Hey Beautiful,
I pray that this message finds you flourishing in your hopes and dreams as you live with love and forgiveness in your heart.
I recently had a thought-provoking conversation with one of my cousins. We talked about how the younger generation in our family seem to just get up and go! No overthinking. No fear of flight or what awaits them on the other side of the destination. They just go!
Although, she has the means to travel abroad, and do various things she joked about being happy right in front of the “rock.” A gigantic boulder that has been part of the front yards landscape for years. The same rock that we climbed upon as kids. Being the inquisitive person that I am I asked, “Is it about being happy and complacent, or is it fear driven?
Admittedly, she battles with the fear of flying on airplanes, and because of that it has limited her willingness to venture out to other places in the world. It has even hindered her from visiting her son who plays professional basketball overseas. Although, I don’t fear flying, I do at times contend with fear of the roadways. Let’s just say Texas roads can get extremely intense at times, which limits my willingness to explore all the beautiful gems it holds.
The conversation triggered in me 3 words: LIVE. LOVE. FORGIVE.
LIVE: To remain alive, to flourish, to grow, and to develop. It also means to continue. Are you alive? Are you flourishing? Are you looking for opportunities to grow. Or, are you dead in doubt, fear, and complacency? The thought of self-imposed limitations triggered in me a greater desire to live, flourish, and grow.
What can prevent us from living you ask? Taking in the calamity we see around us. For example, sickness and disease, kidnappings, crime, accidents, or deaths.
Fear of Calamity limits us from living and flourishing and enjoying life because we fear the same thing happening to us that we see happening to others.
LOVE: What triggered the word love was the realization of how valuable it is to our peace of mind. I am not referring to romantic love. I am referring to the love that we are to extend towards our enemies. A love that is patient, kind, and pays no attention to a suffered wrong. Unconditional love. The love that keeps peace in our heart and stress out of our bodies. The God kind of love that allows us to continue to grow and flourish without hatred and unforgivness clogging the arteries of our heart, which leads me to the third word that was triggered during our conversation.
FORGIVE: Let it go! Release it. It's hard to hold on to love and unforgiveness at the same time. One has to go. Let it be unforgiveness, because it can disrupt our ability to grow, mature, and flourish into the woman we truly desire to be.
Start with forgiving yourself. Forgive yourself for becoming complacent, forgive yourself for not letting go sooner of that thing or person that should have been long gone, forgive for not setting boundaries in your life and allowing others to infringe upon your peace, forgive for not living life…sooner. Then forgive those who you believe have wronged you. Forgive them for what they said, or didn’t say. What they did, or didn’t do.
If I had to sum up LIVE. LOVE. FORGIVE I would do so by saying, “To live we must love, and to love we must forgive.”
Until next time I will be praying yours, and I hope you are praying mine.
Tammy Dean
Scriptures to help you flourish:
1 Corinthians 13:4-7 (NIV) Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
Psalm 91:7 (NIV) A thousand may fall at your side,
ten thousand at your right hand,
but it will not come near you.
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