That has been me to God a lot lately. But God has such a great sense of humor because, in one of my appointments with Him, He took me back to this old post from January when I sent this text to my daughters after running for two and a half miles to Starbucks:
“Made it. Let’s do HARD THINGS this year for God.”
And now that the hard things are here for me to do, I’m like, ‘God, what is this?!? I didn’t want it to be this hard!’ LOL! But, I love how I have this relationship with Him where we can have fun with each other. I say no problem, God, when the going gets tough, the tough (ME!!!) gets going. I got this handled! I know that this difficult and sometimes overwhelming stuff I have to deal with is God’s way of challenging me to be better, training me as an athlete to be stronger (mentally, physically, spiritually, and emotionally). God, let’s do this! I’m a soldier in God’s army, baby!
I know I will come through it happier, more mature, more disciplined, more focused, and more at peace. You can’t beat God’s school of HARD LESSONS! It’s a constant struggle and a strong fight to be this person who I know He is calling me to be, but that’s the challenge for us all: For God to be or Guide of our hearts and to make some super tough decisions from His GOD IS LOVE perspective. He wants to remove the weeds from our hearts like bitterness, envy, jealousy, hate, greed, selfishness, temptations, evil thoughts, anger, doing and saying hurtful things and replace them with mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience bearing with and forgiving each other, clothing ourselves ALWAYS in love. Phew! Did you get all of that?
SUPER HARD, I KNOW!!! But that’s where the PRACTICE, PRACTICE, and more PRACTICE comes in. Looking to God in every moment and seeking to please Him. With all the training from Him, we’ll have a heart and mind filled with His love, joy, and Presence knowing He is our intimate life Partner and Guide.
Everything is between God and us, not between us and anyone else – His BLESSINGS amaze me. A strong run today with my daughters had me going crazy over His love. Those who hope in God will not be disappointed! AMEN!!! Hard stuff here, but we can do all things through Him who strengthens us! Amen.
WEROLLWITHGOD.COM
“WHY ARE YOU ASKING ME?”
I questioned my daughters yesterday after they called, asking if they could go for a run in a nearby park. I wasn’t expecting this response (I paraphrase here): “Mom, you were the one who kept saying, “Let’s do hard things!” You’re so brave. You’re fearless! We see you running through bushes, over snakes, doing challenging things. We’re following you.” Wow! And that confirmed my change of perspective on this rough year!
Earlier that day, I felt God speaking to me through a “Suckcess Run” with Coach Bennet of the Nike Running Club. He talked about perspectives and how we can look at our failures from a different angle. So, here I’ve been thinking what a mess up I’ve been this year of what felt like a million falls, and thanks to Coach Bennet, I flipped it, feeling God had this to say, ‘Wow, Nik, you did some hard things for Me. You’re my little superhero. You might have fallen, but you were resilient, you kept getting back up. And you kept focused on building a closer relationship with Me. Great job! We have a lot to celebrate here!”
Then hearing my daughters remind me that they were watching their momma take on this challenging year was the icing on the cake. Not only did they see me, but I also shared with you guys how God would show up in every one of those falls to let me know He was with me.
And that’s the best perspective change ever. Knowing God is with you in the good times and the hard times. He has your back no matter how many times you fall and fail, and He loves you unconditionally no matter how many times you mess up. This year also importantly taught me that this is what He expects us to do for others – love unconditionally.
I love how God uses my husband to teach me all these love lessons to pass on to you guys. I told him today that all I know and all I need to know is that he is the best husband in the world. We may have our dark nights, but we rise up again with the hope that our best days are still ahead of us. We remain loyal to each other no matter what we go through. In fact, these difficult times seem to bring us even closer together. Go figure! Like we can go through the toughest times, survive, and recommit to getting even better TOGETHER! God’s ways are not our ordinary human ways; they’re so much better!
Are you getting CLOSER to Him? Say this prayer with me, ‘God, I want a closer walk with You.’ Then start having alone times seeking Him and asking Him to be a part of the 1,000 decisions you make every day, seeking to make Him happy. I promise you, the best life is close to God!!!
That was me to my daughters yesterday! They wanted to play tennis, and the one tennis ball we had was at my office. So, instead of going to buy some more balls, we politely collected the ones that were left around by other players, and we had ourselves an excellent tennis tournament with me beating them both. Heehaw!
I actually wanted to go for a run, but Ember wanted to play tennis. With one glance at God, though, I knew what He would have me to do – work on a closer relationship with your daughter by showing her your love and attention. Yes, Father! And that’s where I want us in EVERY moment, seeking God’s guidance for our lives.
The tennis turned out to be a good thing as we got some other stuff done at our home association’s office. When I told the lady we’ve lived there for 15 years, she was amazed, and I was reminded of how God has really guided our lives beautifully. When hubby and I found this house, we knew this was the one for us after looking at so many other homes that we couldn’t agree on. But with this one, we felt excited, at peace and knew without a doubt that this was the one.
Every morning as I go for my run with God in this beautiful neighborhood, I thank Him for His guidance. Fifteen years later, we’re still in love with this home and area. Now, even the college the girls want to attend is only minutes away, and I just can’t get over how God has every aspect of our lives so perfectly planned out, even FAR ahead into the future. A life guided by God cannot fail! He knows what’s best for us. PERIOD.
Are you seeking God in every decision? That peaceful and happy feeling, knowing without a doubt that this was the home for us, is how God astonishingly guided us. I remember hubs and I loving this house so much that we would ask for the key while we waited for the closing just to hang out like little kids. Super excited! However, all the other ones we weren’t so enthusiastic about, that was God saying, ‘No, not this one, guys.’
All day and every day, start paying attention to your feelings as God becomes the main Guide of your life. No peace, feelings of doubt, stress, worry are God’s way of saying hold up, this may not be a good move for you. Joy, excitement peace, however, are usually Him saying, Yes! This may be a good move, but still, proceed cautiously listening to Me one step at a time. Don’t make a move without Him!!!
WEROLLWITHGOD.COM
2020: THE YEAR OF KEVIN
He’s my brother/messenger from God. Like seriously, looking back on this year, our conversations have been like God speaking directly to me. One of the most important ones was him telling me, “Neeks, you’re going to have to be patient right now.”
Let me tell ya, that patience has worked! It wasn’t easy, super hard when I wanted to turn into the crazy lady, and I will repeatedly remind myself, ‘Nik, be patient.’ But this week, God revealed to me the beauty of this value of patience. It was my sons coming to work with us. I had our elder son, Emmie, take over a conversation with my husband about purchasing inventory, a crucial aspect of our family’s business. “Tell them we’re blessed!!!” like the Buju Banton song says. And it was patience that got us here! Kevin said to me one day, “I made a lot of good decisions because I was patient.” K, I am with you! Just call me Nikki So Patient!
Ember, my elder daughter, also called saying that she made an important decision to attend the same university I attended in New York. “Mom, you had an internship on Wallstreet. I want to do that.” Patience. An important value I’m learning from God to teach you guys. It’s working. It has guided my life on such a beautiful path. Last night after having the most delicious dinner, I said to my husband, “I’m asking God to make you my husband for my next 10 lifetimes!” We may go through our ups and downs, but the overall gradient is upwards. All by the grace of God, we can REBUILD STRONGER WHEN WE FALL. Amen!
Let’s all honor God by going the extra mile in love, covering others’ weaknesses, and shining bright by being the fathers, mothers, husbands, wives, daughters, sons, sisters, brothers, friends, and people God is calling us to be. Everything is between God and us, not between us and anyone else! God is love, and love is patient.
WEROLLWITHGOD.COM
“I DO NOT GIVE TO YOU AS THE WORLD GIVES”
This is the wink from God this morning rereading this verse I shared yesterday:
“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.” – John 14:27
That’s exactly what I’m finding from God, He doesn’t give like the world. His love, faithfulness, peace, acceptance, approval, joy, strength, wisdom, happiness, closeness, direction, and favor are so far beyond what we can get from anyone or anything in this world. I love these posts that I found one day in an appointment with God:
“Happiness never came from the dependency upon people; happiness comes from dependency upon Allah/God alone.” – Tumblr.com via believeroftheunseen
“Don’t love people so much; don’t rely on people so much. It is deception, don’t love it, don’t love anything here. Allah (God) has made connections in this world like mother, father, husband, wife or friend to test you. Don’t put too much heart in this matter. – Shaykh Mohammad Akram Nadwi
YOU MUST KEEP EVERYONE IN THEIR PROPER PERSPECTIVE!!! Don’t put too much heart into them. Hold them in their proper place – they are ordinary humans just like you with their own struggles, demons, and challenges. GOD MUST BE OUR NUMBER ONE FOCUS AND PRIORITY – FIRST PLACE IN OUR LIVES. Then, with His love backing us up, we can then love others from His heart, His way, and with His strength. When others hurt, reject, disappoint us, or the world gets to be too much for us, we can immediately shake off the negative emotions (including worry and discouragement), hand them over to God, and focus on God’s love that never runs out. The real us, His children, can never be rejected. And those who hope in Him will not be disappointed! No matter how many times we fall and fail, His love is continuous and unfailing. We can trust His faithfulness.
In fact, these constant falls that I’ve been complaining about, have been so good for me. I’ve fallen directly into the arms of God. Now my life has become, He and I. 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, I know who I roll with on the daily: GOD.
And He finds the sweetest ways to let me know He is with me. Like this crazy God nerd here took another picture of my neighbor’s license plate a few days ago because of the word “HUG” that’s special to God and me. I made it my screen saver today, though, on my phone. So, after asking God what page of werollwithgod.com I should go to hear from Him, I got a feeling to go to page 24, and unbelievably, a very ugly picture of myself is there holding up my phone with this very screen saver from the picture of it I took five months ago. It was God’s way of saying, ‘Nik, HUG! I have My arms all around you!’ And around you too! MAKE GOD FIRST PLACE IN YOUR LIFE!
“When you go through deep waters, I will be with you.” – Isaiah 43:2
