Bees in My Bonnet

To the tune of 'Take my life and let it be' God my Father, Master, King - Sovereign over everything, You have brought me to this place - shown Your mercy, love and grace You are worthy of all praise. In Your presence here I stand, bold because Your child I am. Honoured, treasured, I have come to Your throneroom Holy One. My devotion You have won. I am Yours - take all of me - that my life may holy be, You will end what You've begun until You proclaim, 'It's done!' Through the work of Christ the Son.

Today it was for you I prayed Asking that you'd always be Trusting in our Father's hand, Guarded by the truth that frees. It was with you in mind I asked For joy, guidance, comfort, hope. That at all times, in all ways, His surpassing peace you'd know. Knowing He will answer me, For ofttimes He as before, I pray in faith and believe That He'll bless you more and more. He knows my concern for you As my sibling, as my friend - And for you my heart He's filled With His love that never ends.

It's easy enough to talk about contentment with the big things - life in general, focus on our eternal riches, thinking about how good our lives may be compared to those who live with less, contentment in parenting, marriages, relationships, material possessions etc. - the list is endless. It's the little things that drag me down. Lest you think I perpetually sail above life an inch off the ground with my head in the heavenlies (sometimes my head is very clouded actually), I am really prone to struggle in the same ways as everyone I know. If I think I don't sure enough a day or two later I regret thinking such, as I stumble over the same WAFfing as anyone else (that's my code word for Worry Anxiety and Fear). And tacked onto that is this area of contentment. What little things? Things like: a kid who didn't complete homework on time, someone who used the last of the coffee creamer, someone else who insists on fussing over things I don't want to be fussed abou...

A year ago I began to blog - and have enjoyed this endeavour. It is a simple blog - straightforward, no frills, no techie extras. (I did add the swimming fish for a while for fun but thought better of it later). In fact I am on the low level of techie-ness for which I must apologize. I try to link things sometimes and it doesn't turn blue. Oh well, thanks for reading anyways! I know it is quite a random and eclectic blog - hymns, theology, parenting, recipes, rants - you name it. I could do multiple blogs but I like to keep it simple. No ads, no glamour, nothing more than words on a template. That's what you can expect to find here. Now for some stats: Here are the top 10 most common countries that have read my blog this past year: United States 5,902 Australia 431 United Kingdom 270 Canada 248 Brazil 186 Hong Kong 114 Greece 91 Russia 72 Germany 43 Austria 41 In the last month I've also had hits from Sweden, India, Argentina and France. I remember seeing a hit fro...

The second difference between me and one who does not live by faith in Jesus is in our purpose. Now, I have to be very careful here. I don't want to pretend that others who don't believe as I do have no purpose - on the contrary I believe many 'good' people out there live very purposefully - directed by their own belief systems as to what their purpose may be. That said, and I may be wrong in saying this, but most people - and sadly, many Christians too - live with their only purpose being focussed on this life. Many people's driving purpose in life does not extend beyond this life here on planet earth. And very often, the focus of most of our lives can tend towards gratification of self (being self-seeking). I have a purpose for living that goes beyond me (including my successes and failures and performance) and beyond this earthly life. (I will grant that for greenies - they too live beyond themselves, aiming to make the planet a better place for all who c...

Our sermon this week gave me pause to consider something I had never considered before. The title of the message was: What is The Heart of a Generous Person? and the link is here: http://www.watersedgebible.org/files/5913/2674/5473/2012_01_15_What_is_the_Heart_of_a_Generous_Person.mp3 (Not sure if my linking will work, but if not just copy and paste). At one point in the sermon he told about how people had generously given of their resources to enable some teens to go to camp - and how this time for them would be spiritually enriching and potentially life-changing. He said that during their time there half of the group had made life-changing decisions and been won to Christ. This was all in the context of talking about generosity and our hearts being in the right place. At that point in the sermon I suddenly realized that happiness can be bought after all. You see, it made me happy to hear of these lives that were changed. I rejoiced in the expansion of God's kingdom. I had m...

If you click on the picture you can see it better! http://lydiaruthfrancis.wordpress.com/2012/01/03/the-logans-fam/

As I look at my life of late (okay, my whole life as a matter of fact), I realize I take a lot for granted. I am mostly confined to the house with my heel-nippers gallavanting about the place vying for my attention or intervention. I am plenty busy - more than I generally like to be - and try to keep a certain inner calm amongst all the rushing here and there and doing stuff that needs to be done. During my endless days and the depletion of my strength on a daily basis it is so easy after a few wearying days to feel the stirrings of discontentment in my soul. How would I handle these stresses, these longings for quiet, for solitude, for time to myself if I could not entrust these desires to my great burden-Bearer? I don't mean to brag or gloat or compare, but I do wonder how others weather the storms of life without an anchor for their souls such as I have! If I stop for just a moment to remind myself just how blessed I am - per Ephesians 1 - my grumpiness and discontent is cut...

I have a secret. I'm going to get it out in the open here and now and just be done with it. Here it is: I am FAR worse a person than you think I am. I am not saying this to be self-denigrating. I am not eliciting sympathy, flattery or anything of the sort. I am merely putting this out there so we'll all be on the same page. Even if you are one of my critics, this statement is still true. If you think I'm self-absorbed, you're right, but probably I'm more than that - narcissistic even. If you think I waste time, you're right, but more than you know. What I'm saying is, no matter what light you view me in (and I know, for most of you, it's positive), you are probably far too generous is your estimations. Granted, I'm more than a little nutty - extremely bizarre and unique might qualify. But I'm not referring here to my idiosyncrasies, of which I have more than a few. I am referring to all my own worst qualities, and even the good ones whi...