At last … the sun is shining in Dumfries. Everyone round here has suffered the constant cloud hanging over our area this week. I’ve been asking, “Will we ever see the sun again?”. We all know the answer and in fact sunny days have now arrived, but yesterday it felt as though it would never happen.

It strikes me that our lives are often like that – we feel surrounded by a gloom which we feel will never go away. The answer of course is that it’s just a season. To escape the gloomy weather this week, I’ve had to focus on positive things and remind myself that better weather is ahead and summer will come.

There are some pretty good spiritual parallels to the weather this week. There are times when we just have to keep Continue reading

Family are home again – some of them for a few days, some for longer.

Some needing to re- group and find out what is next, another is needing to be here and be cared for, even pampered for a while, another – planning. One or two missing special people in their lives… all together, yet at different stages and seasons of their lives.

I love how “home” is a place they can return to for these purposes. Where they are accepted, fed, nurtured and rested for the next part of their journey.

I pondered over “Home” and how we all need homes… natural ones, obviously, but also the home of relationship and life with God.  I also began to see that we need to “go home” now and again . . . we need the regrouping, the place of being back to where life is familiar and safe… (Ok sometimes boring!) but a place where we can re-focus on what is important and what Continue reading

My husband and I have just returned from Berlin where we were staying for a few days. We took some time to visit historical sites of the Berlin Wall, memorials etc and as usual it got me thinking!

In hindsight (that good old 20/20 vision) how sad, senseless and hurtful it was to build such a wall, dividing families, friends and loved ones, because of differences. But I began to see how easy it is to allow walls to be built in so many aspects of our lives. Small hurts, bigger misunderstandings, presumptions and suspicion are some of the bricks we use to build a wall between people with whom we once had so much in common. We cement these walls together with unhealthy talk about the “other”, what they said, how they went about it and how wrong they were/are and how justified we are in distancing ourselves from them.

It takes a bit of a revolution (one dictionary definition says a revolution is a turn-around) to cause walls to come down, and a revolution is a movement by people against an established (government or political) system.

Sometimes the hurts and disappointment, the misunderstandings and Continue reading

Have you ever been really tired and needing to sleep?

Of course you have!

What do you do?

You go to bed and sleep – until you are refreshed and ready to wake up and start a new day!

Sounds simple … and sensible, doesn’t it?

So why do we feel we need to push ourselves to stay awake and  be on top of things , when we really need to rest and come back to it more alert and ready?

I have no idea … except maybe Continue reading

I had been looking at what I was doing on this day, last year, and reflecting on some of the areas I had planned to grow and develop in: how I was planning to grow spiritually, how I was going to treat my soul – my emotions  and  character development and mentally, how and what I was planning to learn.

As I was reflecting back over the plans made last year, I was pleased to see how I had grown and developed in these areas of my life. Some of the plans I had made I had really done well in and made progress, and in one or two areas I have only taken a few steps forward.

Some of them were surprising developments that I hadn’t planned for but were all part of a plan for me as it were! Other areas? well I’m glad for another year in which to Continue reading

It has been wild weather here recently, high winds and storms bringing flooding with it.

It’s not pleasant being out in this sort of weather and most people don’t like it, stay indoors and wish it was summer!

As I was driving to work I noticed that a couple of the fields, that are often prone to flooding, were very badly waterlogged!

As I was watching it and was thinking how awful it must be for the land owner, a flock of swans arrived and skidded to a halt on the temporary “lake”. It made me laugh because then I noticed about a dozen or more ducks happily swimming around too, and a couple of seagulls joined the party shortly after!

It looked a really happy scene in the middle of this flooded area, and it made me realise how easy it is to Continue reading

For many the Christmas story is as familiar as the route to work,  and because of its familiarity, we  oftimes don’t notice what’s en-route .

I’ve been pondering the Christmas story, and am very aware of inaccuracies and discrepancies people point out… yet despite those I do believe God would have us know the story of Jesus’ birth, as vague as some would make it out to be!

I found that Luke’s account tells us that the couple, Joseph and Mary had to find a place for their son to be born in a place where the animals were housed because there wasn’t a lodging room available.

It may have been, according to some accounts, that there never was an Continue reading

I’ve been looking at wells!

The sort we read about in Genesis 26. Isaac dug again the wells that his Father had dug  and the local people quarrelled and argued with him over them…he moved on and kept digging until he found a resting place that didn’t have the strife the others had.

Here are some of the things I have observed … maybe they will encourage you in your situation today!

Sometimes we need to dig wells… find the supply for the first time… we need to know where there is a River of Life and go there!

Sometimes we need to re-dig wells that have been dug but covered over, forgotten about or spoilt for various reasons … we forget sometimes the refreshing places we used to have – places of reading God’s Word, the place of worship and the place of prayer… intimacy with your God!

Don’t give up – Continue reading