The Daily G.I.F.T. from The GratiDude

When you are on the right team, EVERYONE wants you to score the bucket.

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Gratitude

Intention

First

Things

The G.I.F.T. Today

Grateful-for waking up in my own bed and listening to intuition to wait driving until today. Thanks Higher-Self!

Intention-Novak present moment awareness

First-load up before yoga

Things-trey logins

Morning Platitude from The GratiDude

It is no surprise that I had trouble embracing faith and understanding what God was all about as I was growing up.

The religious baggage that my parents had was massive; on my mom’s side, her parents were both born and raised in Ireland as Catholic, and there was a tremendous amount of guilt being pedal constantly and very little open, honest, direct communication as if that was against the Lord’s teaching for some reason.

On my dad’s side, his mother was an ardent Baptist and a schoolteacher, and prone to strict enforcement of disciplinary rules and known for a literal interpretation of many of the biblical teachings.

Outwardly, my dad projected and talked about religion as if he was very scornful and judgmental however, as it turns out, he was always working to find a way to connect to God, and to understand his upbringing, and he had kept a Bible secretly in his possession that he had received from his mother for his adult life.

It has been up to me to piece this shit together, like a little detective in the hopes of cobbling back together my heart and understanding what the fuck happened in my childhood which I thought was going one direction and then took a sudden turn to the right as the wheels fell off and the Chrysler K-Car went tumbling down the hill.

The good news is my mom, brother, and I were very stubborn and resilient.

We somehow landed in some soft patches of grass at the bottom of the mountain and walked away from the car wreckage with most of our injuries on the inside buried deep.

For me to have listened to someone explaining concepts around spirituality and/or religion as a teenager it would’ve had to have been a coach of some sport that had my attention and respect because I listen to very few other adults in my teenage years outside of those that had earned my respect.

In Christianity, God is often described as love itself, with the core belief being that God’s love is unconditional, infinite, and all-encompassing.

Here’s a more detailed explanation:

God as Love:

A central tenet of Christianity is that “God is love” (1 John 4:8), meaning that love is not just an attribute of God, but rather God’s very essence.

Unconditional Love:

God’s love is considered unconditional, meaning it is not dependent on any actions, beliefs, or circumstances.

All-Encompassing Love:

God’s love is said to extend to all people, regardless of their background, beliefs, or actions.

Love as a Foundation:

Some believe that God’s love is the foundation of creation, with the world being created out of divine love

Examples in Scripture:

The Bible contains numerous passages that highlight God’s love, such as John 3:16 (“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life”).

Love and Justice:

While God is seen as loving, He is also believed to be just, and this can sometimes be difficult to reconcile.

Love in other religions:

Judaism also emphasizes God’s love and compassion, while Islam uses terms like “Rahman” and “Raheem” to describe God’s mercy and compassion.

After my dad took his own life, I became very suspect and judgmental of all adults and authorities because I came to realize that most of them were lying whether they knew it or not, and that they could not be looking out for my best interest and didn’t care about me when they were personally so jammed up and dysfunctional. Most of them.

My high school grades reflected that approach as I only participated actively and regularly and attended the classes with the teachers who I really respected personally and that I knew were kind genuine individuals. I was resentful and angry at the other teachers, obviously misdirecting my trauma towards them, and just not going to their class and doing the bare minimum to pass the class.

When I tell you that I had a 2.2 grade point average when I graduated from high school I’m not joking a little bit.

That includes a semester or two where I had great grades when I was younger A’s and B’s, so you know I really torpedoed and stopped giving a shit the last few years of high school if I could play baseball and be eligible I was cool.

A conversation around the fact that God works through people and is not this invisible, distant force that occasionally hatches a miracle out of thin air would’ve been a wonderful place to start from a point of understanding the truth about how the universe really works.

When this coach and the teammates get together to reward this young man for his dedication, hard work and love of the team end of the game this is truly God working through all of these people simultaneously to create a beautiful lifelong memory for this young man.