My Happy Place

Jeremiah 29:11 (NLT)

¹¹ For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.

This is my happiest time of day.  Sitting in my office, surrounded by my books and my kittens in the wee hours of the morning. The house is quiet, except for the hum of the furnace taking the chill off of my early morning reverie. My cup is filled with hot steamy coffee and I can breathe. This is the time of day when I feel the closest to God. My head is clear, not yet cluttered by the events and worries of the day. I am able to sit quietly and open my mind and my heart to receive guidance from our Father.  I cherish this time, like no other as it is when I am at peace with the world and myself, at least for a short time. 

Of course, this is the time when my best writing is done. Dear Lord, please use me as your instrument and when the words start to flow from my head to paper, I am grateful and filled with awe. Did I write that?  

I believe that God talks to all of us through others. We all are and can be instruments of God, if only we ask. Advice is easy to give and sometimes it is difficult to distill the message properly depending on the giver. God doesn't use everyone to get messages to us, so we need to be discerning. 

Sometimes he uses strangers passing through our lives that we will never see again.  He also uses select people who are in our lives for a long period of time. In our hearts we know who they are, because they are the ones that love us without condition, without self-serving motives or malice. They are not perfect either, but these are the people who generally do things for us without expectation that we reciprocate and they want the best for us, even if it means less for them. If you have someone who loves you in that way and you can learn to love others in that way, you are truly blessed. 

I pray that God uses someone today to get a message to you that you need to hear. An answer to prayer or assurance that you need that God is in your life and in control. He knows the purpose of your life, has plans for you and asks that you trust him.     

I love this peace prayer from St. Francis of Assisi 

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace;

where there is hatred, let me sow love;

when there is injury, pardon;w

here there is doubt, faith;

where there is despair, hope;

where there is darkness, light;

and where there is sadness, joy.

Grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console; 

to be understood, as to understand,

to be loved as to love;

for it is in giving that we receive,

it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,

and it is in dying [to ourselves] that we are born to eternal life.