Showing posts with label Memories. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Memories. Show all posts

Wednesday

Memories of Love - A Dose of Encouragement


I have been thinking about memories on and off for a while because I have been sorting out old photographs and scanning negatives. (A long, long job)


I have found at different times that my memories don't always match up with the photographs.


Have you ever discovered that or is it just me?






For example when I was 12 years old I went to Barcelona and because that was a very long time ago I only had a few photos and they were in black and white.

I had not looked at them for a couple of decades and unfortunately when I came to the packet the photos were missing and only the negatives remained.  Perhaps later I will find the photos mixed in with some others and perhaps I will never find them but at least I could scan the negatives.

How surprised I was while scanning to find that one of the pictures seemed to be the opposite way round but on checking the strip of negatives I confirmed that I really did have the strip the correct way in the scanner and was not now looking at the reversal of the photo.

I had always remembered that Monte and her mother were standing to the left hand side of the doorway and facing to the right

but in reality



they were standing in the centre of the doorway and facing left.


In the same strip of negatives there were two pictures of the Cathedral in Barcelona,
one of the top




and one of the bottom




Yet I had always thought I had a photo of the full front of the cathedral.

So it just proves that my memories are not always accurate.


Then just this past Saturday Fred and I went for a walk beside a Lake not too far from where we live and at one point we took a path that was rather steep so laughingly Fred got behind me and pushed me up the slope.

As he did so he said         "Does this remind you of anything?"

I immediately answered        "Slieve Donard"


Now a quick summary is in order here:

I met Fred in the early 70's but we were just friends.
A few years later we were both at a Christian Summer Camp.
One of the days we all went to a town called Newcastle to walk up a mountain
called Slieve Donard.
Without going into too much detail, 6 of us were walking along together when we came to a steep part and the 3 girls laughed and said we were too tired so the boys would have to push us.  They said they wouldn't but in the end
Fred did push me up the steep part.



On the slope of Slieve Donard I'm between the two Freds
the one in the centre of the picture is the one I married

So Saturday's reference was to that event in 1975 which will be 40 years ago in July this year.  (I have written about the same summer camp in a blog post last year called    What a Face )


Now back to Saturday.

We both laughed and probably both thought I was a lot lighter when he pushed me up Slieve Donard but at least he didn't say it.

Then I asked him  

 "Do you actually remember pushing me that day or do you just remember me
 talking about it throughout the years?"


And his honest answer was
     
"I think I remember a memory that I have formed because you have talked about it"


Now I had two choices here.

I could have taken the "huff" and been annoyed at him for not remembering something that I had from all those years ago.


OR


I could just accept that we had different memories from that day.

I chose the latter because I know that Fred does not always remember things the same as I do because he doesn't always see things the way I do and vice versa.

Yes even though so many of our memories have been formed together over all these years we each remember some things the same and some things differently.

Even things to do with our relationship?      YES!

Even things to do with our love?    YES!

Does this matter?     NO!  but sometimes Yes.

It shouldn't matter because it is just the way we were made; we are both different people and each day is different to each of us even if we share all the events of that day.

We have to accept that each of our memories of our love are different.
We have to accept that each of us will forget certain things about our relationship.
We have to accept that each of us will notice things in our lives differently.

Why?     Because our memories and our love are not perfect and neither are we.







However there is a love that is perfect.

The love of God is perfect because God is Perfect and God is Love.

God remembers every single part of our relationship with Him and his memories are perfect.

God will not forget about us, He will not forget how much He loves us.

God's memories of us will be perfect and when He reminds us of something it will be true.

God also knows exactly how we remember things and how we have felt through all of our life.

God knows how we feel right at this very moment.


God's memories of Love are unforgettable and you know what 

to God you are unforgettable too.







Is this not the way you want to be loved?


If you don't know this love of God please take a little time to watch the 3 2 1 video on the sidebar.




Friday

5 Little Touches to make the Bathroom Mine!


When we moved back to Northern Ireland from Belgium in Dec 2010 I was so pleased to be moving into a house with a light, spacious, nicely decorated bathroom.








It along with the good kitchen and the large master bedroom with a dressing room were the main attractions to persuade us to forget the previous decision of


"We do not want a house at the top of a hill!"



View of the town from our house at the top of the hill!


The Bathroom really did not need redecorating.


But you are probably like me even if the bathroom is really nice and attractive you don't want to feel like you are in someone else's bathroom; you want to enjoy being in your own bathroom.


So I had




that I added to the room just to put my stamp on it 
and none of them were difficult to do.



1.  Bath Door Sign


Now it is easy enough to tell anyone that the bathroom is the door facing you at the end of the hallway and they shouldn't get lost but isn't it nice just to have a pretty little sign on the door?

I went on ebay (as I love to do) and found some nice door signs and got three to match: one for my bathroom, one for the back toilet and one for my study.






This makes me smile even before I even go into the Bathroom.


This has two uses:  it is a useful bathroom sign for visitors and also a piece of decor for the room.




2.  Bath Pillow


For someone who loves to take a bath and lie there reading a book then a bath pillow is a great addition.

I had a plain white one that I had got a few years ago but it was starting to look like it was not so comfortable as a pillow so I got myself a new one.


One that makes me smile when I go into the bathroom and not just when I'm enjoying my bath.






This has two uses:  it is a useful bathroom accessory and also a piece of decor in the room.


3.  Candle Jar


I would love it if my husband was the very romantic type who loved to light candles around the house but I have to admit he is not and when I do light candles he is usually heard to say


 "don't forget to put that thing out before you leave the room"


I am also not the greatest crafty type person but will sometimes throw things together and that is exactly what I did here.

I had bought a large glass vase/jar thing one time a couple of years before leaving Belgium but had no real idea of what I wanted to do with it but when I saw that bathroom it sprung to mind along with the coloured sand I had bought another time and the kind of wood chips I had bought on yet another occasion. Of course I am always buying candles if they are cheap and as my husband is not the greatest candle lover they usually lie in a cupboard for years so I knew I had a couple of large ones and why not put those things together and have a Candle Jar in the bathroom.





This makes me smile when I'm soaking in the bath even if I have forgotten to light it.


This has two uses:  it is a peaceful nice smelling addition to my relaxing bath and also a piece of decor for the room.





4.  Conch Shell


We went to the Bahamas for our 25th Wedding Anniversary Trip.

It was one of the best trips we have ever had, lots of smiles and laughs and other things which might make their way into a Travel blog post someday or become A Dose of Encouragement post.

While we were there we saw some beautiful Conch Shells and I decided I wanted to bring one home so we packed it very carefully in our beach towels and happily it did not get broken on the journey back.

It sat nicely in our bathroom in Londonderry, Northern Ireland for a few years and then was in our ensuite in Belgium for our time there.

So it was a natural addition to our newest bathroom and there is plenty of space for it on the wash hand basin.





This makes me smile every time I use the wash hand basin in the Bathroom - Happy Memories.


This has two uses:  it is a lovely reminder of an anniversary with my husband and also a piece of decor for the room.





5.  "Believe" Plaque


I love to go into craft shops or little miscellaneous shops and one day I saw this





I couldn't resist it and it was cheap so I bought it and it was only when I got home that I thought about where I was going to put it.  I just couldn't think where it should go and it might have become one of those things that my husband says


 "whatever did you buy that for?"  


after it has been sitting in the kitchen for a long while.


But then one day while I was in the bathroom I realised that the inside of the door was one of the places probably most looked at because of the position of the toilet and the bath and I thought I should put something on it to make it less boring.  And of course the "Believe" Sign popped into my mind and it now has a home.


This makes me smile whatever I am doing in the Bathroom.


This has two uses:  it is a useful bathroom sign for visitors to make them think and not be so bored and also a piece of decor for the room.



So I really did make the Bathroom feel more like MINE because it makes me smile when I enter and I really enjoy my long soaks in the bath surrounded by happy memories and my things.









Now this bit of work for the Bathroom definitely had to be classified as FUNWORK and not HOUSEWORK because none of it was hard to do and I enjoyed the simple decorating and will enjoy the final effect for years to come.




Is there some way you have made your bathroom Yours?

Or perhaps another room?







Wednesday

Loving our Children in 14 inches of Snow!!! - A Dose of Encouragement


On 14th March 1993 our family awoke to 

14 inches of snow at our front door. 

 



Needless to say this was not in Northern Ireland, nor in Belgium but in the lovely village of Hockessin in the state of 

Delaware, USA.



The kids were young then and Fred and I were full of energy then too so as Fred dug down into the hard packed snow on the driveway and cut it away in blocks the kids and I used them to make an igloo on the front lawn.


Of course we could not form it completely to curve it in so it was an open-top igloo.








Then our neighbours (another couple from Northern Ireland) came out and we all went round to the back of our houses to enjoy sledding down the slope of our gardens which was a good distance because none of the houses had boundary fences or hedges or walls.  In fact our home garden just merged into the woods behind our neighbourhood or estate (as we call it in the UK).



We just got on the sleds and slid until we came to a natural stop, or an unnatural one where we ended up across the side cul-de-sac and up to the front door of another house (but that was mainly Fred).







That is one of the greatest memories we have of winter in Delaware.


Well last Saturday here in Banbridge, NI we had some snow and even though it made us think back to all those years ago, we could not even make a snowball let along an igloo in our front garden here.



Making lasting family memories is good for children.






Memories are great, especially when they make us smile or laugh, and they are something special that we have to share together. 


However we need to have spent time together to form these memories and these days I often look at the kids in church and everywhere else and wonder what memories they are building up with their families for the future while they are so engrossed in all these electronic games and gadgets. 









I am thankful to God for all the places we have been and all the experiences we have had as a family over the years but I'm also grateful for the fact that we became Christians before we got married and had our children so that God was a part of our marriage and family life together because that makes such a difference.


Are there any children in your neighbourhood or church who do not have the privilege of growing up in a Christian family?






Can we not find some ways of making a difference for Jesus in the lives of these children?



You may be interested in some other 
 Doses of Encouragement