Thankful

Thankful.....I am so thankful for this new season of life. Every day now as I drive to work, I spend some time with Father in the relative peace and quiet of my car and every day my heart is overflowing with gratitude for where I am/we are as a family right now. Don't get me wrong - not everything is perfect by any stretch....there are challenges as the rhythm has shifted for each one of us - but the thing that is so striking to me at the moment is God's amazing faithfulness in keeping His promise - even when life sucks and we feel like we're in the mud and mire.

This time last year I was struggling - mainly because of my physical limitations - but all the way through, Father's promise to me was to hold strong because the drought would be over in time - His time.

And indeed it did end. And even today, after such a busy, busy, busy week, a pretty revolting trolley dash round Tesco and even more revolting weather, I am soooooo thankful. I absolutely love my job. I absolutely love Paul and the girls. I absolutely love Jesus.

Thank you Father for such blessing. Every blessing you pour out I'll turn back to praise.

But blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in Him. He will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit.

Dilemma

I have a dilemma - well, not really a dilemma as such - just a small decision to make!!! You see, as of next Monday - 13th August - Team Gibson move into a brand new season. The girls have just started back in Yrs 10 & 12 but the big news is that I am going back to work!
I start next week - full time, term time.....perfect for us all.
So the decision - do I keep blogging............
Only time will tell!

Lessons from Samson

There are usually 2 things that spring to mind when I think of Samson - one is his long hair and the other is a tin of Golden Syrup - check out the front of a tin if you don't know what I mean!!
But today's preach highlighted some other things and really brought his story to the here and now.....
Samson was a man who probably failed more than he succeeded but God still used him.
His strengths were that he was 'set apart' from birth - a Nazirite with a promise over his life and his long hair was simply a sign of this. He was chosen and he was called by God. But if we know Christ, we are ALL chosen and ALL called and that is our strength. We are called to be different and distinctive.
Another strength of Samson's was that 'the Spirit of the Lord was upon him'. Time and time again throughout his lifetime, we are told that the Spirit of God had come powerfully to Samson and that is where his strength came from. And if we have the Holy Spirit living in us, then we have that very same strength because he is the very same Spirit.

However, Samson had weaknesses:-
He wouldn't deal with his temptations and because of that his judgement was clouded. His desires weakended him. From this we have to learn that we cannot flirt with temptation and we should make ourselves accountable to people we trust.
Also, Samson chased after the wrong goals. What are you chasing after???? I want to be one who chases after what God would have me chase over.....

At the start of his life, Samson knew that his power came from God alone but over time that thinking shifted and he started believing that his power came from himself and his 'successes'. If God is Lord of your life then He must always remain Lord - it is by His strength that we really succeed (whatever 'success' is) and truly live lives to their fullness.

Over at last....

The exams are over.......Jess took her final GCSE this morning (Chemistry) and apart from having 6th Form induction over the next 2 days - her days of compulsory schooling are over too.
I can't imagine how relieved she must be feeling - she has worked so hard, not just over the past couple of months but really for all of her school life. She's self-motivated and driven - a good pupil.
But I also feel relieved. I feel as if I have sat every single exam with her and done every single one of the hundreds of hours of revision too. It's been a strange time - difficult some days - but certainly strange.
It'll be interesting to see if doors start opening for me now.......I know God has had me home for this season, not only because I needed time to recouperate from my ops but also to just be 'mum'. But I know He has plans and I wait now with baited breath......

God is still God

I loved this timely message from UCB today:-

Gladys Aylward, missionary to China more than fifty years ago, was forced to flee when the Japanese invaded Yuncheng. With only one assistant, she led a hundred orphans over the mountains toward free China. During the journey she grappled with fear. After passing a sleepless night she faced the morning with no hope of reaching safety. A thirteen-year-old girl in the group reminded her of their much-loved story of Moses and the Red Sea. 'But I am not Moses,' Gladys sighed in despair. 'Of course you aren't,' the girl said, 'but God is still God!' When Gladys and the orphans made it through they proved once again that no matter how inadequate we feel, God is still God, and we can still trust Him. Sometimes God calms the storm, other times He lets the storm rage and calms us. Either way, He sustains us and brings us through. We always have a choice: either we give the burden to God or we try to carry it ourselves. How does God provide for us? One day at a time. Remember the Israelites in the wilderness? Each day God fed them by sending manna from heaven. Notice how it worked. The number of people in your family determined the amount of manna you received, no more and no less. And God would only allow you to collect enough for each day; if you tried to hoard more, it rotted. Getting the idea? So trust God for today and leave tomorrow in His hands. 'Give your burdens to the Lord, and he will take care of you.'

Holy Discontent

I've just finished reading Holy Discontent by Bill Hybels and feel slightly undone.....what is it with these books that seem to be coming my way at the moment????

Plan B

I have just finished reading a great book by Pete Wilson - Plan B (What do you do when God doesn't show up the way you thought he would?)

Now I say it was a great book - and I'd thoroughly recommend it - but having said that it's not an easy book to read - well, I didn't think so anyway. It's left me with a kind of uneasy feeling - a feeling of discontent, although I'm not sure that's quite the right word. I feel as if I have a hundred questions but not enough answers........

The general theme of the book is that God doesn't always do what we expect Him to do - and sometimes such crap stuff happens that we even question whether God is still there. And whilst the author addresses all this stuff, he doesn't provide too many answers. But I found that so brilliantly refreshing. You see - no amount of clever words or theological training can give you the answers to everything. If we knew it all then where would the wonderful mystery of God fit into it all?

I know I'm one of the worst in the world for wanting everything in a neat little package - for wanting things to happen in my timing and in my way - but by doing that I am confining God to the limits of my pathetic little existence.

The truth is I am searching at the moment - searching for God's purposes for me in what I believe to be a new season of life. Some days I even feel quite desperate for answers and desperate for something to do (told you I was pathetic!!!!) but trust is the choice that will get me through this. Trusting my God who has promised to always be with me and never to leave me. Trusting my God who has promised He has a plan for my life. Trusting my God who has me where I am now - not by accident, but by His perfect timing and for 'such a time as this'. Trusting my God who is using this time to shape me for what is to come......

I never for one minute thought I would get to mid-40's and be a stay-at-home mum and wife and even though I am SO blessed by my lovely husband and great kids, this was just never my plan A.

So Plan B it is then.

"I'm asking you to trust that one day faith will win over doubt, that light will win over darkness, that love will win over hate, and that all things will one day be redeemed. I'm asking you, right in the middle of your Plan B pain, to trust the process that is going on in your life. It won't be finished for a while, but it has begun. God will finish what he started. Wait for it."
Pete Wilson, Plan B