Things Too Wonderful

Would you believe that my seven year old daughter had never seen a hedgehog before!  Squirrels we have in abundance.  Mice - too many!  Bats and foxes are common: she watches them from her bedroom window, but for some reason we had been woefully short on hedgehogs… until tonight.

I was washing up when I first saw him, waddling across the lawn as if out for a Sunday stroll.  Of course I shouted the kids straight away, and my son was first on the scene to give this strange creature a cursory glance before he said “Great, Mum” and returned to his computer game.  My daughter - the wildlife enthusiast, who has desperately wanted to see a ‘real’ hedgehog ever since she saw one in a picture book - was slower in coming down from her bedroom and arrived just as he disappeared under a thick holly bush. Continue Reading »

My young daughter had her first experience of The Deep End this weekend.

Not that she hasn’t been swimming before: but the pool we regularly go to is one depth all the way across, so she can stand up.  This weekend she opted to join in my son’s ‘Stupid O’Clock’ (7am) Triathlon training in a different pool.  She set off quite happily doing a slightly wonky front crawl, but stopped abruptly halfway across and when the coach walked back to see what the problem was, she informed him in no uncertain terms: “That end’s deep.  I don’t go deep.” Continue Reading »

God speaks in so many different ways.  Probably because we hear Him in so many different ways!  Part of my role in our Church is helping people learn how to hear and know the voice of God, and I love that when people open up and expect to hear Him they always do!

The wonderful thing about God is that He is the best communicator in the universe and He knows exactly how each of us hears Him best.

Think about trying to direct someone to a place they have never been before.  My husband likes to know the road numbers (I think that’s a man thing!), my Mum likes landmarks to guide her, while my Dad just needs to listen to the directions and he will memorise the ‘first left, third right’ etc.  I like to see a map and fix it in my mind before I set off… We all tend to have a best way of receiving communication.

And God understands that! Continue Reading »

Disappointment is not sin.

Definitely not.  It is hope deferred, which the Bible says ‘Makes the heart sick’ but it is not sin.  Which of us doesn’t get disappointed once in a while?  We live in a fallen mess up world and bad things happen and sometimes God doesn’t answer our prayers in the way we expect (or hope) and we are bound to get disappointed once in a while.   We don’t like to admit it, because, well we just don’t,but sometimes even as Christians we can get disappointed the way life is working out; Continue Reading »

I love the book of Habauk.  It’s only three chapters long, hidden away among the minor prophets, but it contains one of the greatest statements of faith in the whole Bible, and lessons you would pay a fortune for online!

Habakuk was around about the same time as Jeremiah.  Tough time in Israel’s history! It was probably at the end of Josiah’s reign or soon after.  Josiah had found the book of the law in the Temple, and for a while God’s people had turned back to Him and were living according to His instructions… but not for long!  They were back to their old ways: sin, degradation and a total disregard for God (sound familiar?) Continue Reading »

If you could ask God any question, what would you ask Him?

 I asked a lot of people that question last week, in preparation for a talk I was doing.  The vast majority of the adults I asked said they would have to think about it and get back to me.  They never did.

 The children, on the other hand, didn’t hesitate!  They had some great questions: Continue Reading »

My car is dead.  It was a terminal case of head gasket and cracked cylinder and a few other things (mechanics not being my best thing I am unable to supply the details)  but it has driven its last journey.  Needless to say, this was unwelcome and expensive news, given our current circumstances.   I need a new car. 

I don’t think I mentioned here that a couple of months ago, a very polite gentleman drove into the back of me while I was driving Steve’s car.  At least, I wasn’t driving it at the time so much as Continue Reading »

I have to say that as weeks go, this one hasn’t been the best.

• Steve went to another healing meeting, and as he lined up with the others to be prayed for the guy next to him went flying over, hitting him in the temple with his elbow and nearly knocking him unconscious.  Steve had a blinding headache for the next three days! And no, there was no miraculous healing for him.

• We had to cancel our family holiday to the South Coast because of the leaky radiator on Steve’s car.

• In an attempt to make it up to the kids, we decided to drive to the water park in a nearby city (in my car).  The head gasket blew and we spent most of the afternoon sitting at the side of the duel carriageway waiting for the RAC to rescue us. Continue Reading »