Tag: talk to God

Continuous Conversations with God

What can we learn from children with imaginary friends about how to talk to God and keep him in our thoughts throughout the day?

When Jayla and Jace were little, they both had imaginary friends. Jayla invented Sally who ate dinner with us, rode in the car with us, and played with Jayla for hours on end. I held to the theory that imaginary friends were a sign of creative and highly developed imaginations. It was a few years later when Jace found Baby Wolf, his imaginary friend, at Wal-Mart. Baby Wolf laid under the table when we ate, slept beside Jace’s bed, and was always close by. As a mother, the best part was secretly listening to their little voices and developing vocabulary conversing with their imaginary friends.

When I think of the scriptures “pray without ceasing,” 1 Thessalonians 5:17, or “Pray always,” Ephesians 6:18, it reminds me of how children have conversations with imaginary friends. Before I go on, I first want to be clear that by no means am I insinuating that God is imaginary. He has been real to me time and time again; I have no doubt to how real he is. However, just as Jayla and Jace held continuous conversations with their imaginary friends and just as their imaginary friends were with them everywhere they went, we can talk to our Heavenly Father at any time, and He is always there. It’s just that He is real.

He is always there to listen to us and have a conversation with us. We can thank him when we get two green lights in a row, we can quickly ask for help when we can’t find our keys or phone. He is there when we are trying to make a decision or having a hard conversation.  It should be our first instinct to reach out to God and talk to Him about our needs and thank Him for our blessings throughout the day. He wants to hear from us. He tells us, “Abide in Me, and I in you.” John 15: 4.

Prayer should be a big part of our day every day. Our thoughts should be in continuous connection with God. This is how we keep a healthy mind and live a spiritually lead life. Have you ever reconnected with a friend who you haven’t seen for years? Yes, it is possible to pick that friendship right up where you left off. Often though, you have to spend an hour or two at lunch or over coffee catching up on the time you have lost. With God, I don’t want to lose time and then have to catch up. He wants to stay close to us and be there through it all, the good and the hard.

Even while Jayla and Jace had small talk and play with their imaginary friends, for language development, they still needed real conversations that included talking and listening with an adult. Even though we should be in continuous conversation with prayerful thoughts throughout the day, we need real conversation time with God as well. Time set aside to get into His word, time to pour our deepest thoughts out to Him, and time to listen to His voice. This too is necessary for our development as a Christian.

Next time your mind is daydreaming or spewing out negative thoughts, take control and talk to God like you are talking to a friend.

Refuge or Strength – God’s got you Covered

Choosing your battles is hard. There are some battles worth fighting and some that are not yours to fight.

First of all, the hummingbird picture has nothing to do with this blog other than he was buzzing around all morning while I was reading and then while I was writing this blog, so I thought I would include him.

When my kids were growing up, one of the biggest decisions I had to make was what to ignore and what to take up as an issue. Looking back, I probably could have let more go than I did. Why was I so dogmatically insistent that they brush their teeth every single night no matter what? Did I think missing one night would cause all of their teeth would fall out, or that they wouldn’t brush their teeth as an adult if I let one night slip by? When they were teenagers, I learned to let it go that a week’s worth of clothes were on the floor. It just wasn’t worth the fight. However, when we reached the point that we were out of cereal bowls because they were all in my son’s room, that had to be addressed.

The same is true as a leader. What battles do I need to stand up and fight compared to what battles do I need to duck and cover because they will run their course and be short lived. Neither option is easy. Taking up the battle and addressing a problem head on is hard and takes courage. It is equally hard to let something go even though you know that it is a temporary problem, not worth the energy or the repercussions of making it a big deal. 

In Psalm 46:1 when the psalmist wrote that God is our refuge and our strength, look, he is telling us God is there for either situation. He is there to be our refuge, our shelter, when we need to hunker down and ride out the storm or when we need to stay in the bunker of God’s refuge and let God fight the battle. Conversely, God is our strength when we find our self on the front line in what might feel like hand-to-hand combat.  

Whether you are in the middle of a storm with your health or enduring a challenge at work that is out of your control, rest assured and rest in God’s refuge. Furthermore, if you are fighting for your marriage or fighting against an addiction, fight, and fight hard, knowing that God will provide the strength that you need. No matter your situation or what you need, God is our ever-present help when needed.