A couple of weeks ago, our guest today shared some thoughts with us. Please join me in welcoming Teri Smith-Pickens back to our blog to share something she treasures with us.
Greetings to all and gratitude to Pam for letting me
share with you all today. After looking at my bucket list of valuables for a treasure,
I came up blank. What if I am running from a fire, what would I grab? My cat,
of course. What’s in my purse that I can’t do without? After a long pause, I
reluctantly picked my phone, not because I treasure it, but because I can call
AAA in an emergency. Don’t get me wrong, I have valuables (the few I haven’t
given away), but it dawned on me that I no longer have earthly treasures! My
treasures are laid up in heaven. “Lay not up for yourselves treasures
upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt…but lay up for yourself treasures
in heaven…Matt 6:19
My Tuesday or any day of the week treasure is not visible
on the physical plain; it is Inner
Peace which comes
from God. It is visible in some ways, like the tattered copy of the Holy Bible
I carry everywhere, my ability to fall and stay asleep, perfect health, etc. But
this wasn’t always the case; I used to treasure ‘stuff’ but it came with the
usual insanity, discontent, impending doom - until my awakening. What happened?
When I started focusing on spiritual things physical things fell away opening
my mind to treasures I couldn’t imagine, like perfect
peace, that peace that passes all human understanding. This is huge for
me. I used to wake up randomly at 3 am, my mind running 200 miles an hour,
leaping from topic to topic before I even realized it was daybreak and all I
wanted was to fall asleep. I can live without stuff, but I can’t live without
peace. It is inner peace that calms the turbulent storm raging in our minds and
that peace is God’s grace.
As a psychotherapist it is hard to tell parents that we
can’t fix their kids, we can only give tools. This led me to see Jell-O as a wonderful
metaphor for personality because no matter what you put in the Jell-O, your
favorite foods or poison, the Jell-O doesn’t care; it sets with whatever you
put in it. With a box of Jell-O sitting on my desk, I explained to parents that
children mirror the environment; they don’t hear you but they see and copy your
every move. Are you consciously deciding what goes into their Jell-O?
This makes it so children under 18 can’t be diagnosed with a personality
disorder – their Jell-O is not yet set!
Then came the epiphany, the children didn’t have God in
their Jell-O! This thought gave me the title for my new book, God In My Jell-O? God is
already in our Jell-O but there is a spiritual app to turn Him on. If we don’t
activate the app God is like the best appliance in the world that will not work
if it is not plugged in. Perfect Peace comes from activating God. This
invisible treasure, when you find it, is worth all the gold in the Galaxy. ~ Teri Smith-Pickens
You are so right, Teri, Inner Peace is something we all aspire to and definitely worth treasuring!
Teri Smith-Pickens, a
graduate of NYU and Hunter College, started in the mental health field with an
Honorary degree in Divinity. She is a life coach,
speaker, and popular author, who experienced a supernatural epiphany in 2008.
Teri described it as if listening to a radio broadcast in her own head that she
couldn’t turn off. She felt she had unknowingly knocked, and a door to the
unseen had opened. After a couple years the broadcast stopped but whenever she
became confused about what she had heard, it mysteriously started again. Teri
was thrust into painful situations to experience every symptom of the divine
message causing her to coin the phrase, ‘Survival Mode Syndrome’. Realizing she needed a format that people
could not only embrace, but believe, she again knocked, and this time a door in
the form of a dream opened leaving her with two words, ‘children’ and ‘parody’. After arguing with God about the meaning,
Teri sat down at the computer and her
fingers began to move, and God in my
Jell-O was born.
Hope you enjoyed today's post and that you'll visit weekly for Tuesday Treasures, Thursday Thoughts and Saturday Spotlight and I hope you've signed up to receive my newsletter and voted in the poll here on the blog (right sidebar)!
Until next time, take care and God Bless.
PamT
9 comments:
Inner peace is something we all need to survive. I also treasure it.
I too treasure inner peace. It sounds like you have lots of stories to share.
I was fortunate enough to read and advanced copy of, Teri's book, God In My Jell-O? In it, among many other things, Teri gives sound, scriptural, insight to achieving that treasured inner peace.
What a great analogy. Sort of a "you reap what you sow." When my MIL passed, I was left with all her "treasures." My daughter made me promise not to do that to her. I parted with many of MIL's treasures and am slowly parting with my physical ones--maybe not my coffee cup that reads "My greatest treasures call me Grandma."
I love the story of your epiphany, and the Jell-O analogy. For me that peace is elusive. I find it in my morning prayer time but it soon disappears. I'm working on it though. Thanks for sharing your thoughts!
I'm currently sorting through closets and storage bins, disposing of things I no longer use. With every completed task, I feel a little lighter. Sometimes I think the things we choose to hang on to reflects our emotional baggage, or perhaps the dreams we once held. Thanks for the thoughtful post.
Yes, I could indeed do a separate book about the stories, not only in my practice but the power of the Holy Ghost to protect us from harm. Glad you enjoyed. Teri
Thank you so much for the post. I am always searching for peace, to the extent that I stress myself out! I appreciate your insight. Good luck to you!
What a lovely post. Thank you for the reminders. I love your Jello-O analogy. Inner peace IS much more important than belongings.
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