Whatever He Says

By Belinda I was just about to check email one morning last week when the familiar Skype signal started up, with a message that Lijda was calling; Tante Lijda, my dear aunt in Holland. She is just 15 years older than I am and 9 years younger than Mum, her last living sister. She is usually brave; stoic--always exhorting us to "Hou je taai!" Translated from Dutch, that would be, "Hang tough!" or "Never say die." But last week she wasn't hanging tough; the circumstances of her life were weighing heavy on her. She was always fun, a party girl! I remember her always out camping on the beach with her family, or skiing in Austria, but this is a different season for her. I tried to encourage her, and Paul and I have been praying since that call. Then I spoke with Rob and Mum on Saturday, as I always do. Rob too, was feeling discouraged. He lives with chronic fatigue and chronic pain, which is getting worse. Everyone who reads this blog regularly knows how...

By Belinda I'm linking to today's post on my dear friend Dave's blog. Five year old Ruby's thoughts gave me much to ponder. :) Rolling Around In My Head: A Sermon from Ruby : For those of you who do not like posts with faith based content, this may not be a good one to read. It's a Ruby story that I really want to...

Note from Belinda: I read this prayer yesterday and again today--and then I read it to Susan after cell group, when we were having our "second cup" of decaff coffee together. I knew that she'd love it. She has a framed picture on her office wall of a little blond haired girl in a sail boat on a stormy sea. A fatherly sailor,with a weather beaten face; in a gray sou'wester, holds her close, as he capably mans the tiller. This prayer reminds me of that picture and influenced what I wrote earlier today, when I used the metaphor of ebbing waves to describe a lack of consistency and my desire to crash over the sandbar into the peaceful pool on the other side.  ( Susan sent me a link to the painting, which was done by American impressionist Robert Reid in 1888.  It hangs in the Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art in NYC.) Be bless ed by the beauty of this prayer. OH LORD OF THE OCEANS, My little bark sails on a restless sea, Grant that Jesus may sit at the ...

By Belinda A new month begins: November--the start of the "run up" to Christmas. I hesitate to use the words, "run up," but really; it is!  The sign was outside   Dutch Treats  last week, before October ended:   CHOCOLATE LETTERS are in! Yes, the "run up" has begun, with this  essential element of our celebrations, acknowledging the Dutch part of our family's heritage. I am "preparing for the preparing," :) by building in margins of time; plotting days off into my schedule, and practicing doing things before the last minute in all aspects of my life. Today is one of those days of margin. I began it with a generous, unhurried, soaking time in God's presence; orienting myself anew to his ways; his truths; his goodness--absorbing these gifts of his Life into my life;  putting First Things first. I wonder why I ever allow myself to drift spiritually from this habit; why I allow the pressures and busyness of life to crowd ou...

Today I commend to you a post from a place I love to visit and found myself at this evening. Perhaps someone needs the hope it breathes: “All Things Grace": Love Never Gives Up : "Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things." (1 Corinthians 13:7) "She begged me to stay, but I was ...

By Belinda We started the book  Holy Conversation  by Richard Peace last Thursday at cell group. Well at least we read the introduction and are ready to begin, but there's a slight hitch. This is not just a theoretical study! You see, the book is on "talking about God in everyday life." On the back cover it is described as "a useful guide to help Christians and secular people talk about the gospel in ways that are comfortable, easy, and mutually beneficial and enriching." And when we first took a look inside the covers two weeks ago, we discovered that we each had to find a "conversation partner! "  By "conversation partner," Richard Peace had in mind someone who is "not yet a conscious follower of Christ." We all thought the book sounded excellent when Jane suggested it. I mean we could all benefit from learning to express our faith without "Christian jargon," right? Of course! But each of the 12 sessions have hom...

By Belinda This is a post script to what I wrote on Monday, in my  Confession  post. So much more goes on behind the scenes of a "post" that doesn't get shared here, and you can probably be thankful for that! But in this case I have to let you what happened next... First of all, I set my alarm for 5 the next morning. In my blog post entitled Timely Counsel I wrote that I was listening to Stephen R. Covey's book, First Things First . In it, Covey defines "integrity"in a way I'd never considered before; as the keeping of the promises we make to ourselves. I guess the way I've defined integrity, "as a gap between what we say we believe and what we do," does fit with the making and keeping of promises to ourselves. Covey illustrated the importance of following through on promises with the example of his counsel to a man who was always emotionally up and down. Covey challenged him to get up a little earlier every day for a week. At fi...