Yep, that’s right – this one’s all about you!

For the first time in my life I am getting up EARLY to read the Bible and pray – I should say the first time consistently but it amounts to the same thing.

I am loving starting the day this way, much more effective (for me) to do it this way than aiming for the middle or end of the day!

I pray for many of you who read this blog and would love to know if there are specific things I can be praying for/about. If I don’t know you then that’s doesn’t matter, I’d still love to pray for you!! Either leave a comment & perhaps others will pray also, or send me an email so I can pray.

One other quick thing – this morning I was listening to a number of Ravi Zacharias sermons which I found to be incredibley challenging and inspiring. In particular ‘A life that lost its focus: Saul’ Part 1 & Part 2 ‘He saw, he left, he conquered’ Part 1 & Part 2. I encourage you to subscribe to this podcast and listen to these inspiring words.

p.s. I’m still excited and still want to know who’s out there…pretty please!

I’m excited!!!!

It’s 6.43pm as I begin this post and I’ve just come home from a day that began at 4.54am this morning when I woke up. It was mailroom day today so I got up, got ready (was organised this time and had left clothes in living room so as not to wake the Happy Husband up with my phone ‘torch’ trying to find something to wear!!) Spent some time reading from John’s gospel and then from Colossians – I find it helps me to spend time focusing on God as the creator and sustain er of the world when starting the day – especially on days when I am doing things differently. So after that, and a good time of prayer (love it! but that’s for a whole other post!) I headed off to work. It was good, listened to some interesting sermon stuff I’d downloaded while I opened, stapled and stamped mail – some good stuff on marriage mainly (I love my husband – marriage is such a tremendous gift from God & I feel so lucky and blessed to have been given the Happy Husband as my husband!)

ANYWAY…work finished early and my next appt was lunch with a dear friend but I had an hour to kill. Decided to head to the Scripture Union bookshop and pick up a couple of resources for families ministry. Ended up getting into a long convo with Phil Day the Scripture Union Children’s Ministry Coordinator for VIC and getting totally excited about helping families share their faith together and equipping parents to talk about their faith with their kids. Brainstormed some awesome ideas & came away with the following fantastic books!!

Talking About God for families with children aged 5 – 10 by Mary Jo Zwar

Family Practices: Living the Christian faith at home by Mary Jo Zwar

So, Who is God? Answers to real questions about God by Robert Willoughby

I got a couple of other things as well, but these 3 were a real find!!! I walked in to buy a couple of sample books to give to families to try out and left inspired and equipped in ways well beyond what I had expected – such a blessing!!

Cannot wait until the Leaders to Go Conference in May. If you are involved in ANY WAY with Children & Families Ministry then PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE let me encourage you to be at this conference. It is a time of great learning, encouragement, training & inspiration! Check it out & see me there :)

I then headed off to Beck and her lovely daughter for lunch which was great (as always!) and then back to Carlton to spend time with Katie Peken, the Children & Families Minister from St Judes which was also a greatly encouraging time together. These two women are great blessings to me as they encourage and challenge me every time we meet together (& we also generally manage to have a really good time together, talking fast to make the most of it!!!) Thank you Beck & Katie!!

Well, it’s now 7.05pm and I am starting to feel a bit weary. I’m back at the mailroom tomorrow so will endeavour to get an early night tonight!!

Now is the time to go and devour these new books and see what we can start using – SO EXCITED!!!!

By the way, if you are out there please say hello – I don’t mind talking to myself :) but I’d love to know if you are there.

GOD BLESS

Please read this post by Craig. In it he has expressed what and the why of my feelings about and since Amy’s passing. The enduring bond that is the result of ministry – the beautiful gift and blessing that it is, but also the depth and extent of such a bond. I haven’t been able to find the words, but Craig has and I’m so thankful.

The Happy Husband and I have just come back from a lovely 3 day mini-break, Bridget Jones style (but more successful!) We never get to go away for a weekend unless I am on leave but last week the Happy Husband found himself with a couple of days time in lieu owing so we headed down the coast – such a treat!
We went out for coffee, drank nice wine, read, avoided the heat (not going so well with that now we’re back – argh!!!) and got back in time for Sunday Club set up at 8.30am! The Rumply one also had a fantastic time – he goes into sensory overload down there although this time the heat got to him…

Let me tell you about the Plum’s though!!! Donna Hay would have been proud…The plum tree was ripe for picking so we collected the pile and turned these yummy plums first into Sorbet, then into jam and plum sauce and finally into relish (can’t take too much credit for that last one, it just sort of happened when making the sauce!) The results you ask?

(that’s the spicy plum sauce in the bottle and tub and the relish in the large container and it’s the plum jam on the right)

So if you are in Melbourne with a hankering for Plum just let me know…Also, we have about 4kg which we haven’t used yet – any suggestions?

I hear thunder!!!! COOL CHANGE!! please excuse me while I go and open the windows…

A couple of thoughts about worldviews.

Firstly, some people love tatoos & other’s don’t. My brother is in the former group & has just added to his ‘collection’. This
addition has earnt him the title of most lovely son & brother ever!! See if you can guess why…

Secondly, I came across this quiz via a comment on another blog. The quiz clams to identify your Theological Worldview. Click here to take the test yourself.

When I looked at the ‘options’ I somehow thought I would be classed a ‘Reformed Evangelical’ and I was – which is fine with me! (If like me, you didn’t know what TULIP stands for, you can read about the 5 Points of Calvanism)

Take the test and share your score with me :)

You scored as Reformed Evangelical. You are a Reformed Evangelical. You take the Bible very seriously because it is God’s Word. You most likely hold to TULIP and are sceptical about the possibilities of universal atonement or resistible grace. The most important thing the Church can do is make sure people hear how they can go to heaven when they die.

What’s your theological worldview?
created with QuizFarm.com

Tonight I went to our church prayer meeting and walked in as Glenda was finishing a devotion Colossians 3:12-17. It might actually have been on 3:1-17 but I only caught the end. It was incredible. For the past 2 or 3 weeks every sermon, Bible passage, prayer time I have been part of has been centred around the same theme – being fully reliant on God and not on our own competencies, and to be patient, gentle and humble people. Tonight was more of the same.

I don’t mean that in a negative way. In fact it’s been an incredible blessing to have this message reinforced as something God cares about. It’s not always been Colossians being read or preached on – it’s a consistent theme in the Bible and if God is trying to tell me something, then I am getting the point! I will willingly tell you that neither of these things come particularly naturally to me. Like many of you, I am a competent person. I’m not trying to boast and I’m certainly not claiming any particular brilliance – I’ve just been blessed with a loving family and a thorough education. As a result, my natural tendency is to try and do things in my own strength, with my own energy and with my own ‘strategy’. This is my ‘thing’ – I like to see where things could be, the vision I suppose, and then I like to figure out a way for us to get there. I’m absolutely hopeless on the implementation front (things like details definitely aren’t my strength) but I can do the vision and the strategy part. So my temptation is for me to do this all on my own and really only consult God on a superficial basis. A quick prayer ‘What do you think?’ ‘Yeah, me too’ and I’m off.

The message that was reinforced to me again tonight was that this isn’t the way to do it. I can see that quite clearly in my own life and in the completely exhausted state that I found myself in toward the end of last year and that I am still recovering from.

If you’ve read the passage or are familiar with it, you may be wondering why I am talking about being reliant upon God. Well it’s because my mind doesn’t exactly work in a linear fashion and to me this passage, particularly verses 15-17, are reinforcing to me the other issue I need to acknowledge which once addressed will help with the issue of reliance. I relate to this passage because I really struggle (and always have) with the virtues mentioned here. If you have met me you will know that I am not by nature a patient, gentle or humble person. It’s not what comes naturally for me. I’ve often struggled with how to understand and live these virtues because I’m just not gentle, and I’m certainly not patient. I’m hopeless (see previous post – I make babies cry for goodness sake!) and I get frustrated so easily it’s terrrible. However, I realise that these virtues are not talking about personality; they are talking about character and attitude. I can’t change my personality but I can develop a more patient, gentle and humble attitude and I can do this by letting the word of Christ dwell in me richly. I’m definitely still a work in progress!

Though I am sure there is more I could write about this, my beloved husband has just walked in the door (at 11.40pm! – a note to those considering architecture as a career, beware the hours!!) so I am going to go and drink a glass of wine with him and enjoy the wonderful gift he is.

If you are a praying person then I would greatly appreciate your prayers that my character be continually conformed to the likeness of Christ, and in particular that He would be helping me develop these particular characteristics of patience, humility and gentleness and a great reliance upon Him.

God Bless.

p.s. I really hope that I’ve made some terrible spelling or grammar mistake in this post – a first lesson in humility perhaps?