29.Nov.2011 Pain

It would be so nice to live in a world of no pain. Doctors’ offices are full of people pursuing just that. Relief from physical, emotional and mental pain.

Pain hurts. We see situations of this from the beginning of time.

Many times in our desperation we try to appease our pain in detrimental ways. For example, Bathsheba attempts to appease her loneliness by sleeping with the king. The consequences were disastrous.

Painful situations can be short or long term. The latter is extremely depressing. In our coping we can tend to avoid the event as much as possible or we obsess about it. We can feel overwhelmed and it is difficult to focus on anything because of our emotional and mental numbness.

At this point, pursuing happiness is a fairly futile objective. However doing small things to keep the day moving, are possible. These do provide us with a sense of victory.

Even when bedridden, we can make the decision to think Bible rather than succumbing to a wandering mind. Over time, I’ve stockpiled verses that I speak to myself when life is tough – the Lord is my strength, I can do all things, be anxious for nothing, rejoice in the Lord always…

In the midst of pain, there is always the wanting to be out of it and the sense of fear. But meditation on the words of God combat this and provide that sense of well being that I crave.

Gods word is relevant to everyone. It is full of the experiences of thousands of people and their life with God. There are great role models to be found in these pages for our lives today that are yet being lived.

15.Nov.2011 Mums Leading Strong

Life is full for today’s mum.

For myself, I had my own music business, cleaning business and then taught at a school. When we started our church I went back to teaching piano. Because I loved church, I was involved in so many areas.

Because Dean believed in me, he regularly announced that I could do anything!

I made mistakes as a mum. There were many angry days and my kids knew it. And so part of my leadership as a mum meant apologizing.

Failure though does not mean that we stop leading our children. We must make adjustments but still lead strong. We don’t let guilt dictate our parenting.

As a woman, I did stress easily. Dean travelled, I often had to work, we moved overseas, we raised children without extended family and we have faced chronic illness. Finances were basically absent in the early years of our marriage. My mind whirled with worry.

However I kept in mind the importance of my children. They are our legacy when life is done.

My vision for my children – loving God and therefore loving family, church and people. They were encouraged to embrace learning and change, to better themselves and therefore offer help to others.

The boys loved their upbringing but know that it was not perfect. None is and we laugh at our shortcomings. But deep and real chats with mum, and fun and entrepreneurial ventures with dad have created great memories. Despite busyness, they felt loved and important.