Can't think of one...

"For I know the plans I have for you, " declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. "  Jeremiah 29:11

Everything's okay. Everything's alright. We have Jesus in our life. 

As usual, too much to do and too little time! There are lots of lovely and special friends we would like to meet up with but there just doesn't seem to be enough time. There are loads we need to do but my poor old mind seems to be in a constant state of confusion these days and hmm, I don't seem to be making any progress... Let's see:

*The girls' last day at The King's School is the 22nd May;

*De-clutter and pack;

*Sell and give away (and decide who to give what to);

*We have move out of this house by the 31st of May;

*Possibly staying in Birmingham (if the offer still stands) till we leave sometime in June; 

*Out of the country for a week or 2 in June in between our stay in Birmingham; and

*Decide when we want to fly back to Singapore and book tickets... amongst other things.

Funny how we seem to keep pushing the date back, from April to May to early June and now to mid-June. Someone commented today that we might still be here next year. Never mind, I am sure things will fall into place as we move along. They always do. 

*****Broken Within but Complete In Him*****

'He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, "He is my refuge and my fortress; my God, in Him will I trust." Psalm 92:1-2

Is This Really Where God Is Leading Us?

'Train up a child in a way he should go and when he is old, he will not depart from it.' Proverbs 22:6

It's the 'what if' question again, looming at the back of my mind.  The more I thought about it, the more consuming the fear of making the wrong decision gets... I could feel my heart racing and my anger rising. My heart aches and I was almost in tears last night as I thought about what might happen if we had made a wrong choice. What if it's not the right school for Alyssa? It's a good school and I have no doubt about this, but is this the school for our precious little girl? The email updates from her form teacher are already stressing me out and each time I read a new update, I feel increasingly uneasy. What are they looking for in a 7 year old child? Perfection in work? Why is she so hung up on full-stops, capital letters and absolute neatness? Why does she keep emphasizing that children's works are being penalized because they have not done the right thing (i.e. put full-stops in the right places, remembering to use capital letters, penmanship etc)? Why can't she accept that children are children and should be allowed to be children even in schools? Why has there not been any compliments for any efforts these little ones have put in? Is this education? Is this what school is going to like? Are there no flexibilities at all and does she not see each child as a special individual with different gifts, potentials, strengths and weaknesses? At this point, I feel that I am already desperately missing The King's School. I want my child to be herself, to enjoy school, to do well of course but having to conform to a human system that does not recognize the uniqueness and potential of each child is not what I desire for our children. My prayer is for them to become the women God has destined them to be and not to become the women society demands that they be. 

Please, don't let them be taken from yellow meadows and green pastures and thrown into an abyss full of grades and status hungry homo sapiens! 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Our, or rather, Eric's special bedtime words to them each night: 'Alyssa and Annabeth, you are beautiful girls, who are going to grow up into beautiful young ladies. God loves you, Jesus loves you, daddy loves you, mommy loves you, je-je loves you (to Annabeth), mei-mei loves you (to Alyssa) and you love each other... and you are very special. Remember that." We thought, maybe if we say it often enough, they will always remember how precious they are, just the way they are, and that they will let no one tell them or make them feel otherwise. 

By 'beautiful', we are not referring to beauty as the world sees it but beauty as God sees it : ' a broken spirit and a contrite heart', for 'The Lord does not look at the things man looks at. Mans looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.' (1 Samuel 16:7)

*****Broken Within but Complete In Him*****

'He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, "He is my refuge and my fortress; my God, in Him I will trust." Psalm 921:1-2

There is a name...

Up and out of the house within 30 minutes is record-breaking for us. We managed to get to church on time for the 9am service today and wow, what a service! The worship was heavenly and the sermon powerful. God met with us there. 

The pastor reminded us that 'there is a name... a name over our financial situations, a name over our physical conditions, a name over our work situations, a name over our relationship situations, a name over our family situations, a name over our mental, emotional and spiiritual conditions...". AND the name is Jesus. He is over and above all our circumstances, over and above all the giants that we face. He is greater than all. 

The bible speaks of David as being a man after God's own heart. He is not perfect as all who have read the bible knows. When he looked to God, all else around him falls but when David took his eyes off God, he fell. Yet, with all his faults, God sees him for who he is - A man after God's own heart. The bible also says that God does not look at the outward appearance. He looks at the heart. To judge anyone is wrong. It's being too self-righteous but most of us are at one time or other, guilty of judging another. We like to play God. We like to think we are better. But are we really? 

"You are beautiful beyond description. Too marvellous for words. Too wonderful for comprehension. Like nothing ever seen or heard. Who can grasp your infinite wisdom? Who can fathom the depths of your love? You are beautiful beyond description, majesty enthroned above. And I stand , I stand, in awe of you. I stand, I stand, in awe of you. Holy God, to whom all praise is due, I stand in awe of you."

We just need to remember that there is a name over and above everything and every situation we are facing. And the name is JESUS. 

*****Broken Within but Complete In Him*****

'He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, "He is my refuge and my fortress; my God, in Him will trust." Psalm 91:1-2

Friends

The Lord Jesus gave us the principle of a true friendship: "Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master's business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you." (John 15:13-15). 

"Can two walk together, except they be agreed?" Amos 3:3. Friends are of like mind. True friendship is a relationship that is entered into by individuals and is only as good or as close as those individuals choose to make it. A friend is someone whom you can be yourself with and never fear that he/she will judge you. A friend is someone that you can confide in with complete trust and a friend is someone you respect and that respects you, not based on worthiness but based on a likeness of mind.

Jesus is the pure example of a true friend, for He laid down His life for His friends. What is more, anyone may become His friend by trusting in Him as his personal saviour, being born again and receiving new life in Him. THAT IS TRUE FRIENDSHIP!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

We were just watching a video of our time spent in Rutlands with some very special friends over the christmas period. Oh, how I miss those lovely times with friends and families! That said, I am thankful for the friends God has brought into our lives and for the wonderful blessing of their friendships. Perhaps at times, I do not try hard enough to be a good friend but please do be patient with me because your friendship means so much to me.  

*****Broken Within but Complete in Him*****

'He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, "He is my refuge and my fortress; my God, in Him will I trust."' Psalm 91:1-2

Valentines

Happy valentines day! Are you having a great time today? How many valentines cards have you got? Are you at home now? Having fun at home. Love Alyssa.

Do you not know?

'Do you not know? 

Have you not heard?

The Lord is the everlasting God,

the Creator of the ends of the earth.

He will not grow tired or weary,

and His understanding no one can fatham.

He gives strength to the weary

and increases the power of the weak,

Even youths grow tired and weary,

and young men stumble and fall;

but those who hope in the Lord

will renew their strength.

They will soar on wings like eagles;

they will run and not grow weary,

they will walk and not be faint.' 

          (Isaiah 40:28-31)

Tired? I am. I think we all are. The girls are officially on holiday although we've still had to get up early for their ballet and tap lessons in Leicester this morning. Surprisingly, they didn't complain and for that, I am thankful. What can be worse than feeling we are forcing them to take up dancing lessons? Alyssa has finally decided (after 2.5 years of being at the dance school) that she does like tap and ballet. Ha... and just when we thought we could pull them out of the dance school because of Alyssa's lack of enthusiasm!  

I am so glad Daya managed to find my sunglasses. Phew, phew, phew and phew again! Thank you so much, Daya. You brightened up my day again!  It's okay that it's muddy. At least it's still intact!

Today is Valentine's Day. Did you know that this day was originally a pagan festival that was renamed after an early roman christian named Valentine who was martyred for refusing to give up christianity? He died on the 14th February 269 A.D. Interesting, huh, how this has since been churned into another money-making business? In any case, Happy Valentine's Day, all!   

It's weird looking out of the kitchen window.  4 snow stumps now sits at the back of the garden surrounded by the greenest grass. Our snowpeople's heads have either fallen off or melted leaving only evidence of the winter snow that hit UK a week ago...

*****Broken Within but Complete in Him*****

'He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord "He is my refuge and my fortress; my God, in Him will I trust." Psalm 91:1-2

The Present

Each day is a gift from God. Will I use it well today? 

Too many 'what ifs' and 'if only'. Strange how we often wonder what life would be like or how things would be 'if only'... 'If only' things were the way they used to be; 'if only' he/she was here; 'if only'' I had not made those decisions; 'if only' I knew; 'if only' I was well; 'if only' I didn't have to take all these drugs; 'if' I could feel no pain for just one day...

Truth is, if there is no pain, there can be no healing; if there are no mistakes, there can be no forgiveness; if there is no sadness, there can be no joy. If we were all perfect, Jesus wouldn't have to die on the cross. 

A friend I haven't seen in a while shared her pains with me a few days back. Not the kind of pain I have, but a deeper, more searing pain. A pain in her heart, her soul. A pain that makes her soul cry out day and night. A pain that no drugs can numb and no doctors can take away. The worst kind of pain that can be inflicted on a person is the pain caused by another. A pain so prevalent in this day and age. A pain that can only truly be healed by the touch of our Lord Jesus Christ.  

There are many things we can be thankful for. It is so easy to forget to count our blessings each day. A friend said something which we thought was very wise: 'that if we spend all our time fretting and worrying about things we do not have, we will miss out on enjoying what we do have'. Well, it was something along this line anyway.... but how absolutely true this is. So, I should really be thankful that I can do housework, that I can do school runs, I can enjoy my time with our 2 precious little girls etc.

Ooh, last day of school today! 2 weeks with no pack lunches! YAY!!! 

Finished reading THE SHACK today. It's a really good book and a worthwhile read. Helps me look at life from another perspective and made me rethink things. 

*****Broken Within but Complete in Him*****

'He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, "He is my refuge and my fortress: my God, in Him will I trust."' Psalm 91:1-2