Seeds

I have been thinking about the idea of "seeds of hope," that we are called to plant seeds of hope in people and then God is the one that cultivates it.

Well I've taken that idea and turned it, I guess speaking, internally. You can look at this both religiously (spiritually) and not.
'Seeds of hope' vs. 'Seeds of doubt'

How often do either of these 'seeds' or types of ideas/thoughts pop in our head.

Someone smiles at you. A parking ticket. A unexpected pleasant phone call from a friend. Burned dinner. A hug. Computer crashes. Finding a dollar on the ground.

Just little events in our lives that are sometimes just that, little events with nothing to them really and generally can mean nothing, as a whole. Something that happens to everyone, all the time and we all receive these events differently.

But this small events can grow into something we like or don't like. How many times has something positive happen to you, where you kind of stop and smile, where you want to share it with someone or it just makes your day a little bit better?

Personally I see the latter side more often. Something negative happens that, once again, really could mean nothing and we sit and entertain (feed) this idea and it culminates into something that we could never imagine. We are quick to associate it with something not related to it and it then has the potential to consume us.

It's kind of ludicrous.

I may be alone on this one...what started as a seed of doubt stemmed by something mundane has turned into a 100 foot Redwood tree of anguish, hurt and sometimes confusion.

This is more of a note to myself but, hopefully, encouragement to anyone else who might be experiencing this too.
Let us recognize these events for what they are. Events that happen everyday to everyone and will happen for the rest of our lives...good, bad, whatever.

What matters is how we nourish these seeds that WE plant in ourselves.

Take the good ones and thrive on them, let them be that topping on cake for you. We enjoy the little things in life and this creates even more excitement for when those big ones come along.

And lets take negative ones for what they are. Something sucked, had a bad day, whatever...but leave them for what they are and nothing else. Don't entertain the ideas, don't read into them, don't cultivate the thoughts. Take them captive. If we don't, well, it will drive you/us crazy.

Let's plant those little seeds of hope everywhere. You never know, there could be someone out there who's day you make...

Everyone... You Are Loved!

From the words of someone I will probably never meet but want too...

I had many problems with God for a long time, and I was scared of going to hell. Then i was in a living hell with a heroin addiction and God spared me I believe. I know it was not a power of my own doing. I also know that no mortal man or women is capable of creating some of the beauty in this world such as oceans, but as a mortal man we have a great way of destroying these wonderful things. I did not create my life, but I sure as hell tried my best to destroy my life until a power that I can not see, hear smell touch entered it.

The term agnostic means without knowledge, and because I could not see God, hear God, smell God, I was without knowledge of Him, I did not believe per say, but then someone asked me if I could see love, if I could hear love, if I could smell love. I said 'NO,' he said "Do you believe in it." I said 'Yes', he said, "Do you know what love is?" and I tried to describe it, he simply turned and said, "That is wonderful but try this...

GOD = LOVE"............... we can all be believers.

A website to share

I have been a faithful follower of this website now for a while and found it based upon the recommendation from a friend (thanks Donna).

I have to share it, because of the stories, well, secrets it contains. So many of the secrets are very brutally honest, some scary, some invoking hope, some shocking and even some may hit close to home to you as they did to me. I have so many of my favorites on there I want to share with you but I will let you experience them like I did (look in the forums).

The description from the web site:

PostSecret is an ongoing community art project where people mail in their secrets anonymously on one side of a homemade postcard.

I think many of them are people yelling for someone to hear them.

And from that..

Many of them can teach us a lot about life and ourselves.

I've been thinking about the terms "actively patient." I don't think I heard it anywhere before and in a sense, it could be conceived as a oxymoron.

I am called to be patient...

Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for Him. Psalm 37:7

But still being active in moving forward in my life, both of this world and spiritually...

See Joshua 4 (thanks Brandy)

So this leaves me in bind of sorts. I know I want to do what God wants (and generally that happens whether we want to or not even if it doesn't sync up to our plan). But I feel as though if I wait, I will fall behind...miss something important.

Then it gets me looking for signs or something. Getting to the point where I am looking for formations of clouds possibly spelling out something (I'm speaking hypothetically) but wishing for a parade dedicated to what I should do next.

Then I realize that God isn't some sort of trickster, someone who is going to make a puzzle for you leading to the next step in your life. Look at the old testament and what God showed those people. Pillars of fire, manna from the sky, etc. If we are faithful to God, He will reveal to us what to do (or not do in some cases). So knowing this gives me some peace.

I wish I knew what to do next, I think we all do and we all struggle with it, many times in our lives, in many areas of our lives.

I guess I wait. Prayerfully yes. Patiently, kind of...almost like a child waiting to open gifts on Christmas day. I know there is something good there, but I have to try to patiently wait and sometimes endure through Aunt Mildred's painful slide show of when she visited the Black Hills.

Now what?

Keep actively moving forward while quietly waiting for a answer...now that's weird. But that's what I need to do. But still I can't help and feel...

What am I waiting for? What are we all waiting for?

My New Year resolutions

1. Love more
2. Worry less
3. Do something amazing

I can exercise any day of the year.