Views and perspectives

FMF:View.

Every Friday, I join an online Christian writing community, Five Minute Friday.

We are given a one-word prompt and write – unscripted, unedited, pure free-write – for 5 minutes. The prompt this week is VIEW.

I’ve gone on a little holiday.

I took a train up to Ayr, to join my sister and her family for a week, staying in a couple of caravans right next to the beach.

This is Scotland and this week the weather is cool, with dramatic shifts of sunshine, showers, storms and sun-bursts again and again. The children love it despite the weather, as there are many activities to enjoy.

But the beach – that is what I love!

I took two of the children off to explore the coastline, believing there to be a castle somewhere nearby, but not knowing if we could reach it along the beach, or if it was in walking distance. But the children were game for the adventure.

Armed with sunglasses, raincoats and carrier bags for treasure, we set off towards the beach and our adventure…

It was slow going towards the first headland, because they decided to hunt and collect ‘sea-glass’.

As soon as I was drafted into the search, I got distracted by my own passion for pretty coloured stones… My focus moved from dancing under the wide expanse of sky, to scouring the sands and drifts for treasure.

Looking for treasure during the first part of the adventure. Reaching the first headland…

Finally we rounded the headland and whooped, as there in the distance, at the next headland, was the ‘castle’ we’d hoped to find. There were still several minor obstacles and a whole load of beached jelly-fish, but we reached the castle rock and imagined the possible stories told through the generations of history of 16th Century Greenan Castle.

Delighted to have our hoped-for destination in sight!

Pushing them to their limits, I persuaded them it was good to climb up to get a closer look, since we had come so far; brambles and nettles tried to deter us, reminiscent of the tale of ‘sleeping beauty’, but we reached the top and were immediately silenced by the beautiful views.

views looking back to the whole length of our journey from the far headland

The view made the destination more than worthwhile, though the adventure itself was such fun and a memorable afternoon out.

There’s more than one lesson in that!

The journey of life itself can be explored as an exciting adventure.

Push through to your destination, despite the obstacles and don’t give up.

The nearer you lean towards God’s heart, the closer you get to His perspective – and from heaven’s perspective, the view is amazingly all-encompassing and glorious.

I want to enjoy all of my life’s adventure from a heavenly perspective. Do you?

Don’t forget July thanksgivings!

FMF:Forget.

Every Friday, I join an online Christian writing community, Five Minute Friday. We are given a one-word prompt and write – unscripted, unedited, pure free-write – for 5 minutes. The prompt this week is: Forget

There were so many things jostling for position in my thoughts when considering the word ‘forget’:-

all my experiences and understanding of dementia; the call to ‘forget not’ the wonders and commands of the Lord; and my own clumsy stories of forgetfulness; but the subject that won my attention, to consider for these five minutes, is ‘forget’-fulness as the reason for my monthly gratitude blog.

About 18 months ago, in the space of about 48 hours, I witnessed three wonderful, miraculous and diverse answers to prayer. Of course this was tremendously encouraging to my own faith and prayer life – I saw what an enormous privilege and honour it was, to pray and see the power of prayer changing lives.

But what struck me most was that I so often pray about things and then completely forget about them. When the emergency has passed and all is well, I forget about the sweat, anxiousness and concern of those moments and I slip so easily into taking for granted the healings, the protection and the countless blessings that have taken place. Sometimes I didn’t remember to even ask the person how the situation had progressed, for which I had been praying.

The emergencies capture my attention and I pray, but then I forget.

So I began not only writing down my prayers, which helps me to focus intentionally in prayer, but also every couple of days to reflect on what I was praying for and check in to see if those prayers were already answered, or need revising.

Those answered prayers are then recorded in a little thanksgiving book.

The practice of reflecting allows me to see the miracles, blessings and answers to prayer all the time and to constantly encourage me to pray more.

More importantly for me, it reminds me to stop and say ‘Thank You’. I always have this image of the ten lepers who begged Jesus for healing and were cleansed as they went on their way… but the one who came back to thank Jesus, he was made whole!

I want to always remember to acknowledge, notice, recall, remember and praise and thank my God for all the prayers He has answered every day and to never forget all of His benefits.

I like to do this publicly each month, to praise God publicly and to encourage you to not give up praying, and to keep looking for those answers to prayer in your every-day life.

My five minutes are over now, but I will take this opportunity to now include my heartfelt gratitude for all the prayers answered during the month of July – those specific prayer intentions, as well as all of those general heartfelt longings for loved ones and the groans of the Spirit, that I know He hears.

(I had not forgotten to do my monthly thanksgiving, but I have been extra-specially busy these past Summer weeks. It is too easy to let it slip and allow busy-ness to become an excuse to forget again.)

So specifically I thank and praise God for:

For help, ideas and blessings during the two Sunday School lessons

For the kindness, prayers and support of friends and church family during some difficult weeks

For the prayers for me for freedom

For your many promises to me, especially psalm 103

For the safe travel connections for my sons and for the opportunity for them to holiday together

For another powerful EH weekend training and for all the work You did in and through us

For a blessed visit and couple of days with J and V

For the dedication of the refurbished building, and for the dedication of K, and the blessed fellowship connections and gatherings for each

For showing me images and memories, and guiding me in my own healing journey with You

For a blessed trip to Cheltenham and laying to rest of R’s ashes and for the smooth arrangements and renewed relationships and contacts.

For precious times with grandchildren

For breaking strongholds and revealing truth

For J and J and their willingness to help professionally

For your Peace in the storms and for financial help

For a lovely party for J and S and all the precious guests

For a precious family day out together

For a blessed time of fellowship and connection with S

For faith, peace, hope in you

Glory to God in the Highest Heaven and Glory to God deep in my heart.

Don’t forget to say thank you.

Please be the one leper who comes back daily to say thank you.

I am a Prisoner

When we do not work together in love of God and our neighbours, this kind of division, oppression and injustice is allowed.
Love our enemies and allow no division, no ignorance and fear of the other.
Don’t be afraid to surrender control to God and allow and encourage FREEDOM in the hearts, minds and lives of all we meet.
Pray for our family members who suffer division, persecution, and unjust hardships that they may be comforted by the God of all comfort and be strengthened and emboldened to STAND.
Thank you Sonam for sharing this powerful poem and photographs.

Silent Songs of Sonsnow

I am a Prisoner
A Prisoner of someone
So strong and powerful,
They hold back my hand
When I raise my fist for freedom,
They twist my tongue
When I tweet for Truth and Justice,

I am a Prisoner
A Prisoner of someone
So Strong and powerful
They took me far off
When I choose to write for Rights,
They tied me and trialed
When I hold to Truth too tight,

I am a prisoner
A Prisoner of someone
So strong and powerful,
They looted my home
When I own the Truth and Justice,
They put me in Prison
When the world sold them Humanity.
By Sonsnow

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Building together

Every Friday, I join an online Christian writing community, Five Minute Friday. We are given a one-word prompt and write – unscripted, unedited, pure free-write – for 5 minutes. The prompt this week is Together

Our language is full of expressions and idioms promoting the benefits of working together:

• Two heads are better than one
• Many hands make light work.
• Coming together is a beginning.
• Keeping together is progress.
• Working together is success.
• Teamwork divides the task and multiplies the success.
• Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence wins championships.

On the other hand, we also know expressions warning of division:

• A house divided against itself will fall
• Divide and conquer
• No man is an island

The conclusion is that if we work together on common goals, we can together achieve great things, or at least can make great progress towards the goal, but if we are divided, then progress is severely restricted on both sides.

Of course living together in harmony, though it sounds idyllic in theory, it is extremely difficult.

It requires enormous love to live in harmony with other human beings.

Most of us struggle to love even a few human beings well.

We are most often judgmental, critical, lazy, greedy, irritable, resentful, impatient, controlling, self-willed, ungrateful and self-centred. We are unskilled in resolving disputes and disagreements… at least I am!

But there is hope, because God created us and He loves us. In Jesus He will recreate us and teach us to live in His divine love.

He will teach and equip us to be forgiving, patient, generous, encouraging, kind, persevering, preferring others. He will teach us to go the extra mile and to love as He loves.

Without the love of God in us, true harmonious love is all-but impossible.

We love because He first loved us.

When we love each other, even our enemies, with the love of Jesus, we can transform ourselves and our communities into havens of safety, growth, healing and transformation. We can usher in the Kingdom of Heaven. And others will be attracted to our loving communities and want to come alongside us, because:

By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
John 13:35

For this reason Jesus builds His church, and He calls us to help Him to build. As we invite others, by our acceptance and love, to be willing to grapple with each other to build our community of those who love Jesus and love each other.

He never meant for us to be alone in the world. He puts us in families. He puts us in His family. And He wants us to encourage, support and persevere in love in our family, so

let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds.

Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another–and all the more as you see the Day approaching.

Hebrews 10: 24-25

family and friends gathering for food and fun together

Can you think of any more idioms and common expressions promoting working together and warning of division and isolation.