Tag: powerful

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

Intimidation is Ugly

When we are secure in who we are, no matter where we are in life, in all aspects/areas, then we cannot be intimidated nor would we have the need to compare ourselves to anyone else because we know who we are and whose we are!

Freely AuthenticLeave a comment

Intimidation is an ugly thing. As someone that has usually been an introverted type personality and more on the quiet side, it’s always been very easy for me to be intimidated by strong people that come across my path.

Intimidation comes across as being very dominant and can make us feel like we aren’t good enough or we feel “less than”…both are practically the same. Some other feelings it can bring are discouragement, fear, restraint, or it can also make us feel threatened, withdrawn, insecure and not good enough. It has a tendency to leave us feeling controlled and powerless.

None of us like to be intimidated. Sometimes we can be experiencing this ugly thing in a particular moment, but not even realize what it is. Intimidation will always cause us to look inward and think it’s our fault we are feeling these different emotions and such. For those that are more on the quiet side or more introverted, it seems the first place we look at, is ourselves and how weak we are or how powerless we are. We begin to compare ourselves with the one projecting the intimidation.

Recently, I was contemplating about a certain person that is a friend, but I always seem to feel intimidated around them. This person very powerful prophetically, in personality and in a lot of other ways. But being around this person was difficult at times and when the opportunities presented themselves, I would find myself trying, or wishing, to get out of having to be around them. As I was pondering this a few mornings ago, I felt like I heard the Holy Spirit say, “If you are intimidated then you are not comfortable with who you are”.

Intimidation is nothing more than comparison. I’ve always heard it said this way…comparison kills! It really does. That is just how the enemy (devil) would like it. He always comes after our identity before he goes after anything else. If he can attack our identity then he has an open door to wreak havoc in our lives. If he can get us to believe the lies that intimidation releases, then we will slowly be broken down and end up having no identity at all. His number one goal is to make us feel unidentifiable and as small as he can!

When we are secure in who we are, no matter where we are in life, in all aspects/areas, then we cannot be intimidated nor would we have the need to compare ourselves to anyone else because we know who we are and whose we are!

If you are feeling intimidation at any time, stop for a moment and declare your identity. Do not partner with the lie that makes you feel small or powerless. You are powerful, not weak! Declare the opposite of what intimidation is trying to make you feel. Speaking it out loud will also show you are not intimidated. God is everything you declare Him to be to you. How does God see you? Declare what He says about you!

~ Veronica