EVEN MY WORST DAYS BECOME MY BEST DAYS WITH GOD!!!
Heehaw!!! Let me tell ya, don’t play around with your relationship with Him! I’m going for GOLD in every aspect of my life with God as my intimate GUIDE and PARTNER to the BLESSED life, baby. Like I was blown down the other day when there were some hurtful remarks thrown my way, and I’ve been asking God, ‘What are the lessons here?’ And He answered me.
First, it was a run with Nike Running Club featuring the “Bowerman Babes Club” and Coach Bennet. They are a group of Olympians who talked about how they not only work on their strengths but also their weaknesses together. They said the best way to get better is to not run from our weaknesses, but embrace them, work on them, and improve. And that was the reality check I needed. Nikki, you can’t be getting all tossed to and fro by every little negative comment that comes your way or what anyone else is saying!!! STAND STRONG!!! What are words to get you so upset and crazy! If you can improve, improve, but if there is nothing, become a PROFESSIONAL ignorer.
Next, it was Plies the rapper on Instagram. He said that in life, you must have TUNNEL VISION. You must be so focused on the lane that you’re running and not be concerned about what anyone else is saying doing in their lane. Stay focused on what you are doing and ignore the rest! These comments were just a pure distraction to get me off my groove. Let anyone say what they want, God is my Defender! Keep doing you, Nik!
Then, I felt God was saying I needed to relisten to the entire Rich Roll and David Goggins interview. Both of these gentlemen have been such tremendous assets to me. The most important message from Goggins was that I needed to work on was my MINDSET. The other day I wrote this, and this is the MINDSET I want to have for the rest of my life:
“As of yesterday, August 24, 2020, I want to give my life COMPLETELY to God. To wrap myself in His love (no other love necessary!) and go through every moment of my life, KNOWING I’m completely loved, approved of, and accepted my God. To be His girl totally, following His leading in every moment of my life as to what He would have me to do – complete surrender! To be the mother, wife, and person, He would have me to be. Not trying to get love from others, but just showing up as my most loving self, sharing God’s love with everyone. Like my brother, Kevin, taught me, I want to SHINE BRIGHT. Like if you’re not rolling with God, you’re missing out on the best life! I want everything about me to REFLECT Him:
“Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.”
I just wanna be His, glorifying and enjoying Him! That means continually keeping my focus on God as I walk through life wrapped up in His arms, sucking up all His love and attention!”
This life can get insane sometimes, and yesterday I was boiling over with anger. How dare they do this to me!!! But God had me to listen to Bel Air Church’s podcast, which focused on this one verse:
“Do not repay anyone evil for evil. But take thought for what is noble in the sight of all.” – Romans 8:17
HERE’S THE DEAL: Everything is between God and us. “What do we have that we haven’t received from God?” Nothing. Even my son, Joshie, called me this morning from Nigeria, and his little handsome face staring back at me was a big reality check as to why I MUST keep my eyes fixed on God and not this world. God has blessed me so much that whatever He asks of me, I have to say, ‘OK, BOSS!!!’ Then, immediately shake off the hurts and disappointments, and stay on the high road with Him, even when others go low. No problem, my reward is with God.
And by keeping our eyes fixed on Him, following His leading in every moment of our lives is how He guides us on the path to the best life with Him as our Partner and Guide. So much so that last night when I got on my knees to pray, I only said one thing, ‘Thank You.’ And God loves me so much because a minute later, I opened my meditation book, He and I, and exactly where I continued reading from said this:
“You see how necessary it is to say ‘Thank You’ (Wink! Wink!) with all the strength of your heart.”
For that ‘Thank You’ to show up there a minute after that was all I had to say in that prayer was ‘Thank You,’ was God revealing His invisible Presence with me, when once again, and totally out of the blue, everything lined up TOO perfectly to be a regular coincidence. Let’s make up our minds to roll with Him in every moment by being the loving and forgiving people who go the extra mile, all for His glory! Amen!
“Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.” Galatians 6:9
AFTER SPENDING THE WEEKEND FRUSTRATED WITH MYSELF…
I went on my Monday morning run with God saying, ‘God, here, have my heart. I’m giving it completely to You!’ Fast forward to getting back home, I got a thought to listen to Plies the rapper on Instagram, and his latest video was entitled, ‘I Just Wanna Be Yours!!!!’ with him playing and singing this song, ‘You’ by Jesse Powell. Oh my goodness, I started freaking out feeling the words were me and God singing to each other:
“I’ve finally found the nerve to say
I’m gonna make a change in my life
Starting here today
I surrender all my love
I never thought I could
I’m giving all my love away
And there’s only one reason that I would
And it’s You (God!)”
As of yesterday, August 24, 2020, I want to give my life COMPLETELY to God. To wrap myself in His love (no other love necessary!) and go through every moment of my life KNOWING I’m completely loved, approved of, and accepted my God. To be His girl totally, following His leading in every moment of my life as to what He would have me to do – complete surrender! To be the mother, wife, and person He would have me to be. Not trying to get love from others, but just showing up as my most loving self, sharing God’s love with everyone. Like my brother, Kevin, taught me, I want to SHINE BRIGHT. Like if you’re not rolling with God, you’re missing out on the best life! I want everything about me to REFLECT Him:
“Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.”
I just wanna be His, glorifying and enjoying Him! That means continually keeping my focus on God as I walk through life wrapped up in His arms, sucking up all His love and attention! For Him to give me those 47 trees (as I just celebrated my 47th birthday!) to run down when I thought about where I could do my long Sunday run with Him where there wasn’t too much sun, was all His love. And then for Him to have me to read a specific message from my meditation book, Jesus Calling, that I randomly scrolled to, in the middle of that run that I had just sat down to discuss with my daughter, Julie, before running, was just to show me that His invisible Presence is intimately involved in every moment of my life, and AGAIN HOW MUCH HE LOVES ME.
Forget about it, ‘GOD, I JUST WANNA BE YOURS, FROM THIS DAY FORTH!!!’ Are you with me?
That’s the perspective I’m going with from now on, even during the trials and tribulations, KNOWING I’m incredibly loved and treasured by Him. I’m the apple of His eyes, and we each can say that with total confidence. I’m just the God nerd over here who pays special attention to Him so that I can report back to you on this sweet loving I’m receiving from Him.
Like yesterday, I went out on my LONG run with Him, and because the field I usually go around is so hot, I kept debating where in my neighborhood I could go where there would be lots of trees for shade. Instead of turning to go through the church’s parking lot, I decided to just keep going, and only a few feet away was a long line of trees. It was as if God was saying, “You need some trees to keep you cool while you run, Nik? Well, here you go!’ I felt so special the whole time as I ran up and down past those trees. I even counted them starting from the hot spot without the trees to the other hot spot where they ended, and I counted exactly 47. And even the number 47 was a wink from God as I just recently celebrated my 47th birthday! I’m telling you, God’s love is just too much!!!
Then, right before I left on my run, I had a sit-down conversation with my daughter, Julie, telling her we have to take challenges from a lighthearted and fun perspective, so we don’t get overwhelmed and frustrated. I told her how I decided to take getting our business back on track as a fun adventure, just showing up every day giving my best. Right in the middle of the run, I asked God what He had to say to me, and I used the scroll key to select something and look what incredibly showed up randomly:
“Discuss everything with Me (God). Take a lighthearted view of trouble, seeing it as a challenge that you and I together can handle. Remember that I am on your side, and I have overcome the world.” – Jesus Calling
See how God is intimately involved in every moment of our lives. I called Julie immediately to tell her about this God wink! No way we could have this exact conversation and an hour or so later for it to randomly just show up on its own. It was God again revealing His invisible Presence with us.
And with all this love I’m receiving from God, I feel He wants me to stop looking to others for their love and attention and FOCUS on His. I’m to suck up His love and share it with others as I ENJOY my life’s adventure with Him holding on to my hand, that He promises never to let go of no matter what I go through. The sweet life with God continues…
Help me to remember that Your love is greater than my disappointments, and Your plans for my life are better than my dreams.” – Tumblr.com via faithprayers
That post was just my high five from God in an alone time with Him there. God shows me such love that I can immediately shake off the disappointments and keep my eyes fixed on His invisible Presence that’s always with me. I’m to the point that I trust God completely. That my only prayer, lately, is simply, ‘Thank You.’ God always exceeds my expectations in every aspect of my life to the point that I say, ‘Lord, may Your will be done.’
That means I get to show up every day as God’s girl, shining bright for Him by being my most joyful, peaceful, patient, loving, moving forward confidently self, knowing that it is God and me going through life together. And He finds the most amazing ways to let me know that He is intimately involved in every one of my moments.
Like yesterday, I completely overdid it in a 5K run. I ran too hard! But even that God used for my benefit. I ended up crashing on our sofa, watching Netflix. My daughter, Julie, mentions that she has lots of anxiety about the future, and I called her to sit next to me to discuss it. Later on that night, she thanked me and I that I helped her to feel better. The last thing I said to her, though, was that she needed more appointments with God. And can you believe this morning she proudly came to show me what God had to say to her in an appointment reading her Jesus Calling by Sarah Young:
“YOU WILL NOT FIND MY PEACE by engaging in excessive planning, attempting to control what will happen to you in the future… I did no design the human mind to figure out the future. That is beyond your capability. I crafted your mind for continual communication with Me. Bring Me all your needs, your hopes and fears. Commit everything into My care. Turn from the path of planning to the path of Peace.”
This was precisely what we had discussed! That she should just show up every day as her most excellent self, having constant conversations with God as to what He would have her to do. “To glorify Him and ENJOY Him and not stressing about the future,” I told her. Who are we for God to show up like this for us? God’s love is amazing – To come and comfort my daughter about all her anxieties and let her know that He is with her and is concerned about her.
“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” – Jeremiah 29:11
Do you have appointments with Him? He has LOTS to say to you, too! Come closer to God, and He will come closer to you! (Wink! Wink!)
