Sunday 27 November 2011

Sunday Morning Musings


“Blessed be the Lord, who daily bears our burden, The God who is our salvation.” – Psalm 68:19

Donovan and I have been reading a Psalm every morning for a couple of months now. Naturally we have missed the odd morning, but for the most part we have stuck with it. Sometimes I read it and when finished we just go on with our morning…but sometimes we talk about which verse sticks out the most to us. This morning my back is not doing so well so we decided that maybe going to church and sitting on rock hard pews wouldn’t be a good idea, so we read our Psalm, talked about it, meditated on it and listened to music.

As I read Psalm 68 this morning verse 19 really stuck out to me. As most of you know I have been struggling with keeping up with my daily Bible studies. I want to read my Bible every day; I want to grow closer to God; I just can’t seem to find the inner strength do to it. Of course, on the days that I delve in and study His Word, listen to Worship Music, sing at the top of my lungs, let the words penetrate my heart, those are the good days. In verse 19 it says “Blessed be the Lord, who daily bears our burden, The God who is our salvation.” The emphasis on the word “who” was interesting to me. You’d think that the emphasis would be on “is” but it isn’t. The Psalmist wants us to focus on The One who bears our burden, The One who is with us no matter what, The One who carries us when we are down, and The One who is always by our side waiting for us to turn to Him. The One who is our salvation. No matter what I want to Bless my Lord and Saviour who is my salvation.

I find that sometimes we set goals for ourselves that we somewhere inside of us we know we will never be able to reach them; maybe one day but not on the day that we make them. (Or, at least I do.) So I have decided to make smaller goals and build from there. My goal for the next couple of weeks is to spend 5 minutes a day praising God; blessing His name, lifting Him up, thanking him for all that He does for me. I used to do that all the time, but I haven’t in a long time so now, it’s back to basics. Please pray that I am able to do this and in doing this grow closer to my heavenly Father and become strong in Him once again.

Blessed Sunday everyone and Happy 1st Sunday in Advent!!! Bring on the Christmas Music!!!!!!!

Saturday 12 November 2011

The coming together of life.


This week I got to socialize with people again. Besides the odd “hiya, you alright?” between the odd person on the street we haven’t had much contact with the outside world in the last year. Last Saturday we went to a workshop at our church. “Going Deeper into the Psalms” and we talked to our Rector and he asked me what kinds of things I liked doing and if I was looking for volunteer work. I told him I was and he said he would introduce me to a few people on Sunday. During the announcements they mentioned that they needed volunteers to work at a Warehouse for three weeks processing boxes for Operation Christmas Child. I talked to the lady in charge, got very few details but was told to be there for 11. I didn’t go on Monday. Doreen (the lady in charge) called me Monday afternoon and asked if I was still interested. I told her I was and she said that people in the congregation would be willing to drive me if I wanted. So I went Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday. It was so much fun!!! I have been coming home utterly exhausted, but it is a good exhausted. I feel like I am doing things and that I am being useful again.

I love that I can walk into the warehouse and people greet me by name and I return their greetings and it is wonderful.  And in these three days of working there I have joined a choir! Practice is Thursday nights and I don’t have to perform if I don’t want to. I can just come and sing! Apparently there are a few younger people so that would be good. I do not mind being around older people. It’s quite nice actually.
On Wednesday’s and Saturday’s our church has a Drop-In-CafĂ© for lunch. I went on Wednesday to help out and that was also great fun. I take their orders and bring them their food and smile prettily. Kids are still freaked out by accent, but I think eventually they will get used to it.

So, with all of this socializing I am feeling so much better about life and things. Now I just need to start working out a bit more and my goals will be falling into place!

Other than that not a whole lot is new! For the Fall Half-term break Donovan’s parents were here and we went down to the Southwest of England. Mainly the Somerset and Devon areas, but that didn’t stop us from driving all over the place. Every day was non-stop driving and sight-seeing. We saw three Cathedrals, thirteen Castles, two Palaces, two Stone Circles, lots of churches, one ocean…and lots of other things. It was great fun and I still can’t believe that I saw all of those things in a week!

Donovan is doing well, he is fighting a cold but I think he is winning! He has about 40 hours of marking to do this weekend, but things are doing well, he is enjoying working at the school and is making a good friend in the other male history teacher David. He is actually coming over for supper on Wednesday! (Apparently he likes my cookies.)

Things to look forward to in the future: My Birthday in London J and Christmas in Ireland or Scotland.

Many blessings on your weekend and I hope it is fantabulous!