The Armour of God - from a female perspective!

Events of the last week or so have left me reeling, emotionally and physically as well as spiritually. I got up on Saturday morning and decided I was going to need make-up on to be able to face the day and the world of people out there wanting to know ‘How are you?’ If I was going to have even the smallest of chances of getting through the day without another meltdown I needed to at least look like I was fine! How many of us have done this at some point in our lives? There are A LOT of things we use to ‘shore ourselves up’, not all of it not good for us.

Now I happen to be very firmly in the ‘less is more’ camp when it comes to beauty products and the wearing of make-up. God definitely made us all beautiful, regardless of what the world and its horrendous attitudes will have us think. We do not need to plaster ourselves in anything to be worthy of love, and there’s a whole other blog just right there!

I also know that there are times when we need to protect our own sanity by building (albeit temporarily) a wall around us that protects us from the ‘slings and arrows of outrageous fortune’: the rubbish that life hands us! For me Saturday was one such time. As I applied my make-up it struck me that I was donning armour, and that I ought to apply it with prayer…

So, Lord Jesus as I put on the Foundation of righteousness, the Concealer of faith and the Powder of truth, may I remember your promises to me; as I apply the Eye-shadow of  peace, the Liner of salvation and the Mascara of the Spirit may I be ready to battle through the day in Your name. May this armour provide me with the faith I need to stand in your Holy Presence today and receive your protection from those who would seek to undo my defences.

I’ll bet that Paul never thought of it like that!

PS: Our fight against the enemy is not to be trivialised, please do not read that here. I love the Message version of Ephesians 6…

A Fight to the Finish

 ^10-12And that about wraps it up. God is strong, and he wants you strong. So take everything the Master has set out for you, well-made weapons of the best materials. And put them to use so you will be able to stand up to everything the Devil throws your way. This is no afternoon athletic contest that we'll walk away from and forget about in a couple of hours. This is for keeps, a life-or-death fight to the finish against the Devil and all his angels.

 ^13-18Be prepared. You're up against far more than you can handle on your own. Take all the help you can get, every weapon God has issued, so that when it's all over but the shouting you'll still be on your feet. Truth, righteousness, peace, faith, and salvation are more than words. Learn how to apply them. You'll need them throughout your life. God's Word is an indispensable weapon. In the same way, prayer is essential in this ongoing warfare. Pray hard and long. Pray for your brothers and sisters. Keep your eyes open. Keep each other's spirits up so that no one falls behind or drops out.

Ten Things to be Thankful for on a Tuesday!

(with thanks to a new friend who started me off www.beccaislearning.com)

1.       1. My family: 2 small boys who are truly delightful and a husband who loves me lots. Along with a whole load of other wider family who are fantastic.

2.      2.  TV shows that make me giggle: Friends; How I Met Your Mother amongst others.

3.       3. My food processor that makes cake-making a doddle!

4.      4.  Watching Veggie Tales: these guys have such creativity in making the Bible relevant to my kids (and other kids too!).

5.       5. Our beautiful house, made possible by a fantastic God and a wonderful Grandma.

6.      6.  Sunshine and rain! Our veggies look amazing despite the lack of rain, being a new gardener means I get as excited about the rain as I do about the sun these days!

7.     7.   My washing machine. Sometimes our other Grandma offers to do washing for us, whenever I thank her she says ‘It’s not me that does it dear, the machine does it all for me!’ I’m SO very grateful to live in an age and a place where we don’t have to wash clothes by hand.

8.       8. Grandmas. I didn’t really have Grandmas growing up, one died before my parents got married and the other went when I was small (much missed!). When I married my hubby both his Grandmas were still with us and took me on as their Granddaughter, it has been lovely to have Grandmas again and to have lost ‘Big’ Grandma a year ago is still a great sadness.

9.      9.  My job. Another one directly attributable to God (but then they all are really!). I love my job, despite all the frustrations of the nitty gritty, I know I’m where God wants me to be right now.

10.   10. The NHS and in particular the Eastbourne District Hospital, who have been utterly brilliant in the last year!

A lot to be thankful for, and plenty more besides. Phew, just about finished on Tuesday!!

My God is a good God!

Alternatively titled: God’s wonderful world – that we live in and that we love to learn about! So what is your favourite view on the whole earth? Where is your favourite place to be? God made that place, and all the places in fact. What have you learned about this week/month/year that surprised you? Here’s just a few facts for you and you can probably give me hundreds more!

·         On average 100 lightning strikes occur worldwide every second.

·         The oceans contain 99 percent of the living space on the planet.

·         The Nile River in Africa is the longest river (6,825 kilometers) on the earth.

·         The human eye detects 10 million colours

·         Your thumb is the same length as your nose

If our world is so amazing now, what might it have been like without the stuff that goes wrong?

God’s plan for his wonderful world is something debated by people all over the world from all nationalities, backgrounds, faiths and theological views! I’m not going to pretend I know better than any of them. However I think we can probably agree that God wants us (all of humanity) to live lives that are God-centred, that love Him wholeheartedly and that glorify Him in ALL circumstances.

Jesus is the key to this plan. Many of you reading this will know of Jesus but do you really know Jesus for yourself? Have you looked for Him? Have you stepped out in faith?

Who introduced you to Jesus? Maybe it was your parents, maybe your grandparents, your best friend, your spouse or partner, your kids, your teacher. Those of us who know Jesus, who walk the walk of faith, were introduced by someone. So the fact of the matter is that each of us who know Him have the responsibility to pass that on to someone else. How will people meet Jesus unless we tell them about him? After all “Faith without works is dead”. If we say we believe but do nothing we are just a shell of a person, just a clanging bell or crashing cymbal on its own.

Christians in schools, whether they are pupils, teachers, head teachers, governors,  readers, cleaners, dinner servers, playground supervisors or visitors, have a role to play in helping their friends, charges and co-workers find out about Jesus. And there are lots of ways we can do this! Talking to our friends about Church, about the things we believe in, about the things that Jesus has done for us; offering to pray for people when it’s appropriate; being a good friend to others, even those we find difficult; being a responsible colleague or worker, going the extra mile in our work.

Finally if you are a youthworker and not involved in your local school can I urge you to find out about how you can get involved? Maybe you have a schools work organisation in your town you could turn to. Maybe you have contacts within your church who are teachers or other school people you could ask how you might best serve your local school. Ask God to direct you and start by making enquiries.

And may God bless you as you work out your own role in telling people about Jesus!

We love our Youth Worker!

I am, at heart, a youthworker. I have been one all of my adult working life. Even through 5 years as a teacher I was still a youthworker. Even though now my average contact hours on a weekly basis with those over the age of 10 is in single digits, I am a youthworker. I believe passionately in young people: their outlook on life; their energy; their honesty. I have been in the privileged position to stand alongside a whole bunch of teens who are now in their twenties through some hard situations.

So youthworkers don’t do politics right? Especially Church Politics… Except that if we have our eye on the long game, if we want what we do to last, to be sustainable, Church Politics aka Working With Others, should be the first thing on our list. I have been reading ‘Sustainable Youth Ministry’ by Mark Devries and honestly if you are in youthwork, especially (though not exclusively) if you’re in Church based youth ministry, this is a book to be read. With a notebook and pen next to you, one chapter at a time while you pause in between to decide how the bit you’ve just read relates to your own group. It is fantastic and one of the things that the book recommends is learning to play ‘Church Politics’.

So much of what we think do and say is about or affected by expectations. Whether we wear them on our sleeves or hid them under layers of politeness and/or insecurity, what we expect of other people in our lives makes a massive difference to our overall outlook and attitude to life. Learning to live without expectations of others can mean success instead of failure, across the whole spectrum of life.

Knowing the people you work with enough to be able to get alongside them and encourage them in what they do is a sure way to make life much happier! Understanding what makes people tick and how to work with them instead of having to fight a battle to get your opinions heard has got to be the best plan for working relationships. Now don’t read me wrong, I’m not talking about manipulating people, I’m not suggesting we simply get to know someone so that we can get the best out of them in a selfish way. I am saying that we ought to get to know those we work with and for in order that those relationships can work for the best for all concerned.

I am a youthworker and I will play the ‘politics’ game, but call it Working With Others and do it in love and out of respect for those I work with and for.

Here comes the sun...

Today has been tiring after an early (and therefore grumpy!) morning with a not-quite-2-yr-old, but it’s April and birthday month so can’t stay grumpy or tired for too long!! I love this month, not only for all the birthdays that come at the end (not only my own but so many good friends and lovely family members too!) but for all the signs of summer: the wearing of summer skirts without tights; the flip-flops/sandals and painted toe nails; the ability to leave the house without my scarf; the green trees and LOADs of other stuff that just reminds us that summer is coming… 

If you’ve been watching my FB statuses or spent time with me recently you’ll know that I’ve really got into baking in the past month. It’s not something I’ve been particularly partial to previously so it’s rather exciting. Jon says I’m finally becoming the perfect housewife!! Cupcakes are good… Red Velvet ones even better!! I have been trying to work out how I can send cake in the post as most of the friends and family with birthdays do not live in deliverable distance… Maybe I should order some from the Hummingbird Bakery to find out how they do it?! I have really found baking addictive, very therapeutic and satisfying. And in following the right recipe, I’m quite good at it! I’m sure there’s a lesson in there somewhere…

Another thing that’s taken my attention this last month is the garden.  Although we don’t have much ‘garden’ at home what we have got needs tending, unlike the grass we had at the old place which largely you can just cut and leave! I’ve planted potatoes, onions, garlic, spinach and mint in our front veg patches and then loads of flowers in the other beds and pots round the other sides. I’m rather impatient with it mind and want the flowers to appear SOON! But hoping the wait will be worth it. I suspect there’s a lesson in there too…

So (to borrow a phrase from a friend!), lessons from the domesticity of life: when we’re new to baking staying close to the recipe results in success. It’s only when we learn the real basics of how to bake that we can go off-the-page! True too in faith, sticking close to the Bible’s words will give us success. As our relationship with God grows so our understanding of His word deepens and it can appear that we’re going off-the-page (like all analogies it's a little tenuous when stretched!)! And when tending to our gardens we learn about the promise of good things being something we need to wait for without expecting instant results. And that just about transfers directly methinks!

One Year On

A year ago this week I was in hospital. A year ago this week the doctor told me I had bowel cancer. And a year ago this week life was turned completely upside down, not only for me but for my whole family, both blood and faith!

I am truly amazed and indebited to our national health service and the surgeon, his team and so many nurses who looked after me, stood with me and cleaned up after me during both hospital stays last year. I am also indebted to so many of you (and many more who will probably never get to read this) who prayed for me and my family. Quite simply: there are no words to properly describe how I feel about you guys! I genuinely believe that without the prayers of friends and family; without my fellow Christians who stood in the gap for me and held up my hands to God when I did not have the energy to; without your faith, however small, I would not be where I am today: healthy and living a 'normal' sort of life.

The helping hands of both my own church family and that of others meant that when I came out of hospital after the operation in April it was 4 weeks before anyone in our house had to do any cooking. And the fabulous organiser of this from my own church was 8 months pregnant at the time! I also had friends who regularly took the boys off my hands for an afternoon or so well into the summer months.This, to me, is truly the body of Christ at work today.

So thank you. And if ever you are in need of prayer or any practical help, just shout!

"I am hard pressed on every side

But I'm not crushed,

I feel pulled to pieces 

But inside, inside I know I'm not"

Hard Pressed: Lou Fellingham

2 Cor 4:8

All in a days work

So today I returned to teaching, in a completely different capacity! Still secondary, still teenagers but as a visitor: a Christian visitor, there to tell the class what Christians believe about God. And I quickly discovered that although there were times when I really enjoyed my job when I was teaching, I was always frustrated by the inability to talk about my faith with the kids I was teaching. Now I can teach RE and say ‘Because I am a Christian I believe this…’ and it is GOOD!

Today I started a 6 lesson block on The Christian Faith, based on a fantastic resource written by YFC. It’s a scheme of work based on the Alpha course material so is very accessible and YFC have done a great job in making it ‘school friendly’. I and my colleagues are teaching 11 classes of both yr 7 & yr 8 up until Easter.

 I love working with young people, they are amazing especially en masse and in school uniform! So be prepared for some anecdotes and random quotes from a bunch of yr 7 & 8’s in the next 6 weeks. And whilst enjoying the stories, pray for these kids and us!

Here’s a selection of today’s comments:

“I believe in God because I prayed for an Xbox 360 and got one!”

“Gravity is what holds us together”

Me [to a volunteer who had been blindfolded outside the classroom at approx. 9.10am]: All your classmates have gone home. They’ve all left every one of them. Do you believe me?

Volunteer: Yes [wrong answer!]