A Rhema

Yesterday, Jared and I were learning during our devotion that God speaks a specific word, or rhema, into our lives when we ask of Him or tune in closely to what He says. As is our practice, we spent a couple of minutes in quiet meditation. Most times, we're just practicing our "being quiet" so that the still voice of the Holy Spirit can speak. Well, the verse that I seemed to get was Mark 12:30-32 - "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. The second is this: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no commandment greater than these."


I shared it with Jared. I also shared that I thought God was reminding me that I need to find ways to show love and reach out to our new neighbours. Chatting to one of them in the lift, I've discovered they are a bunch of students from India who are attending Republic Polytechnic nearby. So far, I've just been irritated by the music and loud movie sounds they constantly have blaring day and night. I suspect they are also the ones who have been leaving their trash outside the chute instead of bagging it and throwing it down the chute. Sigh...

Well, as it turns out, there was a surprise in store for us as we settle down to copywork for the day a couple of minutes later. Our CM copywork passage for the day was just this very verse! Jared was impressed that God was definitely saying something. He looked up with a grin, "now, that's what I call double confirmation!". Right, now there's no worming my way out of this one. Something will have to be done about our neighbours....

:) And trust my God to make sure I get his point, I've just realised that our sermon topic at church this coming Sunday is "Transforming our Community".

Did I need my degree?

It's been a most hectic weekend. Hectic but thankfully, productive. The house got vacuumed, the floors mopped, the toilets scrubbed, the clothes ironed, fresh blueberry muffins baked, the extended family got a home-cooked Sunday evening meal and we even managed to squeeze in a visit to the Ancient Egyptian exhibit at the National Museum. The nagging question has been, "Did I need an honours degree in Psychology to have done all that?!?". I'm still working on that...

Margaret Peterson's book "Keeping House: The Litany of Everyday Life" has been food for thought. She's done her Bible homework well. An excerpt from the review on the back says it best. "Christian service and spiritual growth are inherent in the acts of keeping people fed, clean, housed and comfortable. Housekeeping, she says, is akin to a litany, a long public prayer to announce needs and requests. A litany is repetitive and focused on the basics: food, health, shelter. Similarly, housework is ongoing and incarnational, teaching us about Jesus' earthiness and decision to live among us; it requires perpetual tending, much like God's active sustaining of the world."

How true. Our floor will be in dire need of another mopping all too soon.

How Blessed We Are...

Since our Il Divo concert experience on Saturday, I've constantly had their music playing while I cook, clean or do laundry. And Jared has been humming Amazing Grace. In fact, while we were waiting for the bus to violin lesson today, quite out of the blue, he remarked that it is a "very blessed thing to be gifted with a good singing voice" - obviously in reference to himself!!! :) But it is not far from the truth as it is indeed a beautiful gift...

It has occurred to me several times since the concert how powerful an impact they could have for God if they became believers and used their gifts for His glory. And each time I would have to catch myself and remind myself that God doesn't need to use our "gifts". He wants to use our lives...and might quite possibly call us to do things that we are not gifted for....

:) But in the meantime, Il Divo sounds great!

A Lesson from the Lilies in the Field

We've been stopping frequently on our walks around town and in the neighbourhood near church to look at the flowers and notice what the plants are getting themselves up to. The cherry blossoms have come and gone, the magnolias had their moment of fragrant glory and patches of flowers have had their moments only to give way to another kind of bloom waiting to astound us with it's glory. Even though their beauty is but in passing, yet our Creator spared no expense in making them exquisite...the thought has given new meaning to my understanding of His word when He tells us that even more than the flowers of the field that are here one moment and gone the next, He cares and provides for all our needs. Hallelujah!

It's Time

It's about time to keep a sort of journal. All the small things that make our days just right seem to slip out of my memory so quickly. For instance, I remember some of Jared's antics just long enough to tell Daddy when he gets home and maybe write about it to grandpa or grandma then it's lost. Perhaps this will be a place to capture some of those memories...a place to tell of God's precious gifts of grace in our lives.