2016? - Already????????????!!!

Not exactly 'musing from under my duvet' but, as I've managed to access my blog (won't bore you with the details but suffice to say have been continually frustrated with my IT!) I decided it was high time I posted on here.
I'm actually in my kitchen watching a programme on keeping healthy as we get older.  Who knew toasted pumpkin seeds make a tasty snack?

Anyway, I digress.....

When I first started this blog I mainly wanted to use it as an encouragement to others. To encourage them in their daily lives, maybe give a few words of comfort when people are struggling with life, give my opinion on some topics which people like to discuss and maybe make a few people giggle along the way. 

I still want to do that, and hopefully this year will draw breath long enough to get some posts on here...............but I also want to share my love and trust in Jesus Christ.

Why?  

Because I believe more than ever, in a world which offers us so much stimulus, bombards us with so many differing opinions, so much which is 'guarantteed to make us happy' and yet is a world in which so many people are suffering - trusting in Jesus Christ and accepting his gift of love which brings us back into relationship with creator God (as we're meant to live) is the only option which gives us deep, long lasting peace. 

Whether you're a multi millionaire, or a permanent resident of 'Benefits street', or fleeing for your life from one of the many war torn places in this world.........

Jesus says 'I am the way, the truth and the life.........'
A very simple, straightforward, no nonsense statement.

I'm sure like many of you out there I find myself feeling frustrated by much of the terrible news from around the world. 

I don't know enough about the conflict in Syria to understand why so many people are risking their lives to flee the country, but it's obvious there are thousands who feel it is their only option. 

I find it hard to accept so many lovely people I know are struggling with physical, emotional and mental illness. 

I feel guilty knowing I have a warm bed to sleep in when there are so many people who will be sleeping in doorways and cardboard boxes this winter, right here in my own country. 

I find myself asking 'What can I do?' In reality,in practical terms, not a great deal as an individual person.  I can of course send a monetary contribution to one of the many aid agencies and add my small contribution to the many others who give generously. I can tut tut and send sympathetic thoughts to those suffering. But it seems such a small drop in a very large ocean of despair. It would be so easy to just think "What's the point? - nothing is really going to change."

But then I thought to myself 'Hey, you're a Christian.  You believe in the power of prayer, you believe in the sovereignty of Jesus Christ and that God is ultimately in control.  Why are you feeling so helpless? At the very least you can devote some of your time to prayer. Pray for an end to conflict. Pray for God to intervene in peoples lives and situations. Pray for other Christians to add their prayers to yours.
There are so many stories of answered prayers, when Christians come together in this act of communication with the living God, a the modern saying goes 'Why wouldn't you?.'

Once I started to think in this way I began to feel less helpless, less able to make a difference, more determined to follow Jesus example and 'love my neighbour as myself'. In other words put others at the forefront of my thoughts, and keep their needs, hopes and desires in my heart, interceding for them before God in prayer. 

I don't want to be a comfortable, go to church once a week Christian.  I want to feel for people, laugh with them, cry with them, rejoice with them but above all introduce them to Jesus. 

I have called him friend, confidante, shepherd, Lord and saviour for over 40 years. There have been times also during the past 40 years when I've been disobedient, wilful, stubborn and just determined to 'do it my way'. 

But you know?  - He's never forsaken me.
Never let go of my hand, even though at times, like an angry toddler, I've fought to pull my hand out of his. And, as I look back over the years, I am so grateful he has, because I wouldn't be the person I am today without knowing Him. 

I try not to be too 'preachy' in these posts but I just sense, as we are rapidly getting through yet another year, I needed to be a little more direct. 

I am a daughter of the living Christ.

I love the Lord with all my heart, mind and spirit.

I ask Him daily to give me love for everyone I come in contact with, and for those He knows, but I will never meet. 

I thank Him for showering on me so many blessings and for welcoming me into His family of believers. 

I am indeed rich beyond measure.

As I said at the beginning of this post, I seem to have sorted out the gremlins in the system so hopefully you'll start to see a few more of my 'musings' in the coming weeks and months.

May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be upon you and your loved ones, today and always

Amen. 

  

Celebrations

This is the first chance I’ve had to write since ‘The’ wedding last Friday.  I’m not a great celebrity follower.  I don’t buy copies of Hello magazine or trawl the Internet for juicy tit bits.  I might occasionally pick up a glossy mag if there is something particular that catches my eye but I’m mostly too busy getting on living my own life, seeing my own friends and family to be overly interested in what so and so is doing this week, who’s going out with who and who has dumped who.  I’d much rather spend my time and energy on people I can hug!

But I defy anyone not to have been caught up, at least a little bit, in the celebrations last week when William and Kate got married.  I know there are arguments for and against about the money spent on security, the disruption, companies giving staff extra time off but there are times when we all need something uplifting, something joyful, something to bring us all together.  And I think Friday was just such a day.

My daughter's tiara

I loved seeing all the people in London, enjoying the atmosphere, dressing up, having picnics in the park and just being part of the whole spectacle.  One of my best friends invited lots of us ‘girlies’ to her house and we celebrated in style. 

We all dressed up, even wearing hats and fascinators, toasted the bride and groom with champagne and had a great time checking out all the fashions.  (Some it has to be said more stylish and appropriate than others).  I still can’t work out how some of those hats stayed on – they seemed to defy the laws of gravity!

My wedding hat!

And I loved the fact even though this was a very royal, protocol driven day, steeped in hundreds of years of tradition it felt as if William and Kate were determined to put their very personal stamp on the whole day; from the guest list which included so many friends, colleagues, neighbours and representatives of their chosen charities, to the beautiful trees lining the aisle of the Abbey, to Kate’s exquisitely designed dress.  Somehow, they managed to make the whole nation feel as if they had been personally invited to celebrate their special day with them.  

I could pick out so many examples from the day but I just wanted to comment on two particular ones.   For me one of the highlights of the day was the sermon by Bishop Richard Chartres and the prayer written by William and Kate.  I’m listening to the sermon again as I write this and the words are so beautiful, inspiring and the message is incredibly powerful.  In this day and age, with access to the Internet this is a sermon we can all come back to time and time again and I’d urge people to do just that. Like the day itself I’m sure you’ll see and hear something new each time and be encouraged whatever your circumstances.

And for me there was a message in William and Kate’s prayer.  They were saying they appreciate they are in a privileged position but they see their role as serving the British people.  They asked for strength to give of themselves unselfishly to others, to you and me and to this nation.  This is the role the Queen has always seen herself in and she appears to have instilled this great sense of duty in her grandson. 

I must admit as I listened to Bishop Chatres I felt very proud to be a Christian, and to be British.

I titled this post ‘celebrations’ as we’ve recently had the great Easter celebrations, William and Kate’s wedding and yesterday a good friend of mine celebrated a significant birthday.  I was pleased to hear his friends threw him a surprise party and there’ll be more fun at the weekend.

But for me, one of the most memorable images of the Royal wedding took place well away from the glare of the cameras, it wasn’t on the balcony of Buckingham Palace and if it hadn’t been for the wonders of modern technology and the camera phone only a few people would have been witness to this particular event.  It was of course the ‘cart wheeling’ verger, Ben Sherrard.

The splendor of Westminster Abbey, the very regal, extremely long red carpet and the joy and relief at a job so very well done.  He just couldn’t help himself – like a mischievous child let loose in a big open space after having to be very well behaved he executed 2 near perfect cartwheels down the centre aisle of the Abbey.  No mean feat in a cassock!

If you’ve not yet seen this, just google  ‘cart wheeling’ verger.  For me he sums up how everyone was feeling and although he wasn’t one of the guests, isn’t a celebrity and many people won’t remember his name that image is going to stay with me and many others for a very long time.  Well done Ben, you summed up the very British tradition of pomp, ceremony................. and eccentricity!

Blessings to all-enjoy the rest of the week (must admit I could get used to these 3 and 4 day weeks!)

Jules xx

Food .... for thought

Well, I have to say this a much more reasonable time of day to be writing this. I could have been doing this at 04.30 again this morning but decided to try and get my body clock into a more reasonable pattern. At the moment I’m waking up so much during the night the alarm clock has very little effect on me and I keep over sleeping! Not conducive to
getting in to work on time.


I know these aren't daffs and tulips
but don't they make you think of spring?



Glancing out of the window there’s a tantalising promise of

a nice day with possibly even some sunshine. I’ve recently been bought tulips and daffodils which are so cheerful and make us think of spring. They’re certainly brightening up my living room and spurring me on to seriously consider starting the annual ‘sort out’. Not that I ever really complete it. My daughter would be the first to confirm her Mum and ‘spring cleaning’ are not phrases she’s ever associated together in the same sentence! Whenever I start clearing out cupboards, boxes, drawers and the ‘treasures’ in my study I always seem to get waylaid by things I thought I’d lost, or forgotten I had. Or I end up sitting on the floor going through old cards and letters I’ve found remembering people, instances, and times gone by.


Invariably I then get side tracked by the skirt I hadn’t got round to finishing altering, or the cross stitch picture I know would be a great present for someone or even emailing an old friend I’ve not been in touch with for ages when I’ve found a letter or card from them.
Then there’s the inevitable ‘changing around of the room’. I can almost guarantee if I start sorting out cupboards I become convinced whichever room I am in would benefit from a complete overhaul. I remember getting up one Saturday morning and deciding the living room in my old house would look much better with all the furniture moved round. It was a really big lounge/dining room with quite a bit of furniture in it. By the time my husband came down for breakfast everything was in a different place. He thought he’d woken up in the wrong house! He was used to my bursts of spontaneity by then having come home from work on a number of occasions to find me standing paint brush in hand and a wall or even a room a completely different colour to what it was when he left in the morning. But as I point out to my family at least they can’t complain I’m boring and predictable. Manic, disorganised and very annoying at times yes, but not boring!

Anyway, enough of this frivolity as there was a more serious reason for writing this morning.

I was at a church meeting last night where we had an update on the costs of a school the church has helped build for Dalit children who come from some of the poorest families in India. I haven’t been one of the key people involved so am not going to try and go into huge detail here as if you’d like to know more just click on the Bromham Baptist Church link on this blog and you’ll be able to read about the project for yourself on the overseas tab.

We had a discussion last night about the money which would need to be raised to continue to support the pupils and staff at the school over the next 5 years which we’d agreed to do at previous meetings. The support includes running costs, wages, school uniforms, teaching materials and lunch. Again, I’m not going to go into all the ins and outs but a significant proportion of the rising cost is to enable the children to have 1 meal a day at school.

The school is built, currently has 60 pupils and is on track to grow that number to 150 over the next 4 years. There was some discussion about can we afford it? Like everyone else in this country many of us are feeling the effects of the economic recession we are going through. Some people are facing very uncertain futures and have genuine concerns.
But as we talked and looked at the photo of a group of smartly dressed, smiling, keen to learn children and various people spoke it became apparent that whatever hardships we are facing here we knew we had to continue to show these beautiful children God’s love in this practical way.


One comment in particular from last night sticks in my mind –
‘Children don’t learn if they have empty tummies and isn’t this why we’ve helped build the school, to give them an education?’

So can I encourage anyone reading this blog to think about how they can support and help others who cannot help themselves. We have the big celebrity driven events such as Children in Need and Comic Relief (imminent as I’m sure you know) but there are also thousands of ongoing projects by churches, organisations and individuals which any one of us can get involved in.

I don’t very often quote scripture but I’m always struck with how much sensible, practical, thought provoking, conscious pricking words were spoken by Jesus. I think these words sum up everything we talked about last night and should make us all think........

‘This is my (Jesus) command: Love each other’ John 15:17

I’m sure it comes as no surprise we agreed to continue to support this project and I for one will be looking to see how I can encourage the fantastic fund raising team.


Did I hear someone say how about a sponsored silence!??........................................


God Bless
Jules xx

Valentines day

This truly is a ‘musing from under the duvet’. It’s 6.30 in the morning, still dark outside (I know because the strip above my cafe curtain in my bedroom is inky blue!) and I’ve got my cuppa the side of me. But as I sit here writing I can see how the dawn is slowly pushing back the night and there’s the promise of light, the promise of a new day, another day to enjoy or in some cases endure depending on our circumstances. But whatever they are yesterday has gone, tomorrow is still to be written, this is the day the Lord has made and I am determined to rejoice in it.


For many this is an exciting, thrilling day full of expectant hope, for some a day when despite their optimism they know their partner too well to expect anything and for some of us it’s a reminder of similar days already past.

It’s Valentines Day. Oh I know, it’s too commercial now, just a money spinner and who needs a special day to say ‘I love you’. But let’s be honest girls – most of us dream of a little romance, an uncharacteristic spontaneous act of affection. To be swept off our feet aka Richard Gere in ‘An officer and a gentleman’ – although in my case metaphorically as I’m likely to give any man who tries to carry me a slipped disc!


But there will be a lot of us this Valentines Day who won’t be getting flowers, chocolates, cards or any other tokens of someone’s affection. Yesterday a friend of mine asked me if I was OK and I said I hated this time of year because it reminded me I was single. But that’s not really true. I don’t hate it; I suppose I’m just a little envious of those who at least have the opportunity to shower affection and gifts on that special person, even if they don’t take it.
But then as the day went on and I was with friends I found myself thinking ‘so what?’ I’ve had some wonderful Valentines in the past and I’m hopeful I will again. Maybe not this year but there’s always the future. And it’s true, I have many wonderful family and friends who love me and remind of that 365 days a year so why stress over just one? And on top of that I know in my heart and soul that God loves me constantly and is always there for me.


Love is essential to the human soul and as I sit here, and see the light has crept up on me as I’ve been writing I’m smiling. I’m grateful that my life whether lived as a single person, a couple, in a family with my daughter, and at this precise moment in time, as a (slightly) older single woman has been filled with love. And I know in my heart as long as I have faith, as long as I continue to love that love will come back to me 10 fold.


So, whatever your circumstances, today, tomorrow, next week – spread a little love and the world will be a better place.


Happy Valentines xx