Names of God: Part 2

On Saturday I wrote about the way I experience God.  I understand him best through the picture of "father".  One of the challenges that was presented to us during our study on Friday evening was to think about what names or attributes of God we need to practice understanding better.  It really did not take me much time to come up with an answer to this question either.  I came up with 2 names that I need to work on understanding better.

Here is a list of the names of God: http://smilegodlovesyou.org/names.html

The first name that I recognize I need to work on identifying with more closely was "master".  See, I'm a do-it-yourself kind of girl.  I know what I want to do, and I can generally form a plan about how to get there, and I go for it.  I struggle at times to really slow myself down and let someone else (God) be in charge.  I work on it, I recognize it's a difficulty for me and so I try hard, but man I really am pretty stubborn at times and when I've got a plan, I've got to do it.  (That's probably where my boys get their stubbornness from).  So here I am, sitting on the edge of my sleeping toddler's bed admitting to myself and whoever else feels like reading this: I'm stubborn, I like to do it my way... I need help to learn that God is my Master.  A good, gentle Master - but he's the boss!

The second name that I knew I needed to work on is "Shalom" or "Peace".  I remember a time in seminary that a professor pointed out to me that maybe I feel tired because I am always doing so much.  It was true.  I was always on the go, doing school work, working at a daycare, helping at my church, and enjoying a healthy social life.  I still am very active -- I have a toddler and well, an almost toddler -- I stay home, but we're active even at home most of the time.  I do give myself a little more down time now than I used to.  It sure feels like I get less done!  Still, I don't give myself enough time to just relax and really experience the peace of God.  I'm working on that though - that was my personal assignment for the next week: Set aside time to just experience God's peace.  That's hard for me sometimes, but I'm getting better at it!

What about you?  How do you experience God?  Are there ways that you want to experience God but haven't really explored?

Names of God: Part 1

Last night in our small group we talked about the names of God.  Did you know that God has a lot of names?  I knew that, I've heard them, read them, studied some of them.  They're familiar with me.  Unfortunately, sometimes familiarity breeds indifference.  I don't spend much time thinking about the names of God or what they mean.  It was refreshing and even eye opening to be reminded of all the names and attributes of the God that I choose to serve and love.  Thanks Justin for bringing this to the forefront of my mind.

During our meeting, the question was posed, what name or attribute of God do you most identify with?  This was easy for me, I really did not have to take any time thinking about it.  The answer to me was obvious.  Father.  I identify easily with God as a Father.  I suppose this is mostly because out of all the names that God is given, that is what I have experienced the most relationship with in my human life.  I know my dad, I love my dad, I feel safe with him, I know he's there to help when I need, etc.  

I shared last night that the problem with identifying most easily with "father" for God is that it's easy to go days without talking to my dad and I know he's still there when I come back to him.  God's like that too, but well, he wants to be in relationship with me every day, constantly.  (I imagine that my dad is glad I grew up and moved out and don't live next door to bug him all the time).

This  morning, as I was looking at names of God, I found this video by Nicole Nordeman (I like her music), it reminded me of the "daddy God"