ACCIDENTS

Bamm! I slammed on my brakes as a car cut in front of me and I could not stop!


I sat shocked, my heart was racing and my body was tingling. I was physically fine but just stunned. I began to pray God help me get through this.

I had just come from the beach where I had relaxed and rested.

Then this happened.

My day started with God choose me. I want to go where you go. Holy Spirit direct my path.

What?!

I still believed in the prayer.

I got out of my car still knowing GOD IS WITH ME. I walked to meet the person in the other car and police man.

Miraculously everything went smooth and the accident was not my fault. Her family showed up and kept apologizing. The police man was most helpful. Deep within me I just kept remembering my prayer that morning. God use me.
That meant to me to always be an example of Christ.
God showed me how to be humble, gracious, slow to anger and compassionate.
It would be a process but I did it and I got through it. I have prayed for all involved since that day. Maybe someone needed to be prayed for.

An old saying is ....  Happens! You are going along and things happen. I felt what I learned through this was when things hit the fan how do we navigate through it. We maybe surprised like I was. The other people stayed with me until I was completely taken care of and back on the road. I just felt like God was reminding me that he is there for me.

After the day I processed this also:

I began the day saying , so and so has it so hard Lord how will you help her get through it? It seems like too much. 
I am reminded that God helped me get through the accident. Everything in life is not perfect. Just as God helped me he will help others. I can encourage others with this story. Hopefully their take away will be, God will helped me too!

PRAYER

What helps you to get through a day? What helps you get rid of everything or anything that gets you down during your day? What  helps you feel validated and secure?

I like prayer.
Prayer makes me feel like a warrior.
It helps me not to feel defeated and broken.
It releases me to have more life here on earth.

Try this: pray for our country, yourself, loved ones, enemies and strength for you to go on.

God knows what's going on. But he still wants to hear from you.

It is your communication with Father God.

May you find peace and love that he cares and loves.

Celebrate life!

Lift your eyes to heaven and talk.

With all prayer and supplication, praying at all seasons in the Spirit.

REAL LIFE

LIFE right now is about
love
rest
relationships (people and even dogs)
caring
being present (in the moment)
focusing
letting go
communicating well
difficult conversations
past
present
future

So much, right?
Do i have to explain?
I wonder if these words resonate with you?
Each word can contain a story, an explanation. My blog would be full. Like my mind is full. 100% full. I have to delete or do something with the thoughts.

Maybe you may not know this about me, but for the past twenty years I have been recovering from thinking too much. At times when I am really thriving and I'm really doing well keeping up with my thoughts, giving them to God, really giving them to God and leaving them. You know like a normal person taking in a thought and doing something with it right away. I picture a thought coming in my brain and then it goes in the right file on the shelf (staying on the shelf unless guided by God to take open it up again). It's pretty good. My desk is clear (my mind) and i'm flowing. Love that! Do you know what I mean. I have written before about flowing, being in the moment, if something comes my way I just really am relying on God and handling it well. I hope you know what i am talking about. Did you catch what I said a few sentences back? I wrote "like a normal person". i take it back now. I am normal. We all are. We have different factors that make us process thoughts differently. It's not beneficial for me to say i'm "abnormal." It is more beneficial to say "I am a child loved by God led by the Holy Spirit and I am doing the best I can. Really?"

So right now I have to be more intentional with my thoughts. A month from now I may not have to.
I have to pause and laugh. Every time I go to a Weight Watchers meeting I get the jump start I need to realize using the word "diet" verses lifestyle does no good. That the stories in my head about food may not be the whole truth and nothing but the truth. You know when you say to yourself "well I cheated I ate to much, i give up." i have always thought I could take what the weight watcher coach says and their materials and apply it to my thought life it would slim down my thinking. Get it, slim down! I truly have experienced freedom and know not to give up and tomorrow will be another day. But the approach to take control of your body is the same with the mind. It's what you feed it. Feed-food and thought, get it?

Getting back to the word "recovery". I use to get up and give a talk and say I'M HEALED from anxiety. But now I think the better word is recovering from too much thinking. It is a process. Some days I'm patting myself on the back and other days I'm making my lists of thoughts and intentionally going through them one at a time. You get it, right? A year may go by I'm flowing. At other times it's a couple of months, days, minutes, seconds and then I have to do a thought check list. It just depends.

So today my reflection is this.
Rejoice in the Lord ALWAYS again I say rejoice. Paul wrote this.
Even in the midst of being shipwrecked three times. beaten, starving, having high tangible needs and the worst being wrongly accused and imprisoned. STOP! Can you reread that list. He rejoiced despite of his pain. Bring it on today I say. Give me some of Paul's soul food.

Here's his soul food:
1. God took Paul, a christian murdering man, knocked him off of his high horse and helped him become a LIFESAVER.
2.  The more Paul learned about Jesus, the more he experienced His love. Deep experiences and spending time with Jesus did that.
3.  He focused on living this life with Christ and got to the place of stating "well, if I die i gain more life.

He rejoiced! He FULLY was all in. You know when you get engaged, hopefully you are fully declaring your love and you're in!

So for today maybe you get what i am saying and you want to rejoice like i do. Here's what i'm gonna do.
pray
giving each of my things on the list to God.
i am going to cut off conversations in my head that are warped, imaginative, impulsive, loose,, my emotional and stop it! God help me! Amen.
remember my soul food:
just a few.
1. a month ago i was in palm springs enjoy God's creation and God reminded me of His promise to stand by me no matter what. He did this with a sky display of rainbows that blew me away. It was supernatural and it was a soul food for me.
2. Multiple times God wakes me up with a song on my heart. i have it journaled. i'm talking about even a country song i had not heard for years. out of the blue. it jolts my thoughts in a new direction for the day. Did I emphasize multiple times.
3.  On some pretty glim days i meet random people in the grocery story, cafe or one time (get this) in a mattress store (the sales person noticed i was jolted, asked me if I was ok and proceeded to pray over me).
Need I go on with the list. If you need soul food go to Acts 2 or 4 it may help.
I remember just the other day I was struggling in a relationship, thankfully i prayed and ran to find some comfort from the Lord. i read this (if I had enough time i would tell you have i ended reading 3 John 1) "Dear friend, do not imitate what is evil but what is good. Anyone who does what is good is from God. Anyone who does what is evil has not seen God. From reading that I dropped my head and the only way i could respond was confession of how i had not been imitating God. After an exchange with God i felt forgiven. My message in my head that day. Love and relationships are so important to God. Don't run from that relationship. Restore it, learn from it, be vulnerable, humble.....i had the desire to do it and i rejoiced in the midst!

I keep going on tangents. This is real life. i'm being real. how about you? i don't know what will hit you in this article but maybe you want to comment back and be vulnerable too!

Thank you for taking the time to comment.
Rejoicing!
Elaine

Just an encouraging edition. Please open your mind to soul food. If you are saying i don't have a soul food list. that stuff does not happen to me. that is all good for you Elaine. i ask you to consider asking God for help, for experiences, for guidance...then...wait...look...talk...ask questions...expect something.

LOVE

Love is patient, love is kind...When I look at this picture I think of the personal love the Father has for me. I wrote last week about Joshua Tree National Park. I am excited to include this account of my day at the park.

My daughters and I were driving through the park when suddenly we saw in the distance the picture below. I stopped. It really felt surreal. We all thought we were imagining things.  At first we noticed the sky and thought there is a storm in the distance. Then we saw a faint rainbow. The expanse of the area was so mammoth this photo could not do it justice. we all agreed something supernatural was occurring. There were three rainbows at one time. they were faint but they were there. i was like we have to capture this! but the rainbows were faint. i actually asked at one point "God is this like a personal show for us?" Within seconds the rainbows got so bold and brighter in color. ugh! we have to capture this! well as you can see we did not capture in photo. But as we drove away we each commented that this is forever etched in our heart and minds. FOREVER! Things like this do not happen everyday. But i don't know about you i really needed this in my life. a moment of reassurance of the promises God made to me. He is alive! he lives! Have you gotten to the place in life where you just feel empty? like you ask yourself what is going on? I have been? but then this happened.God watching over us. it's like he saying "make me the center of your life. i will make sense of things that don't make sense. just hang in there. wait. you will see." I never regret waiting. never. because when he is the center then this occurs and i have no doubt he is here with me.
the bible has accounts just like mine. take for instant shadrach, meshach and abednego going in the fire and the king asks "there is four in the fire, who is the fourth?" Penticost, The Transfiguration -  Jesus said this, he took Peter, John and James with him and went up onto a mountain to pray. While he was in prayer, the appearance of his face changed and his clothes became blinding white. At once two men were there talking with him. They turned out to be Moses and Elijah—and what a glorious appearance they made! 
What does all this mean? Stop asking why is this happening to me in life and ask a new question "Does God really exist and if so does He love me? Show me God." The answer is in the photo below. He loves me and cares, I just got to hang in there. Skeptics. I hate when others think my story is overspiritualizing. i say don't read the bible then. the bible has supernatural stories full of supernatural unexplainable accounts. but that is the beauty of God. He is God. He can do anything. He wants to show-up for all us. He fills me with hope. He gives me the faith to believe. He gives me grace to continue on. Next time your down, look around. Miracles occur all around you. A baby. Someone smiling at you. A rainbow. Focus on something to be grateful for. That's what keeps me going. I would love to hear God accounts from you. Anybody got any?