09.19.09

Whose glasses are you wearing?

Posted in Judging Others, Personal Perspective at 7:16 am by Sandi Rauwolf

God poured a story into me this morning that I want to share with all of you. He showed me a story of two friends both incredible souls and one struggling with a friendship in their life so turned to the other for guidance. The idea came up to add an email filter so the one friend could help the other … the idea being two sets of eyes are better than one, right? Maybe it seems like a good idea getting another person’s advice and point of view but then I was shown something I had never thought of before about how critical perspectives are to each of us.

The question came into my heart, whose glasses are we wearing? Are we wearing the spiritual eyes God has given us to see good in all things or are we seeing things thru glasses the world has given us? What I mean is, as life happens every experience will change us in one way or another – the choice is ours as to how. It will either be another step to purifying our hearts (i.e. weeding out the things the world has planted within our hearts) or it will add negativity to our hearts if we allow it in.

Are you carrying within your heart … the hurt someone has brought that was so deep now everything you see is through the eyes of hurtfulness?

Are you carrying within your heart … the lies and betrayal someone you really cared about brought so everything you see is through the eyes of an untrusting heart?

Are you carrying within your heart … the guilt of past mistakes or current things you haven’t broken free from yet so everything you see is through the eyes of an unworthy heart?

Or are you carrying within your heart … the love from every person that has crossed your path especially the ones that came wrapped differently than you thought (bringing hurts, pains, mistakes, pushing you to your very limit) allowing you to see everything through the eyes of unconditional Love?

Imagine each of those experiences as another pair of glasses on your face. We know how silly it would look to walk around with 7 pairs of glasses – then why do we so easily accept the perspective of the negativity life has thrown at us whether thru our experiences or the experiences of others? I mean how many layers of perspectives are we seeing a situation through? Are we really seeing the situation with an untainted perspective? Do we understand the more glasses we are willing to put on, the more distorted the view becomes resulting eventually in seeing nothing but darkness?

I encourage you to take some time today and ask where your heart is and what prescription you are wearing, if it is not free of all the world tried to plant into your heart leaving only Love then ask God to help you see things thru His eyes – ask Him to weed out all the bitterness, unforgiveness, anger – all negativty allowing you only to wear His prescription so you don’t miss the blessings, help or Love He is trying to bring you … it begins by turning to Him first before anyone else including yourself.

Whose glasses are you wearing?

God bless you, love to you all!

Sandi Rauwolf
Author, Blessings Too Good

09.13.09

Blind Runner …

Posted in Faith at 5:48 pm by Sandi Rauwolf

Beep, beep, beep … the alarm clock goes off and I sleepily open my eyes to see it is 4:30 am – time to get up and get ready to go cheer on Chris, Mark and Miesha at the Chicago Half Marathon. It was a beautiful day downtown. A perfect day for a race! As we were walking towards the starting area I looked up to see this gentleman with “Blind Runner” printed across the back of his shirt. He was accompanied by a lady runner at his side to guide him and help him during the race. My heart overflowed, I thought God bless him! So many people give up when they can no longer see what is ahead of them but he knew he could do this with his guide by his side. It came upon my heart how we all need to be like that gentleman especially when we are going through those dark times in life and cannot see what’s ahead of us. We must remember that we are never alone. We may feel like God isn’t there but He is always there, right at our side guiding every step. He steers us clear of danger or cheers us on when we have bursts of strength but He can only help us if we ask Him to guide us and if we listen to His step-by-step instructions (we never know when those pot holes of life will be in front of us but He does so if we listen, He can steer us clear of them).

How many people will blindly step forward to run the race? Can you say you would step up to that starting line not knowing what the course looks like, having no idea when the road will turn or how many times, and not being able to see where there is a pot hole that could twist your ankle taking you out of the race all together? Can you trust your guide enough to run the race?

I thank God for today. I was so blessed watching Chris, Mark and Miesha, as well as all of the thousands of runners, accomplish such an incredible feat! I am very proud of them for stepping forward to run the race knowing it would be hard work, knowing that it would not be easy and would even be painful at times but each of them remained focused on that finish line and how awesome it would be to cross it – every grueling step was worth all they endured!

Miesha – thank you for sharing the scripture that has been on your heart all thru training and the race today.

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.” Hebrew 12:1

So to all of you out there, each of us are called to be runners in the race of life. I encourage you to step up to the starting line and be that blind runner!

Blessings! Love to you all!

Sandi Rauwolf
Author, Blessings Too Good

PS I hope to post pictures to Facebook and In the Spirit of Love website soon so check back :) (www.inthespiritoflove.org)