A weeks worth

Every spring I do a serious clean out of the side garden of every inch of mint that I can find and then I lay the fresh compost and sprinkle seeds of whatever I'm in the mood for that year. I always wonder if it will grow back...tee hee! This past year it was parsley that I wanted. I had planted the Basil-Mint as well.

Wow, only a few weeks later you'll find the whole section beaming with new growth. Right now I am able to cut an entire bowl full of herbs each week and it hardly makes a dent....wonderful. Mint, basil-mint, parsley, rosemary, thyme...all get cleaned and sterilized before use and my goodness what a difference those herbs make to salads, tuna sandwiches and meals in general and the flavour lingers long after. Whether from slips or seeds, herbs are so easy to grow and if you don't have much space you can grow them in pots, bottles and tins, there is no need to go without.

Our relationship with the world should be a bit like being a herb. We should easily grow and when others have been in our presence the effect of that connection should linger long after. Admittedly there are times when this is hard to do due to issues we are working through in our lives, but by enlarge we should make a positive impact on the world around us.

Freedom day 2016

Today is freedom day in SA and how nice to have a public holiday on a Wednesday!  I'm reminded again of how incredibly fortunate we are to have the freedom to worship our God without any restriction or persecution. 

There are still many places around the world where this freedom is not guaranteed, so today let's just take a short opportunity to remember this and remind ourselves to keep these countries in our thoughts and prayers and to pray for the Christians in that country to be kept safe. 

BCT

Last week was one of the most exhausting I've had in a very long time.  I was really struggling, so by Wednesday I decided after a trustees meeting that I needed an early night.  I had the lights down low and the kitties were settled and I felt as if I was all set to have a fabulous nights sleep. 

NOT!  On this precise evening midnight struck and my kitties awoke with a vengeance of energy.  I got pounced on until I had no choice but to let them out.  And guess what, it was the first night of our recent cold snap.  Feeling sorry for my little munchkins I thought I could not leave them out all night so I set my alarm for 2am, upon which time I once again dragged myself out of bed to let them back in.  The kitties were grateful and both decided to snuggle in with me under the covers, so I thought that I at least now had a shot of sleeping through till six. 

NOT!  5am the little monsters woke me up once again to be let back out..........Aaarrrggghhh!  My night was ruined.  Needless to say Thursday was a drag and when I eventually got home action needed to be taken as a repeat of the night before was not going to be tolerated.  I made a snug cat cave downstairs in the spare room and locked the little guys up for the night and aaaaahhh!  Sweet peaceful sleep.  I call this treatment 'Behaviour correction therapy'.  One night of no mommy and they settle back into the normal routine, which granted still has me woken up at 4-5 in the morning, but at least it is only once.

So what is God's behaviour therapy with us when we sin?  Well we are caught in a lie and are forced to own up.  We catch ourselves been rude and harsh to someone for no reason and the guilt gets to us.  We yell at someone we love and then we feel the pain of disappointment.  Through it all though if we look into the eyes of father God, what will we see?  Love, forgiveness and grace and a peace that transcends understanding and the knowledge that we can do better.

F.E.A.R – Stay focused

Most of us have heard the acronym for fear, false evidence appearing real and we attribute that to really dire stressful situations where we are lead astray by the lies of the devil. But do you know that fear can take over in the less dramatic, but still rather important decisions we need to take in life?

There are some decisions that I trying to work through and instead of being absolutely clear as to what needs to be done, I have been clouded by emotions about things that pale in significance to the bigger picture. Am I clear about the end result? No, not yet, but the process is clear and undeniable.

That is what our faith walk is all about, looking ahead, seeing the challenge that lies before you and having the courage to go for it any way. So if you are in the same boat today I want to encourage you to never give up, stay focused and don't let the devil distract you from your path.

Split the baby

Shjoe people can be complicated and I'm dealing with a situation in our complex that is getting rather difficult to figure out how to handle. It made me think about the story of Solomon and the two woman fighting over the baby. Solomon the wise knew that if he threatened them both with cutting the child in two that the real mother would do anything to save her baby.

Wisdom can be so hard to find at times and that is why we have to rely on collective wisdom so this time I'm glad there's a trustees meeting coming up so that we can decide on this one together.

When making decisions in life we need to keep the people that are close to us and in our inner circle as part of that process. This being said though we should choose those people carefully. The right people will always give you the right advice, even when it is hard for them to do so.

The plan

I'm a planner and even though I do not always crack it 100% of the time, I get it close more often than not.  The garden reshaping is done and now I'm waiting anxiously for pay day so that I can finish off the last major planting before autumn ends and winter kicks in, although this year I will try to compost throughout the winter.

I am busy planning my children's church class for next week and stressing that I won't finish on time, but I've got my ideas that I am pondering on and need to put the lesson together.  I am planning the wardrobe needs for winter and where I need to spend some money.  Yes, planning is an important part of life and vital if you ever want to achieve any goals. 

That does leave me thinking about what I have planned next for my own spiritual growth and oops, right now, nothing.  That situation has to be changed.  You see if we expect spiritual growth in our lives then this too needs to be a planned event. 

God planned our salvation meticulously and we owe it to Him to spend just a little time focused on planning our journey with Him. 

Hang ups

Our finance team's part of the audit is slowly coming to a close.  It has been a rough couple of weeks and now it is time to catch up with "business as usual".  We are experiencing a few hang ups that are making it a bit challenging.  We are all in the same boat though so there is nothing you can do but be supportive and plough through. 

It is a season that has left me feeling a bit brain dead most days, today being one of them, so I'll admit writing today is challenging.  I do ask myself though, without challenges to overcome, what would life be?  It is precisely all of these challenges that make the measure of the man...or woman.  Our true character is pushed to the surface. 

There are times when that brings joy, but there are also times when that can bring pain because what lies beneath the surface may not be the true characteristics that God desires us to display as children of God.  What it does do though is it forces one to be real and honest with yourself and that can only be good. 

These are the times that bring the most growth and when you see changes within yourself that bring a positive result, it is so rewarding.  God desires that we constantly grow, not only in our relationship with Him and others, but more importantly with ourselves.  As we work through the challenges of life we learn our own strengths and are then able to function more effectively in those strengths in the future.

The long and windy road

Today I will share a tale of protection and hope you won't mind the slightly longer than usual blog, but please stick with me as what I am sharing today could save your life. 

Monday evening was a difficult one.  As I came out of the office and headed along Rivonia towards the highway I could tell something was wrong.  The Witkoppen intersection was grid locked and it was impossible to get through. It was then that I heard on the radio that there had been a major accident blocking the highway. 

It was too late for me to divert on to Witkoppen so I changed lanes and went straight across instead of trying to join the highway.  Trying to figure out my options I decided to try something I hadn't done before.  I took the first right after the highway and figured I would try to "follow my nose" and try and stick as close to running parallel along the route. 

For the first short while I was enjoying the meandering but I did start to get a little scared, that was until I came over a hill and I was able to see the beautiful sunset before me and I could see which way was west..... the direction of home.  After much meandering I eventually popped up in Olivedale and from there I knew my way.

It was about half way through my misadventure that I remembered what had happened that morning.  I had been running late but felt God say, "There is a reason I am slowing you down today.  Today I am keeping you back to avoid a major car accident."  To be sure I repeated the words out loud and then prayed a prayer for protection.  I hopped in my car and headed for work.  I did pass a few minor incidents along the road, but nothing unusual so the mornings events slipped my mind...that was until the evening.  God had slowed me down that morning deliberately so that I would arrive late and need to work late, thus missing the evening accident.  I have absolutely no doubt that if I had left work the normal time, I would have been in the thick of things. 

I have a ability to hear God's voice around motor accidents, specifically because I have been in several accidents before one of which I believe could have been fatal under other circumstances and through this I have learned to discern God's voice specifically in these situations.  Each time that I "missed" His warning I learned to repent and ask Him to make me more sensitive and that is what happened on Monday.

I believe God can do the same every one of us, He can keep His Word and give His angels charge over us.  We need to learn to discern God's voice and know when to apply the right prayer at the right moment to activate God's guardianship over our lives. 

If you have any questions that you would like to have answered about this, kindly write to me at: GWG.Ronwyn@gmail.com. 

Modems Aaarrrgh! Time for plan B

I really wanted an early start to the evening with regards to getting my computer work done, in fact I worked my entire schedule around it today, and what happens??????  Problems with my modem....or something like that.  After over an hour of putting the sim into this device and that device and a few very frustrating phone calls, I finally put the sim into my very old plug in modem.......and for now at least I can work....but I'm not a happy camper. 

That's life though.  Just when I was actually wondering what I was going to write about tonight because, well the weekend was kind of blaah, this happens...a little trouble but then again a little colour into the weekend..mainly RED, angry RED.  Lol!  Well word to the wise, don't throw away your old gadgets too quickly.

The best laid plans go sidewards and well I probably won't get as much personal 'work' done, but knowing there is at least a 'plan B' available, does give some comfort.  In our spiritual lives and routine we need that plan B as well.  What if you can't get to church on Sunday, do you at least have a way to find a quiet time and time to reflect on the things of God before you go back to the hustle and bustle of the work week?  I do, my back stairs with a cup of coffee :-)   We need those backup plans to keep us spiritually alive, don't skip your time with God, just find another way to do it. 

Changing plugs

If there is one thing I will be forever grateful for, it is the fact that my father taught me how to change a plug.  My goodness you open a box these days and there are two prongs everywhere and for some bizarre reason they make some the nasty way with that big round plastic thingie that stops it from fitting into a multi-plug adapter. 

Now before you become impressed with my DIY prowess I might like to add that it can take a good 20-30 minutes to do said plug change. 

We pass skills on to the next generation by conscious thought or by simple behaviour.  The big question is, what do we pass on about our faith?  Our children learn who God is and how God operates from us and our lifestyle.  Let's try to make the choice to make that a positive influence.

Different as knight and day

Sunday's children's church had me totally befuzzled :-) Tee hee!  In the first service we had a bunch of total live wires and I struggled to keep up.  Second service went as smooth as silk and then we had a hard time filling the time.  Looks like I'm going to have to find a way to get myself closer to the kid in me if I'm going to reach these little ones. 

The funny thing is that speaking to some seasoned professionals like our children's church leader as well as my mom, who's had many years experience I learned that even experts in the field can get a little thrown by some kids.  Honestly though I think these days in general we just have much bigger classes which makes everything more challenging.

Knowing that others have struggled with these same issues really helped me a lot as I was thinking that I was the only one and that its because I'm single and not around kids much, luckily this is not the case.  In life we are seldom alone with any problem and it helps to talk to others and get support.