Letters to God is a movie I have heard about, but never wanted to watch. It sounded so heart wrenching and sad. I get a little sick to my stomach if I even think of someone having to watch their child suffer through disease. I can't imagine how hard that would be. It is a fear of mine. I don't like even talking about it....
This morning was the first in a loooooong time that I could sleep in. I woke up at 6am and was irritated to be up at my regular time when I didn't have to be. Thankfully I fell back asleep and woke up again at 8:20am to Sheratyn and Daphnee writing me a note that they were up, but I wasn't. It was cute. So I got up and fed my puppy and got my coffee and just felt so happy to not have to rush off anywhere. By the time I headed into the living room, the girls were all in front of the TV watching a movie and wanted me to sit and watch with them. It was Letters to God. Ohh I did not want to be sad, but with Sheedyn begging for me to cuddle with her, I could not resist. I secretly thought I would sit for awhile and then go busy myself with house chores....but I didn't get up until the movie was over. This movie was a blessing. It was a beautiful story of hope. I don't want to give it away, so I'm not going into details, but I wanted to share my emotions and conclusions I came to. Although the movie made my heart literally hurt (it's a true story)- it also was such an amazing and happy story that it also brought me joy at the same time, especially watching it with the girls. There was a part in the story where Tyler's mom Maddie was so overwhelmed with pain over her life's hurts and her child's sickness, that she was crying out in anger towards God. Daphnee commented on this part, how the woman was not trusting in God and how she was saying things about God that aren't true. And I was able to share with the girls in yet another way how so often in this life our feelings are overwhelming. And the anger we feel often results in our lashing out at God because we don't like what he has allowed. But even though Maddie wasn't in the prime of her faith at that moment, it was a GOOD thing for her to express her anger and sadness and hopelessness to God in those moments. She was honest and real with God whose plan she did not understand in that moment. All the girls were able to see that her FEELINGS, although legitimate, were not the TRUTH. God DID have a beautiful and amazing plan. He loved Tyler more than even she did! The pain Maddie felt was real and awful, but God is bigger than our pain and not only has a plan for our lives on earth, however short they may be, and an even bigger plan for us with Him for eternity in heaven. If you haven't seen this movie, please watch it. I loved all of it and watching it with the girls was a treasure. Sheedyn kept looking at me so sweetly and kept saying, "You're crying Lor Lor!" I kept telling her, "I know.....I'm so sad AND so happy right now." But mostly happy and full of gratitude knowing that the pain and suffering of this world is only temporary and that it is all a part of a greater plan that we can't even begin to imagine. I also felt an awe in watching the way God worked through sickness and pain to bring love, peace, healing, and faith to many many people. It was simply precious.
I'm so thankful for a God who has a bigger plan than I could imagine and all the "bad" things in life are actually part of a GOOD plan.
Romans 8:28 "God works all things together for the good of those who love Him, who are called according to His purpose"
Sunday, May 15, 2011
Thursday, May 5, 2011
Just some of my "stuff"
Who doesn't want to be happy? Nobody. Who is searching for how to be happy? Everybody. Who has the answers. Jesus does. "I am the way, the truth, and the life"
However, it is our choice. Daily.
Did you know that it is each adult person's own responsibility to choose to nurture their own physical, emotional, spiritual, intellectual and psychological needs? Nurturing these 5 human needs involves deciding who/what you will choose to surround yourself with, when and why you will do the things you do, and how will you change aspects of your life in order to make sure that these needs are met. Wowzers!!! You mean I can't depend on anyone else to meet my needs? Nope. Taking personal responsibility and meeting these needs results in the content and joyful spirit that I believe that our God meant for us to have; that is actually possible to have here on earth! Bottom line: your spouse, boyfriend, girlfriend, parents, friends, pastor, counselor, boss, or co-workers, children, etc, etc cannot make you happy. Temporary feelings of happiness maybe...but remember, feeling happy isn't the same as choosing to live happy.
Consider this: You can CHOOSE to be happy, even when you don't FEEL happy. Um, ya, so I can easily say this, but have I mastered it? No way. I wish. I continue to let my feelings and emotions rule my actions and conclusions about myself much of the time......however, I have learned that they don't have to. That is a huge relief to me. Because......so much of my conclusions about myself have been made as a result of things that are out of my control, and as a result of how other people have chosen to treat me. And I have learned that those things out of my control are NOT what give me worth or make me who I am. I am who I am because of who God is and because of who HE specifically made me to be. My ultimate purpose is to glorify our God and LIVE my life loved by Him and to share that love with others. Sounds simple. But dang it, it's not! SIN messes everything up and is so entangled in our lives, that we will never experience the life God planned for us until we are with Him in eternity. All we can do is choose to get to know a God that loves us that much and allow Him to work through our human nature while we are here on earth. Our lives will never be perfect here. We will never be perfect here....but the more we get to know Him, the more we understand how loved we are by Him, the happier we will be in this life.
So back to our human needs. Why do we have human needs? Well, I know that I don't know that answer. God made us the way He made us. But I do know that they are there, whether I like it or not. And I do know that when I don't pay attention to them, bad stuff happens. I get sad, depressed, anxious, bummed, angry, hopeless, blah, blah blah...any of the emotions that we feel that are negative can be a result of not paying attention to nurturing our needs. Soooooooo, I wanted to share something. This is something that has helped me. When I feel this bad "stuff" going on.....I can ask myself, which of these 5 needs am I not paying attention to? And guess what, there's always at least one that I can pinpoint at any particular time that I need to re-think. Once I re-think, I have the first choice. Will I examine what I am not paying attention to? If I choose yes, I always see where I am "off" in my self talk/thinking/actions. Then I have the second choice. Will I make my decision about the thinking/situation according to what God says about it, or how I FEEL at the moment. And I wanted to share that EVERY TIME I CHOOSE TO SEEK GOD'S WISDOM, I feel peace and the positive feelings come....even if the "bad" situation doesn't change. When I choose to seek it, I find God's hope in every situation. Never have I not found it. It's almost bizarre. It's so freeing. So why doesn't everyone do this nurturing/examining thing? Because it's not easy and it doesn't come natural to us. AND we have been so engrained to BELIEVE what others (society) tells us, and that is usually opposite of God's word. So sad.
This may sound like a bunch of mumbo jumbo to you. To me, it makes sense and it gives me hope. I choose to blog it in order to get it out of my head.....and just in case it maybe makes some sort of sense to someone else and makes them think. Taking personal responsibility is so foreign these days. Everyone does everything because of someone else. Ugh. I fall into that trap all of the time! I feel sad because someone made me sad. I feel mad because someone said something mean about me. I feel stupid because I didn't know something I should have known. I feel (enter your own feeling that you CHOOSE to act upon or make conclusions upon). We all do it. We all need to deal with it.
You know what really helped me to realize my need to figure out what happiness looks like and where it comes from? Being a parent. So many children are enabled to blame everything on someone else. YES, many things affect our children. Many sad and negative things. However, I choose to teach my children about who they are in Christ and that they DO have choices in life....choices beyond their FEELINGS!! I teach this to my children because I want them to be happy and I want them to live their lives knowing they are LOVED. And knowing they have the choice.
This blogging is a way that I intellectually nurture myself. If you choose to read it, just know this is my "stuff" I'm sharing. MY struggles, MY choices, MY decisions result in MY happiness or lack there of <3 It never will be my intention to get my "stuff" all over someone else. And choose to not let other people's "stuff" get all over you. It is life a breath of fresh air when I choose to do this daily.
Happy Thursday!
However, it is our choice. Daily.
Did you know that it is each adult person's own responsibility to choose to nurture their own physical, emotional, spiritual, intellectual and psychological needs? Nurturing these 5 human needs involves deciding who/what you will choose to surround yourself with, when and why you will do the things you do, and how will you change aspects of your life in order to make sure that these needs are met. Wowzers!!! You mean I can't depend on anyone else to meet my needs? Nope. Taking personal responsibility and meeting these needs results in the content and joyful spirit that I believe that our God meant for us to have; that is actually possible to have here on earth! Bottom line: your spouse, boyfriend, girlfriend, parents, friends, pastor, counselor, boss, or co-workers, children, etc, etc cannot make you happy. Temporary feelings of happiness maybe...but remember, feeling happy isn't the same as choosing to live happy.
Consider this: You can CHOOSE to be happy, even when you don't FEEL happy. Um, ya, so I can easily say this, but have I mastered it? No way. I wish. I continue to let my feelings and emotions rule my actions and conclusions about myself much of the time......however, I have learned that they don't have to. That is a huge relief to me. Because......so much of my conclusions about myself have been made as a result of things that are out of my control, and as a result of how other people have chosen to treat me. And I have learned that those things out of my control are NOT what give me worth or make me who I am. I am who I am because of who God is and because of who HE specifically made me to be. My ultimate purpose is to glorify our God and LIVE my life loved by Him and to share that love with others. Sounds simple. But dang it, it's not! SIN messes everything up and is so entangled in our lives, that we will never experience the life God planned for us until we are with Him in eternity. All we can do is choose to get to know a God that loves us that much and allow Him to work through our human nature while we are here on earth. Our lives will never be perfect here. We will never be perfect here....but the more we get to know Him, the more we understand how loved we are by Him, the happier we will be in this life.
So back to our human needs. Why do we have human needs? Well, I know that I don't know that answer. God made us the way He made us. But I do know that they are there, whether I like it or not. And I do know that when I don't pay attention to them, bad stuff happens. I get sad, depressed, anxious, bummed, angry, hopeless, blah, blah blah...any of the emotions that we feel that are negative can be a result of not paying attention to nurturing our needs. Soooooooo, I wanted to share something. This is something that has helped me. When I feel this bad "stuff" going on.....I can ask myself, which of these 5 needs am I not paying attention to? And guess what, there's always at least one that I can pinpoint at any particular time that I need to re-think. Once I re-think, I have the first choice. Will I examine what I am not paying attention to? If I choose yes, I always see where I am "off" in my self talk/thinking/actions. Then I have the second choice. Will I make my decision about the thinking/situation according to what God says about it, or how I FEEL at the moment. And I wanted to share that EVERY TIME I CHOOSE TO SEEK GOD'S WISDOM, I feel peace and the positive feelings come....even if the "bad" situation doesn't change. When I choose to seek it, I find God's hope in every situation. Never have I not found it. It's almost bizarre. It's so freeing. So why doesn't everyone do this nurturing/examining thing? Because it's not easy and it doesn't come natural to us. AND we have been so engrained to BELIEVE what others (society) tells us, and that is usually opposite of God's word. So sad.
This may sound like a bunch of mumbo jumbo to you. To me, it makes sense and it gives me hope. I choose to blog it in order to get it out of my head.....and just in case it maybe makes some sort of sense to someone else and makes them think. Taking personal responsibility is so foreign these days. Everyone does everything because of someone else. Ugh. I fall into that trap all of the time! I feel sad because someone made me sad. I feel mad because someone said something mean about me. I feel stupid because I didn't know something I should have known. I feel (enter your own feeling that you CHOOSE to act upon or make conclusions upon). We all do it. We all need to deal with it.
You know what really helped me to realize my need to figure out what happiness looks like and where it comes from? Being a parent. So many children are enabled to blame everything on someone else. YES, many things affect our children. Many sad and negative things. However, I choose to teach my children about who they are in Christ and that they DO have choices in life....choices beyond their FEELINGS!! I teach this to my children because I want them to be happy and I want them to live their lives knowing they are LOVED. And knowing they have the choice.
This blogging is a way that I intellectually nurture myself. If you choose to read it, just know this is my "stuff" I'm sharing. MY struggles, MY choices, MY decisions result in MY happiness or lack there of <3 It never will be my intention to get my "stuff" all over someone else. And choose to not let other people's "stuff" get all over you. It is life a breath of fresh air when I choose to do this daily.
Happy Thursday!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)