Together We Think

Today I want to talk about a truth that has only recently begun to become apparent to me. Not that it has not been true the whole time, but I am living and healing into a greater awareness of the fact that my Heavenly Father has never left my side throughout life.

Now, that seems like a “hello captain obvious” statement and those of us who have grown up around the church have heard variances of this statement throughout our lives. But, how many of us live in the light of this reality every day? How many of us live deeply with the sense that God is with us in every moment and is guiding and wants to guide us into the path of goodness and peace? Unfortunately, my experience in growing up around the church and being in full time ministry now for over 15 years is that far too many don’t live in this reality.

So how have I missed it? Why have I not noticed His presence surrounding me? I believe it is because I have been in survival mode. Doing whatever I thought I needed to do to survive and get by. When you are scratching to get by emotionally, physically or in any other way, it is really hard to stop, take a look around and recognize that He is there.

However, as I take the time to reflect now, I see amazing evidence of His guiding hand at work in my life:

• A 13 year old boy with a difficult home life says no to sex with a pretty girl and makes up his mind to “be the one” who waits until marriage.
• A 14 year old boy is offered alcohol and drugs by his best friend turns it down because it’s not the right thing to do.
• A 19 year old college student gets put on academic probation and struggles through the rest of college academic life only to earn a degree on time.
• Doors are opened for ministry opportunities that I didn’t have much experience in and yet there I was, leading anyway.

I could go on and on about my Heavenly Fathers guiding hand as I look back. My only regret as I look back is that I wish I would have been more aware of Him being there. I wish I could have trusted Him more and found my hope, peace and life in Him through all of those years. It sure would have saved me a lot of stress, worry, concern and some poor decisions I did make to just get by.

There is so much more I could say, but I will reserve those thoughts for future posts. What I hope you leave our time together today with is the beautiful fact that our Heavenly Father is with you now and always has been. Guiding, protecting, challenging and most importantly loving you more than you could ever imagine.

I hope that you live and have lived with the awareness of this truth. If you have, I would love to hear about it from you! If you haven’t, take some time today to reflect on your life. As you do, I know that you will begin to have a new level of clarity that He has always been there with you!

Thanks for reading (and maybe sharing) and godspeed!

S.