Life Lessons

How to Get Peace!

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If only we could have instant peace in times of trouble! Instead, our stomach muscles tighten, and our blood pressure goes up. We get a panicky feeling and our mind reels as we wonder what to do.

    When the initial shock has worn off, then our mind starts to go around in circles. Peace seems further away than ever. But there is one way to settle one’s mind, and that is to concentrate on the blessings we still have. It could always have been worse, and we are not the only ones to suffer. If we count our blessings and concentrate on  what we have rather than on what we don’t have makes all the difference. To be able to thank God that things are no worse lifts our spirits out of ourselves and we reach a higher plane than just feeling sorry for ourselves!

   One lady in our group said the other day that she is making it a habit to always think of ten blessings that are waiting for her each  new day. The first one she said was to thank God for the blessing of being able to hear. To wake up each morning and be able to hear the birds chirping was one of the first blessings she thought of every morning.

    This really challenged me as I thought of how we had been complaining about the interminable cooing of the doves around our house. We thought it was such a monotonous sound, always the same tones with no variation at all. But what if we couldn’t hear them at all? That WOULD be a matter of concern! So I started to listen with a fresh vision of thankfulness rather than one of complaining.

   There are so many other things that we can be thankful for too….so let’s cultivate the habit of thankfulness, rather than one of complaints!!

Life Lessons

Near Enough!

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    We were working on a project together, and I was thinking it  was time we were finished. “Well, that’s near enough”, I said as I put my gear down. My brother looked at it, and said, “Near enough is not good enough, Gwenyth, you’ll have to spend a bit more time on it!” Those words have stuck with me for over forty years, and whenever I am tempted to think “Near enough”, they come back to haunt me.

   King Solomon was one who chose what was good, but it was not the best. He felt his own inadequacies, and asked for wisdom to govern wisely and well. But he forgot all about his own weaknesses and used human wisdom when it came to himself. He was near enough, but it was not good enough.

    How often we do this ourselves! We can give others good, sound advice, but when we are faced with the same problems in our own life, our advice goes out the window!

   As we face new problems along life’s way, we must make sure that we ask God for fresh wisdom in each challenge. Solomon felt he had to make political alliances with the neighbouring kings by marrying their princesses, but in doing so he was going directly against one of God’s cardinal rules about not marrying into an ungodly line. As a result, he ended up taking not only the girl into his house, but also her heathen idols, and thus fell away from the Lord his God. His “near enough” became his “not good enough”, and he became a bitter disillusioned old man in later life.

    We can be so thankful that our Lord Jesus Christ didn’t think He had gone “near enough” after leaving the Garden of Gethsemane, but instead He went all the way to the cross to pay for our salvation. He was prepared to put aside His will for His Father’s perfect will…. “not My will, but Yours be done”, He said.

    “Near enough” was nowhere near “good enough” to save us from our sins!

Life Lessons

Choices, Choices!

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    “Enter through the narrow gate, because the gate is wide and the way is spacious that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. But the gate is narrow and the way is difficult that leads to life, and there are few who find it.”

    As I read these verses from Matthew 7:13-14, it made me realise that every person is confronted with the gates of choices in their life. One gate is wide and the way looks easy with crowds of people going along in a downward direction, while the other gate is small, with a narrow path beyond leading upwards and not many people going that way. But what a difference the end result is! One leads to destruction and the other one leads to life.

    Our Lord tells people to seek to enter the narrow gate leading to life but this gate is too narrow to allow any baggage through. There is no room for the suitcase of possessions or the bag of good works. There is not even space to squeeze through with the backpack of pride, to say nothing of towing in the trolley of sinful ways and habits! All these have to be left on the outside of the narrow gate….there is only room for the under clothing of contrition and a broken spirit with confession of our need. All our good deeds and self righteousness are nothing more than filthy rags in God’s sight!

Once through the gate, the Lord provides clothes of righteousness and a robe of salvation. He gives us new songs to sing, and peace of mind with a light and joyful heart to travel the path. When trials and difficulties come (and they will) He is there to help and to take us by the hand, telling us that His grace is more than enough to see us through. There really is no option as to which choice is the better one of the two….let’s make sure we all find this way that leads to unending life with the Maker of the Universe.

My Life

Keeping a Diary.

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     I’ve kept a diary for years, and I must say that it has been the means of solving many an argument! Dates and events are often otherwise forgotten. I’ve got several different styles of diaries, and one I often refer to is my diary of events. These are just the headlines of different things that happen in the month and the family often refer to it as well. Then there is my normal diary which has more detail of day to day happenings, conversations and weather etc.

     Another one that is useful is the garden diary….this one is laid out four pages to a month labelled Week One, Week Two etc, and divided into sections down the page…each one corresponding to a year. This means that you can see at a glance how various plants have been doing from year to year at the same time.

    Then there is the Diary of Items Bought. How often do we remember exactly how long we’ve had that appliance that has suddenly given trouble, and wondered if it is out of its guarantee or not! Or how many years we’ve had a certain machine and what we paid for it?

   Finally there is a Spiritual Journal. Here is where you write precious thoughts that have come to you during the day and times of reflection. Things you have thought of as you have read devotional writings, and perhaps things that puzzle you, the whys of life and eternity. Don’t let these thoughts slip away, but write them down. As you read them later, jot down further thoughts you have had on similar topics. As you do a daily reading of the Bible, write down the thoughts and questions that come to you and ponder them further. Never be too busy to make time for this, even if it is only fifteen minutes a day….what is that out of twenty-four hours? Surely we can make that much time to deal with this, the most important side of our being!

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The Big Dry!

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For some weeks now we have been experiencing wonderful summer weather….hot sunny days that holiday makers have been rejoicing in. Not so, farmers and gardeners! Where possible watering and irrigation have been turned on, and it is some small comfort to see the plants revive and survive!

    But in some countries, this dry weather has resulted in massive bush fires with loss of crops, animals and in some cases even human life. We sometimes wonder why these extreme weather patterns occur, and people put it down to global warming and such like, but we know they have been happening since time began.

   We read in the Bible of famines and droughts occurring at different times, and often it is put down to a nation’s disobedience to God’s rules. It seems that people will only turn to God when they are in dire straits, and often then they still refuse to acknowledge that He has any part in the weather patterns! We read of the time that there was a severe drought with no rain for three years, and the nation of Israel attributed this to the idol they were worshipping at the time, Baal. They gathered together with their king and priests of the idol, and called out “Oh Baal, save us!” but there was no reply. The heavens still remained as brass. They began to dance around, cutting themselves and crying out, but still nothing happened.

   God’s prophet Elijah, began to mock them saying their god must have gone on a journey. At last, they were worn out, and Elijah took barrels of water and poured it over the animal sacrifice and  altar that he had built to the God of Heaven. He began to pray and for a while nothing happened. Then the sky grew dark, with lightning flickering around, and he told the king he had better get going to the city before the rain stopped him.

   He called out to the crowd watching and asked who they thought was the real God now? The people finally acknowledged that the God of Heaven was the one true God as the rain came pelting down.

   Let’s hope we don’t remain as stubborn as the people in that day, and keep attributing our weather patterns to the god of Global Warming!!

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What a Start to the New Year!

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Have you ever noticed that soon after you’ve had a great time somewhere, maybe on a holiday or an uplifting weekend, that some bad news strikes, Bump! The wind gets knocked out of you and you wonder what you are meant to learn out of this experience!

   Such was our case recently. We had been attending a summer Christian camp, and met a lot of new people as well as enjoyed the ministry meetings that were held. We had an excellent song leader that could get the most out of those there to sing lustily. We felt as though the weekend had been very worthwhile.

   We began the trip home in our motorhome, going to a friend’s place for a chat and to pick up our car and trailer load of wood. I left ahead of the motorhome in he car, and had a smooth and uneventful trip home. But when the motorhome failed to arrive close behind me I began to wonder if something had gone wrong….should I go back and see? More time went by and my daughter called in so we  unhitched the trailer and headed back the way I had just come from. Then a phone call came through saying the motorhome had been involved in an accident. A lady had come straight out of a side road without looking and the motorhome had rammed into her! Fortunately my husband hadn’t been hurt but she was pretty bad and had been airlifted to hospital.

   By the time we got there, most of the drama of police, ambulances and fire-truck was all over….all that was left was a motorhome with a sad looking front all stowed in and a tow truck waiting to take her away. So we did a hasty cleanout of our gear, and saw her being taken away down the road. There went the rest of our summer holiday that had barely started!  A minute earlier or later would have seen the motorhome safely past the side road and that crash would never have happened. It was no use asking “Why?”  These things happen all the time.

    But there was so much to be thankful for….the weather was fine, there were witnesses to what had happened who were happy to give their names, and only one person was hurt.

   I have noticed other times when things have gone particularly well and great time was had, then suddenly and without warning, a great thump will come. Perhaps the memory of the good times will buoy us up through all the drama that ensues. Whatever happens we have that verse in the Bible that says “ALL THINGS work together for good to them who love God”; it doesn’t say “ONLY good things happen to those who love God!” We know that whatever happens to us, that something good will come out of it in the end! The old saying that every cloud has a “silver lining” is very true!

At least we were able to sleep in our own bed that night instead of being in a hospital bed!

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Welcome to Twenty-twenty!

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          We are now entering a new year! No matter how wise, learned or educated we may be, none of us can accurately predict the future. So we are all entering the unknown. For us personally, the year 2019 was the “year of the funeral” with so many of our friends and relations passing away. Some we were sure of their destiny,  as they had followed the Lord openly for many years; others we were not sure of….good people yes, but  never having made a public commitment in Christians things; and others quite openly saying they had lived without God and they were going to die without Him!

   Some of the deceased went very suddenly and unexpectedly while others contracted cancer and fought it for a while until the doctors could do no more for them. One of our friends was with us in church one Sunday morning apparently in as good health as he had ever enjoyed, and then by the next Sunday he was buried and lying in the cemetery!  Some were older and had very poor health and we felt it was a blessed release for them.

    Death has no favourites, nor does it have to give any warning. This is why it is so important to be prepared in every way….legally with all affairs put in order, and spiritually to ensure our eternal destiny. In this life, we have real concept of how long eternity is. Everything in this life has an end, just as it has had a beginning, but in eternity, there is no end. Whichever state we find ourselves in, will be for ever and ever with no doorway out.

   So it pays to be prepared, then  we can enter this new year with confidence and leave our loved ones with a certain knowledge of where we are going.

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Tough Things to Learn.

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       I wrote for the last two weeks, of my experiences in training roses to grow straight and tall to make standard mop-top rose bushes. There are so many lessons that we can learn from the unpleasant things that come our way in our lives, and yet how beneficial they can be to us in the long run! It brought to mind the experience of a friend of mine who had this hard lesson to learn early in her married life…..

     She and her new husband had had a severe  disagreement over something, so she flounced off back to her mother expecting to find some sympathy. But her mother was a very wise woman, and after listening to her daughter’s story and grievances, she said, “My dear you can’t stay here now. This isn’t your home any more. You chose to live with your husband and you are going to have to go back to him before dark. But come and have a cup of tea before you leave!”

   So the young woman sat down with her hot drink and calmed down enough to go back to her new home with one lesson learned. She had made her choice and had to abide by it. Of course she loved her husband, but she was going to show him a thing or two, she thought. Instead, it was she who needed to learn a lesson or two!

   Then when she got home, she found that the door was locked! It didn’t matter how much she knocked and banged on the door, it stayed firmly shut. She wasn’t even sure if her husband was at home. So she sat down in the porch nursing her angry thoughts. She couldn’t go back to her mother….she had made that very clear. And now she couldn’t get into her home either. The door just stayed locked with no movement inside.

   Finally her husband relented and unlocked the door so she could go in. She had learned her second lesson well, and never again did she allow her temper get the better of her. It took tough measures for her to learn these two lessons, and it is the same for the roses that find themselves tied straight to a stake with their other laterals cut off to make them look up. It takes these tough lessons for us to learn these things too, but as we yield to our Master Gardener, so He can make something beautiful of our lives. We learn to look up into His face to help us overcome our petty hurt feelings and say, “Not my will, but may Yours be done!”

See what God has to say to YOU.