some education

I’m reading ‘Lunch in Paris’ by Elizabeth Band. It’s a fun romantic read. It has recipes too which is an added bonus. Making French mint tea could be my next taste sensation.

The girls and I (through them waking up so flippin early and myself needing to wake to have some devotion) are reading in my bed together each morning. It’s a quiet time. I’ve mentioned the word devotion – being devoted to one who loves us. So L has a Princess Bible (with some bling on the front!) which she is devouring and K has a daily story-thing about some girls with ponytails and a follow-up bible story with some activities. She is in love with that too. It’s really sweet. It’s really simple. It’s simply us connecting with God in a simple way. Sometimes I cant recall what I’ve read and only seem to manage half a chapter of the particular book of the Bible that I’m reading. Little questions come up so I’m trying to have grace for that, whilst waking myself up, trying to read something challenging for myself. There were three in the bed ………

We are going to milo cricket. The girls love it as they get free treats each week – a cricket ball, a hat. We are learning sports.

Our verse (that sounds very nerdy indeed but it’s usually just a quick thought or a big issue that has surfaced that calls for a new verse!) for the next few months (after writing, colouring, reciting and surprisingly memorising 1 Corinthians 13 (part of it anyway)) is this:

Luke 6 verse 27 – bless those who persecute you, love those who hate you, be kind to those who ill-treat you (something like that).

And the prayers that followed went like this:

L – thank you that these words are the truth, that they are not fake words. Help us to pray for those who are mean to us.

It is this particular verse for several reasons – the 7 year old is no kinder to the annoying lad in class, than any of her class mates. And she didn’t want to have a heart change. Little does she realise that this verse will change her, where my words could not. They are also for me. I have had some heart breaking moments since the ‘severe heart break’, that have caused me to remember this verse and act on it. Life is so tough sometimes but his Word is so enduring. I have lacked direction in my pain and have wanted out of it not knowing what to do. And then the verse comes to mind. Yippie. Not, but it is a relief. It is like a surprising medicine. To pray for someone who is like an enemy. To pray for someone I have wished not-alive. To pray for a cruel one, an excuse-maker, a heart-breaker.

Some great wisdom that is teaching from another friend: "But there is a right and a wrong kind of surrendering. The Anabaptists used to speak of "Gelassenheit" - of self-surrender to the will of God, of not striving to achieve but simply trusting. Perhaps that's what you need now - a good dose of Gelassenheit!

The image of the weaned child in Ps 131.. God's ways are much too hard for us to understand, so that the only option is to sit, like a recently fed baby on its mother's lap, and simply trust in the goodness and security of God's care, and give up trying to understand."

Can I or we, do that? It's a great picture to have, it's a great aim to have. I like and need pictures to help me relate to laying stuff down or just simply coping. we all seem to cope differently but i love the help friends give from their own experience and struggle.

Sarah S from the UK, thanks so much for your kindness to me. I got your chocy parcel in the post today. Thank you for the words, thanks for reading the blog, thanks so much for thinking of me in such a radical way. LOVE IT! Lindt. There is no other chocolate. That's a lifetime of education right there.

(photo - it's what we look like in the morning - all smiley and so glad to be awake! well the girls anyway.)