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Category Archives: WorDs To LiVe By

“you take care of this baby”

Truly I tell you, anyone who will not receive the

kingdom of God like a little child will

never enter it

{Mark 10:15 NIV}.

{I recently read the story of a young family who went out to eat at a local restaurant. They were the only family with children in the restaurant. The mom sat their little boy, Erik, in a high chair and noticed everyone was quietly sitting and talking. Suddenly, Erik squealed with glee and said, “Hi.” He pounded his fat baby hands on the high chair tray. His eyes were crinkled in laughter and his mouth was bared in a toothless grin as he wriggled and giggled with joy.

The mother looked around and saw the source of his merriment. It was a man wearing baggy pants and shoes so worn that his toes poked out. His shirt was dirty and his hair was uncombed and unwashed. His whiskers were too short to be called a beard and his nose was so varicose it looked like a road map. The man sat far away but the mother was sure he smelled bad. His hands waved and flapped on loose wrists in an effort to make Erik laugh.


“Hi there, baby. Hi there, big boy. I see ya, buster,” the man said to Erik. Erik’s mom and dad exchanged looks and asked, “What do we do?” Erik continued to laugh and answer, “Hi.” Everyone in the restaurant noticed the man who was creating a nuisance with the beautiful baby. Their meal came and the man began shouting from across the room, “Do ya patty cake? Do you know peek-a-boo? Hey, look, he knows peek- a-boo.” Nobody thought the old man was cute. He was obviously drunk.

Erik’s parents were embarrassed and ate in silence. Not Erik. He was running through his repertoire for the admiring skid row bum, who in turn, reciprocated with his cute comments. The parents finally got through the meal and headed for the door. The husband went to pay the check and told his wife to meet him in the parking lot. The old man sat poised between the mother and the door. “Lord, just let me out of here before he speaks to me or Erik,” she prayed. As she drew closer to the man, she turned her back trying to sidestep him and avoid any air he might be breathing. As she did, Erik leaned over her arm, reaching with both arms in a baby’s “pick-me-up” position. Before the mom could stop him, Erik had propelled himself from her arms to the man’s.

Suddenly a very old smelly man and a very young baby consummated their love and kinship. Erik in an act of total trust, love, and submission laid his tiny head on the man’s ragged shoulder. The man’s eyes closed, and tears hovered beneath his lashes. His aged hands full of grime, pain, and hard labor, cradled the baby and gently stroked his back.

No two beings have ever loved so deeply for so short a time. The mother and every other person in the restaurant were awestruck. The old man rocked and cradled Erik in his arms and his eyes opened and in a firm and even commanding voice said, “You take care of this baby.” Somehow the mother managed, “I will” from a throat choked with emotion.

He pried Erik from his chest, lovingly and longingly, as though he were in pain. The mom took her baby and the man said, “God bless you, ma’am, you’ve given me my Christmas gift.” With Erik in her arms, the mom ran for the car. Her husband was wondering why his wife was crying and holding Erik so tightly saying, “My God, my God, forgive me.” Everyone had just witnessed Christ’s love shown through the innocence of a tiny child who saw no sin, who made no judgment; a child who saw a soul, and a mother who saw a suit of clothes. The mother was a Christian who was blind, holding a child who was not. }*

 

Re-posted from “Girlfriends in God” – Crosswalk.com

Every day God wakes us up with His singing…”Enjoy Me”

I wanted to re-post this from a while ago, I needed the reminder and I believe there are others who visit here that need it too!

Enjoy HIM today.

 

 

We live in a love story.  We are created for romance and we have an insatiable capacity for it. Now, God gave us such a heart; it was one of his first gifts to us.

Then he gives to us this world that is so breathtakingly beautiful.

sunrise

You see it in the fact that he made grass just firm enough that it stands up straight like a carpet, but not too firm that it hurts you when you run on it with bare feet.

running through grass

And he makes snow just firm enough for snowballs and sledging, but not so firm that it hurts us when it falls; it falls so softly.

snow falling

He makes birds and their songs just loud enough to be delightful and he creates our ear to delight in the sound.

birds

Do you begin to see the

tenderness and love

of God through all creation?

And then he gives to each of us those unique and particular things that capture our hearts, those things we loved when we were young and those things we love even still – horses, the wind, playing and instrument, the laugh of a child.

baby

He gave you all the things that you have ever loved, and all those joys that are unique and particular to you – the puppy you got when you were seven, your favourite bike, running barefoot on the grass in the summertime in the evenings when the dew was on the grass and the day was still warm but the grass was cool.

dew grass

All of this is the love of God wooing you.  Some of you found the romance of God at the beach.

beach

Some of you found it on the rivers or in the meadows. Some of you found it in books.

canoeing

All that has ever stirred your heart, that was God romancing you.

Turn your face into it…that is what HE wants. Turn your face into the things that bring romance to your hearts.  Give it over to Him.

woman-basking-in-sun

That is how you experience the love of God.*

*extract from Love and War by John & Stasi Eldredge

unlocking the fullness of life

Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity.

It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend.

Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow.

(anon)

uganda

 

I had the blues because I had no shoes until upon the street,

I met a man who had no feet.

{Denis Waitley}

uganda2

It is Gratitude that compels us to head to Uganda in just under 6 weeks.

*

Gratitude for the extraordinary life we enjoy here in Australia.

Gratitude that we were born in this country, where abundant food, water and utilities make life easy.

Gratitude that we have the best health system in the world. That our children will not die of preventable diseases.

GRATITUDE FOR FREEDOM.

uganda1

For a home to call my own.

We are only going for just under 3 weeks. Doesn’t seem like much sacrifice when we have been gifted with so much.

5 years ago today, my daughter was born….to another woman.

rar2

7 weeks after she was born, and 3 days before Christmas, this tiny, fragile, precious gift of life arrived on our doorstep.

She was so small that the hat that was on her head slipped down over her eyes. I got a shock when I took the hat off and saw a great big shock of dark hair! She looked so much like my second biological daughter that I burst into tears.

The caseworker handed her to me, along with one bag…all the possessions she owned in this world.

The relief carers who had minded her for 3 weeks until a foster home opened up for her had made a little booklet of pictures, and in it was a Christmas card they had written to Miss H about her time with them.

Our little angel had stayed in hospital for 3 weeks after her birth to stabilise until she was healthy enough to be released. There were no foster homes in our area available to her, so she was sent down the coast to a respite carer who was used to looking after newborns. The details of her early days are sketchy, but on the 22nd December 2006, our hearts broke wide open.

When our big girls arrived home from school, they all took turns cuddling her. I never needed to ask for help to feed, bath or change her – it was a fight to see who got to her first!

Her cry was so tiny…like a sad little kitten. (Funny how quickly things changed as she grew strong!!)

Her name means “Oneness” and “a unifier of people”. Her birth mother probably had no idea just how prophetic her name is.

Through this baby, we now have another daughter, her sister. We have relationship with two boys (her brothers) that we would never have met. We have had the pleasure of meeting her birth aunty and family. Her world is ever expanding.

rara 22nd December 2006

All I’ve ever dreamed about is being a mum.

I role-played it as a child, I dreamt of my home and family as a teenager.  I didn’t have huge goals in life on leaving high school – I just wanted to be married to my sweetheart and raise a family.

I wanted children to fill my home. My life.

Until I opened my life up to these children, I never thought I could love other people’s children like my own blood children. WHAT RUBBISH!

God simply enlarged my tents…spread out the posts of my heart and stretched me beyond my own capacity. He has taught me so much about love through this journey.

People are always saying how lucky these children are to be in our family.

 

They have it all wrong.

We are the blessed ones.

We are the ones who are magnified by them.

We get to learn patience, commitment, joy so big your heart thinks it about to explode, contentment in my role as a mother, and a knowing that what I am doing matters SO much to the heart of my God.

 

“We can’t all do great things,

but we can all do small things with GREAT LOVE”

{Mother Theresa}

The First Step

*The battle to transform your life begins with the first step. The battle for a great prayer life begins with the first prayer. The battle to a life of forgiveness begins with the first of act of grace. The battle for a church to reach its community begins with one act of compassion in the community.

THE ENEMY HATES ANY FIRST STEP WE TAKE TOWARDS PROGRESS BECAUSE HE KNOWS WHAT THAT FIRST STEP CAN BECOME…………SOMETHING EXTRAORDINARY.

The battle will always be for the first step. You see, the enemy’s power lives in one simple word: Regret. Regret stops us from “going and getting” what’s available to us. We must crush regret by taking that humble first step no matter how small it is.

I got on the treadmill and did a decent 30-minute workout. I didn’t set any records and I know I have a long way to go. However, this time I’m not going to allow myself to sit around and say, “When I’m at a better place in my life I’ll do it.” I’ve listened to that lie to long and it’s put me in a place of mediocrity. I’m going on the offensive by taking the first step as a confirmation that it needs to be taken right now! In any area of life, don’t despise the first step because it’s always the MIRACLE STEP.

*excerpt from Matthew Barnett’s blog.

YES I AM.

What song is speaking loudly to you this week?

You are not a weed!

Check out these gorgeous flowers. So beautiful, so colourful….and so toxic!

 

fireweed Fireweed

 

To license this image contact:
Lonely Planet Images
email: lpi@lonelyplanet.com.au
phone: 61 3 8379 8181

pattersons-curse

Patterson’s Curse

 

Fireweed and Patterson’s Curse – two weeds that farmers continue to struggle with in their paddocks.

 

But did you know that

a weed is

just

a plant that is growing

in the wrong

place?

What is seen by tourists driving along rural roads as a swathe of brilliant purple paddocks – glorious to behold – to a farmer could mean the death of his livestock.

I just want to encourage you today friends, you are not a weed!  You might just be in the wrong place!!!

Take some time out to think about where you are, what you are doing with your life…are you content? Does it seem hard all the time? Are there things you want to change? Does it feel like everything around you is toxic?

Find the place where you will flourish, and not be pulled up! It’s the best gift you can give yourself, your friend and your family.

 

Give thanks for what you are now,

and keep fighting for what you want to be tomorrow.

{Fernanda Miramontes-Landeros}

Do you really know what it is to be loved?

We live in a love story.  We are created for romance and we have an insatiable capacity for it. Now, God gave us such a heart; it was one of his first gifts to us.

Then he gives to us this world that is so breathtakingly beautiful.

sunrise

You see it in the fact that he made grass just firm enough that it stands up straight like a carpet, but not too firm that it hurts you when you run on it with bare feet.

running through grass

And he makes snow just firm enough for snowballs and sledging, but not so firm that it hurts us when it falls; it falls so softly.

snow falling

He makes birds and their songs just loud enough to be delightful and he creates our ear to delight in the sound.

birds

 

Do you begin to see the

tenderness and love

of God through all creation?

 

And then he gives to each of us those unique and particular things that capture our hearts, those things we loved when we were young and those things we love even still – horses, the wind, playing and instrument, the laugh of a child.

baby

He gave you all the things that you have ever loved, and all those joys that are unique and particular to you – the puppy you got when you were seven, your favourite bike, running barefoot on the grass in the summertime in the evenings when the dew was on the grass and the day was still warm but the grass was cool.

dew grass

 

All of this is the love of God wooing you.  Some of you found the romance of God at the beach.

beach

Some of you found it on the rivers or in the meadows. Some of you found it in books.

canoeing

All that has ever stirred your heart, that was God romancing you.

Turn your face into it…that is what HE wants. Turn your face into the things that bring romance to your hearts.  Give it over to Him.

woman-basking-in-sun

That is how you experience the love of God.*

 

*extract from Love and War by John & Stasi Eldredge

YOu are Already Valuable

I found this amazing poem today by the founder of the Brave Girls Club, a retreat centre and website inspiring women all around the world.

Melody and her sister began art retreats in the mountains of Idaho, and they offer courses for women all over the world who are ready to meaningfully and artfully move forward on their individual paths.

I would LOVE to do something like this here! Every time I see something worthwhile, I think “Wow I want to do that/make that/start that” and it just adds to the mess of ideas running around in my brain.

When I read this poem, I knew Melody had written it for me!….I hope you might find it speaks to you too.

 

prove nothing

 

I Made You

(a poem by melody ross)

I took a stroll and then a walk
A thought at first and then a talk
I said ‘just look how fast I go”
If you watch someday you’ll know.

I walked with blisters, couldn’t quit
No rest, no strength but not there yet
I knew there was so much to learn
So much to do, His love to earn.

I picked up speed and started to run,
I raised my eyes and spoke at the sun,
You see! I’m worth it, look at me!
If I do enough, someday you’ll see.

Look, I said, I’m climbing now!
I’ll keep it up and prove somehow,
That I’m a good one, you will see,
Someday you’ll be so proud of me.

I got so tired but couldn’t stop
I had to race right to the top,
It couldn’t be so far, I knew
I had to show what I could do

Things so bleak, a trail so rough
Wanting to prove that I was enough
Beaten down and cold and shot
But, what if I waste this chance I’ve got?

I climbed, then crawled when I couldn’t walk
A thought at first and then a talk
I’ll climb until I reach the top

When I get there can I finally stop?

Who told you that you had to climb?
Who told you that you weren’t just fine? Who told you that it must be earned?
There’s so much that you need to learn.

I loved you when you strolled and thought
You’ve always had the things you’ve sought
There’s nothing that you have to do
To prove to Me…for I Made You.

I know what you can do, you see
Just do your best and breathe and be
And stop the proving just to show
For these are things I already know.

Walk if you want and run if you choose
Climb if you must, you’ve got nothing to lose
But do it for joy , rest along the way
If you need answers, just kneel and pray

Do your best and know what’s real
Stop climbing when you can not feel
And turn and look into the sky
And watch the birds and how they fly

And know that every part of you
Was created with all that’s good and true
There’s nothing that you have to do,
To prove to Me, for I Made You.

valuable

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