Life Coaching: Broccoli and God's Goodness

Today, I have been a blogger slacker. I have really been busy with the YouTube aspect of the business, and it’s been a real struggle to find a balance with this. I think I am about to get my feet under me, though, and for that I am extremely grateful!

I just want to focus on the goodness of God today. I had a conversation yesterday with a friend about some of the unexpected events of my life, specifically some of the bone headed decisions I had made over the years. Reflecting back on that conversation (something I am prone to do because I pick myself half to death about things that come out of my mouth), I am thinking that maybe those bone headed decisions weren’t necessarily the problem. The problem was in my heart. The heart issue was the reason my decisions were bone headed—I hadn’t fixed my heart, and it showed with every.single.decision I made.

Don’t get me wrong—I’ve actually made a few GOOD decisions in my life, but the bad ones were real whoppers. Life changing whoppers. Whoppers that kept me away from God and away from His people. I regret that. I don’t regret, though, that those same decisions were decisions that drove me closer to God and made resolves of iron in my spirit to not repeat the sins of the past. Those resolves are set in concrete, and Lord help anyone who tries to mess with them.

I have cried a little yesterday and today thinking about the sheer goodness of God. I have marveled at His mercy. I’m captivated by His grace. I’m in awe of his patience. And I’m astounded by His willingness to still forgive and cover my sins and mistakes, which are many. I can only speak for myself in what I am about to say and some won’t understand this statement. Going through divorce, death, caregiving, running away from God, living like a pagan, and generally being an all around fool, was a dark, terrible time in my life. BUT, it has made me who I am today, and for that, I can clearly see the goodness of God molding me into the strong woman I am right now. I may be beat up a little bit by life, but I’m still standing, and I always will be, as long as God is on His throne. And HE always will be!

My mother used to tell us this when we wouldn’t eat our dinner—”Those starving kids in Africa would give anything to be able to have that for dinner.” I never figured out why all the starving kids in the world lived in Africa. That always made me scratch my head a little bit…and still does. Why not the starving kids down the block or across town? I am probably the only child in the world to think like this and probably why I am not a fan of broccoli to this day. I offered to box mine up and mail it to them, but she didn’t go for that…Anyway, back to the point of this blog today…My mom was speaking of things she really knew nothing about, having lived within a five mile radius of the same location her entire life. She was speaking about that just to get me to eat something that was supposedly good for me (the jury’s still out on that. Broccoli was intended to be married to cheese, and that’s all I’ve got to say about that subject.) She had no other motivation, nor did she speak from experience. Yet, she had the best intentions possible for me. She wanted me to eat healthy food and clean my plate (another topic for another day). She, being the sweet little southern soul that she is, didn’t know she was gonna have a rebellious hellion like me for a daughter, and I think she was a little deterred by it. However, she hung in there with me, prayed for me, and even though she did not approve of me, she still loved me.

God is like that. Imagine (minus the broccoli) the Maker and Creator of the Universe bending down from heaven to listen to one lonely cry for help, one broken spirit, one solitary life, that needed salvation. That is real goodness. Even though God surely could’ve stopped many of the things that happened to me in my life, and He could’ve punished me mercilessly for disobedience, he didn’t. Don’t get me wrong…there is a reap to the sow. But the sowing was of my own volition, not God’s. And since God is now at the center of my life, and I am walking with him daily and have been for many years, the reaping is from the years of sowing solid, good, cultivated seed. The fruit of said seed is sweet and tastes fine. I was tired of eating bitter fruit. Nothing worse than biting into a bitter cucumber…or finding half a worm in your apple.

I hope today you are blessed, and that wherever you are and whatever you’re doing, you know God loves you, His goodness and mercy is following you, and you can see the goodness of God in the land of the living today. God bless, fellow travelers!