Warm Embrace
Anyone who knows me knows that my family is so important to me. For a girl of 22 years of age I do not really fit in with many of my peers. I prefer to spend my Saturday nights going with my parents and two younger cousins to play bingo; I enjoy going to lunch almost every day with my grandparents; I love curling up and watching Hallmark movies with my mom; I eat dinner every week night with my parents, cousins and aunt and uncle. Many people would consider this to be boring but for me I am most comfortable and fully myself in the loving presence of my family. I just returned home from a week long vacation to the beach with my dad's side of the family and while there I recognized the peace of God in a new way.I have been blessed abundantly to have a loving and warm family. I spent the week laughing, eating and relaxing in my family's warmth. I felt like I was in a warm cocoon or a warm embrace. It was as if God was using my family's love to surround me with God's own love. God has blessed me with this incredible gift, I was given four months to laugh, love, break bread and make memories with my family before I leave to go to Scotland. These memories will last me a lifetime and I will treasure this summer deep within my heart. No matter where I go in this world they will be with me and I will carry their love and hopefully they will carry mine.In the last two months I have experienced God's love in a new way--I have been embraced in God's peace and love by simply being with the wonderful friends and family God has placed in my life. In rare form, at least for me, I have relaxed I have been learning to let go of past hurts and pain, manage the feelings that I am experiencing, love more, open my heart, accept who I am, look for God everyday and hope for God's good plans.Brothers and sisters lets start to actively seek God in our everyday moments. I have been reading two different books and they both address this idea of looking for God in everyday things and in everything that we do. Imagine if we looked for God in all the trivial moments of each and everyday and if we found God. How much closer would our relationship grow with God if we allowed ourselves to truly feel the wind as the Holy Spirit, if we recognized the gift of being a good cook as a gift from God, if we recognized that breaking bread each night was a form of worshiping God, if we sought out God in every aspect of our days and found God holding us right there and treasuring those moments of being in union together. God wants to be in a relationship with us but we need to want to be in that relationship with God too.Lately I have been feeling God's warmth, it is truly amazing how God's warmth can penetrate all the pain and suffering if we let it. Let's try to seek God everyday in every moment even the painful ones. Allow God's warmth to fill you and bring you peace."Mack, I don't want to be the first among a list of values; I want to be at the center of everything. When I live in you, then together we can live through everything tat happens to you. Rather than the top of a pyramid, I want to be the center of a mobile, where everything in your life--your friends, family, occupation, thoughts, activities--is connected to me but moves with the wind, in and out and back and forth, in an incredible dance of being" (WM Paul Young, The Shack). May the peace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. May you seek out God in every moment of your day and may you find God's presence.