God is in the detail (and the dishes!)

I am off to help at our Church morning toddler group today. We call it "Children in Church". The children come along with their Mums/Dads/Nans and have a story and play and then go into Church for some songs and prayers. At the end of the service they blow out the candle and go back into the hall for something to eat and drink and to play with all the toys. This little group is a credit to the wonderful lady who runs it. It has been going for nearly 30 years! My own daughter used to go and she is now nearly 26. Our Church is very old (11th century) and is now in the middle of several housing estates but overlooks a village green. Although like many other Churches attendance figures are down, this little group is thriving.

That's where I go to do my little bit and very little it is to - I do the dishes! ;) No matter how humble the task, it is all important work and part of the link. If I ever feel otherwise I read this by John Wesley:-

Do all the good you can,
By all the means you can,
In all the places you can,
At all the times you can,
To all the people you can,
As long as ever you can.

John Wesley 1703 - 1791

Thankfulness

Recently I have been praying, well I try to pray every day, but there have been a couple of situations that have needed extra prayer time recently.

The first answer to my prayers was an "all clear" result from the drs! followed by many prayers of thanks.

The second problem is so huge that my prayers have to be in bite size portions. I am trusting in God over this one and this morning I discovered (with the text message "ouch") that the first stage of a complicated op has been successful! Thank you God!

So often we remember to pray to God to ask him for help, Do we remember to thank him as well? I am going to do my best to find something to thank him for everyday! I have only to look outside in my garden, or to look at this view near my sisters house to be able to do that.

Thank you God!

Hanging on to the past!

This week we are finally sorting out our loft space. There is too much junk up there and hopefully a lot of "stuff" that would be of more use to others. A lot of the "stuff" is headed towards the charity shops where it can hopefully raise much needed funds for worthy causes.

Why have I hung on to so much? Is it because it forms a link to the past? A past where I was happy? Do I need this "stuff" to be happy today? For a long while I have been reluctant to answer this but now I have to. If we died in the next few weeks our children would have to sort it all out, if we moved house we would have to move all the "stuff" with us! In the end a friends experience of a leak from their central heating header tank, which resulted in ruining everything in the loft, decided us. Enough was enough!

Amazingly it is fairly pain free! (barring the resultant back aches and ralgex is pretty darn good for that) Storing up our treasures in this life is pointless! Using them to help others makes far more sense! Some bits I will have a go at selling on ebay/amazon in order to help towards the next family wedding but the vast majority will head towards our local Help the Aged charity shop.

Starting the day in a positive way

I could learn a lot from Lizzie, my sisters beautiful cat! She starts her day right, unlike me! To begin with before she tries to get up she readies her body by thoroughly stretching, then maybe a yawn, a slow look around to work out her surroundings and to size the world up and finally she makes a move and starts her day.

By comparison, I wake up and try to move too soon, my joints have siezed up in the night, ouch! a gentle stretch would have been preferable, why do I never remember? I now do my daily bible reading and this does calm me. Unfortunately I am then prone to launch myself into the day without any set plans. Chaos ensues! My husband often reminds me that "failing to plan is planning to fail" and that is very true.

Today I have gone back to my page a day diary, in it I am listing the things I want to achieve each day, I can tick them off and look back at the end of the day and hopefully feel I have achieved something with my gift of a day.

My substitute for prozac

For quite a time now I have suffered from anxiety attacks, part of cfs/me or just the way I react to life? My dr has tried a couple of medications but both had horrible side effects. Anxiety is a terrible thing, a feeling of intense fear, you feel as if you can't breath or swallow, as if you are about to die. The anxiety was often worse first thing in the morning so the answer seems to be to find the root cause and to deal with that.

The first thing I noticed was that my husband loved to wake up to sky news in the morning and often the news is bad enough to make even the strongest of us falter. My solution - to switch off the tv, instead we wake up to the softer tones of radio 2.

I still noticed that my mind would wander off worrying about all manner of things, I needed something positive to focus on. My solution - I had recently joined a group of fellow worshippers reading the New Daylight Bible readings series, instead of reading this haphazardly during the day (and sometimes forgetting) I make picking up this little and wonderful book my first priority. a reading from the bible followed by an interesting commentary and closing with a reflection or prayer.

Yesterdays was very apt:- Philippians 4:4-7

Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. let your gentleness be known to everyone. The Lord is near. Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.


Prayer:- God, from you all blessings flow.
Give us grace to trust in your power to free us from anxiety and fear.
Amen

First post!

The first post is always the most difficult one! I already have a blog about thriftyness, which I have unfortunately somewhat neglected recently in order to find the energy for this important journey, indeed on that blog somewhere are my hopes and aims and in among some new year resolutions is one where I wish to become a better Christian, volunteering more and starting bible study. Well what a journey it has been since then!

I am quite shy really but on asking for help at my local Church I have found such wonderful friendship and support. I now attend a homegroup with some lovely ladies, volunteer with a support group for youngsters with cfs/me (an illness I myself have), have joined the Mothers Union and have joined a rota to help with sunday school!

I still have so much to achieve and hope there is still enough time to get around to it all! This blog will chart my progress. Wish me luck!

By the way the blog title is one of my favourite hymns!