Tuesday, May 28, 2013

God - Centered

Being God centered takes an act of Faith. The greatest act you can commit actually. But what is it about?

Everyday we are blindsided by people, events and general circumstances that are designed to shake our faith. For those of you with little to no faith, you should hear me out. I can only speak from experience.

When we are inundaded with this blaze information, the overwhelming and more often subtle negativity, it begins to rot us at our core. After a while, once we are good and rotten, we begin to get sick, and our sickness is painful, and we suffer and we share that sickness. The sickness is a physcial and emotional reaction to having no faith, or weak faith. When you tell people you believe, they assume that you are judgemental, that you live by a certain code, similar to a person who simply creates "rules" for themselves to follow. Like brushing you teeth for 35 strokes before you consider it a finished job. The negativity surrounds us from every angle, and there is no escape. Simply, it must be kept at bay by strong faith.

You do not have to belive in God, although may God bless you if you do, but I have know plenty of people who are just Spiritual, who have learned the power of simple faith. I cannot give you a step by step instruction, but I can let you know that it takes work to become this way. and it most certainly does not happen over night. You have to take control of your mind, starting with the things you allow to poison it. Things like "I won't get that raise, I was sick last month and missed 2 days" or "I can't lose this weight, it is too much" "There is no way I can stop being friends with these people who helped me get arrested, we have too much history" Once you learn to weed out the inside sources of negativity, you can weed out the external sources. Taking control of your mind is probably the biggest act of faith one can make. It is taking control of the things that make you feel bad. Any time you have a though that scares you, a thought that makes you anxious, angry, sad or pained, it is most certainly not from God. once you can get ahold of these thoughts and say "Lord, this is not from you, take it away, replace it with a positive thought." you will begin to see a difference. That difference may not be big at first, but it will be there. Your entire world will begin to change in front of your eyes. You begin to see things differently, and because you look at them differently they become different. This is an actual, scientific occurrence. It is called a self-fulfilling prophesy.

It is amazing to think that something so little as how you think can alter your entire reality, but it can. and it does. I have personally have experienced a good number of negative things in my life, and they have caused me pain, anxiety, heart ache, depression and apathy. Yet, as I was feeling that pain, I turned to God and asked why. Why I needed to learn those lessons, that caused so much pain, and I learned to walk away from the pain. Not to ignore it, but to step away from it. Bad things happen, but you don't have to let those things linger. Do not give circumstance the power to tell you who you are, follow your own path along the trail God has laid before you.

The best aspect of being God centered for me is the release of my worries. I was once a person who would make myself sick with worry. I couldn't eat for days, I wouldn't sleep a wink at night, I was tired, sad and anxious all the time. Worry was slowly killing me. That thought made me worry more. I needed to stop. And I knew how, I just couldn't do it. I could not give over all of my worries to God because I thought I was bigger than Him, stronger than Him. How could I fix anything if I was not worrying about it?! It took a series of very bad things happening to get me to understand that my worry had crippled me. It had caused me to lose the roof of my family's head, and all of the comforts along with it. it shook my faith in my husband and my husband's faith in me. It tested the strength of my friends, and it opened my eyes to what my worry was really doing to me. So I fought with myself for a few weeks. Upset, and angry, and knowing that I had done this to my family. I learned that my faith was not good enough. If I did not trust that God would provide for me half as good as he provides for all of the creatures of the world, then he wouldn't. He would show me how to have faith. It is not easy, and I will pray that no one has to learn lessons like I do. Giving my worries to God is now a daily activity. Do not worry for tomorrow, tomorrow will worry for itself. Each day brings enough trouble of it's own. Matthew 6:34

Sunday, May 12, 2013

Day of rebirth

   Mother's day is a wonderful gift to remember what sacrifices your mother made to bring you into this world. The amazing gifts she fought so hard to bring to you, ever kiss upon your brow, every scolding, every smile, every frown. Being a mother is a complicated business. Not to mention a painful one.

   Loving your little one is easy when they are small. As they grow and you see your weaknesses highlighted in them, and you hope and pray they do not make your mistakes. You see the light of the world within their eyes, and are awestruck at the daily amazement's a little one can bring. As they grow they learn what they like and don't like, and how ever changing that is. They form thoughts and opinions unto themselves, they make choices every day that can affect them forever. They learn about friendships and relationships, all the while with you standing behind them, hoping and praying they always do what's right.

   Raising a child is about more than adequate love, more than discipline. It is about teaching a child to think for themselves. To believe in their values, to form values of their own. It is about teaching them to be independent, teaching them how to love others. How to have pride in themselves, and not be arrogant, how to be firm without being overbearing, how to bend without breaking. How to respect and be respected. How to find happiness that seems so fleeting these days.

To the mother's of the world, know that your fight is not one fought alone. Your struggles are the same as ours, there are not guidebooks for the best way to be a mom, how to raise the best kind of person. Love and let your little one love back, be fierce in protecting your child, and wise in exposure, and above all don't be too hard on yourself. After all we have all survived eras of child rearing and we still survived from whatever damage our ancestor's left behind.

Happy Mother's day! Have a wonderful, amazing day and enjoy your child(ren)!

         With Love,
  Naughty Bottoms <3