A Deeper Connection

Do you ever feel like you have that someone in your life … a parent … a sibling… a partner … a friend; that you seem to always be feeling like you are hustling for their approvals or acceptance or accolades or affections?

When we are craving deeper heart Connections and all we are getting is superficial surface fluff…it gets hard to not want to either hustle for affection or retreat with resentments.

Recently I watched two tables while out at a dinner meeting and it made me want to cry. One person was stuck with their face in the phone and the other one looked lost and deeply sad.

I too have been in others presence and watched as they engaged with others on their mobile while I sat silent feeling dished and excluded.

I too have been guilty and put my phone above my family and friends at times.

I try to practice time off my phone now. It’s a choice. I turn my phone off at a certain time and people know if I don’t respond I am on off time. They also know if they have a true emergency I can be reached by a special land line.

Trust me – there is not a call or text so important that it can’t wait till the morning.

I really struggled with this because I get calls, messages and texts from people I know and strangers contacting me for Ministry and Prayer needs. I have learned not to answer everything like a 911 call.

I will send an auto reply or explain I am not available at the current moment and will get back to them soon. Sometimes God does have me drop everything immediately for them.

We must learn to hear God and let Him direct and guide us and not let the ding of our devices control us.

We should not have to hustle for the attention or affections of others.

If you are with people that are tied to the telephone – may you have the boldness to ask them – Can we connect without distractions today? And I pray they hear you.

But if they don’t want to do that, I pray God brings you the people that think you are pretty dang special and worthy to put their phones away for.

Don’t make people hustle for your attention. Put that phone away and start to connect deeper.

~ XXOO Michelle Cosby Bollom

If I Can…

“If I can stop one heart from breaking, I shall not live in vain;

If I can ease one life the aching,

Or cool one pain,

Or help one fainting robin

Unto his nest again,

I shall not live in vain.”

~Emily Dickinson

Survival Maintenance & Growth

We need four hugs a day for survival.

We need eight hugs a day for maintenance.

We need twelve hugs a day for growth.

Virginia Satir was an internationally acclaimed therapist. She knew a lot about what people need to be healthy and happy and to live in good relationships with each other. She was very smart, and most of her advice was pretty simple.

Take hugs, for example. What could be more simple? One person reaching out to touch another person with safety and care. Very simple.

But what do hugs give people?

Comfort. Acceptance. The basics we all need no matter where we are at today.

So, let us all remember to Give Hugs today!

Decrease The Noise

When we decrease the noise, it allows more room for His voice.

Manipulation Is Never Love

2 prayers I have prayed daily for years:

“God show me who my true friends are – Bring only true Divine Connections into my life.”

“God reveal any dark motives or hidden agendas and bring all issues to light. Let nothing hidden stay hidden. Expose what needs exposing.”

Although sometimes painful, God is always faithful to answer these prayers.

While it seems like a shock when someone betrays you – trust that it is never a shock to God. He knows. He will handle it. Let Him fight your battles.

People disappoint. God never does!

Embrace the Gift Of Goodbye – there is always a reason for the removing.

And remember – manipulation of any kind is not love!

Don’t be afraid to disappoint some folks! Be uniquely you and allow God to answer these prayers for you too.

—XXOO Michelle Cosby Bollom

Unlovable

It is easy to love those seen as good,always understood,one shared neighborhood.Not so simple for those perceived as bad,hard to understand,alone …

Unlovable

Loose the Chains

“Loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of bondage. Set free the oppressed and break every yoke.” ~Isaiah 58:6 Our freedom will never be …

Loose the Chains

55 Years Ago

It was the autumn of 1967, and we’d just come off the Summer of Love. My buddy Marc and I had searched for a rumored “Love-in” somewhere in L.A.’s …

55 Years Ago

The Greatest Stumbling Block

It’s a crime to be weak in His Strength! – Oswald Chambers

This is good stuff folks!

Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth. —2 Timothy 2:15

God will never allow us to divide our lives in the sacred and secular, into study and activity.

A Christian’s thinking ought to be done in activities, not in reflection, because we only come to right discernment in activities.

If you try and live in compartments, God will tumble up the time. Acknowledge him in all your ways, and he will bring you into the circumstances that will develop the particular side of your life that he wants developed, and be careful that you do not upset his plans by bringing in your own ideas.

The gifts of the spirit are built on God’s sovereignty, not on our own temperament.

We are apt to limit God by saying, “oh I’m not built like that”, or “I have not been well educated.”

Never limit God by those paralyzing thoughts; it is the outcome of unbelief.

What does it matter to the Lord Almighty of heaven and earth what your early training was like?

What does matter to him is that you don’t listen to your own understanding, but acknowledge him in all your ways.

So crush on the threshold of your mind any of those lame, limping “I can’ts,” – “you see I’m not gifted.”

The great stumbling block that prevents some people being simple disciples of Jesus is that they are gifted – so gifted that they won’t trust in the Lord with all their hearts.

You have to learn to break by the power of the Holy Spirit the fuss and the lethargy which alternate in your life, and remember that it is a crime to be weak in his strength.

~Oswald Chambers

Approved Unto God

No Worries

God’s love is not sentimental or superficial – contingent or conditional – it is the standard set for the only way in which we should love.

Sometimes you have to dig a little deeper with people to love them well.

No worries – Ask God to help you love the unlovely you encounter today.

Spread some love ❤️ to all you meet.

~XXOO Michelle