I am a huge fan of the book "The Four Agreements" by don Miguel Ruiz. Especially the fourth agreement; Always Do Your Best.

Recently someone asked me if life wasn't how you wanted it to be, and you just did your best, does that mean you've given up, or have chosen to settle for less than you want?

Doing your best with what you've got never means you have to settle for less than you desire.

Doing your best, right here and right now, is about calling forth greater good and expanding your territory.

Imagine your dream is to grow sunflowers, and have a farm where you can look out in the morning and see acres and acres of sunflowers. But all you have is one sunflower seed to start with. If you do your best, and plant that seed, it can yield between 1,000 and 2,000 new seeds. If you continue to do your best, and plant and harvest, you will eventually have your sunflower farm.

We often want things to be a certain way before we get started. Like having the perfect office space before starting a business. Why not start that business from home?

When you make constructive use of what you have right now (not what you wish you had) you open the way for greater good. And you prove to the Universe that you mean business!

Start with that one seed. Do your best, and more will be given to you.

And that's the Law.

I recently heard someone comment "it feels like God has abandoned me." And she really felt this - really believed this.

When we are struggling with something, and have no clarity or comfort, it can feel like God has abandoned us.

But God could no more abandon us than the sun or moon could.

When we feel abandoned, what's happened is that we are out of sync, out of communion with God (which is indwelling, and always there - it can't leave) so it's up to us to realign with the divine within us.

Imagine you were driving from Dallas to San Diego. If you were to get off course, say you took an exit toward San Francisco, it's up to you to get back on course. You wouldn't expect your car to do it, or the roads to repave themselves. You'd reroute and get back on track.

As much as I love the idea of the Universe always keeping me aligned no matter my actions, I have to remind myself I have freewill and I'm the one in charges of making my choices.

All of us are at choice, and all of us are responsible for the next thing we choose. And when we choose to realign with our Source, get in sync, we are all that much more empowered because it was our choice; no one made us do it! And because of our choice to get in sync with the divine within, we can experience our divine nature to an even greater extent.

The Universe doesn't empower us by doing everything for us. We are empowered because we make choices that honor the divine within us.

XOXOXO Rev. Deanna

YOU are an Energy Director; this is what you do. All the time. You direct energy through a filter, and then an experience is created just as you are stepping into it.

The Quantum Stuff, Creative Substance, whatever you want to call it, is simply being directed from the unseen into the seen BY YOU - through your filter to create an experience.

The reason it is SOOOOO important to know what you want to create is so that you have the proper filter to direct this energy through.

I mean, imagine you wanted to cook a 7 course dinner for your loved ones - and then you just stood in your kitchen and stared at your cookbook. You cannot prepare a 7 course dinner until you pick out those 7 different courses!

I know Albert Einstein says "nothing happens until something moves," but something does happen if you don't move on those 7 courses - people go hungry - or they eat random things out of your fridge - or they end up at the local fast food restaurant. They have any number of other options available, many that are not nearly as lovely as the dinner you'd hoped to prepare.

Write down your desired outcome/experience. Read it over and over. Affirm: I AM created from the Power that Succeeds.

XOXO Rev. Deanna

Over these last couple of years we have all been experiencing change in our lives in a pretty big way.

And when we go through change it literally changes the fit of our life; how we move, and breathe, and have our being in our own life may not make sense anymore.

That's why change is hard, because we no longer fit into something that once seemed to fit very well. Even in a hard life, a life of struggle, there is still familiarity. Which means that growing ourselves out of struggle and suffering can be hard , even when the goal is one of happiness and creativity.

The new life we are creating will have a different fit. We will have to move, and breathe, and choose differently in this new life. This is why there's always the temptation to toss our new habits, they make life uncomfortable.

The nature of life is expansion. If you plant an acorn in a paper cup, even though at first it seems to be a perfect fit, it will eventually grow right out of that paper cup.

The nature of life, through you, for you, as you, is expansion. Your consciousness is meant to expand. Your creative expression is meant to expand. The love and grace you call through you, is EXPANSION.

Whether you choose to remain a bystander in your life, or become a conscious participant in your life, one way or the other, you'll still outgrow your life.

Everyone struggles with change, even when we are as prepared as we can get. But here are some signs you may be pushing against change:

• You find yourself complaining and blaming to anyone who will listen.
• You are overly focused on problems.
• You blame the change for things that are going wrong.
• You want things to go back to how they were.
• You cannot forgive or let go.
• You need things to be your way.

You can see, forgiveness may play a major role in flowing with changes. You may need to give up all hope for a better past. You may need to give up the hope that you'll ever be able to time travel, and go back and make different decisions.

To fit into this ever expanding life of yours, try this:

• Pray / Meditation
• Start a practice of gratitude.
• Commit to living a complaint free life.
• Align with the Divine within.
• Seek only God / Spirit in ALL things.

These practices give you a soft and gentle focus, and you become receptive, allowing, and solution oriented.

When you are solution oriented, and seeking only God in all, you become an unstoppable force in your own life.

At Unity, our philosophy could basically be summed up as "all things are possible, because God is all things."

However, this simple phrase is not about God doing things for us. If God is ALL things, that means we are an emanation of the God Source, and all things are possible because of WHO WE REALLY ARE; the physical manifestation of Source Energy.

And we are like what we come from; created in the image and likeness of our creator. We are created to create in our lives as Source creates in the Universal.

All things are possible because of WHO WE ARE and HOW WE CHOOSE and ACT.

However, if we decide that an institution can take away our freedom, or if we decide that a person knows us better than we know ourselves, and that they should run our lives, then this becomes true for us. It's true because we feel it, and comply with it, and let ourselves become subjugated to it.

And then we are powerless to change things because this institution took away our freedom, and this person in our life has decided what's best for us, and we go into agreement with what happens to us.

We are powerless to change things because we believe we are powerless to change things.

Of course not all things can be changed. Yes, there are laws we must comply with, and weather we must tolerate, and neighbors who may eat, vote, pray, or parent differently than we do. We do not have dominion over our judicial system, the weather, or our neighbors. But we do have dominion over ourselves, and how we think, choose, and act.

We become empowered the moment we remember who we are, and where we come from, and what it is that works through us, for us, as us.

We engage with that power when we decide no institution, and no person, has control over how we decide to show up in our day.

All of us, through free will, get to decide, get to choose, who we want to be every day.

We get to choose to act in faith. We get to choose to be guided by wisdom and compassion.

So, are you powerless to change things? Can you have your freedoms taken away from you? Is there an institution or a person who has the power to decide how you'll show up in your day?

Whatever you choose, you're right.

Bright Blessings
Rev. Deanna

#BigFaithBigLife