Loved Whether I Like It Or Not

I grew up in the Middle West on a farm. My household consisted of ma and dada and my blood brother and me. Iodine was the oldest, born to a ma who liked to over achieve. She really was and is a singular woman. The job was that I felt more than than than and more pressure level as I grew up to be more than I could be. Somewhere Iodine got it in my caput that I was loved more than when I did good things. People noticed me. Strangers commented that they had heard of me. It helped (and hurt) that I lived in a little town environment where everybody knew everybody. My parents were large clip husbandmen in the area, so everybody knew me before I knew them from my parents. I felt all through my growth up old age that I was supposed to be superior, that the baseline was well above average. If I was going to attain it and acquire the awards I wanted, I was going to have got to really excel. So I did.

I was the squad captain and the star jock and the shining illustration (sometimes) of what I thought everybody wanted me to be. I liked the attending I got, and I really was pretty good at a batch of things. I got noticed a lot, and liked it. The job came as I got older, because somewhere I learned that I needed to stand out to be loved. Being loved just for who Iodine was remained a conception foreign to me. I could only attach being loved to performing well. So I pushed to execute well. All the time. I thought it was the lone option I had.

When I became a Christian, I put a end for myself the first hebdomad after I decided to follow Jesus; I wanted to be the best Christian that ever lived. And I put my head to it and worked difficult for it. See anything incorrect with this picture? It had go so entrenched in my having to execute for attending and love that I was going about having a human relationship with Supreme Being the same way. I knew that Supreme Being loved me, but I figured I was going to acquire more than loved or loved longer if I was really a great Christian. Iodine worked many old age as a truster to depository financial institution up hours so that I would acquire loved when I wasn't so lovable.

Taking in the undeniable fact that I am completely loved – end of sentence- have been really hard. I can acquire my head around being loved if I have got earned it. But to accept it just because? That 1 blows my mind. I really am in the thick of it right now – acquisition to cognize I am loved, and to dwell from that 'knowing' have got been the simplest and most hard lesson of my Christian walking in the 25 old age I have known Him. I am humiliated to state that I still happen it far easier to work out my redemption than it is to know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that I am loved. I'm working on it. I inquire if I work harder if I can acquire Supreme Being to love me more.

I am trying to see myself through God's eyes, not my own. I look different through that lens. I cognize in my caput that He made me. Now I am trying to allow my bosom know. I recognize that I am unique, just as I am, without doing anything. That 1 is a small difficult to swallow, because when I reflect on my life there is a batch there that ain't existent pretty. Choosing to believe that he cognizes all the debris and all the gifts and loves me profoundly anyway – well, that's absolutely mind blowing.

I am finding in the center of the battle that when I get to know, even on the shallowest of levels, that He really loves me, it go forths me a small better off. I happen it easier to love myself, to forgive others, to overlook trivial things, and to dwell in a saving grace that tin literally travel the world. I am beginning to cognize I am loved, not because of anything I have got done or could do, but simply because I am loved – His choice, not mine.

So I am learning to dwell without performance, and remainder in His limitless offering of love regardless; regardless of the points I work to gain; regardless of the sinfulness that still malodors up my life; regardless of the one thousands of ways I believe I should be eliminated. I am learning to allow Supreme Being be God, and halt telling him how to make his job.

You Can Choose Your Fate But Not Your Destiny

God has appointed a destiny for you. He created you for that purpose. You were designed for it. Your life experiences and all the things that influence you are moving you in a certain direction that you are meant to go. Life would be meaningless without things working that way. It is true that the meaning of life is the meaning we give to it. But it is also true that the meaning of life is inherent in the existence of the universe and our destiny which God created it with. It is all a matter of aligning our thoughts with the thoughts of God in order to experience the perfect meaning of everything.

Some say we have power to create our own reality, that through belief and intent we can and should specify our personal future. And yet experience shows reality is already predicated upon a design more elegant than anything we can specify through our temporal desires. Cosmic ordering doesn't always work because what you believe or hope for doesn't always happen and you do not always get what you expect to get.

Others therefore say we should go with the flow and accept what comes. And yet experience shows that while some things are destined, more mundane things are left to choice. Abandoning the responsibility to choose invites the influence of other powers to decide over your life with often unpleasant consequences. Some part of the future is alterable and another is not.

There is destiny and there is free will. They coexist. Destiny is a straight line. Free will is like an oscillating wave above and below that line. You are not forced to live your destiny but you are tethered to it. You can imagine that time has you hooked on a fishing line. You can swim left or right, ahead or back away but you ultimately are getting reeled in. With that in mind, focus on the fact that ultimately you will live out at least some of your destiny. Now think about destiny as a process not a destination. Your destiny is an unfolding story that shapes who you become.

The bigger things in life we cannot change. The smaller things we can. Life is a river whose flow we cannot reverse, yet we have freedom to navigate within that flow. Near the shore we move slowly and roughly, near the center we move quickly and smoothly. We can humbly accept the bigger things and still actively direct the smaller things.

How do you know your destiny? By knowing your desire. Your desires were divinely placed within you. Your destiny is a natural extension of you being. You were designed for your destiny. When you look into your true feelings, you will find that your destiny feels right with you and feels right for you. Your destiny is where your heart is truly moving you towards. Follow your heart and you will realize your destiny.

Even though you have been given a destiny, was created and designed for it, you can still choose whether to follow it or not. We cannot choose our destiny which we were created with, but we can choose our destiny by accepting or denying it. Even if we do not choose to follow our destiny, we will still fulfill it to a certain extent because divine influence arranges circumstances to happen in such a way that our choices and actions still result in the fulfillment of our purpose. The difference is that we may not have been able to enjoy every single one of the blessings that we could have experienced if we had chosen to do what we were meant to do.

No one gets to choose his destiny but everyone gets to choose his fate. You get to choose whether your ending is good or bad, and whether your experience is good or bad. Everyone's destiny is always good. Choosing to follow your life's purpose will always bring you to a place of glory, happiness and perfection. As long as you are moving in that direction, watch the universe bless you with all the things you need in order to fulfill your dreams.

There is only one place where destiny can be changed. That place is at Calvary where Jesus Christ was crucified for our sins that all who believe in him as savior will be born of God. Their destiny will no longer be the same for it will be in Christ. Everyone's destiny is good in this world but not everyone's destiny will be good in the world to come. The effect of salvation is upon all people but only those who make the choice of believing in the Son of God in this world will secure eternal life, both in this world and for the world to come. Only when your destiny is found in Christ will it be a perfect destiny.