For His Good Pleasure….

It’s been a while since I last posted…I do think that is a good thing!  I am trying not to spend too much time on the computer,  including Facebook LOL!  I’ll come in asap, perhaps when I have something quite meaningful to write, and lets face it, when you have the LORD in your life, there will be something to talk about!!!

I personally have experienced this in my life.  At age 11 I would pray to God that he would take me to heaven rather than let me suffer abuse at night.  My prayer was never answered as a child but at the age of 30 I came to the realisation that there was a God who loved me so much he sent his son to pay the price..for me. I was admitted to hospital with a severe infection in my leg and as dr’s came and went and marked my leg whenever the infection spread slowly up…I put my leg in HIS hands..I really did!!  I was prepared for the worst outcome, but God saved my leg.   As my marriage started to founder I turned to my God and prayed.  It has been a while..but God has answered my prayers and my marriage is renewed.  Things are still hard, but less so..I have finally learnt to really, really trust God..to leave it in his hands.   There are many other unanswered prayers, and I especially pray for my church fellowship.,,.I love each and every member..and it pains me when prayers go unanswered and I see my brothers and sisters in Christ crying out to the Lord..on their knees, praying with tears streaming…

I used to ask God …well, I used to shout at God..”DON’T YOU CARE? DON’T YOU LOVE ME? WHY WON’T YOU ANSWER MY PRAYERS? ARE YOU EVEN THERE..FOR ME?”  and I would harden my heart and think to myself..God has left me so I will leave him.  Except I can’t..I can’t leave him.  Jesus has saved me, I KNOW THAT!…so I had to some-how seek God out, and find out what his purpose was for me…What does God want me learn from all this?

Well, I had to learn surrender..how to really surrender..Oh I could walk the walk, but could I talk the talk? Could I really, truly surrender these situations to him? It’s been a bit of a learning curve, but God is truly faithful and I love him!  He IS there!

I would recomend the book ‘Knowing God’ by J.I Packer. I’ve only been reading it for the past three weeks..yes I’m a slow reader, but listen to this ” We should not, therefore, be too taken aback when unexpected things happen to us now.  What do they mean? Why, simply that God in His wisdom means to make something of us which we have not attained yet, and is dealing with us accordingly.

Perhaps  He means to strengthen us in patience, good humour, compassion, humility, or meekness, by giving us some extra practice in exercising these graces under specially difficult positions.  Perhaps He wishes to break us of complacency, or unreality, or undetected forms of pride and conceit.  Perhaps His purpose is to simply draw us to himself in conscious communion with Him; for it is oftehn the case as al the saints know, that fellowship with the Father and the Son is most vivid and sweet, and Christian joy is greatest when the cross is heaviest.  Or perhaps God is preparing us for forms of service of which at present we have no inkling.

You know when I came across this paragraph (and I strongly urge you to read this book) my eyes just about popped out of my head!  I had gotten to that point in my life and like Mesach, Shadrach and Abednego I said to God…”I can and I freely trust you Lord to work all this out for your glory, but if not, I will still praise you, despite what I see and feel, even if you never answer my prayers (that was hard)  I surrender all to you…

That was the turning point.  God had been waiting for me to confess my complete helplessness.  Now it’s one thing to say..”I trust God, no matter what” and quite another to do it, to live it.

Wherever you are in your walk with God right now, He is there, he does have a plan, but he wants your heart, your whole being for himself.   As Paul says “Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me” (2 Cor. 12: 7-9) This attitude of Paul is a model for us.

You may be suffering in ways no-one else can understand,  I can only say that in the dark night of my soul, God was there.

Gas and Electricity payments soar sky high!!

Our monthly payments for gas and electricity  have gone from £57 a month to £82 and £28 to £43 respectively.  We knew that bills were going to go up but didn’t realise how much by!  So, as I job-hunt to help with family finances, we have decided to go without central heating and to wear warmer clothes indoors.  This should not be hard, Dave and I both grew up in homes without central heating, we had coal fires in the living room,  extra blankets on our beds,  warm winter dressing gowns and hot water bottles at bed-time.  We remember winters where there was ice on the inside windows in our bedrooms   We survived and always had a hot breakfast before setting off for school!   Now of course we have become the ’soft’ generation, and we can’t seem to cope without our creature comforts!   We think we will manage just fine,  our winters are much milder and not as cold so we will save money by not having the heating on.  Just need to go and buy some hot water bottles!  I’ll let you know how much money we save by cutting down.

My dear friend Sylvia over at The Christian Homekeeper (See blogroll) has started a weekly journal with a bible verse, and a devotional thought.  I’m going over to Sylvia’s place on a Monday morning and you will be able to read here what God has prompted me to write.  Please head over there yourself and check it out!  I need to think about what Sylvia has written and ponder more.

Much has happened since I last blogged: I added some more friends to my Face-book site, and made some new aquaintances too!

The summer holidays are fast disappearing,  I can’t believe it! We spent 5 days away on the Norfolk Coast, in a seaside town called Cromer…beautiful! Lovely clean beaches and it was a typical English holiday!  (That means our brollys came out frequently!) But we had fun, we sat on the beach, we went for walks on the coast, we strolled into town,  and most importantly we relaxed..and my DH David and I felt closer than we had done for a long time…God truly answered some of my prayers   ! I really felt the Lord’s presence with me in a very tangible way as I looked at the beauty of his creation and in my heart I was so thankful.  I am longing to be transformed by him, aren’t you?  It’s my heart cry every day, and my heart cry is for my dear son Tom who turned 19 while we were on holiday to know the Lord.  I tell you…I am so SO glad that God knows my heart for he does hear my anguished, silent pleas to my God for my son.  I have to learn to be patient in waiting and hopeful and have faith!

It is so quiet here, Rosie is asleep in bed, Tom is also asleep, and my eldest daughter is out with friends and my David is out playing at a gig in Rugby of all places!  He will be coming home in the morning..while Rosie and I are at church.   Then he has another gig in the afternoon, one that we’ll be able to go see.  It’s all much needed cash for us, as money is low!

That’s all my thoughts for now, see you soon!

OoohhKKKKayyy, have you ever read the book by Stormie O Martian?  The one about praying for your husbands?

Remember the bit about her conversation with the Lord and she was saying…”Lord look at HIM!…CHANGE HIM LORD!!”  and the Lord answered..”I’m looking at YOU Stormie”…re,member that?  Well…..I’m right there too now. I dare not speak because I know that my words will NOT be edifying and they will be crushing.  Maybe I am feeling justified in wanting to be angry, but I know that is not the Lord’s way..it’s not my Lord’s way..so….I am going to make him a nice coffee, go into his music room and smile….nicely, but not sarcastically.  If you have EVER been there, then remember me and pray for my attitude..that it be the same as Christ Jesus..like some-body mentioned on another site I frequent, go and wash his feet.   Good advice that..now if Jesus could just change me by snapping his fingers..that would be just great!

Well, dh has finally decided after much thought that I must get a job, perhaps a full-time one where I get after school care for Rosie.  Needless to say I’m not a happy bunny but I have to give this over to the Lord and do what my husband asks of me.  Perhaps this is part of God’s plan, I don’t know, but I know I must not grumble

It’s hard though, especially as I’ve been out of the work-place for twenty years!

you’ve forgotten your password!

Today I was hanging out some sheets and feeling the sunshine and the breeze..a perfect drying day, when I thought..”I just have to blog this moment!”   I am just SO thankful that I can do this..cook and clean and sort and tidy, and just enjoy my day!  What a blessing it is to be able to care for my family this way!

My dear husband David did ask me to try and get a part-time job asap to help with family finances but last night he thought better of it and decided it would be in Rosie’s best interests if I stayed home for now…I was relieved!  I had already started to make enquiries in town but wondering how it was all going to pan out at home!  I’m glad that I get to stay home…I just have to try and tweak the house-hold budget a bit harder to save money.

Now, I will try, try, try and blog more often!

My DH and I are trying to cut down our portion sizes, not only to try and shed some extra pounds but also to try and save on food buying.  Like petrol, food prices have soared here in the U.K and the government have said that it is not going to get better, in fact the fat years are being replaced with the lean.  Well, to me, I say about time.  We have so much now in the western part of the world, it’s plain greedy, just don’t get me started on the issue of poverty in the world   …I digress….

If I cook a main meal now,  take sausages for example, I will buy a pounds worth in weight and instead of us eating the whole lot (well, dh would), we are limiting our meat and having more veggies and potatoes.  The sausages that are left over..DH will take to work in some bread rolls with salad, that means..that he doesn’t have to go out in his lunch hour and buy food at the bakers or supermarket.  That means…we are saving money.  Tonight I cooked one of DH’s favourite foods at the moment..Oven-baked Thai chicken, and instead of eating too much, we have eaten enough, and DH has food to take to work tomorrow.  You see how making a few slight changes starts to help with finances?  Not only that but DH is going to be feeling a lot fitter as he eats less and cycles more!  It is extra effort but we will have a good return on our effort I am so certain.

We have two very long trips to make to pick up our eldest children from their universities soon, next week it’s a long drive to Middlesbrough, which is north as the crow flies! and then in early June, a drive to West Wales, the land of my fathers..well on my mother’s side at least!  So we need to think ahead and plan for fuel money for these trips.  And every bit of frugality I can manage will help immensely!

All this week I have the busiest of days, and mostly because I have been walking much more than usual!  I usually ride my bicycle, or walk when I take Rosie to school and bring her home, but occasionally I do use the car when my  husband is home.  Oooh yes, I do love that feeling of being behind the wheel, cruising down the road to town.  What normally is a 25min walk is a cool 7-8 mins in the car (I timed it once!).  Of course we all want the easier way, and I do love to drive the car, it keeps me in practice I feel!  But we are starting to make some changes around here.  On tuesday my dh went to work on his new, second-hand E-Bay bicycle bargain.

The soaring cost of petrol has made us work a little harder at living life every day…so I have been walking more, and dh has cycled for the first time in ages. He was pretty pooped poor man.  We’ve gotten used to our comforts.  Last saturday Rosie and I found out the hard way what it means to live in an African village without a water well.  Girl’s as young as 11 walk 4 miles every day to collect water..and not always clean water either.  The water these girl’s balance on their heads has to cook food, be drunk and washed in for the whole day.  So……I’m sure that I can do without a car.  I am fortunate to be in a community where I have every convenience, and a town full of shops just a short walk away.

Now, I know that my readers are mostly from the United States and that land is just, well…H-U-G-E.  I’m sure that the U.K would fit into Texas many times over! LOL…so I understand that you ladies will need your automobiles to drive the hour it takes into your local town!   But what I am trying to say here is that where possible….walk, or cycle short distances to save money!  But it’s a good way to live more wisely, especially if you live in the U.K!