He can work it out!

I don't consider myself to be the worrying type. In fact, in general I am quite relaxed, assured that God has my life in his hands and I don't need to waste my time worrying when he is in charge of it all. Recently, however, in spite of a chilled perception of myself, I have found myself doing just that...worrying!! Worry is essentially being preoccupied with anxious thoughts about something or another! And boy has my brain been buzzing! I have found myself worried about all kinds of things; my time, the kids, clubs, school, church...!!! The thoughts and worries going round my small brain have been vast and very disconcerting!!! But I am realising that this is not what God wants for me!

I am reminded of the verse that tells us to "Take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ" 2 Corinthians 10:5 Jesus wants to be in charge of every area of our lives, even our thoughts, he wants us to be free from worry, which can do us no good! He wants us to know his peace!

The Bible tells us that we should not worry, for "Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?" Matthew 6:27

Worrying is pointless, it changes nothing and it makes us feel PANTS! So how do we get out of the worrying trap?

We should pray! Philippians 4:6-7 says "Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." God is a God of peace, and as we talk with him, thank him, and listen to him, he will share his peace with us!

We should trust him! Proverbs 3:5 puts it this way, "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding, in all your ways acknowledge him and he will make your path straight". Life is sometimes confusing, things do not always go according to our plan and it is not always clear what God is up to! But we do not have to understand every detail and we don't have to try to work it out! Our understanding is very limited, and if we try to work it out usually we end up worrying again!! Only God has the blueprint for our lives. We simply need to learn to remember him in everything we do & trust him! He can work it out!

We find ourselves in a world full of people stressing about all kinds of stuff; money, family, terrorism, crime, work, the list is endless. Jesus meets us where we are and takes us where we could never get without him! Even when we haven't got a clue what is going on, or what to do, we can put our lives into his hands and know his peace! He makes all things beautiful in his time! How fantastic that when faced with worry we can know us his peace and share his peace with others!

Christmas is coming!?

Not sure if we have scooped up an officlal world record but it’s a definite first for us…our first Christmas card, received today, October 9th 2008!!!!! I must confess we have been making the odd card and decoration during our girlie craft evenings, ‘odd’ being the operative word if my husband’s word is anything to go by. Similarly I confess, we have also been found singing the occasional inane Christmas tune…oh to be a fly on the wall! On the whole however, we are clear that it is still early October, and there really are plenty more shopping days left! Apparently Christmas is getting earlier every year, and although it is the complaint of many, I myself have no objection to extending the holiday season. Lights, trees, cards, its alright by me! Indeed, as one who has regularly been known to drive round on Christmas eve posting Christmas cards, I am amazed by the organisation it must take to be able to write and deliver Christmas cards in early October. Hats off to those of you who manage to achieve it, and feel free to give me a call when you have run out of things to do & I will forward my ever increasing list!!!

Ants in your Pants!

Meal times in the Deans' house is a sight, or should that be a sound, not to be missed! We all know the theory of sitting together and sharing a family meal, talking through the events of the day and sharing a few precious moments together in the business of life! We try to sit down together every day and make our time a priority, but it is often not always plain sailing! My children, I must concede, have the famous 'ants in your pants' syndrome & struggle to remain still on their bottoms for more than just a few minutes! As a parent it can be so frustrating! You spend time preparing food, and look forward to eating, talking and enjoying it together. Instead, all you find youself doing is reiterating orders. 'Keep your feet under the table', 'Use your knife and fork', 'Take it in in turns to talk', 'Keep your voices down', and 'For goodness sake SIT STILL!', to name but a few! No sooner have they sat to the table than someone needs the loo, or attempts to disappear off for one random reason or another. The distractions advancing on their attention spans are countless, and mealtimes often end up being less than the happy social occasion they were designed to be!

In the same way we are God's children, the Bible tells us that he has prepared a table before us. He wants us to sit, to wait, to talk with and listen to him, not to fidget, to be easily distracted or leave the table before we have finished, or before he has finished with us. I was reminded the other day of the story of Mary and Martha, two of Jesus' close friends. When Jesus goes to their house for dinner Martha rushes around doing stuff while Mary just sits, at his feet, listening to him. I admit, I relate to Martha. I can be a bit of a 'doer' & can find it all too easy to busy around filling my life with activity. It is good to work, indeed God designed us to do just that, but it is not good to be busy at the expense of more important things! As Jesus said, Mary had 'chosen what is better'. God loves us, and he is patient when we fail, but his desire is to be with us and for us to be with him. He has great things to share with us, blessings for us to own and things for us to do, if we will just take the time first to stop, wait and listen to him. Let's prioritise time to sit at Jesus' feet, listen to his voice and enjoy being his friend & not, like Martha, in the business of life neglect what is better. Let us banish the ants!!!!!!

Baby, Its Cold outside!

I spent most of the day at home today. Si has been working pretty much non stop on some big project, & Lottie, having been seriously sick last night, had cruelly scuppered all our exciting weekend plans. Nevertheless, we had fun, playing pictionary, balloon bending, making traffic light jelly, doodling, and, of course, developing our eye to hand coordination (yep, the playstation!) :) In between I found myself doing the odd catch up on facebook and, indulging my nosey streak, I read through the status updates, finding a recurring theme. It was apparently very cold outside! I, myself, am not usually phased by changes in weather, indeed my favourite is actually the rain! Whether it is the reactionary in me, or just the fact that it saves me the job of watering, I do not know, but I think rain is great, and I can find myself quite irate when I hear our great British weather described as 'terrible'. We live in a green and pleasant land and that is thanks, in part at least, to the soggy, but wonderful weather with which we are blessed. Anyway, before I become too contentious, I must get back to the point! The more I read, the colder I felt, and the more I wanted to stay tucked up inside my little house, in spite of my usual desire for action and adventure! And so, we turned on the heating and stayed indoors, enjoying more Saturday afternoon fun! A few hours later, however, having fully maxed my creativity, and beginning to tear out my increasingly greying hair, I decided to take the kids for an impromptu trip to Ikea. On stepping outside I discovered that although it had looked cold, grey and blowy from inside, and all reports I had read had been alaskan, it was actually quite a mild autumn day! Had I realised how lovely it was we would have gone to the park much earlier, but I had believed the stories of scarves and snowmen & missed out on an afternoon of outdoor frolics. Still, we had a nice time, the children were expecting an Ikea play area, and so an Ikea play area they got, and I had a brief moment's peace wandering the store checking out the latest in storage solutions.

There is a lesson for us here! We live in a society which increasingly tells us that God is irrelevant, boring, or not even there at all. We see the established church portrayed as a mess with division and irrelevance plastered all over it! We live in a cynical, unbelieving and often unhappy society. But, it is not enough to believe the accounts of others, or to make a judgement of God based on the failures of people! God is much bigger than that!

The Bible tells us that "God has set eternity in the hearts of men". That means that within each of us there is a desire for something more, a greater satisfaction, a better relationship, he made us with that longing deep inside us, yet so often we fail to understand and seek to fulfil our desires elsewhere. In relationships, material possessions, drugs... However, we all need to know God, to love & to be loved. We all need Jesus! If you find yourself sitting all too comfortably in your home, but really longing for adventure, peace, security or happiness, then check it out. Pray, talk to God, listen, ask him to make himself real to you, get hold of a Bible and read it and if you can get in touch with a dynamic Christian then do so. Don't believe the reports! Don't miss out! Its a beautiful day! God is waiting for you! Get out of the house! You just have to open the door!

Check out www.livingrockchurch.org We meet most Sundays at 10:30am at Finham Park secondary School, Coventry. It would be great to see you there! If you are not local but would like to find out more you can contact the church office and they will try to put you in touch with some good people near where you live. You can also check out a Alpha course at a church near you... a great way of finding out more!

WILD LOVE!

In church last Sunday we were singing the golden oldie "Praise my soul the King of Heaven". Whilst trying to engage in worship, however, I found myself distracted by a small typo which made the widely look much more like wildly!!!!! God speaks in ways we can hear and understand and as I was contemplating this typo he did just that! I was reminded of God's incredible, all encompassing, passionate love and the wonderful privelege of being able to praise him!

Jesus' love towards us is so wide, we cannot escape it. Psalm 139 says, "Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast." Jesus' love towards us is so wide. It covers all our sin, all the rubbish, from beginning to end. His mercy is wide enough to cover it all! His love is so vast we cannot escape it! Wherever we go, he will come and find us. Even if we try to run away, He will find us and bring us home!

Not only is his love wide, it is also wild!!!!! Song of songs puts it like this "Your love is as strong as death, its jealousy as unyielding as the grave. Love flashes like the brightest kind of fire. many waters cannot quench love, neither can rivers drown it". His love is jealous, wild, like a violent wind or a raging fire! He is not satisfied when we forget him. He loves us wildly, passionately, he is not content for us to worship another, and so he jealously comes to win us back to himself.

As his love towards us is wide and wild, so too our praise of him should be. As the song says, "he deserves the highest praise we can give AND MORE!" As we praise him, his mercy is released to us and through us to those around us, and as we experience his mercy we praise him all the more. How amazing to be loved by one whose love is so vast, so relentless and what a privelege to join together in vast and violent praise of our wonderful loving father!

FEED ME!

Our littlest daughter's appetite is increasing by the second! From just a few teaspoons of mush 5 months ago, and of course the odd malteser, she is now munching her way through pots and pots of the stuff, and although she has cut down to just 3 milk feeds a day she still reliably compensates during the night!!! Clearly malnourished, I discovered today her latest attempt to fill up those big legs...a bite mark in a large butternut squash which had been carelessly left on the floor. For a 9 month old, Lottie has a very adventurous palate, and it is good, though slightly alarming, to see that at such a tender age she is obediently eating whatever is put in front of her, a trait we have painstakingly tried to instil in our offspring. Aware, however, that this is now the second incident of accidental eating, we are currently exploring the use of a new concept in food storage, the cupboard!