Hope For Today

Dear Friends, When I was first diagnosed with M.E (M yalgic Encephalomyelitis)  in the late 1990s I really struggled to come to terms with it. I can remember in the early years and when it was at its worst saying that God was taking everything away from me. This was truly how I felt, and the hurt and the pain from what I was losing was intense. It's a pain which actually cannot fully be put into words. Not only had I lost my health and strength, I had to give up work and I wasn't able to do the things I'd been doing at church, such as leading Sunday School and running a youth group with my husband. Jason and I had married in the Summer of 1995 and the illness meant I wasn't able to do all I wanted to do in the home or to be the kind of wife I wanted to be for Jason and I wasn't able to socialise (for me that meant not going to church and mixing with church friends). It really felt like God was taking everything away from me and like I said, it was extremely pa...

Dear Friends, As parents, Jason and I are responsible for our children's well-being.  That's why we, like many parents, set boundaries for our children.  One of those boundaries is the time they are to go to bed.  They sometimes moan that everyone else their age goes to bed much later than they do.  My response to that is that I'm not responsible for other children, but I am responsible for them and that means setting an age appropriate bedtime.  I believe that it's important for their health and for them to get a good night's sleep so that they can concentrate in their classes.  They may not agree with me, but I don't do this to be unfair or mean or because I don't care, in fact the opposite is true, I love them and want the best for them.  I remember Josh saying when he reached the age of 15, that now he was 15 he could watch 15 rated films.  We talked about it and I explained that, while in the eyes of the law he is allowed to wat...

Dear Friends, As I write this Valentine's Day is approaching so it will probably come as no surprise to you that I have chosen to write about love.  I'm not talking about the romantic, sentimental, bunch of roses, box of chocolates kind of love, I'm talking about authentic, genuine, godly love.  It's a love based not just on feelings, it's not just a matter of the heart.  To love is a choice, it's a matter for the mind, an act of will.  We are to love consistently, whether we feel like it or not, whether the person reciprocates in love or not, and we should not use it or abuse it to manipulate others.  We read in 1 John 4:8 " But anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love." (NLT)  God loves us with a love that we have never ever experienced before, and as we follow him and love him in return, his love flows through us to others.  Jesus, the Son of God, says to u...

Dear Friends, One Sunday morning after the church service I was chatting over coffee with a lady and a mutual friend.  When she saw Jess she said that my daughter looks just like me and my friend added that we have the same character too.  She's not the first one to say how much my daughter looks like me.  I know that on several occasions I've said to Josh, my son, "Oh, you're just like your father!" when he acts in a certain way.  It's no surprise that there are these family resemblances, after all, being family means we have the same DNA.  People also say that you become like the person you live with. Not only do we all have a physical family, when we become Christians God gives us a spiritual family too, he adopts us into his family and we become children of God.  " God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure." Ephesians 1:5...