DIRECT MY STEPS

DIRECT MY STEPS

Photo by Lou Lehman Sams- all rights reserved

“… right action follows right thinking … you will never change your behavior until you change your thoughts. In God’s order of things, right thinking comes first, & right actions follow. …right action or right behavior is a “fruit” of right thinking.” ~ Joyce Meyer

Praying that ALL of my thoughts today will be POSITIVE ones – that I will conquer fear, doubt & disappointment. That I will be strong enough to recognize that His will may not match my desires, but have faith enough to believe that His path is indeed the better one for me. That I will have ownership of my own shortcomings, & strive to be the person He would have me be. That I will forgive, truly forgive those who have led me to this place. That I will overcome the pain of loss, knowing that loss is clearing the way for blessings I have yet to imagine.

THINKING I will find what I have been seeking my whole life, if I stop looking for it, & let Him direct my steps.
“As a man thinks in his heart, so he is …”
What are YOU THINKING today???

– Lou Lehman Sams

2014

FEAR OF LOSING CONTROL

Fear of Losing Control

People are AFRAID to surrender because they will lose CONTROL. But LETTING GO is the only way to really CONQUER FEAR, & getting rid of fear is when you actually GAIN CONTROL of your life, because it is then that you FIND FREEDOM to truly LIVE. Funny, what a PARADOX this is, because it is backwards from what we believe. 

We THINK that if we stay in that miserable relationship, we can control the outcome by controlling the person; however it is when we let go of the toxic people in our lives that we find the freedom to be with those who make us happy, & the ones who make us happy are the ones who love us enough to let us be ourselves. We convince ourselves that if we change careers or jobs that we will lose control, because we will have to learn something new & leave the familiar behind, but it is when we step out of our comfort zone & the things to which we have clung, but which we have outgrown, that we allow ourselves to be open to new, exciting, & daring adventures, & it is those adventures that provide us a chance to figure out who we really are, thus giving us control. We assume that if we do not tell our children what to think, feel, see, do or be, that they will mess up their lives, but in reality, when we do not allow them to become who God inspired them to become, that is when we mess up their lives for them. We imagine that if we do not fold the towels, take out the trash, or cook the roast beef the same way that we always have done, that the outcome will be undesirable, forgetting that perhaps there might be more space in the closet, less litter on the street, or a much more savory dinner if we will but surrender our old ways to new ones. 

Letting go, surrendering, & losing control, are difficult things to do, because we conjure up illusions to support the need for us to be in charge, & our fears prevent us from true freedom, wherein lies peace. We can frantically fight the waves until we are totally exhausted, yet find ourselves in exactly the same place in which we started, or we can calmly ride them & not only enjoy the ride, but end up in a tranquil spot, safely back at the shore. I have done all of these things. I have no regrets, but if I had it to do over again, I would have had more trust in God to protect my babies & left a most miserable existence far sooner. 

Sometimes clarity only comes after the storm has died down. If only I could have seen then, what I see now. But I did the best that I could do at the time, given my understanding of life & the situation. Since then I am proud to say that I have conquered many fears: I was afraid first & foremost of not doing my best for my children, but also I was afraid of potential illness, of being alone, of falling, of crashing, of lack of financial resources, & yes, of rodents. And since that time, I have been each & every one of those things at some point or another in my life, but I have survived every single day of my life. Once I finally had enough sense to let go & conquer my fears, I have found that is where I gained control of my own life, & that, my friends, is all we are really called to do. 

God created us each with our own unique gifts, callings, & desires, & whenever we allow the issues of others, the demands of controlling people, or the fears of failure to rule us, we are chained to those things. It is time to break free, to lose the chains that bind us to addictions to the past, to toxic people, to substances, & yes, to the addiction of the need to be in control. Freedom lies in letting go. Peace lies in freedom. Gravitate towards those that love you, not the ones that control you. Turn towards the challenges that excite you, not the ones that weigh you down. Choose to be in the relationships, jobs, or places that make you happy, not the ones that make you miserable.

 When you live in misery, fear, or under someone else’s control, you are not in any shape to live out your life according to God’s plan for you. Just as a fish cannot thrive if it is constantly pretending to be a dog, neither can you thrive if you are constantly pretending to be happy. Conquer your fear of losing control by letting go – I’m looking forward to finally seeing the “real” you – the person you were destined to be!

– Lou Lehman Sams 

STOP and SURRENDER

Stop & Surrender

Set suddenly adrift in an unfamiliar, turbulent & stormy sea which could quite possibly cause her to sink once & for all, she decided that it was time to swim, & that is what she did. She fought the current hard, until she was so exhausted that she could hardly think straight. Then she remembered that when you get caught up in a rip tide, you are supposed to swim parallel to the shore until you get out of it, so she tried that, but still she could not find the safety of land. She tried flailing her arms to signal for help from passersby, only to be ignored. She screamed at the Heavens & begged for mercy, but water from the angry waves washed over her until she gasped for air. Finally, spent from all of the effort, she had no choice but to be still. She remembered being taught about Drownproofing in swim class. 

She did not like that idea, waiting, waiting, waiting, to be rescued. Not doing or saying anything, just being very still & concentrating on breathing. But by this time, that is all that she could do – Be still. In so doing, she regained her strength, her composure, & her faith. Silently she prayed, for God’s will, whether that meant she was to be swept away to a distant shore & never return home, or even if it meant drowning. But she knew in her spirit that He did not intend for her to drown. Finally, she surrendered to the water, to the moment, to the stillness, & whenever there was a break in the waves, she came up for a little air before retreating back to wait some more. 

It happened suddenly: a mystical, magical, momentous moment when she was rescued from that Storm. It was right after she had surrendered her will to His. She was lifted up out of that place & transported to a place far better than the one that she had invested so very much of her time & energy trying to return to, & she was amazed & awed. She had been fighting to get back to a place that was far inferior to the one where her Storm had taken her. If only she had known sooner, she would have stopped struggling, & surrendered herself to the possibilities & potential of something new. 

What are you panicking about today? Have you lost something or someone that has left you feeling as if you will never see dry land again? Are you fighting, struggling, & using up your precious resources attempting to get back to a place where you no longer belong? Do you feel as if you are going to drown in a sea of uncertainty?

STOP! Just stop trying to get back there. Stop trying to outrun the Storm, & wait for it to pass before proceeding. Stop & surrender your will. Stop striving so hard for something that is not meant to be. 

The distant shore is not as distant as you think. Angels are waiting to transport you to your new life, if you will just stop & let them rescue you.

Remember this: “He is able to do far more exceedingly, abundantly than you can think or a imagine.” Read each word, & truly absorb the meaning of that sentence found in Ephesians 3:23. Not just more, but “FAR MORE”. 

She settled in slowly to a paradise that she had never known existed. One day, she strained her eyes to scan the distant horizon for traces of the land from whence she had been delivered, but the sun was shining too brightly, & she could not see a thing, except the wide ocean that separated her present home from her previous prison. She raised her hand to shade her eyes in an attempt to see better, but suddenly she dropped it, & turned & walked away from the shore, for you see, she realized that she no longer cared about that former life, or that place which she once believed held her future, but had only held her hostage instead. When she had lived there, she had not even realized it was a prison, which is why she had fought so hard to get back there. It was only after she had been delivered that she realized from what she had been saved. 

She lifted her chin, & her head held high, she surrendered yet again. She loved this new place, this new life that she had been granted, & yet she also knew that “He was able to do exceedingly, abundantly more than she could think or imagine.” If Today was wonderful, what might He have in mind for Tomorrow? If only she would just Stop & Surrender …

-Lou Lehman Sams