Did I pray too Hard? - A Dose of Encouragement

If you read any of my blog posts last year you may have noticed that I have mentioned a few times that

 I am Petite

I am 5 foot and half an inch tall.

I was usually the smallest or second smallest in my class at school and the youngest or second youngest as well.

I was the younger of two girls in our family with my sister being 10 years older than me and no brothers.

If you have read the Dose of Encouragement entitled "What a Face!"  you will know a bit about how I started going out with my husband  (if not click on the pic. below).

But I don't think I mentioned in that story that Fred is 6 foot tall so you can imagine the difference in our heights but if not, just have a look at the family pictures on my about me page.

All of my life I have never been allowed to forget that I am small.

My grandmother was a widow from long before I was born so she lived with us and right up to her death (a year after Fred and I were married) she referred to me as 

"the wee one" 

and this has been something my sister likes to remember.

My sister also loved to tease me about how I would need a step ladder to be able to reach up to kiss Fred, when we were going together.

After 5 years of marriage I got pregnant and we were very happy.  



I did have one concern and that was 

"what if the baby took after me and was small?"

So I prayed that my child would not be small like me, especially if this was a boy but also if the child was a girl, I just didn't want this child to feel as I had often felt (see "I Am Petite")

When Jonathan was born he was only 6 lb 6 oz but he was a long thin baby so I thought that this might be an indication that he would not be small.  However I continued to pray and sometimes mentioned to Fred that I was praying about this.

2 years later and we had another boy, Daniel who was heavier and about the same in length and I had already started praying about his height also.  

Then 3 years after that we had a girl and Linda was the heaviest of the three but not just as long as the boys had been.

You can probably guess that I had started praying about her height too before she was born.

As they got older we did as most parents do with their kids; we measured their heights on a wall chart.  We laughed often as we would see Jonathan sprouting up taller and then suddenly Daniel would catch up and they would be the same height for a while and then Jonathan would be taller again, and then the process would happen repeatedly.

When the boys were teenagers it was obvious that they were not going to be short so I was thankful that God had answered my prayers about them.  Then it was not long before Linda was taller than me and that made we very happy.

When Jonathan stopped growing he was just a little shorter than his father but by that time Daniel was taller than Jonathan and was gradually inching above Fred.  Even in his early twenties Daniel was still growing and when he finally stopped he was some inches taller than his dad.  Linda is also some inches taller than me so just a nice height and not too tall for a girl.

So if you look at the picture on the about me page you will know that Daniel is the one at the back of the group (that picture was taken at his wedding last year) and you can see what a difference there is between him and me, not just 12 inches but more like 15 inches.

What can I say other than  

Yes I also prayed for the health of my children and their education and understanding and everything else about them and still do, but I also believe that God knows what each of us feel and think at all times and He does give us 

the desires of our hearts

Now I know I am not taking a verse out of context here and not just being trite about this verse. 

This was a desire of my heart, something that meant a lot to me and God saw this, but He also knew that it was not out of greed that I made this request, it was not even really for my benefit instead it was for my children.

The verse comes from this passage

3Trust in the LORD, and do good; 

     so shall you dwell in the land, and verily you shall be fed.

4Delight yourself also in the LORD; 

     and he shall give you the desires of your heart.

5Commit your way unto the LORD; 

     trust also in him; and he shall bring it to pass.

and must be taken along with the verses around it and if I was being selfish or greedy then I would not be living as the rest of this dictates.

There are three words in that passage and we must obedient

 to TRUST, DELIGHT & COMMIT

I definitely committed this desire to the Lord and He brought it to pass.

I am so thankful that God cares about the desires of our hearts.

The only thing is sometimes I joke with Fred saying that 

"Maybe I prayed too hard because Daniel is so tall now".

Have you taken the desires of your heart to God or have you just hidden them in your heart?

Why We Worship 18

I am taking time each week to ask myself "Why we worship"

Righteousness is the state of moral perfection God requires of us to be able to enter Heaven.

The Ten Commandments show us how far we are from reaching this standard that God has set us.  We know we could never keep all His laws completely.

because He is SINLESS

But we are SINFUL.



So it would seem there is no way that we can enter Heaven.

However God has a solution for our problem.




Jesus is God and is also Righteous because He is Sinless.

God has told us in the Bible that He will apply Christ's perfect righteousness to us imperfect human beings when we believe that Jesus is Lord and trust fully in Him.

The only way that God cannot punish us for our sinfulness is if we have someone to be our substitute and take on our sin and punishment which is what Jesus has done for us on the cross.

This is God's Plan of Salvation for all of us and it is a free Gift.
We just need to accept that Jesus has stepped in to be our Saviour.

So Salvation for us is not through anything we can do for ourselves but through the righteousness of Jesus.

Christ's righteousness is accredited to us and makes us holy before God.

I am thankful that there was a way for me to be acceptable to God because Jesus bore my sins on the cross and gave me His Righteousness.



I am also thankful that my Father in Heaven is Righteous and can never be found at fault.

Have you accepted this gift of Salvation through Jesus?

Can you worship God because He is Righteous and has made you righteous?

4 Accidents and a ...... (pt5) - A Dose of Encouragement

         

and  a  MIRACLE!

One Sunday evening earlier this year we were driving home on the same road on which we travel twice every Sunday to go from our home in Banbridge to the church we attend in Lurgan. 



The drive takes 20/25 mins depending on traffic but on Sunday evenings there is normally very little traffic on that road.  We were listening to some worship music on a CD and chatting about the evening's meeting just as we normally do on the journey. 

In the past 3 years we have become very familiar with this road and we know that at one part there are quite a few significant dips so that as you drive towards any of these you have no real view ahead.  The road is clearly signed to tell drivers about this in advance and of course there are also signs and road markings to indicate no overtaking.

 I am often worried about cyclists along this road as there seem to be quite a few in the area but it was not a cyclist we had to worry about on this journey.


As we drove along in the dark around 8.30pm and came to the slight brow of a hill before one of these dips we could see some light over the brow of the hill so we knew there were some cars approaching.  Then as we got to the top suddenly we could see several lights of cars coming towards us on the other side of the road but as well as this we could see a set of lights coming towards us on our side of the road.

       This is a country road with a very narrow footpath and hedges or walls etc. so usually no room to manoeuvre.  We realized that a large lorry (truck for my American friends) had been trying to overtake 3 or 4 cars and was still on the wrong side of the road; he had obviously ignored the traffic signs and road markings.

       The lorry was about the length of 2 cars in front of us & the only thing my husband Fred could do was to swerve in to the side of the road as the lorry tried to cut back into his proper side in front of the lead car. 

       Up until then there had been no break in the narrow footpath but at the exact place that we had to swing in there was a gap in the footpath and in the hedge because there was an entrance to something there. 

Just enough room for our car to get in out of the way as the lorry skimmed past us.

This was a big thing in our lives that day and we were very happy about the outcome.

This event was to do with us being thankful to God because of his hand of protection in what could have been a major accident and cause us a lot of injury if not death.

 We have been over the route again of course several times and there is only one point that there is room for a car to pull in off the road and that is exactly where we were when we met the lorry.

Obviously God had brought us to the right spot at the right time and saved our lives.

What a great God we have who knows where we need to be at all times and sees the road ahead when we are not able to see it.  He even knows when others will be breaking the law and cause us to be in danger.

We are thankful that our God works miracles for us even when we don't know we are going to need them.


Do you believe He can work miracles to have you just at the right place at the time you need to be there?

Do you believe that He loves you so much to be in front of you on your life's journey too?

Do you know His Saving Grace in your life and the sacrifice of His Son for you?




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Click Here for part 4

Why We Worship 17

I am taking time each week to ask myself "Why we worship"

Man thinks he is getting wiser year by year.


          God is not getting wiser year by year 

                                  because God already is wise 

                                            and God always has been wise.

 God has all the wisdom that it is possible to have so there is 

no wisdom that God can not have  -  He is all-wise.

No-one has ever had wisdom to match God.


Some men in the Bible were highly recognised by God, two of these being Enoch and Job but neither were as wise as God and neither of them would have ever considered themselves to be anywhere near as wise as God.


Solomon is always remembered for his wisdom which he had asked God for but even though God had given him great wisdom again he did not reach the standard of God's Wisdom.

Whatever wisdom we may have will always be imperfect 

but God's wisdom is perfect. 

We must give God the honour and respect He is due because of His Wisdom.

Have you let go of your wisdom and accepted that God is the only wise God and worthy of our trust and worship?

4 Accidents and a ..... (pt4) - A Dose of Encouragement

All because of a sack of potatoes!


We were on our way to a church youth camp in Fermanagh, Northern Ireland.  

Fred and I with our three children Jonathan, Daniel and Linda who ranged from 4 to 9 years old.  We would be away for a week so the boot of the car was quite full with suitcases.

One of the other leaders had arranged for a large sack of potatoes (free of charge of course) to be given for the camp and as the location was along the route we would be taking to Fermanagh, we were the obvious ones to stop and collect it.

When we got near the address we were met by the daughter of a friend who knew the location and I got out of the car to let her get in the front beside Fred to direct him up a short side road unto another road etc.



A short while later, having collected the sack of potatoes,   I saw Fred's car arrive at the end of the side road and stop to wait to be able to turn into this road to come back to the main road where I was waiting. 

Just then I heard a screech of brakes.

 A small truck with a trailer attached to it was making this awful sound as it tried to slow down approaching Fred's car from behind.  

Too late it jammed into the car and force of this knocked the car several yards up the road.  I ran up the little side road and when I got to the car they were trying to get out but none of the doors would open.

After some forcing we managed to get the two front doors open and Fred and Glenda were able to get out of the car, but no matter what we did the 2 back doors were jammed tight because the accident had pushed in the back of the car so much that it had crushed forward against the doors.   

We also had trouble getting the seat belts off the children and then Fred lifted Linda out to me & the boys climbed out through the front of the car.  

I remember yelling at the driver of truck that he could have killed my children but I don't remember that he said anything at all.  

Well everyone was out of the car and no-one seemed to be injured. 

Although the children had had a terrible fright they were coping very well; much better than I was.  

All I could think was  

"That driver had put my family in grave danger 

and he didn't seem to realise it"  

Even though I was not involved in that accident I have always felt that I was the one most affected by it because I was the one who saw that it was going to happen and saw it actually happen but had no chance of doing anything to stop it happening.


Later when the car had been towed off to a garage, we were told that it was a write-off because the force of the impact had pushed the rear of the car forward so much and had broken the chassis of the car.

We have often wondered whether having the boot of the car filled so full with cases and the big sack of potatoes actually helped to prevent the children in the back from being injured because if the boot had been empty it may have crushed in more easily and the truck may have gone farther into the car.

Regardless of that, we know that yet again God had been there and protected everyone in the car.


Do we realise what an impact our actions can have on other people?

I really don't think that driver thought about that when he was driving too fast he couldn't stop in time but I do hope he thinks about it now.


Do we realise what an impact our words can have on other people?

I really don't think that driver did because he didn't even apologise to us.  
Perhaps he didn't want to admit he was in the wrong because it was a car accident.
Or perhaps he was realising just what could have happened when I was shouting at him.

Perhaps  I didn't think about what impact my words can have too.

I am thankful that God protects us.

I am also thankful that He uses incidents in our lives to speak to us about our words and our actions.

Are You?



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Click Here for part 3

Click Here for part 5

Why We Worship 16

I am taking time each week to ask myself "Why we worship"

There is only one reason today that I could possibly include in this series.

There is only one reason that we celebrate this special day of the year.

There is only one reason that this is the only post I will put up on the site over Easter while we are visiting our son in Leeds, England.

That reason is 

That is the reason we are worshipping God today.

That is the reason we know we have a God to put our trust in, 

     

                               because He is a God who is Alive for evermore.

Today we have been at our son's church rejoicing as he baptised a teenage girl who also believes the Bible when it tells us that 

God is Alive

Is this what Easter means to you?

4 Accidents and a ......... (pt3) - A Dose of Encouragement

Who would believe that you could slip on a powder?

That's exactly what happened to my husband one night on the road between Londonderry and Strabane in Northern Ireland.

   The third accident!

Fred decided to go to a prayer meeting in Strabane while I stayed at home with the kids.  Not a very unusual thing for him to do but the phone call I got about 30 mins after he left home was very unusual.

Fred was on the phone from someone's house (we didn't have mobile phones in our family all those years ago) to tell me that he had had an accident in the car and that he was fine but he would not be able to drive the car home so I would need to come and pick him up in my car.

Then a man took the phone from Fred to reassure me that Fred was okay and in his home and he could stay with them until I got there.  I got directions and then arranged for the grown-up daughter of our next door neighbours to stay with my kids while I went for Fred and her mother seeing I was rather shocked about it all decided that she would come with me.

We had no trouble knowing when we had arrived at the right place because we could see the car lying on its side in the field beside the road.  

Around the field was a wire fence with cement posts.

All we could say was

How did the car get past the posts without Fred being injured?

Fred doesn't know the answer to that one either.  

As he was driving along suddenly the car seemed to slide and it spun out of control off the road turning over a couple of times and landed in the field on its side with Fred hanging there held up by the safety belt. 

The police arrived and told him that a tanker carrying powdered milk had spilt most of its load along the road a few hours earlier but it had been washed up and they didn't think that could really be the cause of his accident.

However the next day Fred went back to the home of the man who had taken him in that night to thank him again and to take some pictures of the car before it was towed away.  


When he got there another vehicle had had the same problem and had gone off the road through the hedge at the opposite side.

 A couple of hours later another accident happened with a car going off the road at the same spot and it hit a telegraph pole.

In the end the road had to be cleaned again because it was decided that washing up the powdered milk had left a slippery skim on the surface of the road.


3 cars were written off but all three drivers were unharmed even though they would admit that they had no control of their vehicles once they hit the slippery patch.

The only person who was in control of the situation was God and we are forever thankful that he kept Fred and the other drivers safe.

There was no warning; there was nothing to visibly see as the car approached the dangerous stretch of road.

It was not Fred's fault that he had that accident.

I have often thought of how we don't have any warning when the devil is getting ready to try to harm us spiritually too.  

However God has warned us in the Bible about the nature of the devil and his intentions  towards us so that we can be prepared for the attacks to come.  
God has likened the devil to a roaring lion hoping to devour us. 
Such a strong picture.

Thankfully we have a God who is all-powerful, stronger than the enemy and when He is on our side who can stand against us.

The devil certainly could not take Fred's life that night as the car bounced off the road and into the field, those cement posts did not harm him.

 God miraculously kept Fred from all harm.

Is God in control of your life?

Have you allowed Him to be in control?      

Do you truly trust in Him?

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