10.13.09
Posted in Love at 2:10 pm by Sandi Rauwolf
God woke me up at 4:30 this morning to give me this blog. I had no idea how relevant it would be to a phone call I received a few hours later. He is amazing! :)
Anyway, here is what He woke me up about. He was pressing on my heart strongly how important it is that we operate in unconditional Love encouraging others, not judging them but showing them His Love. We currently live in a society filled with many people who think if they are a believer that suddenly they are a notch above others or that it is their God given right to judge others. Let’s leave the judging to Him remember He is the one that searches the hearts of His children. Let’s live it (i.e. show it) or the message of speaking it will continue to fall on deaf ears and cause others to stumble.
Please let’s renew our minds and hearts. When we show Love we become a magnet to others. Have you ever been around a person who is warm, happy, and loving? Don’t you find that you are drawn to that person because something within you seeks that same happiness for yourself? And when your world seems to be falling down around you isn’t that the person you turn to first?
How do we learn to act in Love? We need to ask for the Spirit of Love to be poured into our hearts. Then ask for God to teach you His Love. See when we learn to turn to Him first for everything that is when we start seeing movement in our lives. He is then able to teach us Himself or send someone who He has selected to teach us (this is very important – seek Wisdom from Him first. Don’t go out looking for it. It is critical that He guides you and brings the people to teach you otherwise it may be thru someone else’s perspective who does not yet know unconditional Love).
Learning unconditional Love is not easy actually it is the hardest thing I have faced (even next to all the health issues). The reason for that is because the world has poured in so much false and negativity to each of us that God has to weed out many things to purify our hearts. It hurts to have stuff ripped out of our hearts but it is critical. So yes people will be sent into your path to push every button you have to see if you are still standing strong in unconditional Love. Do you have someone in your life right now where you keep crying out, “Why God – why? Why do I keep getting people like this who are so difficult to work with or be around?” I say turn to God and ask Him what He is trying to teach you, yes teach YOU. Quit asking Him to change the other person and ask Him to change you. What part of your heart is He trying to change? Are you judging? Are you quick to anger? It’s not easy to Love when someone is spitting in your face but there is no greater strength than when He has brought you to a place that you can turn the other cheek. You no longer see that person as someone who is horrible or someone “you” would never be but suddenly you see them through an empathetic heart wanting them to know Love so they have happiness and not the bitterness that is causing them to act that way.
So the next time that religious spirit rises in you causing you to ask yourself is that person glorifying God ask this, “are they operating in Love?” When people live the love of Christ then every single breath, every step, every blink of an eye is being done in Him to glorify His name. You’ve all heard the saying, “Actions speak a million words” so please understand the best way to glorify Him is to start living it.
I also want to encourage you parents out there to teach your children how to love – IT IS SO IMPORTANT! Suicide is at an alarming rate and I am hoping I can encourage you to step forward and do something about it. Please ensure your kid isn’t the one always putting others down or thinking they are better than anyone else. LIFE IS NOT ABOUT A COMPETITION! Ask yourself, “Is what is coming out of their mouth encouraging or detrimental to someone?” And also take a good long look in the mirror – what are they learning from you? It MUST begin with a change in you so you can live it and teach it to your children. I want to share a story about a little girl who has a heart bigger than Texas. She doesn’t give into society about dressing a certain way but is a free spirit with a heart more beautiful than most in this world but because of this, the kids at school are not nice to her. She has only a couple of friends. This little girl emptied her piggy bank of everything to help for a cause at school because that is the kind of unselfish, wonderful heart she has and do you know that no one at school can see past the way she dresses or the fact that she may be a little “different’? And this precious little girl feels unworthy!!! This is happening today … It takes everything she has to get up and go to school each day because she doesn’t know what ridicule she will face. It saddens my heart so much. Let’s start making a difference so that the kind-hearted children (young and old) are no longer the rarity but the selfish, greedy, hardened heart children are the ones you have to look deep and wide to find.
I encourage you to join me in bringing this Love to the world today. It is time to start SHOWING Love – putting hands and feet to making a difference in this world. God bless you all!
Lots of Love!!!
Sandi Rauwolf
Author, Blessings Too Good
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10.06.09
Posted in Lost My Way, Love at 5:14 am by Sandi Rauwolf
I know this blog is a bit long but please if you clicked here, you are meant to take a few minutes to read it – please.
My eyes continue to be opened to the wonders of Life. I have felt on my heart for some time now that everything is “opposite” – opposite of what we think or realize. As most of you know I have had quite a journey my entire life not just relating to my health but through things I never thought personally I would find myself in the middle of (again opposite of anything I thought – never say never!!!). After my miracles and I was given what I thought was “life” back, let me tell you I went WAY off track. I do not know who I had become – I will just say I did everything to destroy my marriage, my family – my life. I found myself out drinking it up (staying out all night, making less than good decisions) when I would be out of town … who had I become? How could I sit there filling my bed with tears feeling completely out of control for behaviors that I never thought I would fall into but yet was so easily enticed and lured in – how could the “world” have so much influence and power over me?
Then I would go through the guilt of the realization of all God had done in my life (MIRACLES, I had so many MIRACLES!), and how it seemed I was this uncaring, calloused shell of a human being spitting in God’s face and all those closest to me who had done so much for me. I would cry out in those moments, “Why God, Why am I doing this? HOW COULD I DO THIS? This is not me, please God help me – I do not want to do this!” but yet as if being under a spell, time and time again I would find myself right where I did not want to be. I felt completely helpless. A grown adult who loved God so much found herself lost like a little child who was lured away by all of the cool clothes racks to hide under. Then suddenly amongst all that fun, the moment happens where that 7 year old finds herself in the middle of the mall, LOST crying out “Where’s my Daddy? I am so scared!” Never realizing I was drifting off in the first place because I had the perspective that I, the girl with so much faith and love in her heart, could never find herself so far off and away from God. It was not a pretty time in my life and for sure what I call “my veil moment” – the moment in life I wanted to hide behind forever.
Everyone has their veil moment or moments and let me tell you the world does everything to convince you to stay behind that veil because currently it is so judging, unloving and critical. If you believe in God the prescription of judgment eyeglasses that others wear are certainly turned up a notch as if they are looking at you through magnifying glasses. Somehow they lose sight of the fact that you are human just like them and that we go through “life” to become the person we were born to be. It is the whole reason why we need God!
There are some hard lessons on that journey, very hard but it is amazing once you emerge out of the dark tunnel after focusing on the light at the end for so many years. Every tear becomes worth it and it all comes together as to “why” you faced the veil moments. During my dark times my sister (and brother-in-law) saw how lost I had become but you know they did not judge me, they loved me, they prayed for me and because of them crying out for me God reached His very hand down and pulled me out of that darkness. God taught me how critical it is to focus my eyes on Him first and foremost above all things in this world, yes that includes my family, friends, job … everything!
There is a song I heard a year ago or so that brings tears to my eyes and sums up the current state of the world. It is called “Does Anybody Hear Her?” By Counting Crows (here is the link you can listen to it for free and no it should not give you any viruses – http://www.playlist.com/searchbeta/tracks#does%20anybody%20hear%20her). It’s about a girl running one hundred miles an hour in the wrong direction, trying to go the other way but the world was sucking her in but did anyone even notice? One of the verses is:
Does anybody hear her? Does anybody see?
Or does anybody even know she’s going down today?
Under the shadow of our steeple
With all the lost and lonely people
Searching for the hope that’s tucked away in you and me
Does anybody hear her? Does anybody see?
It is sad but the people couldn’t see past what she was doing (i.e. her mistakes) and instead of loving her, praying for her, they judged her when she was there crying out HELP ME!!! As a result of this type of culture, the suicide rates especially amongst the youth is raising at a rate that makes me cry. And it does NOT have to be this way! God said something to me a couple of weeks ago which is so important, He said if anyone decides to put on and wear eyeglasses of judgment they need to ensure they try them on first and take a good look in the mirror. Amen to that!
See guys, we have all had those moments in our lives so not a single person has any right to turn to another to cast a stone but yet we live in a society who does nothing but stone people to death and thinks it “is their right”. Truly, everything is opposite of what we know as reality. THIS IS NOT THE WAY GOD INTENDED IT TO BE. It is time for a change and it starts with us. Let’s walk forward in Love understanding we go through all of those things, all of those tears to bring us to a point in life where all impurity, judgment, bitterness, etc. has been weeded out of our hearts so when we look in the mirror we only see Love (a true reflection of Christ) looking back at us – that is the moment when our Life truly begins. We then can take all of those hurts and instead of hiding behind the veil, it is torn down allowing us to become transparent so we can help the next lost little girl who feels like she is all alone in the world because no one else could have done such a horrible thing or been in such a dark place. That moment of unconditional love when we take the strength and love we were taught by carrying that cross of imperfections/mistakes to embrace another saying, “I’ve been there. You will get through this and most importantly I love you no matter what.” THAT is real Love and the moment the world and darkness has to pry its cold fingers of death off of us because Love never fails, never. Here is a short poem God put on my heart this past weekend that really sums it all up.
One Moment
It’s that one moment in time when a hand reaches out of nowhere to bring into our very being the beginning of Life.
It is the one moment all your tears come together to form a beautiful cascade of clear flowing water.
One moment, “the” moment when suddenly the light turns on and you find yourself standing in front of a mirror that you had no idea was even there.
You walk up, put your palms flat to the glass and there staring back at you is Love. It is no longer far off in the distance but right there, a beautiful reflection of you.
It’s “your” moment and when Life truly begins.
By: Sandi Rauwolf, 10/03/09
What’s your veil moment, the one that you feel you have to hide behind but someone in your path today may desperately need your experience to pull them out of that darkness – to give them hope and also the transparency needed to bring you complete healing and freedom? May God bless you and may you allow Him to use your imperfections/mistakes to help another. May you embrace someone who is so desperately crying out, feeling lost and needs Love not judgment. May you come to “your” moment when Life truly begins.
Love to you all!
Sandi Rauwolf
Author, Blessings Too Good
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