Tag Archives: beautifully broke

Faith, Five Minute Friday

Alone…But Never Abandoned

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You are reading a Five Minute Friday word prompt. This is hosted by Kate Motaung and is where a group of people write about a given word for that week. This week the word is “abandon”.

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I’ve just finished watching “Miracles From Heaven” and it has left me filled with a sense of hope. I’ve had my own miracles, which I have shared here, but as time goes on, and life goes on, and different situations happen, the miracle seems a little bit further away.

Anyway, the film is about a little girl who has a very rare and incurable disorder. Her mother hopelessly tries everything possible to see if there is a cure for her daughter, but there isn’t. No doctor can help her.

There are a few things that stand out to me in this film. Firstly, that the mother who is frantically trying everything possible to help her daughter is probably feeling abandoned and alone, and that God is not there with her. After all, why would such a loving God let a little girl suffer?

What stood out to me more though was the faith of the little girl. She knew that God was with her, right by her side, and that if she was to die, she was not scared. She knew exactly where she would be going. That is faith.

I often feel that my faith gets tested on a daily basis at the moment. I have constantly not been feeling well for the past 18 months with one thing or another, and quite frankly, I’m getting a little bit fed up with it!

Faith gets tested…in many ways…and when faith is tested, sometimes the feeling of being abandoned creeps in.

Where is God at times when I need Him?

Why am I going through this?

Why is He not answering my prayers?

Is He actually here with me?

God is all around us though, and seeing this film reminded me that He is here, and it’s in the little miracles that we see every day…

Creation around us…

The goodness that we see…

The people we love…

He has not abandoned us.

Faith, Five Minute Friday

Created for a purpose

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The definition of the word purpose is “the reason for which something is done or created, or for which something exists.” When something is created, it is created for a reason…a purpose.

Sometimes when something is created though, it may take a while to figure out how to use what has been created for its sole purpose. Sometimes, the thing that has been created, has been misused in some way and it is left with marks. This doesn’t mean to say that it still cannot be used though.

I have a potato peeler that has been used so much that it fell apart. I have managed to bind it back together though with tape and I still use it. It doesn’t look great, but it still works…and still does the job that it was created to do.
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I believe that God created me, therefore He created me for a purpose…for His purpose. But sometimes when difficulties happen in our lives it is hard to see what that purpose is, especially when we have been marred. For a long time, because of the abuse that I suffered, I didn’t believe that I could be used for anything. I had been damaged, so why would God use me?

I have learnt though that in whatever situation happens, if I keep my focus on Him, God works through it and will use it for His purpose. He did not create the situations that I had to endure, but He did create me.

“And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28).

Abuse, Faith, Miracles

The Gift of Life: A Miracle in God’s Beautiful Timing

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This story first appeared as a feature on  Anna Smit and Debbie Barrow Michael’s blog as part of their 31 day write on Miracles.  It featured over two days because it wasn’t just one miracle that took place. A few days ago (4th January) was my daughters birthday and I have chosen to share the whole of my story here.

Being a Christian, I probably should automatically believe in miracles because of the whole “Jesus turning water into wine” thing, etc. Honestly though? These were just like stories to me…until I experienced my own miracles! I pray that whoever reads this will see that miracles, in whatever shape or form, are possible, and only by God’s loving grace.

Continue reading The Gift of Life: A Miracle in God’s Beautiful Timing →
Patience

Still Waiting…

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I am still being taught the art of patience. How long can this go on for? Everyday something happens to remind me that I need to either slow down or I need to have more patience.

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I subscribe to receiving e-mails from Joyce Meyer. If you have never heard of her, well, you need to! She is such an inspiring woman. She has been through so much in her life and she is using it now to show people how God can turn ashes into beauty. Anyway, yesterday’s e-mail was entitled ‘The wait is over!’ How apt is that? She says that God is passionately waiting for us more than we are waiting for God. She writes the following…

‘We each have things we must do to align ourselves with God. Things like putting Him first, receiving His grace, letting go of bad habits and negative mindsets, forgiving those who offend us, and trusting God with our circumstances. And as we become determined to do so, that’s when great things start to happen.’

Flowers at Langley ParkAs I wrote my first blog a couple of days ago, I let a few people know that I went “live”. From that moment I was constantly checking my e-mails, looking on Facebook and accessing messenger to see if I had any updates or if they had seen my message. Who would be the first person to respond? Would they like what I have written? Will they reject me and what I stand for?

As I write, this is quite obvious to me now that checking my e-mails, etc could be a really bad habit to get into. A friend of mine, who has been blogging for 5 years now, was a little nervous for me as she knows how emotionally draining it can be to get all this started up. She didn’t have anyone there to tell her that it was going to be hard, so I guess she was telling me some hard hitting stuff to help me out.  “You are going to be disappointed,” she wrote. “It is more often than not, our own expectations that set us up for disappointment.”

Psalm 27v14

I need to learn to trust God to reveal His plan to me in His own time. For now, I will write and be creative because that is what I love to do. I love to find the hidden beauty that is all around me. I need to focus on Him in all I do, to let go of the bad habits and to be obedient to what God is asking me to do.

Patience

Patience Is A Virtue

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When it gets to that time of day…lunch time…my son seems to have an inbuilt mechanism in his brain (or his stomach) and he often asks, “Is it lunch time yet, Mummy?”  We have lunch around 12:30pm, so I would then tell him how long he needs to wait.  It’s usually not that long, maybe 20 or 30 minutes, but with my son being only 4 years old he has no concept of time.  From that first time he asks me, until we sit down to lunch, he must ask me at least a dozen times before I serve it.  My reply to him would usually be, “Just be patient!”

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My eldest daughter, however, has a better idea and will work out that she would need to count to 60 for one minute to pass by…she might count it a little bit faster though than what seconds should really be counted for.  She will then realise that she would need to do the cycle 20 times for 20 minutes to pass by.  “But Mummy, that is far too many times to count to the number 60.  That would take me aaaaages!”  She would start, but then after a few rounds she soon gives up.

A virtue is a positive trait or a quality deemed to be morally good.  This is  why we hear the saying ‘patience is a virtue’.  If we learn the art of waiting, we also learn how to be more disciplined and obedient.  Well, that’s what I have read…it is so hard to be patient sometimes and I have certainly not mastered it!

My life at the moment has been all about being patient.  It’s taken me three months to get to the point of making my blog live with my first post.  My husband thinks that I am really patient.  I guess I am when it comes to the obvious things like having patience with my children (most of the time), but when it comes to wanting to know what to do with my life and where its going, I want to know right now what is happening.  I guess it’s probably because it’s to do with the unknown.  I don’t know where my life is going to at the moment.  All I know is that I have a passion and I want to do something about it.

I am currently reading a book at the moment by Sue Monk Kidd, “When the Heart Waits”.  I bought this before I went on holiday at the beginning of February, and guess what? Yep, I am STILL reading it!  It’s worse than that though… I am only up to chapter 3!!  I like reading, but first of all I need to find the time to read.  Secondly, I need to find the patience.  Sitting down to read a book is the last thing on my mind when I have three children, work full time and do the usual home stuff.

Dafodil

She writes some insightful stuff though about learning the discipline of “active waiting” in a time where life seemed to have lost its meaning for her.  She mentions about some daffodil bulbs that she had planted, but had planted them too deep. (That’s the kind of thing that I would do!). She compared though the bulb that was planted deep into the ground with that of her own life.  The shoots of the daffodils breaking through the deep soil to form a beautiful plant.  Was there something deep down within her own life that was wanting to break free?  Something that would turn out to be so beautiful?  Only time and patience would tell.

James 5 v7 8

I guess this is what it is like with my own life at the moment.  All I know is that I have something deep down within me that is bursting to reach the top and break through.  I just need to be patient and spend time with God in prayer to cultivate whatever is growing.  Hopefully, over the next few months we will see some fruition.

 

Let me know if there is something in your life that you feel you are waiting for?  Do you know what you are waiting for?  How long have you been waiting?  Are you a patient person?