RIGHT NOW

Whenever my children ask to do something...some fabulous stream of consciousness thought that pops in and becomes the best idea they've ever had...they want to make it happen...RIGHT NOW.

Why not? I think that may be the best way after all.

I read a quote the other day that has stayed with me. Something about "the smaller your life becomes, the bigger it gets..." This moment... RIGHT NOW...takes the tiny-focus to epic proportions...because we welcome Infinity when we are completely present.

What are YOU doing...RIGHT NOW?

Long Lived Kindness

Make it a practice to judge persons and things in the most favorable light at all times and under all circumstances. ~Saint Vincent de Paul

Remember that everyone you meet is afraid of something, loves something and has lost something. ~H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

Be thoughtful of others and you will not be shy, for they are incompatible addictions. ~Robert Brault

There is no effect more disproportionate to its cause than the happiness bestowed by a small compliment. ~Robert Brault

Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around. ~Leo Buscaglia


The everyday kindness of the back roads more than makes up for the acts of greed in the headlines. ~Charles Kuralt


Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle. ~Plato


The best portion of a good man's life - his little, nameless, unremembered acts of kindness and love. ~William Wordsworth


Kindness, like a boomerang, always returns. ~Author Unknown


Don't wait for people to be friendly, show them how. ~Author Unknown


A good character is the best tombstone. Those who loved you and were helped by you will remember you when forget-me-nots have withered. Carve your name on hearts, not on marble. ~Charles H. Spurgeon

I love kindness. It's that "thing" in the eyes of Christ that I see first. It's the compassion... that covers and deeply cares and holds me here. I am love-locked. I will stay here forever.

And then I go and marry Kindness seven amazing years ago...and I get to live with a man who writes stuff like this...with his living...



A healthy perspective is that life is a together-journey. That as we love others our own self-worth is nurtured. That as we comfort someone in need our own needs are tended. So today, how can we consider someone else before ourselves and be a spark in their life that encourages them to live boldly? What specific thing can you do for that one person today that will water the seed of their true potential and remind them that an eternal, benevolent Being is on their side making all things possible and dazzling? -William Todd Warren

There comes that mysterious meeting in life when someone acknowledges who we are and what we can be, igniting the circuits of our highest potential. - Rusty Berkus

Yadah!

I have been working on a project on and off for about seven years. Between getting married, birthing four babies and taking care of the family, it has been a stop-start kind of progress. And finally, I can see the finish line.

The project is the development of a new art form...a holistic exercise/meditation program with body postures and movements based upon a specific theme. I can't give too many details right now as we are working on trademark and copyright. But I've had a lot of fun formulating these body positions and meditating on who God is in the midst of exercise.

If it sounds a bit like Yoga, it is. The deal is, I used to love doing yoga...I love exercising, stretching, calming, meditating. However, when I began to study the roots of Yoga, I realized that there had to be a redemption of it in God's thoughts. So I asked. And what followed was an amazing journey of excellence and revelation.

Needless to say, I'm excited about this. The expression is called Yadah which is one of the Hebrew words for praise. The meditations are not an emptying but a filling and are God-centered, focusing on openness and internalized Truth rather than self and nothingness (no-mind). No offense to those who practice Yoga. These are just my travels and experience.

About 4 months ago, my husband asked if I wanted to have another baby. I thought he was sooooo done. I've been the one that's been aching from the inside out for more (you know, the womb is never satisfied, right?). So I was surprised. But a funny thing happened...

Instead of jumping all over him in excitement, ready RIGHT NOW, I immediately said..."Wow, yes, I'd love to...but I have to finish Yadah first." It was like God was speaking through me and letting me know His order for things.

We set a timeline for the completion, the finish line indicating the beginning point for a try at baby number 5. I'm working each afternoon on the content and the last round of body postures. I don't fully understand how it will play out or how it will be released. But I do know this is something that I'm to produce that will be a blessing to all the earth. And I'm partnering with God to make it happen.

I was sharing the idea with an old friend I recently reconnected with and she really liked it. Within months, she had asked me to present Yadah in a session at a conference next June. And I'll be starting some experimental classes here in Denver in the spring.

Balance, order, and form. God's Word brings order. His Spirit creates form and causes things to take on their intended shape. Balanced living is the result. I'll keep updating.

Grace-In-Action Star

This is our beautiful new bunny-love. We call her Gia-Star. I really like rabbits...but this one is different. This will be our mommy bunny. We don't have a daddy yet, but I'm intending to begin a breeding project with the children. So we'll get one soon. And we'll start small. The return is a SURE THING. I want to allow these young spirits to see creation and increase in a new way... forcefully ADVANCING. We named her Gia (for Grace- In- Action) and I am sure she will SHINE... since rabbits have no trouble doing their thing...

This is our spiritual journey as well...in our home. The learning and the re-learning how to live inside of Grace...how to sow it, how to reap it...how to see through it...how to fall deeply in it. It never stops. It continuously multiplies itself in us, through us, around us. It is the covenant that Father keeps. It is new LIFE in every moment.

And the only thing that can thwart its progress is stepping back under the old way of rules and regulations and judgment and have tos and shoulds. Ugh! Nothing is birthed in that environment except a bunch of dark clouds. Once HAVING to live that, now SET FREE to en-joy my days with an all-access pass into heaven's kingdom of celebration. It is GOOD NEWS after all.

Remember? Day 3

Hey, remembering is a good thing. Let's go another round...

Remember the sparkles and sunshine and falling stars, the feathers and happy-dances and visions for days. The oceans of hope and desire and the mountainous passion that God breathes into our dreams... that create momentum in our spirits for flying . The miracles and the magnificence... The magical melodies that weave through our life-song. They are still ringing out loud and clear. Hear them now? (Listen...)

Remember the brilliant Word spoken that created everything that we see...and the undertones and the overtures contained in that One Word. And remember? Our hearts were formed by that Word, too. And it's THAT Word that gives them wings.

Remember that He doesn't forget. He goes behind and before. He must REMEMBER the future. He is timeless...and even still, He stepped into time to help us out...so we could jump into His shoes and try timelessness on for size. Who thought that one up? GOD DID!

Remember what an amazing thinker He is? And how all His thoughts are perfection? And He says we can have His thoughts if we will believe that we can. Glorious.

There's a verse in the Scriptures that says, "Let heaven fill your thoughts." I don't think that means throw yourself into the future and think about how amazing life will be in the after. I think it means we should let Heaven fill up our mindspace and take OVER so that we are constantly in the flow of life-giving, mind-altering, earth-shaking, breath-taking Abundance...right NOW. It takes that kind of thought to make a difference. It takes a multitude of those kinds of thinkers to change it ALL.

Remember how He called you by name to be one of THOSE people? Or if you can't remember that...maybe it's happening right now. Christ in you the hope of glory. Remember?

Hugenious! Hooray! NOTHING is lost. All can be found in HIM.

Remember? Day 2

Remember the countless times God has come to the rescue...just in time? A Hero in flight...never giving up. Making sure that those who trust and wave that faith-flag get His attention every time. And even for those who can't raise their arms, I am sure He probably imagines them flying some invisible faith with super-vibrant colors in hope. He's creative and helpful like that.

Remember the spontaneous praises that produce lift-off and ignite us again and again. He is always deserving, fully present, never stopping, forever loving, our Eternal Home. He is safety. He is shelter. He is trustworthy and True. He is the Fresh Force of Faith working itself into our lives daily in order to produce the pure Goodness that shines like diamonds. The Goodness that cannot help but multiply itself...bringing Increase from the inside out. God is gorgeous!

Can we forget that kind of Beauty? I don't think it's possible.

Remember?

Remember?

Remember God? How He is always there. How He never leaves, not ever. How He cannot fail.
How He loves and loves and loves and loves and loves. And how He searches and doesn't stop until he finds. And how He collects hearts and fragments and pieces and puts them back together and it seems like He's just mending something that's been broken...but when He puts in that final piece, it will not only be complete. It will be new. And how He promises so many good things... and because He is the Author and Finisher of those promises, there is no way we will be disappointed.

And the soothing and the comfort and the hope along the way. Remember that?

Will He ever stop doing good? He can't! He is only good. There is no darkness in Him, no lurking disdain or disapproval. He sees us as we are and accepts... and yet there is this overlay of purity and perfection that He places upon us. And He sees us through that filter. And it's so beautiful. He is filled with happy thoughts and oh how much He delights in His children.

Remember.

Truth in Tow

I have this friend who seems to always have the right answer at the right time...just when I need it. She is a kindred-spirit, a life-giver... she is a woman who is ready in and out of season to offer hope with words, faith without fail, and who seems to have Truth in her pocket perfectly fit for any and every situation. I definitely want to be like her when I grow up.

She always pulls up an imaginative heaven-scene...a visual dictionary, if you will...that further aids in driving the truth to its destination and giving it a home. The gift of the great See-ers runs through her veins. And I am the blessed receiver.

Most of us are caught in a belief-web specifically designed for us by the Destroyer, the Deceiver, the Death-Weaver. The enemy of our souls spends all his energy and purpose trying to prevent us from understanding who we really are, what we were created for, and how we should be living. It produces everyday wreckage...and we call it normal. "This is just life, the way it is."

We have brilliant minds capable of comprehending what is possible, what should be. And yet...the thinking and the knowing are two very different things. The implementation escapes us somehow.

There are these "background singers" that really run the show inside of us if we are not carefully conscious and fully aware of our Being. We, living in the spotlight of our lives, can be singing of greatness and continuous lovedrifts...while these subtle show-stealers get the best of us. And most of the time their steering goes unquestioned while we lay down in submission to... less -than -desirable life circumstances that present themselves as if in answer to the "song of the subconscious."

No one is immune to this. We are a cracked and fragmented lot of humanity in need of a Savior... in need of Truth to invade our inmost being and multiply itself exponentially until every last fire-lie is extinguished.

So I'm revealing a bit of mixed-up history to my sweet friend a few days ago. I'm unpacking my pain and a few bitter remnants for show in hopes of some healing. And she says, "So...we need the Truth to cover the Untruth that you've been living...and then you can get to the Goods." I could never recount how many times I've been at this intersection. It is the Cross in real life, in slow motion, and with heavy traffic all at the same time. And each time I pass this way, I am an amateur driver with slow reaction-time and very little re-call of former lessons. I need to be reminded once again that Truth covers Lie like "paper covers rock." God wins. It's as if I'm a child again trying to grasp a new concept, just trying to learn my spiritual abc's.

And I think that makes perfect sense. Returning to the child-like place where the heart readily receives WHATEVER it is given... seems the ONLY way to recreate a life.

The "background singers" get replaced. And if they try to echo a refrain in the distance, it cannot be heard above the angels singing for joy. I can LIVE in the light... where the truth has been branded on my soul like a tattoo. It becomes my life-message. With or without words, I carry Truth in Tow and the very essence of Christ going before and following behind me.

Listening

When we listen, we learn how to speak and act upon what we're hearing...from the inside out.

It's one of the ways I help my children learn how to read. We do these phonemic awareness exercises that help them learn to really listen to sounds and discover how all things work together. If we pay attention and bring our focus into the present, it can help us gain understanding. We get used to hearing certain noises in our daily life and learn to tune them out. But every one of the parts has purpose. They are constant and significant. And each sound is a pathway to wisdom.

In the same way, God is speaking to us. In a whisper, sometimes in a shout...speaking life and abundance and encouragement to our hearts...in every way...in every moment. We must learn to be still and listen. We must be brave enough to hear God's story and perspective for our lives. He has good plans and strong strategies for living that he wants to empower us with. We gain confidence, and our creativity and resolve are multiplied by hearing His words.

The reason most people don't listen is they're afraid of what they will hear about themselves. I can promise you that the Voice that spoke us all into existence has perfect thoughts about you. They are beautiful and extravagant...and they never stop believing in your Holy Potential. If you have trouble hearing this kind of Goodness at first-sense, listen again. Listen behind the noise and all the mind-chatter. Listen for the truest kind of Truth about who you are... from the Voice that can never be silenced.

Turn your ears on. It's worth the risk. Right now. And forever.