Power of the cross is what makes today a day to celebrate Christ, and God’s love for every one of us.
Christ is alive, He is risen from the dead and He is Lord!
Easter Sunday, today, is one of the happiest in the Christian calendar. Why? Because today we celebrate the resurrection of Christ. So let’s celebrate today by rejoicing in God’s love for each one of us.
God gave His son for us, so in return let’s celebrate this Easter by give our all to God.
On Friday I think we were all shocked and deeply saddened to hear of the shooting of 12 little girls, 6 little boys and 8 adults, when a heavily armed gunman, aged just 20-years-old himself, forced his way into a school in Newtown, Connecticut (USA). I’ve found myself constantly thinking of the families and friend of all those who were killed – An atrocity like this is bad enough at any time of the year, but it’s particularly sad as Christmas is so close.
Therefore today I want to remind you that although we often sing, “Christmas is a time to love”, loving others and showing our love for others should not just be a Christmas thing, it’s something we should do all year round. So take some time out today and every day to tell those you love, particularly your children, just how much they mean to you, and how much you love them.
Don’t Save It All For Christmas Day
Don’t get so busy that you miss
Giving just a little kiss
To the ones you love
Don’t even wait a little while
To give them just a little smile
A little is enough
See how many people are crying
Some people are dying
How many people are asking for love
o don’t save it all for Christmas day
Find a way
To give a little love every day
Don’t save it all for Christmas day
Find a way
‘Cause holidays have come and gone
But love lives on
If you give on
Love
How could you wait another minute
A hug is warmer when you’re in it
Oh, baby that’s a fact
And saying I love you’s always better
Seasons, reasons they don’t matter
So don’t hold back
See how many people in this world
So needful in this world
How many people are praying for love
So let all the children know
Everywhere that they go
Their whole life long
Let them know love
It’s been just over a week I’ve been off work on annual leave, however, as usual when it’s almost time to go back to work, I wish I had another week off!
I gave you some idea of what I’ve been up to during my time off in Friday’s blog post entitled Normal Service Is Resumed. It’s been good not to be at work, however I must admit it’s not really felt like much of a rest as I’ve found it quite stressful spending everyday with mum!
Don’t get me wrong I love Mum and wouldn’t have wanted her to spend this last week on her own while Dad was in a care home for respite care. However due to all she’s having to cope caring for Dad, as well as us both dealing with my Dad’s and my Aunt’s guardianships, she offloads onto me as she is struggling to cope with it all. That’s fine with me as I’d rather she did that than try to cope on her own, however I’m finding it quite hard to cope too, as I too have a lot 
going on just now:
I hope I don’t sound as though I’m complaining because I don’t intend too, I know life was never meant to be easy, so I’m simply just trying to give you an idea of some of the things I’m trying to cope with in my life at present, so you understand better the person writing this blog.
Mum asked me just yesterday if I had enjoyed my busy week off work and whether I was looking forward to going back to work for a rest! Maybe she’s more aware more than I think, about how I’m feeling and when I’m exhausted, struggling and in pain…
During my time off, when I’ve been struggling, I’ve found myself drawn again to the song Praise You In This Storm by Casting Crowns. Just like the words of this song say, I do wish that I was through this storm by now, however I thank God every day that I despite all I’ve been going through, I am still able to praise Him!
So it’s back to work tomorrow, and I’m pleased to say that today (Sunday), I finally got a day of doing absolutely nothing (typically I have a day of doing nothing when the weather is fantastic, but hey I needed it!)…and it was fabulous! Anyway I’m sure once I’m back at work tomorrow my week off will soon feel like was a distant memory by 10am!
I think it’s time to start planning another week or two off work!
How’s your week been? I hope your week’s been better than mine!
Personally I’m really glad this week is finally over, as it’s been a very very long and very tiring week. If you’ve been reading my blog for a while, you’ll know I have been find things quite tough physically and emotionally for a while.
So this last week at work I’ve been on a training course with a number of my colleagues. The week comprised of two combined courses – the first 3 days long with a one hour “closed-book” exam at the end of the third day, and the second part of the course on the remaining two days with a two and a half hour “open-book” exam yesterday afternoon (which we were only allowed to sit if we passed Wednesday afternoon’s exam).
As I’m sure you can tell just from this, it was a fairly intensive course with a lot of theory. The fact that there were two exams during the week, just put added pressure on us.
It gets worse though…when I was originally asked if I wanted to go on the course I was given the outline of the course subject which easily sold the course to me as one I wanted to attend. Then a week before the course our training packs arrived – I opened mine, had a brief read of the covering letter which indicated there was a bit of pre-course reading to do, but due to all the things going on outside of work did no more with this until last weekend…that was when I discovered that there was estimated to be about 16 hours of pre-course reading to do before Monday! Needless to say there was no way I managed to do all this reading, I managed only about half (but I wasn’t the only one).
On Monday morning the course started, and as the day progressed it became apparent that we were going to be given homework to do every night of the course…I started to panic at this point as I know all the things I have to deal with outside of work each day and how exhausted I usually am when I get in from work…this week was going to be a struggle.
My predictions were accurate, it was a struggle this week as we ended up with about 3 hours of homework every night, so not only was I physically exhausted every day, but my brain hurt! By Tuesday afternoon I felt as though I was not absorbing any information as my brain had had enough by then. So as you can possibly imagine, I got myself into a bit of a state this week about how I felt I was doing on the course and the pressure to pass the exams.
Hubby was good though as he was the sensible person (just for a change, but don’t tell him I said that!), reminding me that even if I did fail the exams what difference would it make as I couldn’t be sacked just for failing an exam. Yes he was being the voice of reason, but to be honest it didn’t really stop me from getting very stressed about the course and the exams.
When Wednesday afternoon’s exam arrived I was very nervous, and was simply looking to pass the exam and didn’t really care what score I got. Much to my delight I passed the exam with a better score than I thought I would get…and everyone else passed too!
That made me feel a little more confident on Thursday however by the end of Thursday that optimism was gone, as during Thursday we did some past exam questions and I didn’t do well enough to pass some of the questions so would have struggled over all to gain enough marks to pass the final exam.
When Friday arrived I was stressed and just to make my day even more difficult I was in a lot of pain (my usual pain) and despite taking my painkillers since Thursday evening, they hadn’t made any impression on my pain…it was going to be a long and difficult last day on the course…my one consolation during the week has been that I’ve not been the only one who has felt as though they are struggling, although I’m not sure anyone else had been quite as stressed out about it as me, but I may be wrong.
So yesterday afternoon at 1pm, we sat down to sit our final exam. Two and a half hours late I finished answering the final question on the paper, and then about 30 seconds later time was called on the exam. It had been hard work trying to get through all the questions in the allocated time (again I wasn’t the only one who struggled time wise). The first few questions in the paper were ok however the further through the paper I got, the more difficult I found it, but maybe that was more down to the time pressure than the actual questions, I’m not sure.
At the end of the exam, not only did we have to hand in our answer paper, we also had to hand in the question papers too. In some ways this is good as it’s meant I’ve not been able to re-read some of the questions and then fret over potential wrong answers, as I now can’t remember any of the questions!
It will apparently be about two weeks before we get our exam results, so the worrying starts now!
I wonder how long I’ll have my results letter before I open it!
I’m one of the lucky ones who’s been fortunate to have enough holidays left to be able to use up the last of my annual leave for this year between Christmas and New Year and then the 3 days after New Year. It’s great it means that after being at work on Friday 23rd December I’m not back at work until Monday 9th January next year!
So far, after Christmas I’ve had a pyjama day, a housework day and a housework and shopping day! Which was my favourite? Definitely my pyjama day!
I love having pajama days, not that I get them very often at all these days, so on Boxing Day I thoroughly enjoyed my pyjama day, especially as I’d got new fleecy pyjamas in my office Secret Santa and they are soooo cosy.
When I was younger I never liked having a lazy day, I used to feel as if I was being really unproductive if I wasn’t busy doing something every day. But my views have definitely changed, because I love lazy days…maybe it’s just because I get very little opportunity to have a “lazy day” these days that makes them so desirable!
When you have a day of doing nothing, do you feel relaxed or unproductive?
Whether your busy all the time or find time to have a pyjama day, I hope you are able to get some time to relax, chill and recharge your batteries this festive season.
Today is a holiday here in Glasgow, as is official the start of the Glasgow Fair Fortnight. The Glasgow Fair Fortnight is always the last two weeks in July, and is traditionally when Glaswegians (the natives of Glasgow) would go on holiday.
The origins of this holiday can be traced back to the 12th century, although the Glasgow Fair these days is far changed from those of the 12th century!
In the 19th century the Fair took place on Glasgow Green and thereafter developed into a full blown holiday fortnight. During the Fair horses and cattle were sold, and servants hired. Later on it changed to include amusements, circus acts and theatre shows.
By the middle of the 20th century, there would be an annual exodus from Glasgow of thousands of the locals to Troon, Rothesay, Saltcoats or Dunoon – This became known as going “doon the water”! The Fair would start on Fair Friday (the Friday prior to the holiday fortnight), when all the factories and business would close down for the 2 weeks of the fair. This meant that on Fair Friday it was not unusual to see large queues of people at Glasgow Central Station waiting to board a train that would take them to their annual holiday destination.
This tradition continued on until the 1960′s or 1970′s, although I am aware of some companies still closing down their factories for the two weeks of the Fair in the late 1980′s, although whether this is still the case or not, I don’t know. If you know of anywhere which still closes down for the Glasgow Fair, I’d love to hear from you.
These days, you’ll still Glaswegians talking about the Glasgow Fair, and you’ll still find the first Monday of the Glasgow Fair Fortnight is still observed as a local holiday, however you won’t find Glasgow the ghost town it used to be at this time of year. Many folk take their holidays at different times of the year these days, so there’s mass exodus on Fair Friday anymore.
Also these days there is no Fair as such that takes place, however I believe Glasgow City Council have been considering restarting some kind of fair on Glasgow Green.
Glasgow Green
…but new life is just beginning for us!
Jesus, light of the world, died a cruel and painful death on that first Easter Friday. He died then so that you and I could have new life, a new life through faith and trust in Him, our Saviour and our Friend.
Not only that, Jesus gave His life for us, so that we could be forgiven of our sins. Personally I find it very hard to fully take in the fact that someone would be prepared to die just so I could be forgiven of my sins. The only reason I find myself believing it to be possible, is because I know God is all powerful and is the only one capable of doing this…and what a way to do it, by letting your son die on a cross!
Jesus IS the light of the world and he came to earth so we could be forgiven.
Seeking solace in his downturned eyes, such agonising pain betraying, Hiding heartache through their stifled cries, with wordless weeping, silent praying, Beneath the bloodied, wretched wraith, faithful friends, constrained or driven, keep their vigil, hold hard to faith, and hear his whispered word: Forgiven by Stephen Pearson
I hope you enjoy the following video of Tim Hughes singing Here I Am To Worship (Light of the World) which kind of sums up what Easter has been about as well as what is expected of us now.
