Scripture

I don't know about you, but I have this tendency to want to embrace every moment, every moment that I'm alive, every moment with my kids, every moment with my spouse. It's like I want to suffocate every last bit of breath out of everything, and I have had to rein in, so that I could have mental health on it.

And this is something that has been kind of a theme throughout my life, where this concept of time, this sense that there's only so much time and I need to make the most of it. It's like I'm one of those people that if you hear the news and something bad happened to somebody and they, say, oh, we never would have guessed. I'm like, okay, I've already thought of that, but does that prevent it?

I probably have already said, okay, let's prepare so that that doesn't happen. Let's be aware so that doesn't happen. It's like this hyper vigilance, right? And you can't live like that. There's no cause-and-effect correlation. Sometimes we can watch and avoid things that we wouldn't have avoided otherwise. It just makes sense that if we put gas in our car, we're going to avoid running out of gas on the road, right? But with time and feeling like I can do something more to squeeze more out of the time or that I can prepare more so that nothing bad happens or that there's this sense of control that I need to do more to make sure fill in the blank. Those are the areas that I've struggled in off and on through my life. And I wonder if you felt the same in any way.

Sometimes that's even gone into an existential kind of crisis. It's like, how long is eternity? Oh my goodness, what if today's the day I die? What if everything's okay and I live to be like 100? Do I really want to live to be 100? Well, maybe I do. Maybe not more than that, but maybe I could. I don't know. It depends.

Wait, how do I think about this? When I see things popping up on the Internet where you only have this much time with your kids. You've already spent 90% of your time with your kids by the time they're 18. Or the thing about how many weekends you have with your kids before they're 18, and mine are all now 18 and above. So it's like, wait a minute, that wasn't a punishment. It wasn't a fear-based punishment that I had to worry about, but these things where there will be a last time when you held your child, that you said I love you, and that you tucked them into bed. It's like, please stop doing that to me.

Then I realized, I don't have to have these existential, time oriented, fear-based concerns or issues. If any of that sounds like stuff you have struggled through, I want to help you with it. Here are the things that we can tell ourselves to calm that hyper vigilant overactive imagination. Oh my goodness, time is getting away from us. Oh my goodness. What does time mean? All of those kinds of things, any of that is able to be contained and dealt with a few simple tools.

God is the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. He is outside of time. He is time. In Him, we live and move and have our being. We don't have to worry about the concept of time. There is time for everything that He has for us to do in life and anything that doesn't get done by the end of it must not have been something that was in His design for us to do if we are seeking to live for Him, right?

It'd be different if we have regrets because we have intentionally sinned or gone against seeking His path for our lives and kind of went off track and wasted time. If you are truly seeking God and living your life to serve Him and do what you believe He's leading you in, then I believe that every single thing that He has for you to do, every single person that He has for you to love, and every single moment that He has for you to be with your kids, whether they're babies, toddlers, school age kids, young adults, or even when they get to be middle-aged or whatever, every amount of time, every amount of effort, every amount of the thing that is yours, that is in your hand to do something with and steward is there because God has blessed you with these good things and we don't need to fear time. Running out or bad things happening because God is with us. Always, always God is with us. We don't have to try to predict the future or regret the past or suffocate the moments out of anything. We need to breathe in and out, be presently where we are and let the Lord direct our steps and guide our paths every day of our lives.

He gave us the moments. He gave us the people. He gives us every good and perfect gift and every blessing. He is our protector. He is our strength. He is our shield. He is the One who holds our days. He loves us and he knows us. He has good for us and good for those we love. He can be trusted. He is a good, good Father. He doesn't give as the world gives. We can rest and have peace knowing that our Heavenly Father's got us. He is the Alpha and the Omega.

And He doesn't change. We're the ones with the warped concept of time, with the warped concept of how much is on our shoulders and how much we have to do in reality. He's given us life. He's given us those we love. He's our protector and He is ever present with us. And if we rest in our present moments, right where our body is, right where we are in the truth that God's got us then we don't need to understand it all and we don't need to do more or do less. We just need to live, love, and step into the next thing that He has gifted us. It's all going to be fine.

You don't have to worry about time running out. You don't have to worry about not having enough time, having too much time, what will happen, what won't happen, what you have to do, what you don't have to do, what you'll get done, and what you won't get done. Just breathe in and release all of that tension and stress and focus your eyes on Jesus. The things of Earth will grow strangely dim in light of His glory and grace. His face is what we seek and He's here with us. Every time you see a good gift, a good and perfect gift like a smile in your child's or grandchild's eyes or see and hear a pretty bird tweeting a beautiful melody. And then there's a bird there right on cue. If you really think about God being present with you in every good thing and the fact that you are breathing in and out and are alive, that's a good thing.

We can trust in Him. So we can say, thank you body for alarming us, thank you mind for trying to help us and protect us and lead us, to prevent shoes from dropping, prevent regrets, and to make the most of things, but God's got us and we're okay. We can rest and just be present and enjoy living in the blessings of the Lord and His protection.

Go take on the day.

If you've ever felt like you're doing the same old thing over and over, falling back into the same patterns, not moving forward and that you'll never be able to get the life you really want to live or that this mental health journey is too hard, I want to share something that came up in one of my recent sessions.

This analogy came to me of a cookie placed on the kitchen table, and the child says to the parent, "I wanna cookie," and the parent says, "OK, I've given you a cookie." The child then says, "I want a cookie, how come I can't have a cookie, why aren't you listening to me, why aren't you giving me what I want?" The parent already gave the child the cookie as it's on the table, but the child has to simply go over, pick it up, and then eat the cookie. It's already been provided, but the child needs to act on it. The child may not see that it's easily accessible that it is already there. That's how we are when we think why isn't God just cleaning up this mess, why am I still stuck having this same old feeling like I'm never going to get it right, never get out this, and will never be done with this journey.

Often times, it's because you aren't picking up the cookie, and sometimes the cookies come in the form of scriptural truth like reading your Bible and time with the Lord and the direction of the Holy Spirit, so pray, reflect, and seek good counsel and teaching. 

Sometimes it comes from taking an action (like reaching out for the cookie) when we stop listening to the feelings and instead, look at the facts. The fact is God is who He says He is! If you are a Christian, you believe God is God. He is the source of everything and all truth: 

Every good and perfect gift comes from God, and these truths don't change whether you feel they are true or not. Whether you feel it or not, you get to choose to take action, to believe it, to reach out to it, and to grab it, and to find ways to make it yours just like the child grabbing the cookie off the table. The cookie is already allowed, and it's already freely provided, but we have to do something with it.

In the Bible, there's a parable of three men who were given money. One didn't do anything and hid it for safekeeping, another got a small return for it, and the last man really invested and received a big return for it. God gives these men a choice as to what to do with what they've been given. 

Just like us, we can watch what God has given us grow into something healthy or we can bury it and not let it grow into what it could be. Sometimes the lie is that we think we're stuck when we're not stuck; we think we will never get out of it, but we're already free. God has already given us the power to do all things through Christ who gives us strength. We can reach out and take our power back!  We mustn't let the enemy steal it by listening to the lies making us think feelings are facts.

You can seek out the skills, tools, and help you need to take the next step and take good care of yourself. You can identify negative or limiting beliefs and place them up against God's truth and His word. You have power in Christ Jesus and his gifts are right there on the table just like the cookie!

You get to accept His gifts and choose how you accept them just like that child could go over and get that cookie from the table! The child could go get that cookie while doing a cartwheel, he could eat that cookie while standing on his head, he could ask his sister to go bring him a cookie, he could slide a piece of paper under it and slide it over to himself. 

So, if you feel like nothing's changing, that's a lie because you can change right now by telling yourself the truth! You can say to yourself, "oh that's just a negative mindset," "oh, that's just a lie," and although you may not feel it right away, the truth is the truth!

Most importantly, don't believe the lie when Satan tells you that you are stuck or moving backward. Believe the truth, take back your power, and take the next right step. When we take steps in a positive direction, just one at a time, we are still doing something to move forward. Just keep taking the next step and sometimes the next step is a good nap, a good vacation, or telling somebody your deepest, darkest secret as long as they're a safe person. Maybe you don't tell it all at once; maybe just say it a little bit at a time to see if they're safe with your confidence.

You can steward this process as God gives good gifts to his children, so take your next step not based on feeling, but based on who God is and who you are in Him.