How I will pray for my children

I saw this on Pinterest originally from here.

I love it.  I have been praying generic prayers for my kids.  For them to have good health, to be good people and to look always to Jesus.  But I have always thought that I should be more specific and claim promises from the bible.  And then I find this gem, pinned by a delightful pinner and friend, Vanessa.

I'm not one for new year resolutions as they seem to be in of themselves set up for failure.  Instead, I am going to 'purpose in my heart' (Daniel 1:8) to uphold Christ and all that He taught.  To be the mother He needs me to be.  And to remember that my first mission field is here in my home.

Happy New Year!  2013.  *sigh*

When I was little, I used to wonder what I would be like in 2000.  And that being 23 was so old and mature.  Well, we are now 13 years passed and I am into my 36th year and I have two boys and a husband and many many things that I never imagined could have happen have happened.  Reflection is mind blowing.  Today I think it is better for me to focus on the future and to grab hold of my Saviour's hand.

I hope your new year is filled with many blessings and crafty exploits.  I'm currently working on a stashed UFO that needn't remain unfinished for another year.

What do you want for your children?
Are you working on any UFOs?
Have you made any resolutions?

See you round like a fruit loop.

xxx

Christmas Presence

At this time of year, it is so easy to think presents presents presents.  What am I going to make or buy for whom?  Have I got enough? What if second cousin Joe turns up?  Should I have some extra chocolates?

I try every year to not be dictated by this giving - receiving frenzy.  Really, it is a consumerism thing in the end.  That is why I tried to go as handmade as possible so that I could inject as much love as I could into each gift.  But I also know that my sons love Lego, and I wasn't about to fashion Lego bricks out of Fimo.  My boys would be horrified!  So giving something that you know the recipient would love is still giving in love.

These verses have been playing over in my mind lately and I thought I would share them with you.

~ John 3:16 ~

For God so loved the world that he gave his only and unique Son, so that everyone who trusts in him may have eternal life, instead of being utterly destroyed. 

~James 1:17 ~

Every good act of giving and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father who made the heavenly lights; with him there is neither variation nor darkness caused by turning. 

I want to remember that the gift of Christmas is not what Baby Jesus received from the wise men.  The giving and receiving of gifts is actually representative of Gift that God gave this world, our world, His Son Jesus Christ.  And any gift from God is perfect.

I hope you have a wonderful Christmas day and enjoy His presence at your table and in your home or out in nature.

Love and blessings,

Fi xxx

A trip to the Botanicals

We went to our local Botanical Gardens this week.

I need to go back, and probably sans kidlets as they pestered and whinged and meant that we didn't take many photos and couldn't soak up Creation as much as we'd hoped.



Liam insisted on taking a photo and this is it.  I love maiden hair ferns, do you?

 Instead of relaxing, we all became a bit highly strung.  But I managed to snap this one of my big fellas...

But then Rick took this photo of us.  Obviously, we weren't all ready for the photo and he wasn't going to take another one!

But life is precious and this time with the children being so little will pass all too quickly.  Do you find yourself missing your children about an hour after they go to bed?  I do.  I think it is because they can drive me nuts all day and when I've had an hour to myself, to collect my thoughts and gather a bit of strength, I miss them and want to pour out some love on to them and not my angry voice!

Rick will return to work soon.  Since returning to Port Stephens, we have actually been able to benefit from all this time away from work aka unemployment.  It has been 3.5 months and really, the last 3 weeks have been wonderful.  It wasn't so wonderful before.  As much as we wanted to make Hervey Bay our home and we miss our family and new friends there, it was a difficult time.  Unsettling.  Both Rick and I lost weight which we aren't complaining about at all.  But when I'm asked how I lost weight, I say "buy the book I am writing, it is called the unemployment stress diet!".  Actually, I don't recommend it (and no, I am not really writing a book!).

I am grateful that God listens to my prayers and answers them in His time.  Throughout these past weeks I have meditated on this text:

But those who wait on the Lord

Shall renew their strength;

They shall mount up with wings like eagles,

They shall run and not be weary,

They shall walk and not faint.

~Isaiah 40:31

Sometimes we have to wait, and He doesn't let us down, we do that ourselves.  So to avoid letting myself down, I claim this promise:

Trust in the Lord with all your heart,

And lean not on your own understanding;

In all your ways acknowledge Him,

And He shall direct your paths.

~Proverbs 3:5,6

x's

Feast vs Famine

I got to sit down to this delicious breakfast this morning ...

Just your plain multigrain toast, not brioch, sourdough or a bagel, just a simple, choc-full of additives, off-the-shelf standard bread.  I spread it with olive oil margarine, not mascarpone or ricotta, just your good old transfatty marg (well, not that good hey?).  I topped it with sliced strawberries, straight out of the punnet, off the shelf from Woolies, not picked by me off the organic farm!  How 'un-bloggy' of me. 

Why am I telling you this?  Because in all the struggle I am having at the moment in getting work, with no income right now, I have not wanted for anything!  I enjoyed every morsel of my breakfast, no matter how unglamorous or undecadent it was. 

I am so grateful that my boys and my husband also enjoyed a healthy modest breakfast (Weetbix with strawberries and soy milk). 

How our current situation is dwarfed by what is happening in East Africa.

I am overweight.  I have a clean home to live in.  I have clothes.  I have access to good medical care.  I have clean water to drink.  I am not threatened.  I can worship at my church of choice in peace.  I can read my bible without persecution.  I can provide all this to my children.  Blessing after blessing after blessing.  God is providing "exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think" Ephesians 3:20.  I am praying that God pours out his blessings on those poor starving people of East Africa. 

Dear Father, please remember your children in Kenya and Somalia.  Feed, clothe, heal them.  For Jesus' sake. Amen.

My dear readers, those of you who pray, please pray for this famine to cease.  Please pray that evil people do not stop aid.  Please pray for these precious souls who are our brothers and sisters.  Please pray for the little children who cannot fend for themselves. 

My children, although they have never been of the chubby bubby variety, have still been able to have normal baby-pudginess.  Chubby ruddy cheeks.  Never missed a meal.  Oh how my heart aches for those little babies who can't even hold their heads up due to starvation.  Oh the mothers and the fathers who look on through their own sunken eyes, at the horror of their dying children. 

If you want to help aid in East Africa with a financial donation, you can visit this site.  Or for a list of other aid agencies working in East Africa, try this site.

This post is linked to Rhonda's 'On My Mind'

You shall eat in plenty and be satisfied

Another day and another job application.  I have approached in excess of 40 businesses either straight off the street or by formal application to an advertised job.  It is hard.  I don't know what I am doing from day to day . . . seek.com tells me . . . it isn't nice.  But I am out there still, almost 6 weeks on.  Somebody will hire me sooner or later!

This afternoon, I wandered out again into my father-in-law's garden, admiring the bounty of cherry tomatoes.

Some ready to pick and others showing in greeness the promise of a tomato-mouth-explosion yet to come.  It reminded of a bible text I read recently that a friend posted as her facebook status:

"So I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten,

The crawling locust,

The consuming locust,

And the chewing locust,

My great army which I sent among you.

You shall eat in plenty and be satisfied,

And praise the name of the LORD your God,

Who has dealt wondrously with you,

And My people shall never be put to shame."

~ Joel 2:25, 26

Our lives are in His hands and although times are lean and troublesome, He will restore us.  What a promise!

My little men go nuts when they get outside so it was very hard to get these photos of them.  Most of the snaps I took were blurry or of the moment just after they were looking and saying "cheeeeeeeeeese" ie the back of their heads!  There is no relaxation with little men around but they are a joy beyond all words.  I can only imagine that the love God has for me (and you) are like the feelings that I have toward my two sons only His love is multiplied by infinity- and I love my sons tremendously.  I am not afraid.



Book Loving :: Steps to Christ

Do you own any books that you have never read entirely?  Sure, I bet you do . . . like those moments when you thought you should cultivate a wider reading range and bought War and Peace or the complete works of Shakespeare.  I bought the complete works of Jane Austen and have so far read only 2 novels but enjoyed the others via BBC!

Ten years ago, I acquired a little book (only 90 small pages), called Steps to Christ.  I have, from time to time, flicked through its content but never read it from cover to cover.  This past week, I read it.  I read some chapters twice even, not because I didn't understand but because it was so wonderful and uplifting.

As the title suggests, it is an introduction to Jesus Christ and His lovely perfect character, how to meet Him and what it all means to you!  I have been greatly blessed by reading it through and can only recommend it to anyone who wants to grow closer to Jesus.  If you are looking to find something new that is outside of what the bible teaches, you won't.  This book is built from bible texts and compels you to go back and read the bible for yourself.  Yes, it takes away any fear of reading God's Word.  Just delightful.

I would also like to share with you a little personal testimony.  Before arriving in Hervey Bay, I hit the lowest of lows and am not proud of myself for how I handled it.  But since we've moved, to a home that is not our own, with no job and prospects bleak, Rick and I have leant on Jesus.  We have been impressed to pray together every morning at 6 am.  God has made it possible for us to open a little book of blessings to the boys every morning after breakfast and have prayed together as a family.  We do the same again after dinner.  Rick and I have been praying on our own too.  And none of this is in our own strength, we are compelled by our love of God to talk to Him, to read His Word and fellowship with other christians.  We have received a massive blessing and a major dose of faith.

If you are needing a major dose of faith but don't know where to start, read Steps to Christ.

x's

Fi

Friendship

photograph taken from God Loves Me Baby Bible by Zonderkidz

Good morning on this beautiful Easter morning!  How are you today?  Choc-full, or have you only just started?

I have something pressing on my heart today.  I have had one of the worst weeks of my life.  A friendship died this week.  He was someone I admired and trusted who shattered all that in the course of 24 hours.  I value my friendships highly and feel like I am in mourning even though no one has died.

In my grief, though, I have been comforted but not just by my other precious friends throughout this 48hr ordeal.  I don't wear my christianity on my t-shirt.  It is a deeply personal thing but I will share it with others if I feel impressed to.  That is why I don't harp on about it here.  But Easter, along with Christmas, are times when I can safely talk about it without offense, don't you think?

I just want to tell you that  'A man who has friends must himself be friendly,^[a] But there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.' Proverbs 18:24 (NKJV)

You can make all the friends in the world, but there is only One friend that won't ever let you down and in turn, will always love you, be kind to you, show mercy toward you and forgive you.  I want to be more like Him and I have many different friends who show these qualities too.  I am very grateful for my friends.

Today, the christian community are celebrating Christ's victory over death, the consequence of sin.  And, he gained this victory for all of us!  Hooray!  There is no heartache in this earth that can take away His love. 

I hope you are experiencing this friendship with Jesus.

Well, thanks for reading this far.  I am off now to eat some chocolate, not because it is Easter, but because it is chocolate (unless it's Easter here everyday)!

Blessings to each of you

Fiona xxxx

Book Loving :: God is a Knitter too!

I have recently discovered the wonderful writings of Max Lucado.  He captures God's love perfectly in his children's books, so much so that I find myself captivated.

God Thinks You're Wonderful is the first of his books to make it to my little library.

He writes so simply yet captures the essence of God for little children (and big kids aka me) so concisely.

And he reminded me today that God is a knitter too!  God knitted us, using our mother's womb.  He knitted my children, using my womb.  I love that analogy, not just because I knit but because the process of knitting is highly tactile and personal.  Every garment I knit, the entire length of yarn used has passed through my fingers, not an inch I haven't touched.  The process is time consuming and I do it as a labour of love.  Each garment is unique and covered in my fingerprints.

xxx

Psalm 46:1-3

Psalm 46:1-3

Posted: 15 Mar 2011 02:10 AM PDT

God is our refuge and strength,
an ever-present help in trouble.
Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way
and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea,
though its waters roar and foam
and the mountains quake with their surging.

I just looked at yesterday's bible promise.  A timely reminder.

Let us all pray for Japan.

Let us all pray for the oppressed across the world.

Let us pray for our neighbours who may be victims of domestic violence or sufferers of illness or experiencing depression.

Let us uphold everyone, this earth, in prayer.

I believe that Jesus is returning and that there are signs, birth pains if you will, prior to his return.  I don't know how long it will be but I am hoping it is soon.  I want to go home.

xxx

Child's Eyes for 2011

from inside Liam's cot

Not long after my second son, Dean was born (13 Jan 10), I gave my elder son Liam a digital camera to play with.  It was a crappy disappointing camera so its fate was not a concern of ours.  Liam took many photos of the ceiling, his feet, the walls and general blurry photos due to movement and greasy fingers.  He loved seeing the image (instant reminisce as my younger brother would say) and loved sending himself blind with the flash!  He was only 18 months old and needed some distraction as his mother was very busy with a little baby.  The camera lasted only about a week before he jammed the lense!  Liam managed to take some photos of his surroundings that have really reminded me of how small children are compared to their environment.

The world looks so big and so small all at once.  Inside his cot, it seems small and yet this last photo shows just how big the world is around Liam.  I think life can be a little like that at times- a paradox of realities.  And as we have now heralded in another year, it is hard to not be reflective and hopeful.  I began this blog to help me rise to challenges and be accountable- and lets face it, have a bit of adventure into new worlds of hand made crafts- to be Brave & New!  And what better way to embrace this new paradigm but with child like faith and optimism!  The bible says:

Matthew 18:3 (New International Version, ©2010)

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

Little children look at life with such simplicity and don't let the complexities paralyse them!  No more hesitation, no more analysis to paralysis; 2011 is the year I DO and the year I trust.

What is 2011 for you?

xxx BNF

Zumba Day Ten

Day 10

I have learnt some very good lessons these past 10 days. 

1.  Never give up even though you are not sticking exactly to the challenge
2.  Never plan a Zumba Challenge during the busiest time in the year on the homefront

This weekend we had impromptu house guests.  The perfect kind!  I love spontaneity, I love catching up with friends from out of town and of course, seeing my youngest Step Son.  Guests that were coming for lunch on Saturday stayed until after dinner on Sunday.  My kids had the best time and I felt wonderful being able to cook and entertain.  I got out three different table cloths- woo hoo!

So, Zumba day 9 & 10 fell by the wayside.  Am I worried?  No, I did 50% of the challenge which is more than what I had been doing.  I lost only 1kg (an incidental weigh-in at a friend's house), but that aint bad considering the amount of chocolate that was consumed.  I haven't retaken my measurements yet as dinner is still making me feel a little bloated . . . in the morning perhaps.  I have lost a kilo a month since moving to Port Stephens so I am happy!

Will I continue with Zumba?  Yes of course- heaps of fun!  Have I lost a dress size?  Perhaps half a dress size if I did only 50% of the workouts . . . I began wearing a pair of pyjamas that I haven't been able to wear since having children so I think that counts for something!

I hope you enjoyed this challenge and perhaps gained some inspiration and courage from it.  I have really appreciated the comments on this blog and on facebook from you guys.

I'm taking a break from new challenges, concentrating on old ones like eating 2 meals a day and completing my knitting!  But I will tinker with the new sewing machine.  Photos and details to come!

Until then much love and blessings from me to you for 2011!

xxx BNF

CHRISTmas - blessings to you

Friday nights we like to catch up with a family that lives near us.  They either come to our place for dinner or we go to theirs.  It is such a lovely evening.  We eat yummy food then read a bible story to the children and sing songs.  All the instruments come out which consist mainly of toy instruments (none are in tune) and make-shift maracas made from containers filled with rice.  We joyously sing "Jesus Loves Me" and "Into My Heart" with as much gusto as we can and laugh and make noise.  This is such a highlight of my week.

I feel like we celebrate Christmas every week!  And really, we do.  Not Santa Claus Christmas and not Shop-til-you-drop Christmas and not "arrgghh we have to go here and here and here on Christmas"-Christmas, we celebrate CHRISTmas - Jesus. 

I was reminded by my friend that although Christmas is about the birth of Jesus, WE get the birthday presents . . . and in fact the presents are often the focus, not the birth of Jesus.



Picture from http://www.lostseed.com/


My prayer this Christmas is that as we give and receive, let us not forget Jesus.

"But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons (& daughters)." Galatians 4:4-5

Merry Christmas and much love,

Fiona (Brave & New!)