Showing posts with label attitudes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label attitudes. Show all posts

Wednesday

3 More Coffee Mugs! - A Dose of Encouragement


Last Friday was my birthday.


If you hadn't heard you should read last week's Dose of Encouragement I'm Too Sexy for this Card and have a laugh.


So because 2 of our kids are living in different countries from us and the third was working at a Christian Youth event all weekend, cards and presents were arriving in the post.

Yes you are probably thinking that I got coffee mugs from all three of them because of today's title but you would be wrong!







Well partly right and partly wrong!


Our oldest son sent me Dvds

because he knows that Fred and I love to relax watching a dvd usually of a mystery or crime series
and both our sons love this series so they want to get us to love it too.







Our second son sent me a Taster Set of 5 bags of coffee


because he knows how much I enjoy my coffee and he and his brother enjoy trying out new coffees too and they know I'll always share.





(I know you are thinking - this is leading up to the mugs now because coffee and mugs go together)


No not yet!



I think this is the point when I should mention that Fred also bought me a present but it was quickly returned.

 Due to the fact that HIS idea of what indoor plant I would like was nowhere near MY idea of what I wanted to put in our house.

All because he knows I like the colour Blue!  (I've also blogged about that HERE)  







But then our daughter's present was


                                               (drum roll)


                                                             a mug.






Look at that happy face!


That is the face I had for the dvds and the bags of coffee as well.


But not the face I had for the plant.


Fred did not hear the happy voice and thank you's that the kids heard about their presents.


No he got a

                            "I can't believe you bought me that thing" 

                                                                                                face and voice.


You see it was obvious to me that he had just gone into the supermarket (3 mins drive from our house) to get something and spotted the plant and decided to buy it because he did not have a gift for me.


Now in all fairness to me, Fred had asked me what I wanted for my birthday a couple of months ago and I said I wanted to go away for a few days.  He had agreed but things don't always go as planned and he had his bout with food poisoning and two trips abroad with work and then was again not feeling too good so there had been no trip in the end.


And that plant was not a good enough substitute: given that I didn't like it and it was too big to put anywhere in the house.


All I could say was:

                 Look at the mug Linda sent me.

                        It suits me exactly.

                                She knows what I like.

                                       She pays attention when I say something.



You see a few weeks ago I had noticed that two of my mugs were getting rather faded and it was hard to read what was written on them


The one on the left says MUM & the one on the right says MOTHER


I mentioned about the mugs saying that the mum and mother were very faded so perhaps it would soon be time to get a replacement one with grandma on it (hint, hint) and Linda immediately thought that she would get me a mug to replace these ones.


Well she told me later that she had to get me one with mother on it as she wasn't in the position to get me one with Grandma yet.


Linda also designed the mug herself.


Not only did the mug have Mother on it but it had butterflies and they were blue - my favourite colour!  -  but of course you know that by now.

If you didn't know that I love butterflies then you should read  "I was Going to Miss the Butterflies"






If you could see closer in to the picture of me with the mug you would also see that there is something else written on the other side of the mug.


Mother knows best.



And oh did I think that I did!



But I was wrong.




Because the next day I discovered that Fred had been planning to get me something else all along 


It was exactly what I had wanted but I had not asked for it.

He had been listening to me when I talked about this months ago.




I told him that he shouldn't have kept it a secret so I wouldn't have been annoyed at him.  

But he didn't see it like that.

He saw it as a surprise for me not a secret.

He knew I would love it.


Nothing to do with BLUE or with MUGS.









How many times do we think we know what is happening?

How many times do we think we know best because of our view of a situation?

How many times do we get it wrong?

How many times do we look back on something and realise that God was planning something that we could not see, or that we could not understand because we did not see what He saw or know what He knew.

We don't know everything; only God does.

We don't know what is best; only God does.

How many times do we turn to Him with the wrong attitude and ask why something hasn't happened yet?

How many times do we think we know the best time and way for our prayers to be answered?

How many times do we think He wasn't listening to us?


I am guilty of all of this as well as the attitude I took on my birthday.

Are there any of us who are not guilty of behaving like this toward God at times?


Thankfully God is ready to forgive our attitudes just like Fred was ready to forgive mine.





I think I'm turning into my father! - A Dose of Encouragement




I know, I know, that sounds ridiculous:


          how can a girl turn into her father?






Well the thing is I can remember well the times years ago when my father would need to buy something new and we would get annoyed at his choices.

Basically because he hadn't made any new choices.

You see I remember the day my dad came in and showed me a new tie he had bought and I was very bewildered because I was sure that I had seen that same tie often; 


tied around his neck.

I was right he had simply gone out and got himself the exact same tie.







Why had he done that?

Well his response was that the other one had started to fray a little.

Yes, if the tie was fraying then it probably was time to pop it in the bin and maybe even a good reason to go buy another one but not to buy one the same surely.  However my father was very pleased that he had managed to get the same tie.


Then I remember the shoes he liked to buy, & the sweaters; practically the exact same each time. 

When he needed anything he liked to get the same as he had before.  


I'm sure it was a relief to my mum that he was not that interested in buying furniture for the house so she got to go pick that and we did not have something just like the previous one.

There was one main exception; he did not get the same car each time.   But I think that had more to do with the fact that he felt he didn't know as much about cars as my brother-in-law did, so he would take his advice on that issue.



So have you guessed it yet?







Why I say I'm turning into my father?



I love to wear slippers around the house.
 


As soon as I get home I take off my shoes and on go the slippers. Due to the situation of where we live now and the fact that I am not working, I do spend a lot of time in the house so I have slippers on for many hours each day.


What have I discovered?

In the last 3 years since we moved to this area I have gone to the same shop and bought the same slippers on several occasions.  The last two times I bought two pairs at the same time.  I don't just mean the same style of slippers, or the same make of slippers; I mean the same make, style, pattern and colour (blue of course).

It actually started before we moved here, while we were still living in Belgium.
For the last few years there I had bought the same slippers each time (not the same as here though).  I just got to the stage where when I found a really comfortable pair of slippers at a reasonable price then why go looking for any others. 


And It's not only the slippers.

No it has now progressed to my shoes.  

I discovered a very comfortable pair of black shoes and loved them so much that when I saw them in cream I got a pair of those also.  Since then I have bought 2 more pairs in cream and two more in black.  Hence when I am not wearing my boots you will find me in these cream or black shoes.








Undoubtedly I am turning into my father.


There is one time when I wear a different type of shoe.

  
On Sundays going to church I wear a more dressy shoe and I do have a variety that I can wear.  But of course as you already know, as soon as I return home from church I won't have the shoes on.

    I'll be in my slippers. 


There is a white top that I just love to wear and have worn it for over 10 years.

This top has v neck short sleeves and has a butterfly design to one side which is made from little diamante things.  It has always been easy to wash and only recently have I found that it is not as easy to get stains out of as it used to be.  I have searched but cannot find the same top - of course I can't when it is so old. 

 I just wish that I had got 2 of these (or even 3) because I would wear it with almost anything.  


Do you not agree that I am turning into my father?


I mentioned this to my sister one evening a few weeks ago and she laughed at me, but then she did agree because she remembered being with me a few years ago when I actually did buy two of the same black top (I knew that it was going to be a good one as soon as I tried it on and I was right).

She also remembered that just that same afternoon I had complained when I was in the shoe shop (the one all those slippers had come from) because I could not see the same slippers and I am down to my last pair - why did I not buy more!



I am worried now that I am not going to be able to get those same ones again.








I suppose we all have to admit that some things are passed down to us from our parents; likes and dislikes, some habits, some distinguishing features, some attitudes.
Unfortunately we don't always get the good attitudes, habits, likes, or features.  
More often we tend to pick up the bad habits and attitudes.


Thankfully we can't pick up any bad habits from our Heavenly Father,
we don't witness Him having a bad attitude,
He has no ugly features for us to inherit. 



No, our Heavenly Father only has beauty to pass down to us,

grace, mercy and loving attitudes that we can learn from

and only good examples of good habits to set us like forgiving over and over again.




Thank you Father for your love and all the great attributes we see in you and in Jesus.  

Help us to focus on these and grow to be more like you day by day.

   Amen.


I want to be able to see that I am growing more like Jesus and my Heavenly Father in all parts of my life.

Do you?