Path of Peace

     Some days when I set out to blog I have so many things swirling around in my head I don't know what to pick,  That's because God* set out on this blogging journey with me and my God is an awesome God, wanting me (and everyone) to be successful.
     This morning I journaled about my birthday.  My daughter was off school and kept me company in between clients, my son kept calling until he got me live to bestow birthday greetings, and my husband sprinkled gifts to me throughout the day.  But this was only some of the surface pieces.
     It's about the moments in between the gifts and wishes that I want to share.  This is because today, after my morning journaling, I asked God what I should know and the response was in the rephrasing of the Psalms by Nan Merrill.  I opened randomly to page 184 and read about God setting us on a peaceful path.
   What I had also journaled about, and God wanted me to recognize, is that my daughter showed us her sketchbook on this day and one of the drawings was of one of my husband's photographs.  My son, when he finally reached me, told me that he was enjoying the blog and thought the reflective questions were thought-provoking.
     What I realized is that the development of these blog posts and the creation of photographs would not have happened if we had not followed a path of peace.  For us it meant changing careers seven years ago, but it doesn't need to be so drastic.  This path of peace is available to everyone and it promises a way of living that is most gratifying to each of us as individuals.  The tricky part is that we usually can't see where the path is going.
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Now for the reflective questions which you can journal about or if you'd like to share your story, I'd love to hear from you and the community would love to hear from you!  Your comment could have a major impact on someone else; most likely it will be just the right thing at the right time for one of the readers. For me, God* wanted me to know that helping even just one person is wonderfully impactful.

Reflective questions:

1. Is your idea of success the same as God's idea?

2.  What would happen if you moved aside and let God take the lead?

3.  What does God* want you to know about this (ask directly, God, what do you want me to know?)

* I use the term God as a universal term.  You may decide that Great Spirit, Allah, Higher Power, etc. better suits you today.  It is not for me to decide.

At the End of the Day, I am Still Crazed but Faithful

When I am in the best of spirits, meaning in a faith-based mood, I feel at peace.  But when I get crazed with thoughts that come from living in a world where we have concrete needs of food and shelter, worry seeps in and I can flit between faith (other world thinking) and real world thinking.

My thoughts might look like this:  we can't afford the tuition at that school....God* has an infinite pocketbook......we need to budget to the penny.......God has given me the world.....I am insane to be so faithful, will my life really unfold with ease as God has promised....With God, possibilities are limitless.

I could stay on this crazy wheel forever, but usually I am able to jump off, and find a restful place in God.  Today, when I asked God what else he wanted me to know about all of this, I randomly opened Nan Merrill's Psalms for Praying and came to Psalm 115 on page 243.

The words I was comforted by were about trusting God while we are on this earth; that if we do so, we will find peace.  And this is where I will choose to stay, knowing that the crazed thoughts will probably creep back in, but hopefully I will quickly find that resting place of faithfulness that gives me serenity.

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Now for the reflective questions which you can journal about or if you'd like to share your story, I'd love to hear from you and the community would love to hear from you!  Your comment could have a major impact on someone else; most likely it will be just the right thing at the right time for one of the readers. For me, God* wanted me to know that helping even just one person is wonderfully impactful.

Reflective questions:

1.  Are you in the best of spirits today or crazed by thoughts that take you to a place of fear and worry?

2.  What does God* want you to know about this (ask directly, God, what do you want me to know?)

* I use the term God as a universal term.  You may decide that Great Spirit, Allah, Higher Power, etc. better suits you today.  It is not for me to decide.

Ask the Questions, I Dare You!

What is it that you want to know about yourself, your relationships, life in general?  Are some of these questions ones you'd rather not have the answers to because your gut tells you there is work to do, that the answer will be hard to swallow, that you do not know if you are equipped to make the changes?  But all the same, wouldn't you want to know?

On my forty-third birthday I asked God if I could ever have my name written among the saints.  I know, weird question to have pop into your head but I was reading Psalms for Praying by Nan C. Merrill, specifically Psalm 26, and one of the lines is a plea to God, asking that we might be considered a saint.

This was a line that really pulled at my heart strings because I felt lost and didn't know how to get to that place, so I asked God if I could ever have my name among the saints.  The response I got, what was written on my heart was "Yes, but you need to eliminate negative thoughts about what could be."  

And there it was.  The work I needed to do.  I dared to ask the question.  And don't get me wrong, the answer was hard to swallow, because it seemed like an impossible task.  At the same time, it was good to know.  And the thing is, the reminder is good for today, too, and the blessing in today's hearing is that it doesn't hurt to hear it.  

1   What’s a question that is on your heart today?

2.  What does God* want you to know about this (ask directly, God what do you want me to know?)

* I use the term God as a universal term.  You may decide that Great Spirit, Allah, Higher Power, etc. better suits you for today.  It is not for me to decide.