Hope For Today

Dear Friends,  This Is Me A few weeks ago Jason took me to the cinema to see "The Greatest Showman". We don't often get to the cinema, but I was so glad we got to see this film which in my opinion is so good. The film is inspired by the story of PT Barnum and how he rose to fame, as he built his circus which featured various star attractions.  Many of the performers had known rejection and prejudice in the past because they were 'different' to those around them.  One member of the group is the bearded lady (played by Keala Settle) who learns through Barnum what it means to be loved and accepted for who she is. She sings my favourite song from the film, "This Is Me". The lyrics are powerful and so moving. In the past , she had hidden  away because of the hurtful words spoken by others which had left her feeling cut and bruised. But now that she has become part of the circus family, and learned what it means to be loved and accepted, she is a...

Dear Friends, I confess there are times when I can get caught up and focused on asking God for things rather than focusing on him. There is nothing wrong in asking God for something, in fact he encourages us to come to him with our requests.  " Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God." Philippians 4:6 (NIV)  But there is something wrong when we make our entire relationship with him all about what he can do for us and what he can give us, as if he's some kind of magic genie, here to grant us our every wish, or like Father Christmas waiting for us to give him our list of things we would like. We may be coming to God with requests which are good and right but if that is all our communications consist of, then I believe our relationship is far from what it could and should be. When I think about my relationship with my children, if they only came to me when they w...

Dear Friends, Jason and I recently celebrated our 20th wedding anniversary.  We celebrated it by going away, just the two of us, for a long weekend.  It was a special time of enjoying things that we like to do together, such as shopping, walking around the historic city of Chester, sharing morning coffee and having some great meals together.  It was so good to be able to focus on us as a couple, to have the time to be together and enjoy each other's company.  To talk about things that were important to us and then at other times just to enjoy a companionable silence without the need to fill awkward silences.  To be able to just be ourselves rather than trying to be something we are not. I would love to be more spontaneous, to decide the night before that we would go away for the weekend, but that's just not practical.  Everyone leads busy lives, with various responsibilities.  So if quality time like this is going to happen it needs to be...