourages me to keep my gaze fixed on Him so I can become more and more like Him. All the while keeping a glance at the skies outside turn from dark to a slow light forming on the horizon and finally seeing the pink clouds and eventually that incredible brightness from the sun saying ‘Good Morning…it’s a brand new day’.

God is a good God and He is good all the time. He loves us with an everlasting love. No amount of love in the world can compare the the amount He loves me. His love brings hope, trust, wholeness, healing, faith, rest and so much more.

I encourage you to just stop and let Him love you! Forget what happened yesterday and look at today…it’s a new day!!

Psalm 73:25-26,28 – Whom have I in heaven but You? And besides You, I desire nothing on earth. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. But as for me, the nearness of God is my good; I have made the Lord God my refuge, that I may tell of all Your works.