Thursday, July 30, 2015

Day 4 - 40 Day Women's Prayer and Empowerment Challenge


Inspiration comes from a place beyond our knowledge and intellect.  We can always tell by the energy we feel in your bodies, the expression on our faces, and the lightness of our spirits once we’ve been inspired. It is as if all the cares and burdens we carry are lifted and moved far away from us, even if it’s just for a moment.  Inspiration makes us feel the overwhelming Love that we so desperately long for!  Inspiration comes from God.

So, why is it so difficult to find inspiration when we need it?  I can only speak for myself.  I am an inspiration addict.  I feel empty without it.  I look for it in the sky, in the birds, in the children, in a stranger at the mall; but, just like an addict, I am chasing a pipe dream.  I am looking for the same high that I received from my last point of contact with it.  It’s sad to say, but that is a hopeless pursuit. What I’ve found is that it is only when I am in my most relaxed and confident states of being that the magic happens.  Visions come, words and phrases evolve, and inspiration is evident when I just flow and allow it to come to me.

Inspiration also comes when I am freely serving others like in those moments I see a child needing a hug and I allow that child to melt in my arms, or when I’m able to help a stranger in need.  Whenever we inspire others, we too are inspired.  However, as women, we are masters of performance and fulfilling our obligations.  We do our due diligence and complete the duties assigned, because we’ve been taught it is what we are “supposed” to do.  When we do these things because of duty, they don’t have the same effect on the recipient or the giver as they do when done out of love and inspiration. Good works are fine and most times necessary, but the problem occurs when at the end of it all, we do not experience love, fulfillment, and inspiration.  In fact, we may even feel tired, used, angry, and resentful.  These don’t just rob us of inspiration, but they can place us so far in the negative that it feels nearly impossible to at least get back to ground zero (the nonchalant feeling). 

Here’s the problem:  When we don’t start from a place of inspiration we won’t end at inspiration.  It’s time to understand why we do what we do beyond the idea that “this is what I am supposed to do.”  For example, I feel it is my obligation to take care of my children, and some days I am simply too tired to fulfill my responsibility; so, I become fussy about every little thing and even begin acting very selfish and nasty while vying for my right to be.  Well, if I’d just take “one” moment and ask, “Why do I enjoy and love being a mother?” and look around at the children and ask, “Why do I love that child so much?”, my whole attitude would shift.  My “duty” would then become my “pleasure.” Instead of saying, “I have to…” I would say “I get to…” In those moments I am not chasing inspiration or obligation, I am just allowing myself to be inspired by my own “real truth.”

Women, take time for you!!!  Get away, rest well, meditate, pray, read, and just be.  Take time daily to do just a couple of those things and inspiration (the feeling love) will pop all throughout your days, in the most unpredictable ways and moments.  We must be intentional about finding inspiration, not by chasing after it like a dog chasing its tale, but by making room for it through our daily “God time” and “me time”.

Lord, my prayer today is that my sister reading this realizes that YOU freely give inspiration and that it is Your desire for her to hear and receive from You.  I pray that my sister makes a commitment to love and inspire her family by first committing to herself to create room for you to overwhelm her with inspiration, to feel the empty places of their lives with you more of You, and to open her heart to the love that is already inside and all around her.  Let her know there’s no escaping YOUR Love! I sincerely ask, Father, that You engrain deep etches in their psyche the thought that You love her so much and that she can rest in your arms at any moment she needs to refuel herself throughout the day.  May she be inspired even at this very moment!!! Amen!

 #IAmMySistersKeeper

 

 

 

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