“Sometimes I hate me and that is why it is so amazing that Jesus still loves me!”  I guess when I really stop and think about it, I don’t hate myself so much, but I hate my ways, because even with the best of intentions, I still manage to really mess things up.  I know that I am supposed to love and that love begins with me, but sometimes it is really tough.

That love word get’s bounced around a lot.  Some people guard and are afraid to let the love flow, so rarely do they give or receive.  Some throw love out to everyone and everything, with very little thought.  They might say:  “I love you!” and in the next breath:  “I love pizza!”  So when we throw that love word out – what exactly does that mean?

The goal is to let love flow into, through and out of our lives.  Not just any love, but the real love of our Creator.  The Bible tells us that God is love.  When we receive Him, we receive love.  This love changes us from the inside out by enabling us to become all that we were created to become, according to His plans and desires.

The older I get, the more I realize that I need to get this love thing right.  It is very important and it matters more than most of us realize.  The older I get, the more I realize how wrong I’ve gotten it.  I thought I was loving.  I expressed my love, but a lot of times, sad to say, it probably was not a whole lot more than just words.  The older I get, the more I realize that the love talked about in the Scriptures is the real deal and I’ve got a lot of work to do to get it right.

The first part of the work I have to do is taking what love is, comparing it to what I have and figuring out the difference, so that I know what kind of work I need to do.  1 Corinthians 13:4-8 gives us a beautiful description of what love is:  “Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, 5 does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, 6 does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; 7 bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.  Love never fails…”

Wow!  We’ve got some work to do and when we do it, we are sure to live blessed!

One of the most powerful gifts ever given to man is the gift of trust.  God has given us the ability to trust in Him and as we learn to trust in Him, we find the answers to the questions that really need answering.

Whatever you are facing, simply learn to say:  “I trust you!”  As you learn to say “I trust you!” in whatever comes your way, you will begin to see your Creator at work even in the challenges of life.  Realize that your Creator is in control and allows whatever flows to flow to and through you, if you will trust and allow it.

Learning to say and believe “I trust you.”, enables you to see things from the divine perspective.  Trust chases away the darkness with the light of God’s universal presence and power.  Fear, anxiousness and worry cannot exist in the light of His presence.  Challenging circumstances become dynamic opportunities for growth when we learn to affirm our trust in Him.

Open your life to receive blessings gratefully, challenges hopefully and your life will learn to trust, and trust will strengthen the most important relationship of your life, which will in turn strengthen and grow the meaningfulness of all your other relationships.

Trust and live blessed!

Change is the real constant!  Change is an expression that life is still going and evidence that there is purpose and meaning to our existence.  If you are paying attention then you realize that there is a cycle of life and that we are all apart.  Things come and things go.  We often view the coming and going as temporary, but in reality, it never stops – it is a constant.  We can count on the coming and going everyday of our human experience.

When something comes to an end, we often want to mourn.  It may be the closing of a phase in your life, the ending of a relationship, the completion of a project, the termination of a meaningful connection or death itself.  The wisdom writer of Ecclesiastes 3:1 puts it this way: “To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:”

Realizing that this process of coming and going in life should produce rejoicing, not sadness in our lives and living.  We should live in peace knowing that we are a part of the whole.  Everything comes from the Creator and everything must return to the Creator, for the Creator to do with as He pleases.

What we perceive as an ending is really a beginning.  There is life beyond this present moment.  That is not to say that you should not get the most out of this present moment, because you certainly should.  It is to say that life is made up of many moments and we should never miss the enjoyment of next because we are stuck morning the passing of the last.

Stop and observe life and realize that endings are beginnings, because life is constant!   Remind yourself that your Creator is at work within you and through the events of life, and make the decision to connect and not miss a thing.  When you begin to think this way, peace will take the place of despair and you will have hope and with hope comes amazing blessing.

Someone once coined the phrase:  “This too shall pass!” and they were exactly right!  The stuff of life comes and goes.  You can rely on the reality that all of life is either coming or going.  Look around you and see the evidence – spring flowers, wrinkles, birth, death, relationships beginning and ending.  All the stuff of life – coming and going, beginning and ending is all a part of the journey, a journey where hopefully you are living blessed…