LOVE AND INSPIRATION

I Knew a teacher who would instill inspiration into his student's everyday by telling them, "you are the most precious gift on earth." Can you imagine how magnificent that would make those students feel? To have someone tell you continually that you are the most precious gift, would be so uplifting, and I would think it would just warm your heart every single day. How would you feel if someone said those words to you? Wouldn't it make you truly feel that you were capable of anything and everything? That there wasn't anything you couldn't do in this world. It would give you hope and inspire you for a great life! It would bring joy and happiness to you. It would make you smile and feel happy. Those students were so fortunate to have a teacher who could make that difference in their lives by stating those words to them. How wonderful it would be if each and every person on this earth could hear every day that they are the most precious gift on earth. What a difference that would make in our world today.

Those words are exactly how our God feels about us every day. We are the most precious gift to God, and HE loves us so very much. I wish people could see and feel how God feels about us. Sometimes in this cold and cruel world we become cynics as we see unjust happenings all around us. If we could just put aside the harshness circumstances in our world today and return to LOVE. Love is truly the answer for everything we do.

We need to think thoughts of love. So many things in life can turn us into bitter and angry people, but it is amazing how life changes when you can turn away from bitter and anger feelings and look at anyone who has hurt you, with love in your heart.

It is definitely not an easy thing to do, but in time and with prayer you can get to the point where you can see everyone through the eyes of only love, not hatred. Prayer is truly the answer to turn our lives away from hatred and to having love in our hearts for all.

We all have people in our lives who have hurt us tragically. We all have had bad things happen to us, as God never guaranteed us an easy life, but He did guarantee us

HIS LOVE always and that he would never leave us. He would always be at our side.

A few years ago when I was going through some difficult transitions in my life, and had experienced some health issues, I found myself feeling lost and empty, and desperately needing some direction in my life. I had gotten an email from an author, and she was talking about what God wanted from us in this life. I listened and read intently as I was really needing to know just what did God want from us in this life.

RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD

She said God wants a one on one relationship with us, by us spending time talking to God every day, sharing our problems with HIM, really talking to God, sharing our lives with HIM. Making God a priority, by taking time in prayer and conversation with HIM daily on a consistent basis. Above all, taking the time to show gratitude and thankfulness for all the blessings he has bestowed on us in our lives, whether it was a large thing, like a new home or a small thing like having food in your refrigerator or a bed to sleep in, or the car you drive. To me, her words in having a relationship with God sounded so heavenly.

So that day my life was changed! I began spending an hour to an hour and a half with God every single day, depending on how much I need to discuss with my Lord, and still do that to this day, and how my life has changed for the better. Sometimes I have some spiritual booklets I may spend time reading out of during my prayer time with God, and sometimes I read scripture out of the Bible before or after my prayer time. I thank God for everything in my life, my family, my friends, my life, my church, my home but most of all I thank GOD for the gift that HE is in my life. I thank Him for the beautiful blue sky and the white puffy clouds, and for the gorgeous sunrise and sunsets. I pray for the homeless, the hungry, the needy and the sickly on a daily basis. I pray for good health for my family and friends. I thank God for the gift of life and letting me live each and every day. I thank God for the money in my bank account, so I can pay my bills and be able to have those resources to buy what I need to buy. Sometimes I just sit in quiet meditation to hear what comes to mind during those quiet sessions with God. It has changed my life. I truly feel like a different person, a person who is more caring, more compassionate, more kind, and by all means much more loving to everyone.

People I once felt dislike for I noticed I began to be able to pray for them, where I once felt anger towards them, and then my heart began to feel love and forgiveness for those people, and even began noticing how I had changed. I always felt these difficult people in my life needed to change, but really what it boiled down to was when my thoughts about them changed then it was amazing how those people then became a real blessing to me. It was so amazing to watch this with my very own eyes, to see the change in those relationships that once brought tears to my eyes as my heart was hurting so from the pain they had caused me in my life, and now I had tears of joy of how those relationships began to completely and totally turn around into loving and caring feelings.

The change in me was over the top. I even began to listen to my heart before speaking my opinion or judgment about something, and immediately thought of what would God or Jesus want me to do or say in this situation. I was able to "let go" of anything that bothered me or burdened me, just let it go to God, knowing in my heart that HE would take care of it, and that I didn't have to concern myself with that problem anymore.

Oh my, what a relief that was, no more worry or stress, just give it to God. Praise the Lord!!! Totally changed my life for the better!! It takes some time to be able to pray for people who have brought hurt into your life, but the more you pray and talk to God you find that your heart softens for everyone no matter what they ever did to you.

Time with God is the best gift you can give yourself because you begin to feel such peace in your heart, and time with God becomes a necessity in your life, like you can't go one day without having that quiet time with God. So hard for me to even imagine how to live on this earth without God guiding and directing my life and being there for me to turn to on an everyday level. I am so thankful for the time I have with God, because it brings calmness and serenity in my life. I feel that God is my best friend as I can talk to HIM about everything and about all that is on my mind and in my heart. When I have difficulties in life I can give my burdens to God and know in my heart all is well, as God will take care of it, and I can now let it go and not worry or stress over it because God has it handled. What peace that brings me!

I think of all the blessings God has given me in my lifetime. I remember when I was a young girl I would pray every night to God before I went to bed, always mentioning the things I wanted in life, and was always so happy that everything I asked for I always received, and I thought oh my what a wonderful God this is. All I have to do is ask and I receive, until one day when I was maybe 11 years old I did not receive the gift I wanted, and I was flabbergasted that God did not provide that for me. How dare

HE not give me my request. I was devastated, as I had so much hope and faith that God would give me anything I asked for, and when HE didn't I could not believe it. So I became mad at God and I quit praying to HIM. That was so foolish, but as a young child I believed whatever you ask God for HE will give it to you. I hadn't learned the whole truth of GOD, to recognize all HE has done in my life and the lives of all of us. How HE always watched out over me, always protected me and guided my life and kept me safe and well. That knowledge would come later in my life.

When I was about 16 years old I watched the movie Song of Bernadette, and that movie touched my life so deeply, and it even seemed to change who I was and who I became. I cried through the whole movie. I have seen the movie many times since. It was as though I now knew I'd be living a life by wanting God with me everyday, even though I did spend years away from God, that movie made me a kind and compassionate person or maybe those were gifts that God had put in me. I just know that movie really made a huge impact on me.

Spending time with God is the most important gift you can give yourself. God wants a one on one relationship with you. HE wants to hear about your life, about your day, about what troubles you and HE wants you to show your gratefulness to HIM by thanking HIM over and over for all of the many blessings HE has given you in your lifetime. Do you ever think about all the great things God has done for you? For a long time I never thought about it until I started to pray daily, and then I spent a lot of time thinking back on my life of all that had happened to me, good and bad, and all the lessons I had learned, and about how my life had turned out. How blessed I truly was, and never stopped to even consider that God had a hand in all of that until I started to pray daily.

Prayer opens your mind so much as you look at where you are in life and how you got there, and you didn't get there by yourself, as God was always by your side. What God wants is simple. HE just wants time with you, your undivided attention with quality time spent between the two of you. I am the example that it will change your life as it did mine. The more I prayed the more good things came into my life, and I would notice right away and think about what God was doing for me in my life, it was truly amazing!

What is keeping you from spending time with God? A time commitment issue? I know how we all are so very busy in our lives with all there is to do, as my life was that way too. I did make that commitment because I knew how much I needed God. I am an only child and when my parents passed away in 2001 and 2002 I was totally and utterly lost, not to mention devastated. I felt like an orphan, I was an orphan, as I had no siblings, my parents were gone, but fortunately I had my 2 grown children and 2 grandchildren that were my family. But something happened to me when I lost my parents. I lost myself.

When you are an only child you really have a close connection to your parents, because they are all you have before you have children of your own, and you are all they have, so they adore you and cherish you, at least mine did. My Dad was my best friend in the whole world. He was my confidant, my knight in shining armor, someone that was always there for me and loved me unconditionally. I could do no wrong in his eyes. I sought out advice from my Dad as he was such a wise man. Everything I accomplished in life I did it for him, to make him so proud of me. I wanted him to see how smart I was, and that I could do anything, and I loved being all I could be, not so much for me, but for him. He always loved and supported and encouraged me my whole life. Always taught me there wasn't anything I couldn't do in this life. He always had more faith in me than I had in myself. So it was an honor for me to do good and make him proud, as I felt I was the person I was because of him and the faith he had in me and all the encouragement he always gave me.

When my Dad died, I almost died too, because I didn't know how to live without him, because he was my reason for living and for having a good job with good pay, as I did it all for him to show him how good I had turned out thanks to all his support. So I lost my will to live, to go on, I cried everyday as I missed him terribly and wasn't prepared for his passing as we had no warning that this was going to happen. How could I live without

Dad? The wonderful father who loved me unconditionally. I missed his love so much. I was everything to him and he was everything to me. I was his little girl, no matter how old I was. At first I was so mad at God for taking my Dad from me, so I lived in anger for a long time. I barely was existing in this life, as I just was going through the motions of living, never smiling, never having joy, never laughing, but lived with sadness every day. I finally went into counseling to get the help I needed, and was in counseling for 2 years, but it did help me so much. I knew I had to go on with my life, as I know that is what Dad would want for me, and I had my children to live for, and my son lived with me and depended on me, so I had to be there for him and that is how I kept going by living for my children because they needed their Mom in their life.

It took years to get to the point of where I felt I could move on with my life, as the loss of Dad was just so overwhelming. I would visit my parents graves every week and sit there by their gravestones talking to them just like I did every single Sunday when I would visit them at their home when they were alive. I didn't know how to stop talking to them like I had done for years and years. Our time together was so special, so many wonderful moments we had. One day as I was in my car and driving to my parents graves my Mom appeared to me telepathically and said to me, "live your life," and she repeated it several more times. It all happened so fast. My first reaction was how could I be hearing from my

Mom since she is not alive on this earth any longer. It did freak me out at first, and certainly grabbed my attention. I was in shock as I listened to those words, and in my mind I could see my Mom's face, and then after hearing those words about 3 times she was gone. For the longest time I kept thinking what did she mean by that, as I was living my life or so I thought, but then I realized maybe she was just sending me this message to let me know she arrived safely in heaven. Maybe I wasn't living my life then being so consumed with grief and loss, and spending as much time as I could at their graves. I never thought for one moment I wasn't living my life, but am sure my Mom was saying that I didn't need to visit them so much because they weren't there, they were in the glory of heaven, and she was wanting me to know its okay to move on from my grief and begin a life for myself without them.

I came across this book about Heaven, and I feel like it really saved my life because it talked of how beautiful Heaven is and described the magnificence and amazement of heaven, and it gave me peace to know that my Dad and Mom were there in the paradise of heaven, and all of a sudden it was okay that they were there because I knew they were safe because they were in this glorious place of paradise that I read about in this book, so then I finally got the peace I needed. It was the acceptance that I longed for, knowing my parents were okay, and knowing they were free of their aging and ailing bodies, and that they were surrounded by joy and happiness. I then knew I could start living again because I knew that someday I would see them again and we could be together when it was my time to go to Heaven. So I then began to live my life, but it sure took me a long time to get there.

That's why I know God is what we need in our lives. God saved me from my anguish I was experiencing. HE came to my rescue and brought me peace and serenity once I began to turn to God in prayer. So I say to you please do this for you! It will change your life. God is waiting to hear from you, as HE wants a relationship with you. HE loves you with all of his heart, loves you unconditionally and wants to help you in your life and wants to be your friend!

Are you dealing with struggles in your life in relationships or financial, or maybe you have a job that you just can't stand and would like to live a life of being able to follow your dreams and what you are passionate about? If so, then I say to you, turn your eyes to GOD, and spend time everyday in prayer with HIM, talking to HIM, reading the Bible, reading inspirational books, but most important is to take the time to have one on one time with God. It will change your life in an abundant way. HE is waiting to hear from you, so don't hesitate.

We all have God given gifts and talents in each one of us. Sometimes it takes awhile to know what they are, but once you realize what gift God gave you, its so important to use that gift in this life. We come here to earth to fulfill our purpose and once we do fulfill our purpose, and follow our heart and our dreams, that is when we truly come alive. I believe our lives finally really make sense once we can see what it is we are to do. At least it did for me. Writing is my love and my passion and my dream.

My wish is to give hope and inspiration to as many people as I can. I want to make a difference in the lives of others. I want to be the difference. I want everyone to know just how your life can be so precious to you if you just begin by having a relationship with God. It's the single most important thing you can do for yourself. I know this from experience. For years I was drifting through life, and my life was all about survival, being able to pay the rent and utilities and buy food, always hoping for a better life for myself, for a better tomorrow. My struggles continued for years. But once I read in an inspirational book about what God truly wanted from us was a relationship, a one on one relationship with HIM, then I knew that is what I must do, I knew it in my heart. Time with God, to talk about our troubles and our burdens and give those burdens to God, a time to thank HIM for all the blessings HE has bestowed in our lives, a time to pray for others who are in need. My life changed dramatically when I began this process of daily time with God, and so can yours. You can finally have peace and joy in your life again, because God will grant that to you. HE just wants to hear from you, it is really very simple. The rewards you will receive by spending time with God is truly the most amazing experience you will ever have. I want the very best for you!