The Mask

There’s much more than a virus out there.

There’s a plague of dis humanity, hopelessness, expressionless, disconnection, isolation, and the plague of fear.

Watching children at play wearing masks is the saddest thing to see. I asked a young child in the mall this morning: “why do you wear a mask?”. He’s reply was simple: “ To protect me from the virus.” This saddens me. Yes, this pandemic is REAL. It’s just a pity that children are losing the FUN out of playing and then their minds are made up for them as to what they should fear.

The plague of fear outweighs our hope if we allow it. Therefore we will outweigh this through Worship. Through faith. Through Hope. Through our expression. With or without masks! We should not lose our desire to be ourselves. There’s an expression that says that the eyes are the window to the soul. This pandemic is HOPEFULLY reaching us to look into each other’s eyes. This will reveal what is really happening to the soul. So t be afraid to make eye contact.

Precious Me

Why and How am I PRECIOUS? To remind myself I am told to make a list.
This is a list of my PRECIOUS ATTRIBUTES

  1. God gave His son Jesus to die for me
  2. I have been given so many opportunities of travel and great experiences which so many women like me have not had.
  3. I have been blessed with an AMAZING husband and 2 gorgeous children. These were literally GIVEN to me!
  4. I have the ability to love and do it selflessly
  5. I have compassion for those in bad situations and those in need

Here is my question to you today. Do you know that you are precious?

Fresh Beginning

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come” (2 Corinthians 5:17).

The beginning is such a good place to be, my darling. There is much in store. But there is acknowledgment of what came before the beginning to mark this moment as a beginning. And in that place I was there, too. But let’s start where beginning is—the union of Me and you, the awakening of your heart, bit by bit, to Me. I awaken you further, now.

These first starts are for you to appreciate the moments that came before them—to see where I was, what I was doing, before you recognized my presence. Let Me take you back to where I was when you couldn’t see Me there. Perhaps the definitions of beginning will need to be rewritten.

I always begin again in you, child.

I am the discovery of the beginning—all hope and life in you. I will give you a fresh start this day. I give you new breath, new eyes, new adventures to set out on with Me. But I want to start this beginning by going back to where I’ve always been with you.

I have always been with you, child, even when you couldn’t see it. I want to show you now. Jennifer Camp (Gather Ministries)

You are UNIQUE & ORIGINAL

We spend FAR too much time scrolling through other peoples feeds. And these feeds, feed our soul and heart with unworthiness, despondency, depression, lack of living, comparison, compromise, unhealthy perceptions of who we are and who we should be.

The desire to have and be like somebody else’s documented life is severe in many of our young people, women and men. We say: “do YOU” but we try to mirror somebody else’s life. Even when what they post on insta and facebook happened a LONG time ago, or did not happen at all, and is merely a selfie. The challenge that social media brings is to make us feel what we should NOT feel about our lives.

Me in the mirror

Take a breath, it comes from Your lungs. Blink your eyes. They are Yours. Hear your heart beating. Listen to every beat. It is God given. The blessing of social media is that it keeps friendships going. It connects. It affirms. It confirms. Don’t be like me. Don’t be like somebody else. Do YOU. Yes, I said it. Do YOU. You are all you should be right now. AND there is more of you….seek it. Go to your source. YOUR Life. And don’t forget: the greatest gift you have is looking back at you when you look into a mirror. GcM

Help me rise…..

May the splintered, heavy and awful, roughly created wooden cross that Jesus carried on that cobbled street that day up to the hill of Golgotha make us want to rise up in our battle and say: Jesus help me climb this mountain; for when I reach the highest point of excursion, exhaustion and pain,

I will surrender my life to the purpose of the cross. It’s purpose is to raise me up. I submit to Your purpose of this mountain. May Your presence never leave me. Carry me Lord. I surrender. Help me not to give up!! But I yield and hold on to the cross. The sacrifice. For I know I will find you there.

I will Rise up and go…….

The battery in me has slowed down considerably. My energy levels have deteriorated so badly. Depression and fatigue is trying to take hold of me.

I LONG to soar again! Down below I see too much pain, hunger and sorrow. I want to soar like an eagle. I want to have energy and strength. If I stay on the ground too long, I might die. There is only one way and that is UP.

Lift me up please Lord. Raise my body from its place of fatigue and call me to higher. I don’t want to miss out on what’s happening higher than the ground. I NEED more of You. 

As a mother comforts her child, so will I comfort you... – Isaiah 66:13

Help me rise up today, and go and have coffee with friends. Women who love and appreciate me and women who have my need foe fellowship at heart. I NEED to lift my body from this bed. My head hurts, and my mind is filled with stale and sore memories .

I MUST SOAR! Take me higher. Where my trust is without borders. I want to walk upon the water wherever you will call or lead me. MAKE me rise up Lord!

Maybe this is your need today too. Like me, you feel as if there is NO WAY that you’ll get past the bed. But writing this blog with honesty and transparency today has already allowed my body weight to shift. From horizontal to vertical. So I aim to rise. Are you? Let’s do it together. Let’s wash our faces and face the world STRONG! Knowing that Our Maker is our refuge!

Be…..Still

Psalm 46:10 ‘Be still, and KNOW that I am God.’

In the busyness of life, it’s good to take a moment to see things in perspective.

When I stop. I breathe much better. I imagine that I am running for a while. My breathing gets heavier and more harder. If I stop suddenly, then I need to “catch my breath” At the time it feels as if I’m losing breath. But it’s there. I just need to take one breath at a time. The same is when life hits hard at me. If I let the hardness continue it will consume my mind and my heart. Stopping let’s me FIND my heartbeat and my breath.

Stop. Revive. Survive

Melina Marchetta

Being still can be challenging. We become so used to being busy. Occupied. Unavailable. Focused on the task. A fixed intention. A permanent action. But all these can be become null and void when we STOP. Just breath. Just feel. Just be still.

Have you ever looked at the rain? It’s difficult to follow a raindrop. As it falls it’s as if it disappears and another drop takes it’s place. if you look hard and long enough one drop becomes many. But with the many drops so much result is achieved.

I encourage you as I encourage myself today. To stop. To be still. To know that there is something greater than what you or I are experiencing or going through. That God is the ONLY one who can stop the rain. He is also the only one who can bring us stillness. But He needs to know that we want it. To be still. To know.

This stillness will bring a new way of looking, understanding and behaviour. It makes me even look at rain with a new perspective. So today: STOP. LOOK. AND KNOW. He is our God.

Giving Gratefully

When we give to others what we don’t need anymore, and what they desperately have need of. This feeling of gratefulness is worth having.

An interesting feeling. This sense of happiness and this sense of goodness.

“Nothing else in all life is such a maker of joy and cheer as the privilege of doing good.” — James Russell Miller

Growing up I was sharing a bed with a sibling until I was almost 21 years old. This feeling of not having MINE has always been a constant one. When I left home at 22 and travelled to the kibbutz in Israel this feeling was unfamiliar. I had my own bed! All I had to do was share the room with one other person who ended up becoming a best friend and godmother to our son.

Today we were able to give a 15 year old her OWN bed. I am convinced that I was more thrilled than anybody apart from her! What a joy to give to someone and know that you have given something that they desperately needed.

To give somebody something of value does not require a price tag on it. Giving something valuable is actually HOW IT MAKES YOU FEEL when you give. We often dream about the things we would like to do. Things for ourselves or for others?

Today I am challenged to check my GIVING. Can I be trusted to give without receiving anything back? How hard is it die me to give of my best to somebody?

In the King James version of the Bible: The word “give” is mentioned 880 times The word “given” is mentioned 498 times The word “giveth” is mentioned 126 times

The greatest GIVER in the world is God Himself who GAVE His ONLY Son Jesus to an undeserving world.

How is your GIVING? Look around you at somebody near you or far from you and decide. Do they need you to give? So many are dying of hunger and poverty, hopelessness and homelessness in the world. Maybe YOU can make a difference. Just test it. See how you’ll feel when you GIVE.

My giving could save a life