We were about four days into the destruction of the kitchen. It looked like this: ...
Delighting in the Divine
Yes to freedom, yes to play and yes to celebrating the moment!
Delighting in the Divine
Yes to freedom, yes to play and yes to celebrating the moment!
We were about four days into the destruction of the kitchen. It looked like this: ...
From the time we moved into our house, I have always wanted to change the kitchen. From the outset, I have hated certain things about it: the cracked floor tiles and the worktops which are covered in small cracked tiles, the gaps between them full of dirty and bacteria-filled grout which breeds fruit flies. I never cared for the decor either, but living simply that wasn’t something top of the priority list. Over the past four years, despite regular cleaning, we have had insects and we have had mice move in and over the summer the cockroaches took over, their babies gloating at us from behind the glass in the microwave display. Returning from Australia, the fumigators having spread their anti-cockroach gel in every corner and crack, I spent the first two jet-lagged 3am mornings trying to deep-clean the kitchen and wondered if I had just got used to living in such filth over the years or if it had really got worse over our 3-week leave from Peru...
I loved seeing Sydney this time through the eyes of my kids. I have travelled to Sydney to see my family many times, but we have not been in the last 4 years, so neither Daniel or Joel remembered it. Daniel remembers traveling to England and seeing Mark's side of the family a couple of years ago when Mark's Mum passed away, but other than that all their memories are of Peru.
The whole reason we went to Australia this time was because my sister Chloe, was getting married to Sam...
Having been cocooned in life in Peru for four years, and my only outside influences being Facebook and others coming into Peru, I wasn’t sure how I would react to being ‘back’ in the Western World. Spending three weeks in Australia with my sister as she got married and my family, with my boys who are now so much older has been a beautiful time (we still have a week left!) but the strangest things are the things that I had forgotten that I had forgotten! So this blogpost is not focused so much on the people and the times we've had with them (perhaps I'll write about that in another post) but rather the beautiful things I have seen as we have been out and about...
We are in Santiago airport in Chile having just had a 3 hour flight from Lima at 1am. The boys didn’t sleep. We didn’t much either. The boys are doing great - no more grotty than normal, no more objectionable than normal - currently playing on the tiny play area near gate 11.
In 4 hours we will set off on a 14 hour flight to Sydney. I am hoping they will sleep a bit, but not too much - we arrive early evening into Sydney and it would be good if they slept tonight.
But at the same time, experience tells me that I just need to throw out any expectations regarding sleep, schedules, whether we will arrive on time or with luggage etc. I am hopeful that we will have an uneventful flight, but I also know that that might not happen...
So Anna Robinson started this discussion over on her blog about family prayers and talking about what they are currently doing as a family, and linked up to MissionalMumma too. I encourage you to have a quick read of both the blogs, because they both have some great ideas and perspectives on family prayers.
Family prayers are going to look and feel different with every family and that is great...
Last night, a good friend and I sat and chatted in her new apartment until just past my bedtime.
The last week has been incredibly busy. A close friend and teammate has just had her first child and I accompanied her husband and her during the labour, birth and post birth which lasted 3 days. When I wasn’t with them at various clinics, I was trying to keep my children from writing too many letters or complaining too loudly in protest at my absence! (Yes, the first day I came home, I was faced with a paper stuck to the door reading ‘why do you love them more than us?’!) Sleep was not had and other responsibilities remained, even if homeschool did go out of the window for a few days (the boys got the holidays they'd been asking for!) ...
I am a better person when I slow down.
For some reason, (probably because I am a wannabe-don’t wannabe perfectionist), I constantly try and improve my life and create perfect scenarios. Some of this is positive. It is good to take time out to evaluate different areas of my life, relationships, my home, our ministry, our marriage, our parenting and see where things are not working out so well and make a plan for change. But why do I suddenly think that with that plan in place, suddenly everything will be perfect? ...
Sometimes the questions are too big. The future is too unknown. Sometimes the answers are not there. Or not what I want to hear. Sometimes I don’t need the answers, but rather just the assurance that it’s going to be okay...
Yesterday an old friend of our community came and apologized to Mark. He had heard some things about us and had withdrawn his friendship to our community for a long time. He came to ask for forgiveness for having withdrawn and for having judged us. His apology touched us and saddened us. Not because of what had been said about us - we knew those things already and had dealt with them, but rather because this is what happens throughout Christ’s bride and creates divisions everywhere.
Today, on Christmas Eve, as I have finally stopped after an exhausting last couple of months, and realized all the presents I haven’t had time to buy and the preparations I haven’t done, I had a couple of hours this morning to hit the local shopping centre.
But I decided not to go...
Some of the times I have felt most alive in my life have been during times of worship. When I think about those time which have propelled me forward in my Christian walk, worship has been key.
Worship creates those spaces for heaven to mingle with earth. There have been times when I have been aware of the presence of angels singing alongside us, when I have heard God’s voice clearly or when I have felt His enabling power rise up within me to equip me to do what I need to do. There have been times when I have felt faith rise, when I have been overflowing with gratitude and joy...
As Christians, we know that we are in a battle. But there are seasons. And sometimes we find ourselves on the frontline.
Think World War One trenches. You know the enemy is nearby. You can feel the guns going off and every now and again a bullet flies close and it may even wound you or a friend. At that moment there feels like every justification to scream and panic and run home. To forget that you may be just one soldier but you are in a battle which is part of something larger...
For a long time I didn’t want to be involved in worship, because I didn’t want it to be about me. I didn’t want to be standing up there, self-conscious, wondering if I sounded great or terrible. I didn’t like the fact that during those times my mind was more bothered about myself than God. So I stepped back. I didn’t look for opportunities to be involved and when moving to Peru I didn’t get involved at the start for that reason.
I remember telling a pastor friend who led worship my reasons when he asked me why I didn’t get involved. He laughed kindly and said: ‘We alll have to face that! It is always going to be a challenge!’...
How often do we embrace uncomfortableness in worship?
Leading worship and being part of a group of worshippers is a vulnerable experience. Looking around there are people expressing themselves before God. Whether they are grumbling and judgemental or laid out on their bellies expressing their adoration, it can be clearly seen by those around.
Feeling free to worship openly takes time and has both its steps forward and steps back. There are times and places where dancing feels free and natural and other times where rubbing your nose feels risky in case someone mistakes it for raising your hands! ...
I have a confession to make. Up until recently, I never really understood ‘praise’ songs. You know the ones I mean - the lively, get-everyone-clapping songs. The loud, 'belt-it-all-out' ones at the beginning. I never saw them as anything more than an unnecessary warm-up to the real thing - the more intimate, slower songs...
When I had a newborn baby, I expected to be changing a lot of nappies (or diapers for my American friends!). Perhaps, I was surprised by the sheer quantity in the first few months, but I knew that much of the early months would be spent changing and changing nappies and clothes.
But when God gives me a spiritual baby, suddenly I am surprised when things aren’t easy or fun at times. I mean, they can be fun. I’m not saying cleaning up poop is fun, but most parents do have good memories of tickling tummies and smiles and giggles as a nappy change is done...
The first talk I ever went to about hearing God's voice around aged 13, the lady running the seminar described hearing God's voice like this:
‘It is like listening to the birds...they are all around us, but you have to tune in to hear them most of the time.’
And so I spent rather a while trying to tune in my physical ears to hearing God’s voice.
And not hearing much at all...
Last week I shared an embarrassing failure when it came to trying to share a faith-filled prophetic word. This week, I wanted to share some guidelines that will hopefully be helpful when trying to discern what God is saying when emotions are involved.
Some of my most embarrassing failures to hear God’s voice have been the greatest opportunities for learning to discern His voice. Learning to hear God’s voice is not a science. There are some keys that will help you, but ultimately, it is one of those things that you learn through experience. And failure. Learning to hear God when emotions are involved is especially difficult and where I find the most difficulty in discerning His voice. So, not surprising, it is in those emotion-charged situations where I have learned the hardest way...
Let me tell you a secret...
Often we think our emotions are the enemy.
As I was sitting last night with a friend, we talked about emotions and how they have so much influence on her life. She made a comment about just needing to ignore her emotions and look at the logic of a situation.
But emotions can be incredibly useful if we know their proper role in our lives...
