Rejoice and be glad!

I seem to usually blog about things that make me annoyed, angry, sad ... it's just that when I see something like that I can't help but get my thoughts down. I've wanted to post about something happier for a while, and I think the happy something is in the pages of a very old book.

I'm referring to Pollyanna, a little girl who goes about life playing the "Glad Game". The purpose of this is to find something to be glad about in every situation. Yet again I find myself inspired by a fictional character. For example, when she is upset because it's raining which spoils her plans, she remembers the game and is glad it'll have to stop raining at some point as God promised He would never send another flood. Or even on the worst day of the week, "I can be glad it's Tuesday because it won't be Tuesday again for a whole week!"

Referring to my earlier reference to venting, what Pollyanna has to say about those, is that this is what makes it fun. If everything was good, you wouldn't have any game in finding the good amongst the bad.


Last night, thanks to a newspaper article and a couple of blog posts, I was thinking about adoption and kids who need to be adopted. Statistics given show that the people involved in adoption agencies and suchlike aren't getting enough kids adopted, or maybe trying too hard to find the perfect family. Or in other cases, people simply can't afford it and hence those kids can't get a home either, and they don't have all the time in the world.


It also mentioned how it is less likely that a black child be adopted than a white one, or there are other children considered "different" who families wouldn't even consider. But, as I also read last night, we can be glad that they are all special in God's eyes:

"Jesus loves the little children
all the children of the world
red, brown, yellow, black and white
all are precious in His sight
Jesus died for all the children of the world."

I'm not saying I see everyone as equal straight off, because I have to admit even I'm not perfect. Sometimes it seems glaringly obvious, and I have to remind myself Jesus sees NO distinction, and therefore that should be my attitude too.


Lastly although I don't watch much TV, I have been watching a bit of Tracy Beaker lately. This is a drama set in a children's home and although it's not the best lifestyle for a child, particularly one whose mother doesn't want them, we can certainly be glad of an imagination. Tracy always imagines her mother to be very special, beautiful, famous, talented, and most importantly a loving mother, who will come to fetch her some day. Sometimes it is easier to imagine things than to settle for the hard reality.

I'll finish with the theme song:

"I can make my world come true
all my dreams will see me through
doesn't matter what may come my way
believe me now, I will win some day".

Spirit of Christmas

There's something again making me want to rant etc! and partly about Christmas ...

Firstly this morning on the radio they were talking about online businesses' orders not arriving before Christmas. They interviewed some couple who had ordered online for their kids' Christmas presents and were now told it wouldn't get to them until after Christmas. There was some comment about "they've always got what they wanted before" so they "didn't know what to say to them". Well, my thought was, it's an opportunity to teach kids they're not always going to get what they want! I don't fully approve of the Santa thing either to be honest. On to something else...

This thought was brought to mind thanks to a blog post I read today, about how unfair it is that so many people are unable to adopt, and therefore lots of orphans are still living in poverty, some maybe being sent to an institution if not adopted. Are THEY going to get what they want? Do they expect it? No. Some will not even understand what Christmas is, and in this country (and other developed ones) kids are just spoiled. They expect to get what they want, without question.

I heard of this song recently too, A Christmas Carol, about a little girl who responds to Santa's question of what she wants with "all I want is someone to take me home". That's what those kids would ask for if they got the chance, and for those here not getting presents in time: It's not the end of the world. You'll get them eventually, but there are some kids who will not ever get anything like that. We've got so many blessings we take for granted, and while I am certainly not perfect either, it's definitely something important to think about.

I will say also that not every child around here thinks only of getting. The local papers have been a bit happier in the past month, with titles like "The true spirit of Christmas". This is about a young boy from up here who has cancer and considers himself one of the lucky ones as he will be home for Christmas. For this reason he started an appeal for presents to be given to the children who will not be at home this Christmas. And of course this has had tremendous support and despite not-ideal weather conditions, everything arrived!

Some people will have an enjoyable Christmas this year; some, through no fault of their own, will not. For those complaining, remember what you DO have. This Christmas, let's think of others and remain happy and cheerful just to have family get-togethers, even if we haven't got all the presents we want.

Walking in a Winter Wonderland....

It's that time of year again: Christmas is coming! As much as I'm sure we ALL enjoy all Christmassy things, I just want us all to remember, firstly the reason for the season: Jesus. Loads of people just don't know and you don't get much mention of Him, or of anything Christmas related, in the pantomimes and everything. I love the pantomime, but we need a good mixture.

And all those people in the poor countries who don't have what we have. I heard a talk from someone who went to Cape Town on mission recently and some things you don't want to know. At the same time, it was also proof that prayers do work, that through those mission people, and us who pray for them, God is changing lives for the better still.

With everything that goes on now I just want us to remember those two things. I think a lot of bloggers have written about those things more so recently.


"Crackers and turkey and puddings and cream, toys in the window that I've never seen. This is the Christmas that everyone sees, but Christmas means more to me. It's somebody's birthday I won't forget as I open the things that I get. I'll remember the inn and the stable so bare and Jesus who once lay there."


On that note, life is good and I don't want to write anything negative just now so .... enjoy the festive season!

We need a whole lot more of Jesus!

Nope, this week's not been easy. Being with typical teenagers talking about all these things teenagers do (I'm still one myself, but don't fit in with them.) is tough. But that's not completely what I'm writing about.


I saw an article in a daily paper yesterday, about a Christian couple being denied the opportunity of fostering because they didn't believe in homosexuality. Seriously, there were quotes saying their views were "out of date" and even that "Christians may not be able to foster / adopt in the future". This makes me rather angry as I'm sure it can do to many others!

The Bible is very clear on this issue: "Do not lie with a man as you would with a woman, for this is a most hateful sin." (Leviticus 18:22)Simple. We can't really claim to be Christians and pretend this is acceptable. Other things too, we are called to show God's love to all, no matter what. "Let your light shine before men, that they may see your good works and praise our Father in heaven." (Matthew 5:16) I saw a comment on a YouTube video the other day which was really powerful, saying how we need to get out there and let our "life songs sing for God", because "we can't just sit back and hope they'll somehow find a way to Jesus" and "if we don't, who else is going to?"

With this and other things, this country, and likely others too, aren't going according to God's will. There are a lot of things now considered "acceptable" which shouldn't be. As I said before about being among "typical" teenagers, they're doing things like getting drunk purposefully, or getting in trouble with the police. Do they care? No, doesn't seem like it. Added to that all that horrible language: I hate it if I'm honest!

Which brings me to Halloween. I'm not saying it's bad everywhere, from what I can tell it isn't, but here, it's too much. They're celebrating evil and though not intended, it's stopping some from worshipping God. Nobody shows up for children's Bible class Friday night: they all went to a Halloween party instead. No church service here tonight: they're all too scared to leave the house. Even though I wouldn't go out on Halloween generally, it is Sunday today and nothing like this should keep us from God.

Strangely enough I was just on Bible Gateway.com to find the references and the Verse of the Day is quite appropriate:

“Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings.”- 1 Peter 5:8-9

And the title: who says the Bible and suchlike goes out of date? These songs I'm listening to were taken off an old LP record from the 70's and the words are just as true today as they ever were:

"You can read it in the morning paper, you can hear it on the radio, how crime is sweeping our nation, this world is about to go. We need a good old case of salvation, to put the love of God in our soul, we need a whole lot more of Jesus and a lot less rock'n'roll! we need lots more prayers of faith, prayers that will move a mountain, save souls from a burning fate."

Struggles & Perseverance

For some reason October is often a hard time of year for staying on track in faith. It's probably partly, or mainly, to do with the fact that regular Christian gatherings don't run in school holidays. This is always difficult, but the early part of October has been pretty good since I went away to do a camp again - this time somewhere I barely knew anybody so quite a leap of faith, but so glad I did it. I don't think it was quite the amazing one here in June, but there were still times I felt they were at least asking lots of interesting questions. It's always good to see folk interested, and these are kids from a city rather than here, and some not from church-going families, although you find those most places.

Back home at church - I've probably said before the struggles with a small place with mostly older people, and an old-fashioned kinda setting. There's one preacher in particular who I find hard to listen to and never look forward to. This is just my opinion, but hearing about animal sacrifices and how we don't need to do it anymore isn't what I find useful. I'd rather hear something relevant to modern-day life. It's never easy, but I did remember a verse from James:

"Consider it pure joy, my brothers, when you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything."




* The picture was taken at camp and it was someone else who pointed out the cross. Now I see it, it looks just beautiful seeing the cross standing in a park with kids enjoying it.

ponderings on heaven

I've always loved music and wanted to be able to play and sing. Whenever I sing to myself, it sounds good and I was happy, but I have a brother who has more of an ear for music than I do and he always told me I didn't sound good. So recently I did record myself singing and yes, it sounded awful. Seriously.

Whether it's a good thing or a bad thing that it sounds good in my head, I don't know. Yes it's quite hard, but there was one thing that stuck out for me as good. One of my current favourite songs, the one I tried to sing, was "Better Than a Hallelujah" by Amy Grant. One line says "God just hears a melody".... so to God, even if we are the most horrific singers ever, well not to Him, I bet it's a beautiful melody to His ears.

This topic is also making me think of heaven. Since we'll have new bodies and everything's gonna be great up there, I'm sure we'll be able to do loads of things we just can't do here on earth. Another time I think of heaven a lot, especially lately, is when people say they're moving away. A while of sadness and grumping later, then I just realise what BLISS it's gonna be up there. There's an old hymn that says we shall never part again. I like to think it not only means no more parting from death, but also that we won't have to live far away, we'll be able to be together forever.

While I'm on the topic of heaven, it reminds me of one of the songs we've been hearing on Grandad's old LP records - many beautiful songs, but this one is called Will There Be Any Stars?
It's sung by Burl Ives

It talks about "Will there be any stars in my crown?" This is kind of a different topic from above, but the stars in the crown refer to good things we do on this earth that make God pleased. Whether it's really stars or not, I don't know, but they're little rewards, or something like that. Whatever, it's all gonna be good. But it does say that as much as we long to be there, there's things we need to do here first. Different for each one of us.

Still on this theme, another old song talks about "the good Lord's blessed the labour of these two hard-working hands and when all of life is over ... then these hands of mine shall touch the hands of God". Pretty much what I talked about before, but at the beginning of the chorus the singer belts out: There'll be a welcome there for me! And I find it really touching hearing words like that sung by people who have since passed into eternity and are up there enjoying this life at this moment. Same when I remember people say things like "my name's written in the book of life and someday I'm going up to be with Jesus", in no time at all, they're there.

That song brought to mind something else so I'll write about that too. It begins with "There are many things in life that I cannot understand". I'm sure that's true of us all. One thing about heaven that I've pondered without a productive answer, concerns those who died and were old enough to think for themselves, but for whatever reason weren't like an adult but more like a child and maybe their brain didn't work for figuring things out. I know it's simple enough for loads of people to understand, and I'm having a hard time describing what kind of people I'm on about, but I hope folks reading this will understand where I'm coming from. On this, I don't think there's really a concrete answer. So this song tells us, well we're not God and we'll just have to wait to know these things!

Does it matter?

Sometimes, people attract you for whatever reason. You admire them for being so nice, genuine, caring, meaningful, open, loving, or courageous. Or whatever you like or believe, people attract you when they have the same values. You know, it immediately turns you on when you hear they're a Christian, or turns you off when you hear they're an atheist. As judgemental as that sounds, and I certainly don't intend to do it, but sometimes that's just what happens.

Well, then you might find out something else about them that might make you feel differently. For me, that might have been : that they have been involved in as physical fight, that they swear, that they have had sex before marriage, or even that they're a Catholic or an atheist, supposing I've liked them in the first place. I saw something on my family tree recently in the dates that, if they are correct, point towards something wrong.

So what do you do? If you're human, you might turn off and your opinion of the person goes down. Or, what would Jesus do? Love them anyway. As much as I say I would do the same, I have had so little experience with some kinds of people that I wonder if I even would treat "different" people normally. Or if it's something they've done, forgive them. Or if their values are not what you'd agree with, pray for them. Sometimes that too seems like a tall order that doesn't seem like it will ever happen. I've started trying to pray for those on TV who I like for some reasons, but not for others. God can change people. "Nothing is impossible for God".

This song talks about that phrase in "nothing is impossible for You", repeated over and over, and although it's called "Healer", it can also be referred to being healed from sins.