I'd Rather Live One Day in Your Courts....
There is this awesome christian song that has those words as a chorus, and they finish with..." than a thousand days elsewhere."

I thought about that in relation to the AA saying, " live one day at a time", I'd rather live one day at a time in the court of the King, and I realize that I can do that. It is only a matter of choice.

It is a matter of choice how I live each day, I can choose to have an awesome day each day when I wake up and then I can manage that choice. I don't have to let the day begin to roll over me and then decide how I feel based on what happens to me, I can decide how I feel, and then manage what happens to me.

My circumstances are not what I can control. What I can control is my reaction to them.

Taking God into my day with me is paramount in that choice. How, after all, can I not feel awesome about my life, when He gave His in such a monumental way. What could be my complaint compared to nine inch nails driven through flesh.

I know this to be true, each day as it passes is gone, never to be retrieved. When I have a God who loves me the way mine does, I owe it to Him to live each one of the days He has given me in the freedom and grace that He died for. I don't get back the days of fear and worry. Those are truly wasted days. The fear and worry has never changed my circumstances.

One day lived in freedom and grace is one day in His court, one day at a time, and all those days will add up the the eternity I am promised, of an eternity in His court. Halleluia.

He Loves ME!
"for He chose us in Him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in His sight.."
Eph 1:4

God knew me and loved me when I was driving drunk; God knew me and loved me when I was being promiscuous; God knew me and loved me when I hurt other people to get my way; God knew me and loved me when I was in a crack house; God knew me and loved me the day He saved me from that life.
God knows me and loves me when I am angry; God knows me and loves me when I am judgmental; God knows me and loves me when I am impatient; God knows me and loves me when I am unlovable.
God has known me and loved me all of my days.
God so unshakably loves me that he has adopted me permanently, knowing beforehand all I will be and do. All He asks of me is to believe in Him, to accept the finished work of the cross and know that by grace I am forgiven.
Knowing that, believing that, understanding that, makes me desire to be the best kid any parent ever bounced on a knee.
Knowing that, I want my Father in heaven to say to me when I face Him on that glorious day, " Well done, my good and faithful servant."
I want to earn those words.

How Does God See Me?
God chose me and because I belong to Him through Jesus Christ, He looks at me as though I have never sinned.

" since we are His children, we will share His treasures - for all God gives to His Son Jesus is ours now too.." Romans 8:17

How much God loves me. When I understand this, and accept it, the affect on me is stunning. It rocks me to my core. It changes me.
No longer do I need to feel depressed, angry, upset, lonely, judgmental, un-loved, or any other "feelings" that I can fall prey to.
Even though I sin on a daily basis, God looks at me with the same love He looks at His Son with - a me free of sin.
In the face of this, how do I choose to view myself? Do I follow my feelings, which are driven by my circumstances and are not the truth OR do I accept the truth, freely given to me by my Faith in Jesus, as God's own beloved child.
I choose the latter, I choose to see myself as God's truly loved and cherished daughter.
I choose to match my actions to that truth.

Empty Heads
You know how you always heard "idle hands are the devil's playground"? Well I think empty heads are the devil's playground too. We are wired to think, all the time, and to absorb whatever is happening around us. I think too many of us are not careful of what is going on around us, what is influencing us, what is filling our minds.
We are so influenced by the what other people are doing, and think that if we don't do those things we won't fit in. So we might drink too much, or look at porn, or be bored, or participate in activities that we know are not good for us, or any number of things that can separate us from the person we are meant to be.
I believe we all have a purpose. It is clear to some people, from an early age, what their purpose is, and sometimes I envy those people. Most of us can spend years floundering around trying to find what it is we are meant to be doing. Instinctively we know there is more to life than "work to home, home to work".
Realizing that purpose, knowing what it is, that is the difficult thing. An empty head allows all the wrong influences to bombard our minds and confuse the issue.
Your always going to be thinking about something, make sure you control what that is. Don't let your mind be idle and become a devil's playground. Read positive uplifting books, surround yourself with positive uplifting people, do positive uplifting things, like volunteering somewhere, go to a positive uplifting church, listen to positive uplifting music, fill your head with positive uplifting things and leave no room for the devil to squeeze in there and start to influence your thinking, causing you to be negative and unhappy.
You are more likely to discover your purpose with positive uplifting influences, because God in His infinite love for us, wants the best for us. We just have to create a fertile, cooperative environment for Him to work in. Get out of His way, and He will show you your purpose. Give Him the room in your head, not someone or something else.

A Parents Love

If you are a parent you know this is true; your child can do no wrong, you love your child unconditionally and you believe in your child more than anyone else in the world can imagine believing in someone. Now, you also know, in your deepest of deepest places that your child is not perfect. You know, more than anyone again, the times your child behaves in less than model ways. You know, better than anyone, that your child can be selfish and self -centered, not always wanting to share toys. You know, better than anyone, that your child can be mean and petty. You know that your child does not turn to you at times when you really could help. You know your child doesn't call you as often as you would like, just to say Hi! I love you!. The list goes on, you do know that your child is not perfect. It does not matter, however, you love your child no matter what you know to be the truth about them. You don't even question it, you just love them, no matter what!
How much more then, can our Father in Heaven love us? He who knows better than anyone, including ourselves at times, who we can really be.
We all have our public persona. We also all have our inner life that we choose not to expose to the light of day. Oh, it can be the small things, like eating a whole bag of oreos yourself, or watching mindless TV for hours, or procrastinating constantly, or secretly judging people, this list can go on and on. Our Father in Heaven knows all of it. He sees all of it. And through it all He loves us more than anyone on earth could even hope of loving us. He loves us even though he knows the truth about us. He loves us even when we turn our backs on Him and don't ask him for advice. He loves us even when we don't phone Him.
Just as when your child calls after several days or weeks, you brighten up and say Hi! So good to hear from you! How much does our Father in Heaven brighten up when we take a few minutes out of our day to call Him up. How happy is He when we turn to Him for help and support. How willing is He to come to our aid in any kind of need.
He loves us with a parents love, no matter who we are.
How grateful am I that this is true.

Pruning
I have always considered this a gardening term, and therefore stayed away from it. Gardening, though I love a beautiful garden as much as the next person, has never been my forte.
Many years ago I spent about a year taking care of a baby for friends of mine. They lived next door to this wonderful elderly lady who had the most amazing garden in the world. It bordered her entire back yard, and something was in bloom most of the year. Each day I would see her out there bent over, making her way all around the perimeter of her yard, lovingly pinching and caressing her blooms. She would take off the slightest dead bloom or leaf. I didn't understand then that the reason her garden was so beautiful, so lush, so perfect looking was because of how she pruned it. How she did not allow anything that distracted from it's beauty, it's perfection to remain. How she loved her flowers.
I have come to understanding the idea of being pruned as a child of God. All the many shoots that grow in me, that distract me from loving Jesus, need to be pruned. Mrs. Grathmore recognized this in her garden, and I have to recognize this in me. The danger, as I see it, of the Ten Commandments is how I can deceive myself that I am being good. I have not murdered anyone, not cheated on my husband, I honor my parents, I don't steal, you get the idea. The Ten Commandments are very broad strokes!!
The things I need to be pruned of are judgment, impatience, self-reliance, self-importance, all the "self" things in fact! The Lord has had to first teach me to recognize those things as bad shoots, and now I must allow Him to prune them from me.
My Heavenly Father wants the best for me, wants me to bloom for Him. I want to stay out of his way so each day he can lovingly bend over me and pinch off the slightest dead bloom or leaf! How HE loves me.