Your children!

There are plenty of people who would love to have children but for one reason or another are unable to.

There are loads of people who have children but because of family circumstances they never see or have contact with their children.

There are those who have sadly lost their children…I’m sure they think of their children daily.

Isn’t it sad that there can be so many people around us who are grieving in some way for children; whether that be a child that has died, a child they have lost contact with, or indeed a child they have never even had!

Isn’t it even sadder that we hear and see so many stories in the news of people who have physically or emotionally abused a child…a child who in many instances, probably trusted that adult to look after and care for them, but instead did unspeakable thing to them which the child will never fully recover from.

It’s because of this that I urge you to never ever take your children for granted…by “your children” I of course am not just talking about any children you are the parent of, but also any children who is in your care at any time!

Children should be able to trust adults to look after and care for them, and teach/show them only what is good, it’s therefore down to us to make sure we do all we can to make sure we do all we can for the children.

There are many people all over the world, children and adults, who do not consider themselves to have any friends. Then there are many who consider themselves to have friends, but those friendships are build purely on lies or control, and so are false friendships.

How those people crave for real friends – friends they can rely on in times of need; friends they can talk to when they need a listening ear; friends they can trust with the darkest secrets.

Therefore those of us who are lucky enough to have friends, true friends, don’t ever take them for granted - tell them what they mean to you, don’t just assume they know; love them and care for them as you would want them to love/care for you; be honest and trustworthy with them and don’t ever let them down.

In summary, don’t ever take your friends for granted, cherish and nurture them always.

When life sucks, God is there for you.

When there seems no hope, God is there for you.

As the above song says, in times of deep despair when you’re at breaking point, your help can be found in God, all you’ve got to do is “reach out your hand”, because God is there for you.

You don’t need to feel as though you’re breaking, because God is there for you, and He will take your hand and help you through.

Is Sunday really a day of rest?

For those of us who attend the Salvation Army and particularly those who take part in the band or choir, I certainly wouldn’t say Sunday is a day of physical rest as we spend much time rushing about between meetings/Sunday school/practices that we barely get a chance to relax during the day.

However if we’re talking about spiritual rest, then yes, Sunday really should be a day of rest. It should be a day when we can spend time focusing on God and his message for us. Where we get food for though and strength to face the week ahead and all the challenges that will bring.

Having said that, that doesn’t mean that we cannot, or should not have times like these during the rest of our week. However due to the pressures and stresses of life these days, the weekends can often be the one time of the week when we can relax and have quality time with both our family and our God.

Let’s make sure we make Sunday our day of spiritual rest, so that we can receive food for thoughts and spiritual inspiration for the week ahead.

Please listen here to the International Staff Songsters of the Salvation Army singing Rest:

Well there’s no great secret to it, a lot of the time I blog about what I’m focusing on in my own personal devotions, so I just write about some of that. Other times I get ideas for blog topics from conversations I’ve been having or sometimes from tv programmes I’ve watched that just trigger some ideas. I also like to throw in a few blog posts about some of my interests such as football or tennis.

I’ve heard it said a few times that there’s nothing better than real life experiences to learn from, and I have to agree with that. So that is why I sometimes blog about my own personal life experiences…given how difficult life can be at times I think it’s important to share some real experiences with you all, in the hope that you can learn from my experiences, and from my mistakes!

So there you are, there’s an insight into my inspiration sources for my blog posts.

I pray that over the coming days and weeks that I can continue to post blogs which you find interesting, inspiring and hopefully a bit challenging to.

Happy reading!

If your life hasn’t changed, it would suggest that you haven’t given the whole of your life to God. When God is at the centre of our life, we must put out of our lives all things that are not Christ-like.

Matthew 18:2-4 (NIV)

He called a little child to him, and placed the child among them.And he said: “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.  Therefore, whoever takes the lowly position of this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

If you can’t see God in your heart and your head, others won’t be able to see God in your life either because if you are a true Christian, others will see God in you, and you too will see God in yourself.

I pray today that God is in your heart and in your head, and can be seen there by you and everyone else, however if He isn’t, I pray you will let God into your whole life today.

My message today is backed completely by Steven Curtis Chapman‘s wonderful song, Fingerprints of God – I hope you are blessed and challenged as you watch/listen to this video:

Ever since I read this prayer it’s been in my mind, and I believe it’s because it follows on perfectly to my last two blog posts, as it reminds us that we are often impatient and want everything to happen now. However God has a plan for us, he knows our starting point and he know where he wants us to be, but unlike us who just want to get to the end point, God wants and needs us to do all the stuff in between even although at the time we may not understand it’s significance.

God’s work in our life may seem slow to us at times, however consider this, have there actually been lots of blessings in disguise during those in-between times?

Here’s Pierre Teilhard de Chardin prayer:

But how about people? During our lifetime we meet and encounter thousands of people, some for only a few seconds, others for years, but can we tell which people we meet are blessings and which we shouldn’t entertain in our lives?

We know of people in our lives who from the instant we meet them, we know we’re going to hit it off with them, that we can trust them with anything at any time. Then there are those who as soon as we meet them we feel uncertain and unsure whether they a genuine and can be trusted. It can be difficult sometimes to distinguish between these people sometimes, however, once in a while we can get it all wrong…

Have you ever made a judgement about someone when you first met them, thinking they will not become a true friend, only to find a while later that you’ve been completely wrong, that that person is in fact more genuine and trustworthy than you could have imagined. In yesterday’s blog post I recounted how I had someone unexpected reach out to me…that person was one of those people. Don’t get me wrong it wasn’t that I ever thought I couldn’t trust that person, but simply that I had never imagined us having the opportunity or requirement to become close friends and confidants.

So again you can see people, as well as circumstances can be a blessing from God, so don’t pre-judge people before you get to know them, as you never know they may just be your blessing in disguise!

Sometimes we even wonder why God allows specific things to happen to us or our family and friends.

Sometimes we wonder how there can possibly be a blessing to be found anywhere!

Could it be that we are simply looking for what WE expect blessings to look like, rather than waiting to see how GOD sends us blessings?

I know for me, when I was at my lowest a few years ago, I felt as though everything was going wrong in my life, there was nobody there for me and I even felt as though God wasn’t doing anything to help me. Then one day, completely out of the blue, someone who I had previously only known well enough to say hello to, but never really had any conversation with, came to me and reached out to me.

At the time I just thought it was someone unexpected being nice to me, but now looking back on it I truly believe that person was God’s blessing in disguise for me! If it hadn’t been for that person reaching out to me that day and me taking hold of their outstretched hand, I can honestly say I don’t belive I would be the person I am today, or even if I would be here blogging.

Don’t close you’re eyes to God in times of difficultly, as God will be there for you, and He will bless you. Some of those blessings may just be a bit more difficult to spot if they’re in disguise.

Once again as I write this blog post I’m reminded of the song Blessings by Laura Story: