Category: Being Loved

Being Loved

Too Comfortable?

Smitten With Goodness

Choose me over your comfort.

As the One who called you to this surrendered life, I am trustworthy to guide you through it. As you lean on me and my understanding, I will empower you to walk in the way of love with every step. Submit your ways to mine, and you will find that your life is overflowing with mercy and grace. I have called you to an overcoming life, but you cannot overcome the world by your own strength. You must rely on my power at work within you to do it, and you have access to my limitless might through fellowship with my Spirit.

You have heard it said that my ways are above your human ways and my thoughts are higher than your own. This is true. I know you better than you know yourself, and I will lead you into everlasting life as you depend on me. Greater joy is yours through my Spirit-life than any you could imagine experiencing outside of me. There is fulfillment of every longing. No one can escape pain in this life, but you can also experience endless delight in me as you venture through it. So join your life to mine in full surrender today.

From I Hear His Whisper for Women written by Brian Simmons

Being Loved

Loved in the Waiting

Smitten With Goodness

God reveals himself to us in little ways and gives us time to respond.  He uses everything for our good, even the times of waiting.  It’s like waiting during pregnancy when we anticipate a new life to be born.  This is the microcosm of our life.  What are you currently waiting for: Hope, patience, community, peace?  We are assured that we are not alone in the waiting, we are loved.

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Being Loved

Choosing Love

Smitten With Goodness

We can change, we can remake ourselves and we can rebuild our lives. How? One choice at a time.  Do you know what your role is in God’s plan? Are you firmly aware of your mission and purpose to bring the light of Christ to our world?  Our brokenness can keep us blind and searching in the darkness. I’m convinced that sometimes this is the easier path than taking a risk in doing something different.  Instead, we get stuck in the comfort of our minds and limited thoughts that narrow our possibilities.  This is exactly where the evil one wants us. 

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Being Loved

What Do You Adore?

Smitten With Goodness

Each year, I pick a Saint to learn more about that person’s faith journey over the year. I can’t seem to move away from our spiritual mother, Mary. I’m currently reading the daily devotionals on A Year With Mary (Paul Thigpen), as there is much richness revealed through the way Mary lived her life, fully united with God. She is the “new Eve,” and by grace, her relationship was never fractured by doubt or mistrust. 

Mary’s love brought her into perfect conformity of thought and life with her Son. Her whole life can be summed up in this one word- adoration; for adoration is the perfect service of God, and it embraces the duties of the creature towards the Creator.

This year I plan to spend more time before the Blessed Sacrament.  Last year I was being called to spend more time sitting at the feet of our Lord in the way but I rarely made the time. It was easier to do my holy hour in the comfort of my home. After making the effort and sitting before the Lord, a transformation of heart occurred. I’m learning that this is where the magic happens when I get out of the way and let God love me. Like Mary, when I adore Christ I can’t help but fall deeper in love with the one who came to save me and letting myself be loved. 

Let’s ask Mary to teach us the life of adoration. Mother Mary, Teach us to see, as you did, all the mysteries and all the graces in the Eucharist, the graces of love. Amen 

Being Loved

Freedom of Love

Smitten With Goodness

Is there anything you are struggling with? Can you use some freedom in your life? Pope Francis opened the Holy Door of Saint Peter’s Basilica in Rome on Christmas Eve to inaugurate the 2025 Jubilee of Hope. We celebrate a jubilee holy year in the biblical tradition setting aside a year acceptable to the Lord which is marked by cancellation of debt, release from labor and forgiveness of enemies.   

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Being Loved

Love or Obligation

Smitten With Goodness

How earnestly do you seek to find God in your daily living? If we claim to be Christians, followers of Christ, this is a curious question to ponder…do we follow him out of love or obligation? 

Like the wise man who went on a long journey to find the one who was born king of the Jews, do we seek diligently to know God and to strive for relationship?

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Being Loved

Embracing Divine Presence

Smitten With Goodness

Do you have a yearning for divine presence? Does your heart long to love the Lord as you are loved, letting nothing come between you.  Do you regularly pray for the grace to shed the excesses of this life keeping you free from distractions and the lure of wealth. Letting your heart and mind to be solely devoted to loving and serving Christ.  This is a life well-lived.

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Being Loved

Receiving God’s Love

Smitten With Goodness

I recently read an article that reminded me of a profound truth: God is the one who causes the growth of grace in our souls. Yet, we freely participate in this divine process. Last year, Smitten With Goodness focused on the seasons of prayer: Blessings and Adoration, Petition, Intercession, and Thanksgiving. Prayer creates the sacred space for a relationship with God. One of the most vital ways we engage in our spiritual growth and the growth of grace is through petitionary prayer.

Petitionary prayer holds a unique and often overlooked place in the spiritual life. Essentially, you and I can ask God to cause His grace to flourish within us. It is a simple yet profound petition: “Lord Jesus, have mercy on me, and please increase Your grace in my soul.” Few people think to ask for such a thing, and some might even consider it selfish. However, it is not selfish; it is an act of humility. To ask for the growth of grace is to acknowledge God’s power at work in our spiritual life and our need for Him in everything, including the growth of grace. It pleases God to grant this request.

“Is there anyone among you who, if your child asks for bread, will give a stone?… If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!” (Matthew 7:9, 11)

The Lord is not referring simply to temporal blessings but even more to spiritual blessings. What greater spiritual blessing is there than an increase of sanctifying grace and union with God? Let’s ask for what we need: the grace to see how much God loves us and for God to open our hearts to receive this love.

Why not make space in your life today and rest in the reality that you are loved by the eternal God?

Being Loved

Where is Your Star

Smitten With Goodness

There’s a reason we are to aim for the stars. Perhaps not in the way our culture expresses this aspiration. But like the wise man (magi or kings), who traveled a great distance, following a star, to find baby Jesus after he was born, what distance will you travel this year to know your belovedness?  

We plan time for daily prayer, reading scripture, slowing down enough to catch our breath to notice God but the daily stress and chaos of life always suck us into the vortex. When you find yourself in this mess, do you go it alone like our culture ingrains in us or like the wisemen do you stop and look to the stars and seek Him? 

We have a choice and this is the spiritual battle. We can be distracted by things of this world, even the good things. 

What star do look for? Am I focused on God’s will for my life, or am I  distracted by lesser “stars” of media, status, and material goods? In what ways can I better acknowledge Jesus as my King, our God, and our Savior in the coming year?

If we follow our North Star of Christ, we can rest in the chaos knowing we are loved. When we seek Him, we find Him. We find God, truth and the beauty of our faith.