FMF Prompt word: Heal

FMF Prompt word: Heal

17:05

A scooter for a 3 year old, not for a Nana-D!!!!!!

I want to tell you a short story.

Yesterday I was out playing with my son and my two young grandchildren. The children (five and three years old) each took their scooters and we went to a nearby city-farm to see the animals and play in the park there.

As we left the farm, I decided to encourage the three-year-old on her scooter, by playing on it myself and promptly went scooting down the concrete ramp.

I was aware in a split second that the wheel caught and I was flying over the knee-high handle bars towards the ground. I knew I had fallen, but then suddenly felt a huge force throwing my face towards the concrete with back-lash type impact.

I knew then that I was properly hurt and my son came rushing over to get me to sit up. Waiting a while, I processed what had happened, feeling very queezy and dizzy, when a worker from the farm came out and asked if I was okay. She knew I wasn’t, so between them they got us all indoors and somebody else took care of the children whilst they tried to sort me out.

Suddenly I was aware of a voice calling me to ‘come back’ and I felt afraid, because I didn’t seem able to get back, like I was deep under-water and drifting far away. I fought and came back to see a face I didn’t recognise and a situation I didn’t understand, but in a second or two everything registered in recognition, but I felt terribly dizzy and emotional. I clambered down onto the floor into a recovery position, as my body began violently shaking.

I was aware of ‘them’ on the phone to an ambulance, asking me many questions and trying not to drift off. I was very concerned about the grandchildren and about the trouble I was causing these kind people, who should have been able to get off to their homes.

The ambulance took me to hospital and 2 lovely paramedics handed me over to an over-worked team at A&E, who did tests to check I was not seriously damaged.

Dozing on a trolley, with a curtain between me and a man I could hear, but notHeal see, I knew in my heart that I was there to pray for that man. God showed me what to pray for and what to say to him, so over the next few hours we spoke together and God was able to minister to his heart.

Finally they cleaned me up and sent me home again, with warnings of how I would feel over the next few days, warning signs to watch out for and an admission that my face was too swollen to do a scan to see if the nose or bones were broken.

I trust that the bones are not broken and that my swollen, battered looking face will heal perfectly well. I felt so privileged to be there to pray for and encourage my hidden neighbour and will continue to pray for him for as long as the Holy Spirit brings him to my mind.

I am very grateful that my own injuries are superficial and should heal very soon, though I imagine the nose and face will turn a variety of shades in the meantime and will attract a few questions. I shall answer folk that the other fella came off far worse!

Hopefully, I will also think twice before showing my granddaughter what not to do on her scooter?

I also want to say a huge shout out of thanks and respect for the kind workers of the farm, who took their time and effort to see that we were all looked after. For the paramedics, who with grace and humour brought me to the hospital, and for the staff in A&E who work tirelessly to serve the needs of us mere mortals who occasionally desperately need their expertise and attention. Thank you all.

FMF – What do I know?

Five-Minute-Friday writing prompt: Know

3d human with a red question mark

go 21:16

What do I know?

When I was very young I learned that “I don’t know” was an effective skill to not get into too much trouble.

When one has learned that answering a question wrongly can lead to punishment or humiliation, one learns to not take the risk of answering.

It was somewhat useful, but like most man-made coping mechanisms, it had a down-side. It had unrequited side-effects, if you like.

One was that answering “I don’t know” let me off the hook of bothering to express myself, of actually finding out what I thought, felt or wanted for myself.

Answering text-book questions was a matter of memory, but for opinions, it was best to not know.

But I want to know, so I have had to learn these things as an adult.

There are some things that I would have said that I did know – or that I believed to be true for me, or believed to be objectively true. I would have said that God is Love. That God is good.

Some people say they ‘know it in their knower’, but this never rang true for me.

Recently I am rediscovering how, after nearly 45 years as a Christian, many of those things that I believed that I knew, I now realise that not every part of me does know!

My head knows many things – about God, the world, the Bible, about myself and other people – but many of those ‘truths’ are not believed by my heart, only my head; and are not known in deep recesses of my psyche.

One by one, as I continue to pursue God and His ways and continue to open myself up to know His unfathomable love; little by little the path gets a little lighter and clearer…

One of my beliefs is that one day, I shall see and know Jesus, even as I am fully seen and fully known by Him.

How amazing will that be?

stop

FMF – VISION

Today I write again for the Five-Minute-Friday writing challenge.

One thing I am growing to love about this challenge is the fresh spontaneity of association and all that flows.

This week’s prompt is VISION

Go –

Confession time.

One of the games I have played as long as I remember is eye-games. I like to stare at images and shift the gaze or close my eyes to transfer the image as a negative into a different space… Have you done this? It is especially good with light and dark shapes and images that somehow fix themselves onto the retina or whatever it is?

The other game is closing one eye and scanning the positions of all within my field of vision, then swapping eyes and looking how the view has changed. I used to try measuring the difference of shift too and seeing if it always matched the distance between my eyes.

Silly games, but they fascinated me. (they still do!)

photography view camera photographer lens hand blurred focus sun sunset sunrise lake concept

What we see depends so much on what we are looking for and what we have already been looking at. If I have been sketching, I see perspective, light and shadows; if cleaning photos with ‘photo-shop’ software, I would find my mind’s-eye cleaning up the blemishes as I walk along the streets…

When I spend time consciously in the presence of God, I tend to see my world from a heavenly perspective and approach it with hope and compassion.

When I read the Word of God, I see its application in the conversations and events of my everyday…

When my focus is on myself, my troubles and concerns, the weight drags me down.

When my focus is on the burdens and injustices in the world, these are the only things I see.

It is imperative that I bring my own concerns, the burdens of others and the injustices in the world to the throne-room of God. When I see the enormity of the power and love God, I see everything back in its true perspective.

In today’s world there is potential for information and sensory overload and overwhelm.

So choose what to focus on, choose what to switch off and keep your eyes on Jesus.

Stop.

There’s a great song there, and it is swirling my brain as my next ear-worm, I hope it keeps me focussed today –

Turn your eyes upon Jesus

Look full in His wonderful face

And the things of earth will grow strangely dim

In the light of His Glory and Grace.

My Anchor

this is such a beautiful poem by Fay Ann – so beautiful.
I love the shape and ebb and flow of the rhythm and psalm-like quality – wading through honest lament and returning to eternal hope. Be blessed.
Thank you Fay Ann

The Inspirational Room by Fay Ann Swearing

As always thank you for reading. I am truly grateful that you stopped by. Feel free to like, share, leave your thought or reblog. Until we meet again in this space…much love and blessings.♥♥♥

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Abuse of power

This is not my normal post and not something I want to watch, but if you do not know, please watch this video and pray for our brothers and sisters in Shanghai, all over China and in all parts of the world where power is abused.

Please pray for God’s Kingdom to come and for all men and women to know the love and laws of God and thus to know peace and joy.

Lord have mercy.

April thanksgiving blossoms

April thanksgiving blossoms

Magnolia blossom in Newstead Abbey gardens

As the daylight hours lengthen, the trees bloom and flowers burst out, my heart sings, refreshed and delighted:

Blessed be God forever.

I praise Father God for His unfathomable love, that He would want to save a wretch like me!

Thank you for calling me, choosing me and equipping me, and this precious reader, with quality seeds to sow and for all the subsequent growth, blossom, fruit and the harvest in our lives.

Blessed be God forever.

I thank God specifically today for all the fruit and answers to prayer during April.

That S achieved grade As and has blossomed during her time in the school.

That S finally wrote his article.

For all the families blessed by the 2 weeks of lunch-club over Easter and for all the amazing volunteers. For your faithful provision for this.

For the opportunity to bless 3 special people and to celebrate their birthdays with them.

For the creative ideas for the Sunday School lessons and great tasks to do with my own grandchildren too.

For the beautiful liturgy of the Easter Triduum, the opportunity to enter into it all and the rich revelations and blessings that came from it.

For my new Saturday volunteer.

For opportunities to bless specific S, E and J with a cuppa and a welcome in the shop.

For sorting out the upcoming weekend that I was unaware needed fixing.

For introducing me to new bloggers through the FMF community.

For other opportunities to grow relationships and connections with the beautiful people you have put in my life – for each one of them, family, friends and passing acquaintances – I am truly so gratefully delighted.

Thank you that I can bring their prayer requests to you and you answer those prayers.

Blessed be God forever.

For saving H in the accident, for sending the right people to get the van out of the ditch and for him still not missing the ferry!!

Thank you for S and those others who have said they will come to the banquet.

Thank you for leading me to the right counseling course and for opening that door and a place becoming available.

For providing for this.

That my presentation event was not cancelled, but went ahead and was successful.

For all your help preparing the material and for giving me Your peace, so that I could deliver the material.

Thank you that I even sold 2 paper copies of the book and made some lovely connections at the centre.

Lord, I am so grateful to You that I no longer feel the need to run away and hide – from You or from anybody.

For Psalm 139 and all the truths therein.

Thank you for Your faithfulness to me and Your great patience and mercy every day of my life.

That You know me better than I know myself and yet You still love me.

That You are my HOPE and my Healing.

Blessed be God forever.

Lord, I thank You for answering each of those specific and general prayers. Let me never take You for granted or forget all that You do for each one of us – that You care for those that we care about.

What were you grateful for during April?

Tortoise or Hare?

Five minute Friday writing prompt – FAST

I am slow coming to this prompt, as I had a very busy last week.

Go

This is a word that describes what I am not! In the tale of the hare and the tortoise, I am the tortoise. That said, I don’t mean that I win, or run a better race, but that I simply do not do anything very quickly at all. Fastidious could be a better word to describe my processing; I am usually thorough, persistent and concerned with getting it right.

I know it is not good to compare oneself, but we often do and I particularly notice when I am around people who do work fast and think and act quickly. My best friend was one of these – I would find she had finished a job before I had understood what the job was. And she always did a very good job! It used to bother me, but I accept it now.

On Saturday I had another example of a comparison with a person that could be described as ‘fast’. She described herself as ‘new to writing’, but had started ‘having a go’ with writing at the start of lock-down, two years ago. She amazed me by not only having written and published a novel already, but also having written and published not one, but 30, novellas!!! How is that even possible? But it is, it was and I hope she continues to get joy and success out of her writing.

I take my hat off to such people. My first book took me eight years to write and publish, and this second one has taken six years to date (and still counting, as it is still in its editing/re-writing stage).

But we are, thank God, all uniquely blessed with very different talents. Speed is not one of mine.

Another meaning of ‘fast’ came to mind this morning, as I thought about this prompt, as today is a ‘fast-day’ for me. It is also not something I am good at, or something I look forward to or enjoy; but it is something I have been doing in obedience for the last 18 months or so – it is another one of those disciplines that I do in faith and at the end of it, I am always so happy to have done it.

That’s all I can write, because my 5 minutes are up, and, as I say, because I do not do anything very quickly.

Tortoise or hare, do not compare,

just keep on keeping on,

plodding or flying,

until you get there.