Are results over-rated?

FMF: Result

Results are perhaps over-rated.

A memory of a Kipper Christmas book came to me – Kipper enjoys all the excitement of preparations, anticipation and fun with his friends on Christmas Eve and then settles down on Christmas Eve and wonders:

Which is best, Christmas Day or Christmas Eve? Presents, or expecting presents?

The result is the end goal – like Kipper’s Christmas Day – the outcome for which we labour and prepare; the finale.

Often the focus and the value all lie in those results. This is often a good and laudable thing.

The desired result can motivate us to work hard and persevere towards the result, the prize.

The problem niggling at me, is that we often do not focus on enjoying the process and end up sacrificing far too much, for our desired result and goal.

We are so focused on our desired outcome, that we forfeit the value of the journey.

What about you? Do you enjoy the preparations and the anticipation and find yourself feeling deflated when the goal is reached?

Or do you endure the preparation and relish the result and the completion of the goal?

Do you prefer Christmas Eve, or Christmas Day?

Or maybe you manage to do both, to relish the process and the results?

One can be tempted to put the desired result on a pedestal to be worshipped and acquired at any compromise or cost. We can forget the subtle truth that the ends do not justify the means.

image of architectural plans to build a house

Others of us have a goal, but realise too late the cost of the result and end up having to admit defeat.

Jesus tells a parable about a man planning to build, but not counting the cost …

Luke 14:28 TPT

So don’t follow me without considering what it will cost you. For who would construct a house before first sitting down to estimate the cost to complete it? Otherwise he may lay the foundation and not be able to finish. The neighbours will ridicule him, saying, ‘Look at him! He started to build but couldn’t complete it!’

Some can persevere towards a dreamed for result, and after a life-time of climbing, realise that the ladder they were on was leaning up against the wrong wall!

I remember working hard for my A Levels, having applied for University to study French and Business Studies. I did not get the results required and was disappointed, but years later I could see the wisdom and was grateful that God had steered my path towards who He created me to be. I did not have any interest in business and years later went on to train to teach young children, which I loved.

The scriptures tell us another proverb: –

Unless the Lord builds a house, They who build it labour in vain;

Unless the Lord guards a city, The watchman stays awake in vain.

Psalm 127:1

We may end up with the perfect result, only to realise it was not ours to have and it could destroy us.

Before I work towards a desired result, I need to ask myself: – Is it a good plan that we have, or a God plan? What will it cost us? Are we prepared to pay that price. Is the result to the glory of God?

As you embark on your journey, make sure that the process is full of abundant life-giving encounters and experiences and that the process and the results are all to the glory of God.

Wishing you all a blessed Advent as we begin to prepare our hearts to celebrate the first coming of our Lord to this earth as a babe, and to anticipate and prepare for His glorious second coming!

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 RESULT

I do read through my script afterwards to correct my mistakes; to check scripture references and to find an appropriate image to illustrate the topic.

To read other FMF posts on this subject click HERE.

Autumn Thanksgiving 2023

Thanksgiving for answered prayer in September and October 2023

There is always so much to be grateful for!!!

These bi-monthly posts are specifically thanksgiving for answered prayers during the two previous months.

I pray about so many things and one day in February 2021, I heard in my heart – ‘Why do you not come back to say thank you when I answer your prayers?’

Luke 17:

15 One of them, when he saw he was healed, came back, praising God in a loud voice.

He threw himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him—and he was a Samaritan.

Jesus asked, “Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine?

Has no one returned to give praise to God except this foreigner?”

Then he said to him, “Rise and go; your faith has made you well.”

So this is what I do – publicly – to give all the praise and thanks to God, who is faithful and good.

As prayers are answered, I log them in my thanksgiving book.

So, for September I specifically give thanks:

For enabling me to successfully restore the garden furniture

For 2 extra work-days in lieu of days off for the course next month.

For grace to strengthen relationships at work

For finally a chance to clear and clean the dining room

That the children were happy to return to school

That Chatterbox’s first day back brought in old and new families and carers

That I finished reading and reviewing ‘Unashamed’ in time for my blog slot.

For S coming to our church and being blessed

That the boys all had a great camping trip together

That S and I had a relaxing Sunday and time to talk.

For L & A finding a good flat in the right location

That J arrived safely back in Vienna and has a place to stay

That the refunds were both successful

That the statement needed finally arrived in time

For a lovely, easy reunion at J & P’s

That M&D continue to open their home for our home-group and that we started back with joy

For safe delivery of D’s granddaughter

For the amazing gift of prayer ministry to break long-standing, deep bitter roots

For inspiration and time to sort the kids’ clothes

That S managed to finally commission the boiler and got home safely

For a fun charity concert evening with S and many from church

That R, S and D and family now come to church

For letting me pray for, and for you healing T’s toe.

For my new volunteer and all the old faithful ones

For allowing me to think your thoughts after you

For the gift of dreams and for speaking to me in them

For the new pound rail

For new directorship and energy in the shop

For sending me K to lend me the scanner to copy old negatives and inspiring me to buy my own

For a lovely day out with kids to see C’s art exhibition at the university

For courage to pray for healing for M

For the improvement in C’s condition

Blessed be God forever!!!

And thanksgiving for specific answer prayers in October:

For inspiration, time and energy to let me help Gs to downsize

For giving Gs a bungalow so quickly!

That S fixed the downstairs loo and commissioned the heating in time for visitors

That I now have heating in my room!

For ideas, time and energy to make improvements on house and garden, do some plastering and to prepare fuel for winter.

For inspiration to speak up and effect change

For increased footfall already in this first week!

That C came with me to the EH seminars and for working in us both

That sharing dreams has enabled honesty and communication with D and S

For directly answering my question about overtly Christian messages – Matt 11

That S and I had a positive and productive week together in London and I managed to complete all the goals I had set.

For inspiration in London to make nice things and to meet up with P in Hanwell

For the honour of being asked to consider leading small groups in January

For inspiration and resources to make a lovely birthday weekend and sleepover for C and the kids

For showing me how to give a mother’s blessing

For blessed days of rest

For healing S’s ankle

For speaking into S’s heart and shifting her focus to blessings and what she can do to improve her life.

Blessed be God forever!

Thank you so much for your continued inspiration, presence and constant faithfulness to all who seek you with a sincere heart.

enjoying a birthday celebration together

‘In ordinary life we hardly realise that we receive a great deal more than we give, and that it is only with gratitude that life becomes rich.’ – Dietrich Bonhoefer

Once upon a time…

FMF: Season

Once upon a time, there was a shy little girl, who wasn’t in a fairy-tale, but felt that if only she had a fairy God-mother, she might become Cinderella.

She didn’t really like being at home much, there were too many chores to do – shopping, washing, cleaning, cooking and things like that, only without all the modern kitchen gadgets to do it all.

Her trusty tools were brush and pan, bucket, mangle and washing line – but she did have an oven. She was good with her tools and good at making tasty meals.

She complained about her chores though (it’s not fair!) and for fun she would escape from the house to enjoy writing, drawing and making things.

And she was a lucky girl, because she really loved school!

When the season of school – O and A Levels – was over, she felt a bit lost.

It was an exciting season of freedom though – of leaving home, leaving the UK and leaving childhood behind.

But she didn’t know what she wanted to do when she grew up!

So she lived abroad for 2 years.

It was a season of languages, travel, exploring her faith and looking after children.

Then she moved to London, back into a season of study – studying to be a teacher. Now she knew what she wanted to be and she eventually became a primary school teacher.

She loved that for a few years – back in school and able to bring joy and learning into young lives…

The season of teaching was also a season of motherhood. She loved that too, and though it was all hard work, it was her passion.

This 19 year season in London came to an end, as she moved into a season of marriage and a new home in Nottingham.

There she had an exhausting, but transforming season as a full-time carer of her mother (with early-onset Alzheimer’s).

She had a brief, disappointing season teaching again.

Another season saw her developing and making a business of her passion for photography – a life-long hobby.

After having to abandon a non-lucrative business, her next season was a painful season of ‘time-out’, of healing, writing and restoration, which resulted in a published book and a season of starting again.

(Of course she never stopped being a mother, and kept all her other passions simmering in her heart and life.)

She had a season of volunteering part-time and of working part-time, whilst beginning a courageous season of writing therapy and exploration which resulted in four unpublished books…

Then there was a restorative season of prayer-ministry training, grand-children and moving home.

For the last year she has been in a season of painting, decorating and building again. She is still writing, still taking photographs, still playing with children, still part-time working and volunteering…

Cinderella in a season of painting and decorating

So many exciting, natural and blessed seasons!

I’m so glad that it isn’t winter forever, and I’m also glad that it isn’t Spring, or Summer or Autumn forever too.

But she still doesn’t know what she wants to do when she grows up!

What will the next season bring, I wonder? More writing? Painting? Art-work? More in ministry?

I hope I can respond to whatever the Lord asks me to do next.

Isn’t life wonderfully full?

Our times are in His hands.

I’m so glad of that.

‘’Tis the season to be jolly, tra-la-la-la-la, la-la,la-la’

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 SEASON

I do read through my script afterwards to correct my mistakes; to check scripture references and to find an appropriate image to illustrate the topic.

To read other FMF posts on this subject click HERE.

Reblog of ‘The Monsters We Create’ by https://somebodylovesmeblog.wordpress.com

This blog made me think about the choices I make and what I allow to influence me and those around me.

The Monsters We Create

Striving to please whom?

FMF: Strive

I have a card which reads, ‘Stressed spelled backwards reads Desserts – coincidence? I don’t think so!’

I am looking at the word ‘strive’ in its negative sense.

Strive in its sense of stressed, self-effort, born out of a lack of trust in the provision of God.

We live in a performance-oriented culture and society, which praises busy-ness, achievement and ‘progress’ for its own sake.

If we are not ‘busy’, many of us (including me) feel lazy, guilty and like we are undeserving.

We have become what some have called human-doings rather than human-beings.

In meeting strangers, we ask their name and what they do, as opening introductions, rather than who they are, what they enjoy etc. I made it a point several years ago, to not ask a person’s occupation, but to ask how they most enjoy spending their days.

Whilst performance, progress and achievement are good and necessary aspirations in their own right, when we make them the basis of our self-worth, or to impress others, or to earn approval, we end up striving uphill towards a burnout!

Many people – inside and outside of the church – are over busy, over worked, over stressed and have no time for rest and for relationships.

But if we look at Jesus, He did not go racing around from house-to-house and town-to-town striving to meet all the needs that He saw in all the people.

The crowds came around Him and He comforted, taught or healed the blind man, or the leper… ONLY as He saw His Father direct. He went to the pool of Bethesda and healed only one paralytic who had been there for many years.

John 5:1-8

Afterward Jesus returned to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish holy days. Inside the city, near the Sheep Gate, was the pool of Bethesda, with five covered porches. Crowds of sick people—blind, lame, or paralyzed—lay on the porches. One of the men lying there had been sick for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him and knew he had been ill for a long time, he asked him, “Would you like to get well?”

“I can’t, sir,” the sick man said, “for I have no one to put me into the pool when the water bubbles up. Someone else always gets there ahead of me.”

Jesus told him, “Stand up, pick up your mat, and walk!”

He could have healed all the ‘crowds’ of wounded and disabled there, but we are not told that He did. Jesus did not meet EVERY need in Judea, Jerusalem, Galilee and the places He went. He would walk through a crowd to the one to whom He was sent.

He said specifically that he only does and says what He sees the Father doing and saying. He only does the Father will. How much more should that be true of us?

Personally, my default has always been: if I see a need, or a job that needs doing (and it is within my power) I do it. If someone asks me to do something and there is no direct impediment, I always say yes. And I end up too busy. My to-do lists can become my master, as I strive to tick off the duties on the list and am driven to keep everybody happy.

Sometimes I am overwhelmed and worn-out.

This is not what God wants of me or for me.

This is not what Father God wants of you.

He wants us to listen to Him, to use the talents and strengths He gave us and to DO the things He specifically gives you or I to do.

Many of us are too busy and worn-out. We carry the weight of the whole community and the whole world on our own little shoulders. Some end up burned-out – we collapse!

cartoon image of a business man carrying a ‘world’ on his shoulders

Many of us are desperately in need of rest – of true Sabbath-rest – rest for our body, soul and spirit.

God longs for us to take this rest. He designed us to be in balance. He designed us to BE ourselves, to BE in relationship with Him and with those He has given us, and then out of that fullness, to overflow and serve others in our wider sphere – to serve those to whom He sends us.

He does not NEED me to do everything in the church or in my community. He does not want me to be a one-man-band, striving to fulfill all the duties and responsibilities that belong corporately to the whole community.

He wants me to do ONLY those things to which He has called me.

The irony is that sometimes I am so busy saying yes to and serving everybody else’s demands of me, that I have no time and energy left and miss what God Himself has specifically called me to BE or to DO.

Jesus said, Come to me ALL who are weary and carrying heavy burdens; lay your burdens down and take MY yoke upon You. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.

Matthew 11: 28 to 30

Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

Ask yourself: How busy am I? Am I rested? Do I have time for prayer, time for refreshment, time for relationships, time to listen? Am I too busy?

If we give Him our concerns and only DO what He asks us to, we will live in harmony, in peace and will fulfill the destiny for which we were called.