10 Things That Make Me Happy

I love quizzes, questionnaires and all that jazz.  Thanks Meredith from The Key to the Door for tagging me.

1.  The knowledge and comfort that Jesus Christ died for ALL my sins - past, present and future.  It's not up to me.  He has paid what I could never pay and my eternal future is secure.  Sometimes I don't think I will ever fully understand grace.

2.  Spending time with my wonderful man.  He is such a top bloke and I don't deserve him.  I love just being with him even when we don't have anything exciting planned.

3.  Going home to Albany to spend time with my family and return to my roots.

4.  Catching up with good friends, the ones who are your 'pyjama' friends as in you are so comfortable in their company.   Even a phone call or an email really makes my day.

5.  Travelling.  I'm so used to spending hours in the car that I really love it.  Road trips ROCK!

6.  Playing or watching sport, especially my Eagles.  I love the euphoria behind barracking for a team; it's totally goosebump kind of stuff.  It makes you feel united with complete strangers who you suddenly have something in common with because you go for the same team.

7.  Curling up on the couch with a good book or watching a DVD and eating chocolate.  Bliss!

8.  Bopping along to music - Christian or secular.  Dancing around like a maniac, singing in the car....good stuff!

9.  Going to the beach.  Whether it be plunging beneath the ocean on a beautiful day or just walking along the sand, dipping my feet in the water, the beach is truly a special place.

10.  Writing my book.  The satisfaction that I have finally gotten my ideas down on paper, and it is my very own creation.

It's hard to stop at ten.  There are so many things I enjoy and are grateful for.

I tag Amanda, Iris and Ronnica.

Friday Focus - Prayers For Rayssa

I've been sponsoring a Brazilian girl named Rayssa through Compassion since mid 2006, so it came as quite a shock a couple of months back when I received a letter from Compassion saying that I would no longer be able to sponsor her anymore.  The letter implied that Compassion Brazil had severed ties with the church which ran the project Rayssa attended, but was rather sketchy with the reasons.  All it said was that Compassion had concerns with the church for a while, and when the church failed to address these concerns, Compassion made the difficult choice to no longer partner with this fellowship.  They said they were worried that my sponsorship money had not been getting to Rayssa, and I wondered whether there was theft and perhaps false teaching happening.

I totally agree with Compassion's decision, but ultimately it is not the dodgy church that suffers, it's the children.  Compassion try and transfer the children to a nearby project, but unfortunately, in this case, there isn't one and so my sponsorship of Rayssa was brought to an end.  I still keep thinking of her, wondering what is going to happen to her now she longer has a sponsor.  Is she going to be ok?  Will she still be able to escape the cycle of poverty?  Will she continue to hear about the love and forgiveness found in Jesus?  Ultimately I know God is a big God, more than capable of looking after His children.  He graciously chose me to help Rayssa, but He doesn't need me.  I'm just saddened by the end of four years of letter-writing and I hope she knows she was as much a blessing to my life as the project monitor said I was to hers.

I remember receiving a letter from Rayssa (well, from the monitor written on her behalf) containing words which have remained with me ever since.  She wrote, Her family praise God for your life.  Wow!  I was floored.  God had used my life and the money He had blessed me with to bring good to someone else.  Money I easily lived without and hadn't even missed.  Yet, it had made all the difference to Rayssa and her family.

I know Jesus has a heart for the poor, but sometimes I don't know where to start.  There is so much poverty and so much suffering, even in our own communities.  I can't save the world, but I chose to try and help one child.  If we all help one child, imagine the difference we could make of bringing compassion in Jesus' name.  If you're lost as to where to start, consider sponsoring a child.  Don't feel pressure, but see it as a chance to show love and share with those in need.

God has shown me what a privilege it is to be able to give to brothers and sisters around the world who could only dream of living the life we lead in Australia.  I'm now sponsoring Wayua from Kenya and am about to write my first letter to her.  But although my sponsorship of Rayssa has ended, it doesn't mean my prayers for her have to.

To join in Friday Focus and share what God has been teaching you lately, click here.

Bible Verse of the Day

"Then the King will say to those on his right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.'

"Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink?  When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?'
"The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.'
Matthew 25:34-40

DIY Lantern

My friend, Rhianon, gave me a FABULOUS book for my birthday.  It's called Homemade: Gorgeous Things To Make With Love by Ros Badger and Elspeth Thompson.  If you like making something out of random things, then this is the book for you.  From decorated coat hangers, to natural cleaning products, to ipod covers, there is so much I can't wait to get started on.  Excited much?

A few months ago, my church ran Secret Friend again, and I decided to try making one of the homemade lanterns in the book.

First you need a jar (I used an old mayonnaise one) and a candle.  I got Duncan to melt the bottom of the candle and stick it in the jar.

Then I glued some tissue paper around the outside, stuck some flowers on for decoration, then tied and glued a ribbon around the rim so the lantern can be hung if desired.

The photos aren't great, but it should look nice with the candle lit.

Stay tuned to see what I will make next.  The patchwork skirt is looking very tempting.

5 Reasons For Gratitude

It's so easy to slip into despair and grumbling so I want to start the week on a positive note with five things that have happened over the past week to give thanks for.

1.  Nan has been transferred to Albany Hospital after nearly four weeks in Fremantle Hospital.  She still has a long road ahead with extensive physio needed on the leg which was operated on in order for her to get back on her feet.
2.  Cold and flu tablets.  I've had the flu since Friday night, and I'm thankful for medicine which takes away the fevers and achy body for me to still be able to function.
3.  Friends visiting.  We had two friends, Sarah and Reba, come up to visit on the weekend and they came to the Dally Show with us.
4.  A forfeited netball game.  I was bracing myself to play netball with the flu tonight since one of my teammates hurt her ankle last week, and if I didn't play, we probably wouldn't have enough people.  So I was very pleasantly surprised to get home and find out that our opponents (and arch rivals) Miling forfeited.  Thank you Miling!
5.  Being reminded that although people may fail me, God never fails, and to look heavenward.  Thank you Narelle from Moments for Mum for this post.

What are you grateful for this week?

The Pendulum: Honesty and Negativity

When Emma was six months pregnant with Eleanor, she rang me one day to have a chat, and during the conversation, I asked whether she had received much encouragement from other mums.  She told me she had received very little, and that most of it had been scare tactics from 'negative nannies'.

I was thinking, The poor thing!  I know how she feels!  You see, even though I've never been pregnant, I've received enough negativity from women a few steps ahead of me on life's journey to last me ten lifetimes!  Much of this has centred around marriage which I wrote about in Marriage 101: Post-Wedding Doom and Marriage 101: DINKs in the Middle.  Comments such as "The romance will fade," and "Wait 'til you have kids!" really get my goat!

It's not that I object to being told the truth, but the key word here is LOVINGLY.  I very much doubt whether some of these comments were to serve me.  I think they more accurately expressed the other person's jealousy and discontentment in their own circumstances rather than to lovingly prepare me for the next stage of my life.  When someone says something overswhelmingly whingy and negative about marriage or babies, to me it sounds like, "Suffer like I am," or "If my baby won't sleep through the night, then I don't want yours to either."   I get in my head that parenthood must be hard, but still I wonder why some mothers nag me to join the 'Mums and Bubs Club', yet then proceed to scare me out of my wits.  If it is so ghastly horrible with no positives at all, then why did they have more than one kid?!?

Karen from Hippocampus Extensions, who is expecting her first child wrote here, The other unhelpful thing is the pessimism and the “You don't know what you're in for” attitude. Ben thinks other parents do it because it's fun for them to watch the “newbies” squirm. For me, I really don't need it and I really don't appreciate it, thank you very much. (I also haven't figured out how to respond to it graciously either. If you have some ideas, please share.)

I appreciated some young women who married a few years prior to myself telling me honestly about the likelihood of conflict in the first year of marriage.  They weren't saying, "You'll definitely fight", nor were they implying that if we don't fight then we are freaks with poor communication skills.  They were simply warning me of the fact that it happened to them and many others, and if it happens, it's ok, it's normal.  When a friend who is now engaged asked me how our first year of marriage went, I was careful to share with her the good, the bad and the ugly.  I didn't want to scare her off marriage, but nor did I want her to think my experiences will be her experiences.  That isn't always the case.

I was getting quite mad with some people for turning on the negativity hose during Emma's baby shower and giving her a good blast with it.  They kept saying stuff like, "It's gonna hurt so bad," or, "Be prepared to have no sleep for years".   Honestly, I felt like screaming, "SHUT UP!"  Emma is not stupid.  She knows all of this stuff and had prepared herself as best as she could in her head.  She even had it written on her Facebook page, Looking forward to motherhood - all the joys and all the challenges.  Even though I'm childless, I kept trying to reassure her that she had the patience of a saint (she lived with me for over three years!), and that was a key ingredient required for motherhood.

Jean from In All Honesty has a great post here called 13 Ways to Discourage a Younger Woman which she followed up with How to Encourage a Younger Woman and be Honest at the Same Time.  On the first post, I commented, I appreciate people being real and honest, but there is a line, and are the motives to lovingly prepare someone for the next stage, or to kill off others' joy because joy is lacking in their own lives?

Yes, what ARE our motivations for being honest?

Let us not stop sharing with honesty, but motivated not by jealousy or discontentment, but love.

Eleanor

First Emma had a baby shower.

Now she has a baby. :)

Eleanor was born on the 28th July, and after visiting Nan, we cruised past another hospital to meet the Little Miss when she was just four days old.

Proud dad, Peter

My first cuddle.

She won't break, Duncan! ;)