God, Are you there?

Listening to God. In all honesty I have a hard time listening for God. I know a lot of people say that they hear God tell them things but I don’t think I can say that for sure. I know there are times when I feel a certain way about something, like my conscious telling me how to feel or act. I’ve heard people refer to that as the Holy Spirit talking to you. I guess I believe that too. There has been many times when I have seen someone who appears to be hurting in one way or another, whether it be a homeless person or just someone at the mall that looked sad. I have a conscious feeling that I should stop to help them. Sadly there have been more times that I have continued on walking away from that person. I know in my heart I should have turned back and I seldomly do. There was recently a time that I walked away not wanting to listen to the Holy Spirit when it was telling me that someone was in need. I walked away, got in my car and was about to leave work when the feeling was so strong that I turned my car and went back. That person was truly in need of a hug and a shoulder to cry on. Looking back to that moment I realized how awesome God is and that he can accomplish many things if we are willing to listen. I didn’t want to talk to that person and even drove away but ultimately I knew that God wanted me to be there for her. There are so many times that I have walked away, never to look back and it makes me wonder what would be different if I had stopped for them, stop to listen to God.

There are times that God wants to work in our lives but we refuse to listen. For me, there have been way too many of them. I know that God is there, watching my every move and listening to every thought yet I still do things that I know he would not be happy with. Why? Why do we do this to ourselves and to God? My life could be so much better if I just would have listened to him. At this point in my life I have decided to stop asking myself those types of questions, why or why not, mainly because it’s the past. Because it’s the past there is nothing that I can do about it. The only thing that I can do is focus on the future. I try my best to listen to the Holy Spirit. I know what’s right and wrong but it is ultimately my decision to make. That’s the wonderful thing about God, having a choice. God wants us to choose what we want to do. He could easy just make those decisions for us but he doesn’t want prisoners. He wants willing followers.

Personally, I think Valentine’s Day is extremely overrated. Valentine’s Day should not be the only time boyfriends/husbands buy their girlfriends/wives chocolate and flowers. It should not be the only day couples buy each other gifts expressing their love for each other. These things should happen any and everyday of the year. For this reason there should not have to be a day called Valentine’s Day.

I understand the idea of Valentine’s Day and think that its nice to get chocolate and flowers but I still think that Valentine’s Day is completely overrated. Too often we hear this overrated opinion coming from the bitter single women that hate to see others in love because they themselves are not in love. But I am not her. Interestingly enough I am very much in love with an awesome guy. I don’t want to completely bore you with my love life but my boyfriend is the BEST ever. We have only been together for 8 months but in those 8months I have received a bouquet of flowers 3-4 times. That may not seem like a lot but for those of you girls that receive flowers for Valentine’s Day and your birthday…I get twice as much as you do. J Every time he gives me flowers I am completely surprised. Its never for a special occasion or certain time of year but just because…The first time I got flowers it was the second day we had been dating. I guess he was wanted to show me how much I meant to him even though we had just started dating. One of the other times I got flowers was because I had had a really horrible day at work. It was soo nice to come home to a bouquet of red roses. There had been many other ways my boyfriend has expressed his love for me at the most randomest times. To me those are the best times to tell someone that you love them, when they are not expecting it.

Too many times guys think that they only have to be affectionate to their women once a year, but this obviously (or maybe not so obviously to some guys) does not get them to far. Its funny to me that people celebrate Valentine’s Day even though their relationship is completely falling apart. Last year my ex and I were “on a break” that I knew was the beginning of the end, and he wanted to go out for Valentine’s Day. I told him that I didn’t think we should out on a show pretending we were happy. One day of kindness and affection would not make up for the hurt he caused me.

I guess what I’m saying is that I love the idea of Valentine’s Day but think that the expression of love should happen everyday. Even if the expression of love is shown in the smallest of ways, it goes a long way.