Dreaming BIG dreams!

“Mummy, when a giant stands up does he hit his head on the sky?”

A friend told me the other day that her 5 year old son had asked her the above question. It makes you want to hug him and kiss him all over his cute little head.

I love listening to children playing their make believe games, stories of knights in shining armour, beautiful princesses, all of them running away from sharks, disaster averted and hearts won.

Listening to children sharing these wild and sometimes outrageous stories made me realise why it’s so easy for them to dream big dreams. They have the most amazing imaginations. It’s nothing for them to dream big dreams. God doesn’t have to work through all of the doubt and unbelief like He does with us grown-ups. As we get older, we lose much of that ability to imagine and dream. We become cynical, loaded down with the baggage of life.

We can learn from our children. If we dream without limitations like our children, God will be able to do big things with us. So go ahead. Let your mind become like a child, and dream.

And he said: “I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” Matthew 18:3

The Father's Love

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jpnMNIQ4Mak

For many celebrating Fathers Day is a chance to thank their wonderful fathers for all the love, support and encouragement that they have contributed to their lives.

For others sadly that isn’t the case as they mourn the death of their father, relive the pain of an absent father, struggle with the heartache of an abusive father or for some live with the sorrow of never having known who their father was.

I have been really struck by the new Vodafone advert (see above, click link to watch).

A man is at a party, obviously celebrating his promotion at work, and he is just about to make a speech when his mobile rings. He answers it and on the other end is his daughter, in her car, crying she says to him,

“Dad, he’s left me”

He says “Where are you?”

She replies “well I’m parked, half way up the High Street, I couldn’t drive for crying. It’s just made me so angry. I tried to understand what he wanted. I just wanted us to be happy. Is that too much to ask?

“No” he answers.

As she talks he is fast approaching her in a taxi.

“and then he said it was over, like he didn’t even care.” she continues.

“Don’t worry I will be with you very soon” he assures her.

At that moment the taxi stops and he gets into her car. He smiles and hugs her.
“You weren’t doing anything were you?” she asks him as he holds her.

“No, I was just emptying the dishwasher” he says tenderly as he continues to hold her.

For me this is a wonderful example of a father’s love, unconditional, sacrificial love. It makes you feel both happy and sad at the same time. Sadly it’s the kind of love that some of us will never experience from our earthly fathers yet there is Good News for us all. It is the kind of love that we can all experience at all times from our Heavenly Father - Father God. Who says,

“When you are brokenhearted, I am close to you.” Psalm 34:18

“I love you with an everlasting love.” Jeremiah 31:3

“You were not a mistake, for all your days are written in my book.” Psalm 139:15-16

“And it is my desire to lavish my love on you, simply because you are my child and I am your Father.” 1 John 3:1

Please know and believe this.

For those of you looking forward to Sunday, know that God loves you with an everlasting love!

For those of you not looking forward to Sunday, know that God loves you with an everlasting love!

God’s love for everyone is sacrificial and unconditional, whether you know and love Him or not. There is nothing you could ever do that could make Him stop loving you! Nothing at all.

Allow Him to hold you and say “no, I was just emptying the dishwasher”.

If you would like to know more about this wonderful love that is available to all I would love to tell you all about it.

Happy Father’s Day to you all.

It was then that I carried you.....

After talking to many of you this week it seems that many of us are going through tough, troublesome and worrying times. God says:

" When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze." Isaiah 43:1,2

" I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart ! I have overcome the world ! " John 16:33

This is a poem that I have found strengthening in times of trouble or sadness:

One night I had a dream........

I dreamed I was walking along the beach with the Lord

and across the sky flashed scenes from my life.

For each scene I noticed two sets of footprints,

one belonged to me and the other to the Lord.

When the last scene of my life flashed before me,

I looked back at the footprints in the sand.

I noticed that many times along the path of my life,

there was only one set of footprints.

I also noticed that it happened at the very lowest

and saddest times in my life.

This really bothered me and I questioned the Lord about it.

"Lord, you said that once I decided to follow you,

you would walk with me all the way,

but I have noticed that during the most troublesome times in my life

there is only one set of footprints.

I don't understand why in times when I needed you most,

you should leave me."

The Lord replied,

"My precious, precious child,I love you and I would never, never leave you

during your times of trial and suffering.

When you saw only one set of footprints,

it was then that I carried you."

Leona Lewis sings this poem really well, here it is:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d08X2lN669k&playnext_from=TL&videos=2-d1zNVcNGo

God bless you all this week, and may the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Kitchen Dancing!

Kitchen dancing!

There is nothing like it, it’s silly, it’s fun, you don’t need to be talented just eager to have a good giggle. No music required either, you can go the whole hog and sing as well!

Steve and I have always ‘kitchen danced’ since before we had the girls. Neither of us are gifted dancers so the privacy of our own kitchen seemed a safe place to express our passion (and daftness) for all genres of dance, the hokey cokey, tango, breakdancing, waltz, tap, disco and we have even tried a bit of electric boogaloo!

The girls have joined in our fun, first of all by doing that wonderful thing where you stand on your Dads’ feet and are waltzed around by him, then teaching us the Bob the Builder Mambo No 5, to more recently introducing styles of their own.

Sometimes, when I am cooking dinner, Steve and I will have a snatched slow dance to cries of “get a room!” from our teenager girls. We all love it, the silliness and intimacy of it can break a tense moment in an instance. When there is a toddler tantrum or a teenage angst moment going on what better than a quick tango to calm the situation down!

Be silly folks, it’s fun. You have to embarrass your kids at some time, it’s in the parents rule book. Give it a go, or invent your own family silliness, your kids will love it and remember it always!

May God bless you in your silliness!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D38s1PDZlx0

Here is a little something to get you started!