Following on from my last post, about The Call… I’ve been looking at the way people live their lives and how we can overlook God’s hand in our lives, His guidance and His provision, by looking for bigger, better, different, spectacular …!

I mentioned in my last post how the Scriptures talk about “making the most of every opportunity” and “whatever your hand finds to do – do it with all your might”, and I see that what we live out so often is different from what we speak about our lives.

So many times I hear and see people bemoaning the fact that they live where they do and not somewhere else, or they are in a Continue reading

I’ve been perusing the “call of God “ on my life… actually the call of God on anyone’s and everyone’s life… looking at what the Scriptures say about being called!

It says that not many wise are called! And that God chose the foolish things of the world to confound the wise!

I see a few people being called to do specific things, Abraham, Moses, David, Esther even, Saul who became Paul and the disciples . . . but even then the disciples weren’t called by Jesus to receive the 10 commandments, lead people out of Egypt, or being King of Israel. THEIR call was to “follow Me”!!!

I find, in looking at this subject, so many people are waiting for a Continue reading

Ever felt you had to blend in with those around you, even though you hated doing so?

Ever been in the position of saying yes and going along with the rest because it’s safer to do that than be different?

What about the times you’ve really not agreed with the discussion or the plans but felt obliged to go along with them to keep everyone happy?

Doesn’t it make you feel weak and rather insipid to be someone who longs to stand up for what they believe in but are a bit scared of being shouted down because, it seems, everyone else thinks very differently to you?

Well today I’m calling out to you to stand out, dare to Continue reading

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