Stop & Let The Ducks Cross - A Dose of Encouragement

Thinking back to some years ago there was a Saturday that was just too busy a day.

Had to have a lie-in because it was Saturday and on Saturdays we have a lie-in followed by breakfast in bed unless we absolutely have to travel somewhere early.

Then preparation for packing for the drive back to our hometown for a family event only staying overnight but outfit for the event needed and then clothes to wear travelling, pyjamas, coat and of course all the things we will not leave without like the iPad, phones, etc.

Next came the Skype call with our daughter to talk about the notes I had made while proof reading her latest script. That was a long call well 3 calls actually because there was bathroom break and another break to check up on my husband Fred to make sure he was getting ready to go away and sure enough no, he was reading instead.
His punishment was to make the very late lunch but it was a very easy lunch to make.

Then the packing and the gathering up of the Sunday School materials & other things which had to go with us to be dropped off at church on the way.

A few other texts and phone calls fill in the gaps and we are finally ready to leave at 3.30pm to be at our first destination by 5.30pm and the journey will take us almost 2 hours. We actually needed to arrive before 5.30pm to get parked and walk to the location where our younger son Daniel's band was playing at a culture event in Londonderry.

Then over to my sister's house for a light meal and chat and introduce Daniel's girlfriend Suzie to my side of the family. Change of clothes and on to the restaurant for the Surprise 40th Wedding Anniversary Dinner for Fred's brother and his wife. Time to introduce Daniel's girlfriend to the other side of the family.

Back to my sister's around 1am and flop into bed.

At least we weren't driving up the road to Belfast like Daniel and Suzie.


There have been many days when it has been just one thing after another and I feel like I'm going through one stage just as the preamble to the next and so on, never really savouring each part of the day.

One such day was when we were on a trip to Belgium in 2004 to find a school for our daughter and find our way around before finding a house and moving there to live for over 6 years.

We were driving in an area near the airport and not sure of the road at all when we came to a lake. The road ran alongside this lake and it was the approach to a small town.


          Suddenly we had to stop at a zebra crossing.



                    What was unique about that then?

Crossing the road on the zebra crossing were a duck and 3 little ducklings.

We laughed hard at the fact that the duck was taking her ducklings across the road via the crossing, was she a very clever duck or was it just by chance?

Whichever it was it caused us to stop, be amused and it brightened our hectic day. I just wish we had had a camera ready for that moment but regardless of the lack of a picture the memory hasn't faded.
I often think of it fondly and remember how we enjoyed that simple action.

That is actually the thing I remember most about that short trip to Belgium.

We need to remember to stop and wait in the busyness.

When we are very busy we just go through the motions of everything but when we are forced to stop and wait at times we can find so many other things we didn't expect.

We can find amusement in a little snippet of life.

          We can find a source of peace and contentment.

                    We can find gratitude to God for the unique times in our lives that are so special.

                              We can find joy.

We need to remember to stop and wait a while with God in the middle of our busy days as well as in the not so busy days.

Not thinking about always sitting still and not doing anything else but thinking of always being ready to think of Him in all the busyness of our lives while we are in the midst of each of those busy days.

You know we don't need to let the busyness take over and swamp out our thoughts and prayers because we can still pray as we go, as we make the decisions that we face each day as we do all the practical, usual or sometimes unusual things we have to do.

In stead of having our minds dwell all the time on what is next on the list to be done we can be more aware of how God has said He will always be with us and that means even when we are busy, not just when we are sitting down saying "Ok God my to-do list is complete, I have time for you now."

He always has time for us.

Smile God Loves YOU! Romans 5:8 - Sunday Scripture

This Sunday's Scripture on God's Love is Romans 5:8

As I read through this one I thought of the 6 Question Words as I call them when teaching English as a second language.

Who, Where, What, When, Why & How.

So that's how I want to look at this verse today.

Who's Love?        It's God's Love.


Who to?      Us.  Everyone because all have sinned and come short of the Glory of God.


How?       By giving His Son to die in our place.


When?        While we were in our sin.     When we were separated from God.


Why?       There was no other way.      No other substitute would have been good enough.


Where?      On the cross at Calvary.


What does it show?      The perfect Love.    The perfect sacrifice.


Who is it for?         The Imperfect People.

The Perfect for the Imperfect.

The Perfect Father 

because of His Perfect Love 

gave the Perfect Son 

as the sacrifice for the Imperfect People.

The Best thing for Bare Walls - Organising My Home

Disclaimer:
I did / will not benefit in any way from this post

No matter where we have lived "Bare Walls" have always been a bit of a problem for me.

Fred & I have lived in several houses during our 40 year marriage and we have never been the type of people to immediately decorate any of them and get those family pictures or any pictures up on the walls simply because I (yes I do take the blame for this) can never make up my mind exactly what I want and where I want it.

Sometimes like in this house I have had little ideas each year but haven't even put all of those into effect until months or years later, if at all.  Of course it doesn't help that when you have been married for so long and lived in different countries or even just different houses, you have ended up with loads of items that you can use to decorate your home.

Through the 7 years in our present home I have taken different times to declutter my boxes of ornaments and other decor and have not missed having them around the home but have also gained a few things which I really wanted to have up on display (one of which you will see below).

This is a beautiful wall hanging given to us as a gift from the Korean parents of our son-in-law Pildu (Stephen). 

As soon as I saw it I thought about where would be just the right place to put it and could not make up my mind.  One spot in my hall was a bit too narrow to house it and another was far too wide for it.

Then just before Christmas when we were making up the bed in the guest room for Linda and Stephen to come home for their first Christmas with us I realised the perfect place to hang the gift was in the guest room.

The only other thing up on any of the walls was a large painting over the head of the bed.

So with a large painting on one wall,  two windows which take up most of another wall and a third wall completely covered with built in wardrobes that just left the wall opposite the window which has the door to the hall at one end and the door into the ensuite at the other end leaving just a nice size of wall in between to be perfect for the new wall hanging.


It was a brick wall.

My husband has drills and bits and plugs and always used them to put things up but this was so lightweight that he didn't feel like getting out the drill and having a large hook or nail up so he grabbed his new gadget called the Takker and we set to work which took so little time and effort.

I of course said "hold on I need to get my phone" at one stage, not because I heard it ringing or wanted to make a call but he knew immediately I wanted to take pictures for the blog.

Not only did I take pictures but I took some very short videos as well.

There are two types of Takker.       

UPDATE Or Instanhang as it has now been renamed.


One drills a small hole and the other doesn't - I'll write another blog post sometime about how we have used it as well.


The one we needed for this job was the one that drills a hole but it's not a large drill and it doesn't plug in or work by battery.

You do it by hand and it is so easy.

The instructions are clearly printed and illustrated on one sheet of paper for ease of use.

On the centre of the flat edge you can see the drill bit neatly inside, 

not protruding to catch on anything.

After marking the place for your hook or "Tack" to go to hold your object you simply line up this centre drill section with the mark and drill by hand - see the video below

When the hole is drilled, the "Tack" needs to be inserted and the red part along the curved handle is the hiding place for the Takker Tacks

Just pull the red part open and you can easily lift out the tack.

The Tack is placed into the round hole on the side of the Takker.

Then you can see in the video just how easy it is to insert into the wall

Now when I first saw the Takker and asked my husband what he thought of it he was quite interested but then said "Probably a hassle to get more tacks for it."

To which we quickly saw that quite a few tacks came with it and also some other larger hooks to fit over the tacks to hang other things.

Then also more Tacks can be bought in separate packs.

So far we have only used tacks for each thing we have hung up but I'm sure we will use the other hooks later.

So I put all of the tacks and hooks from both Takkers into a plastic storage box which is about the same size as the Takker Drill and now everything can be easily stored together in a small crate.


Also in the box you can see part of the other Takker  which is used instead of hammering a nail into your wall for small and light pictures etc.

This should mean as well as being easy to use it is easy to bring out and put away so that we do not put off the jobs we can now do more quickly & easily.

Now back to the Korean Wall Hanging.

It is very light and easily hangs on the one tack which you can hardly see in the picture below under the ribbon.

This means that it is hardly noticeable on the wall of the Guest Room and just leaves the beautiful hanging to be admired.

Having bought the Takker a few months before Christmas we realised we had now had the idea for a great, useful and appropriate gift for our second son who moved into a new house a few months previously.  So although we may have had a strange look from him when he opened his gift on Christmas Day because he had no idea what we had bought him; now has made good use of it in his home too.


You can also see how I have recommended the Takkers in my post
  10 Gift Ideas for the Men in your Life

Disclaimer:
I did / will not benefit in any way from this post

The Magpie at the window. - Coffee & Conversation

Sitting at my desk in the study one morning I had a visitor.

I don't get many visitors to my study as not many people get near that room in our house because it is not very tidy most of the time.

But that day sitting in the quiet, which I enjoy as I blog and work on things for church, a Magpie perched on my windowsill and made those cute bird noises as he watched me through the glass.

I smiled and said hello, I like Magpies and we often see them in the garden but never so close to the house except for the times they perch on the roof and then run around for a while.

There was another magpie on the grass but this one had decided to sit a while at the window with me.  We usually see the two together somewhere on the grass or fence or in the trees just on the outer side of our fence.

I took a break from the computer and just watched this brave and perhaps curious magpie, it seemed so unimpressed with anything but so contented and carefree on the windowsill.

Then a few minutes later it was off again.

I realised I had not even thought to try to take a picture of it but it probably would have flown off if I had moved to get the camera.

A break of even a few minutes can be good for us.

       
Sometimes life can be too busy or we can make each day too busy.

          Always something to be thinking about or doing or planning to do.
                    Always "What needs to be done today?" or "What's next on the Todo list?"

   Anyway

I think that little break of a few minutes was good for me.

The Simplest Easter Egg Hunt! - Xtra Special Day

Last year we had our first Easter Egg Hunt.

Yes we are not young, in fact we are grandparents yet up to now I have never had an Easter Egg Hunt.

But now we are grandparents and I decided that we were going to have one.

So I planned that I would hide them all around the back garden for Matthew last year when he was 17 months old.  He was well on his feet and always full of energy and loved running around playing with nanny, grandpa, aunt or uncle or whoever would be around when he would visit our home on a dry day.

Hence my idea was to get some eggs that were a decent size for him to find easily and some Cadbury Creme eggs (really these ones would be for the grownups) and I would hide them all around the back garden.

BUT!  It wasn't a dry day.

Plans had to be changed easily and quickly so it became an indoor hunt with eggs hidden (well sometimes almost in plain view - he was very young) in the hall, lounge, sun room, and guest bedroom.  5/6 hidden in each room some easier to find than others so that he could get some by himself and so that uncle Jonathan could help him while his mum and dad had a little sit down and catch up with social media on their phones.


In the Sun Room Matthew immediately decided he would have to get into the TV unit

then he jumped around to look behind the furniture so fast that I could hardly get a picture that wasn't blurred.

With the eggs found from that room he headed off down the hallway and immediately spied one on the little flower stand there.

We had not hidden any in Fred's Office because Matthew loves to play the drums there and might have got a bit distracted but we were surprised when he didn't even ask to go into it at all.


Next was the guest room where he sometimes stays overnight or takes a little afternoon nap.

After finding one beside the teddy bear doorstop and a few others on one side of the bed he quickly ran over to the wardrobes and found one behind a briefcase.

Now there were several more still to be found in the guest room and he needed a little help for some of them as you can see in the short video.

Then back up the hallway because he thought maybe some would be upstairs and he went so quick he missed a very obvious one

so we had to call him back.

He was now so good at this hunt that he easily found the ones in the lounge and then

it was time to make sure they were all in the crystal basket (yes I hadn't thought to buy an Easter Basket so we had to improvise).

We counted the eggs to make sure he had now got all of them and he was rewarded with a few to eat straight away and the rest were put into a bag to go home with him.

Sometimes the simplest things are the best.

It was such a simple easy hunt to prepare but such fun to watch him enjoy running round and searching excitedly for each one of those tiny eggs.  

The quick, simple, inexpensive things we do together can be as much fun as big outings or more expensive adventures - we just judge things by how many laughs and smiles we hear and see because a joyful time together is an Xtra Special Time.

Smile God Loves YOU! John 3:16 - Sunday Scripture

What is good for you?

Smiling!

So we are going to smile.

Why?

Because we know God loves us.

I have a favourite mug.
Oh, ok, if you have read my blog in other years you may well have noticed I love mugs and I do have some that are special to me but this one has always been my absolute favourite.

I blogged about it in

Another Coffee Mug  -  A Dose of Encouragement


This mug is going to be my theme pic for this series because

God thinks we are special.

Why?

Because He loves us.

When we think of God loving us there is one verse that will spring to most people's minds and that is

Sometimes we skim over it because we know it so well.  

You learnt it as a child if you went to Sunday School and even people who do not read the bible regularly can quote it  (and I hope correctly because often we are all getting too casual about the Word of God and thinking we know a verse but instead we are misquoting it).

There are so many things we could say about this verse, so many key words, so much truth and hope and promise and love all poured into it.


I always like to take verses in their context so let's read over the verses surrounding this in John chapter 3

The New Birth

3 There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. 2 This man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, “Rabbi, we know that You are a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him.”3 Jesus answered and said to him, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”4 Nicodemus said to Him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?”5 Jesus answered, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. 6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.7 Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ 8 The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.”9 Nicodemus answered and said to Him, “How can these things be?”10 Jesus answered and said to him, “Are you the teacher of Israel, and do not know these things? 11 Most assuredly, I say to you, We speak what We know and testify what We have seen, and you do not receive Our witness. 12 If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things? 13 No one has ascended to heaven but He who came down from heaven, that is, the Son of Man who is in heaven.   14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15 that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. 16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. 17 For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.18 “He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. 19 And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. 20 For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. 21 But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God.”

In verses 14 to 18 we are focused on Jesus, the love God has for all of us and the proof of it.

Not just once do we get the message of John 3 v 16 but we have it repeated in this passage.  

In fact the message of salvation is in each of those 3 verses.  

Words are repeated and phrases repeated and if God repeats something then we need to take heed because it is very important.

Then there in the middle of it all is the reason why Jesus came to die

Then there in the middle of it all is the reason why Jesus came to die -

Because God loved us so much He wanted to make a way for us 

to be able to live and not perish, 

live with Him and be in His presence 

even though none of us could ever deserve such a privilege.