Hope For Today

Dear Friends, We bought a Shih Tzu puppy last September. (Being a fan of The Hunger Games Movies, my daughter named our puppy Rue.) Rue gives us a whole lot of love. Actually, she'll willingly give anyone love who pays her any attention. Whenever the doorbell rings she runs excitedly to the front door believing that the visitor must be coming to see her! When I take her out for a walk I'm struck by the similarities between her walk and my walk with my Lord and Saviour. Rue does not like to walk in step with me. Instead, she prefers to go at her own pace, whether it's faster because she's excited to be outside, or slower because she's interested in what's around her. She wants to be in charge of her own walk. She doesn't want to have to submit to my wishes. She gets easily distracted. New smells fascinate her and she'll slow down to investigate. If she sees another dog ahead of her, she'll pull at the lead as she rushes to keep u...

Dear Friends, We have recently been on holiday and I am so glad we have a satnav. In the past, reading a map, checking for directions, following signs, always made the journey harder for me, and not great for Jason as I am prone to fall asleep if we are in the car for any length of time. The satnav has definitely made life easier and holidays less stressful as we rely on it to safely navigate us to our destination and as we travel around unfamiliar places during our holiday. It works best when we trust it, listen and follow its direction.  The whole journey is stored in its system and then a voice tells us every so often the next direction to take, such as "Take the second exit on the roundabout" or "At the next junction, turn left".  It tells us just enough that we can keep in mind what we need to do, rather than giving too many instructions in one go. However, sometimes Jason (who is driving) will choose not to listen and follow the instruction.  He deci...

Dear Friends, Stepping out in faith, in obedience to what you believe God is calling you to do, is not easy.  If it was easy we would not need to exercise any faith. It can become even harder when others misunderstand you or you sense you are being misjudged by them.  When you experience this it can be very painful and you can feel as though you are alone.  People may not understand or be able to make sense of what you are doing, they may think you are wrong, they may tell you you're mad to think you can do this, that you haven't got what it takes, that you're not qualified, they may even tell you that it's not God's will for your life.  They may misjudge your motives, judging that you're doing it for your own glory and recognition, that you're doing it to promote yourself. It's painful and lonely because ideally we all  like to feel supported and encouraged.  We like to know there's someone for us, who's in our corner.  Especially when we ...

Dear Friends, Josh and Jess are settling back into a new year at secondary school.  Josh is in his final year and Jess is no longer one of the new pupils as she's now in her second year.  Jess, like me, is an introvert, and content in her own company.  She does not have a lot of confidence and so finds it hard to speak up in class, preferring to sit back and let others do the talking.  Having said that she shared something with me last week about an incident at school which showed how she is growing and maturing.  I was so proud of her because what to many might not seem a big deal was huge for her.  When walking down a school corridor to her music lesson in MU2, she passed two new pupils asking a teacher for directions to their next lesson, music in MU1.  Rather than continue on her way, Jess stopped and spoke to the teacher telling her that she was going in that direction and would show the girls the way to go.  Jess and ...