He is a poor son whose sonship does not make him desire to serve all men’s mothers. Harry Emerson Fosdick

Jesus on the cross, gave his mother Mary and his friend John to each other to care for as mother and son.

Who are the other mothers that God has given to you?

Who are the children that God has given to you?

Women do not have to have given birth to become mothers.  Mothering is in all women.

Look for children to nurture and guide wisely.

Look for other mothers who can nurture and guide you wisely.

Friends of God are those who have hear the Word of God and then obey it.

John Bevere gives five things about obedience that we must do for it to be truly obedience:

1. Obey instantly.

2. Obey if it doesn’t make sense.

3. Obey even if it hurts.

4. Obey even if you do not see a benefit.

5. Obey to completion.

Do you want to hear the voice of God say, “Enter in to my rest for I know you as a friend”?

Then obey Him always.

Insecurity in the blessings God gives us is the ultimate insult to God.

God blesses us willingly, lovingly and sacrificially. To not recognise his blessings, or to not accept them and benefit from them, means that we are treating those blessings as having little value. And ultimately this suggests that we think that God doesn’t know how to care for, bless and provide for us!

So, recognise every blessing, recognise its worth, value it, use it and above all thank God for His generosity to you.

These are the Family Mealtime Rules for C3 Robina that I preach on Sunday last.

Remember that abiding by rules… is beneficial for the strengthening of our faith, our devotion and the family ties. The attitude with which we obey is of paramount importance. Hence, I have given each command an adverb that addresses our attitudes.

Where do we get the attitude and the obedience? From our choice out of the realisation of what Jesus has done for us on the cross. What free gift of lavish grace! He obeyed God unto death for each of us! How can we not show our gratitude for salvation and eternal life by being devoted to Him and His church?!

1. Come, sacrificially.

2. On time is too late: Come early.

3. Help Prepare, cheerfully.

4. Be here for grace, joyfully.

5. Come hungry:

Eat what’s prepared, thankfully.

6. Serve, humbly.

7. Participate, gladly.

8. Thank the cook, sincerely.

You can hear the whole message called Family Mealtime Rules Ok! in itunes: http://itunes.apple.com/au/podcast/c3-church-robina-podcasts/id318565191

“Mum, I’m hungry!”

“Wonderful because I have made a great meal for us!”

As a Mum I always felt glad that my family came to the table with good appetites. They had worked hard during the day and needed fuel for the next.

So, how do we come to church hungry? Here are a few thoughts for you to ruminate on.

• Come expecting to hear something that will challenge you to grow.
• Come on time. Those who come late to the table miss the first course!
• Come expecting to hear something that challenges the corporate body to grow.
• Exercise your spirituality during the week so that you ‘work up an appetite’. This will involve some sort of ministry that uses your gifts. It will involve caring for both church people and those who don’t yet know Christ. It will involve sharing the nourishment that you have received.
• Exercising your spirituality also involves applying the truths you have heard in sermons to your life, so that you change wrong behaviours and attitudes and become more Christ like. This doesn’t just happen; it involves work.
• The occasional meal with friends is ok, but your main food supply should come from your own family. Don’t fill up at Ps So-and-So’s church or listening to every preacher you can on podcast . Use your discretion here.  Is what I am listening to building me up in the body I belong to? Is the message the Jesus my pastor preaches? Or is the message I am hearing from these, divisive, critical or negative and causing me to be that also?
• Don’t fill up in junk food like TV, magazines, internet etc that are ok occasionally but can pull our attitudes and thoughts into wordly rather than godly paths.

When we live our lives in this way we will come to church hungry to hear the pertinent word of God for us.

“Mum, I’m hungry!”

“Oh, go and see Mrs Jones next door. Get her to feed you!”

Seems silly doesn’t it. Likewise, no pastor, when his or her church people are spiritually hungry would say, “Go down the road to that church and see what Ps So-and So is preaching.” No, he makes himself and his team available for spiritual feeding through the week. He prepares full meals as sermons for the services, messages that nourish his people through the week. He knows it is his responsibility to feed his people nourishing, timely meals and spends a great deal of time preparing them.

Now sure, sometimes Mum might realize that Mrs Jones has given you a snack because you were playing with her kids and got hungry but as a general rule, Mum understands it is her responsibility to feed you and your responsibility not to eat too much of Mrs Jones’s food, so that you have room for what she has spent time preparing just for you!

I remember as a child going to play at a friend’s house. They were much better off than my family and had treats that my Mum would never have bought for us, like shop bought ice cream and tomato sauce and lollies whenever the kids wanted them.

I remember one meal time sitting down to Mum’s home made goats’ milk ice cream and raving about this Golden North honey ice cream that my friends had. And turning my nose up at Mum’s homemade tomato sauce. And sometimes coming home too full of lollies to feel like eating the healthy meal my Mum had prepared. I vividly remember and still feel bad about the pained look on my Mum’s face as I told how wonderful all of this friend’s food was!

It is your responsibility to be present at the meal table to feed on what is set before you with a hungry stomach, not one full of someone else’s cooking. Let me be even clearer; it is your responsibility to be in our weekly church service not full of another church’s teaching but hungry for the pertinent word of God that has been prepared specifically for us.

Be in church hungry.

“Mum, I’m hungry.”

“Make yourself a sandwich. Dinner will be another hour yet.”

It is our responsibility to grow in the art of feeding ourselves spiritually. How?

Here are a few thoughts:

• Take notes of sermons to ruminate on. Chew the cud. People are spiritual cows; we have several spiritual stomachs as it were and regurgitate and ruminate the same message through the week, taking more sustenance from it each time. This practice is called meditation. That’s why it is good to take notes of things that the preacher says. These will serve as memory joggers for you to ponder the word of God from the messages you hear at services. There is always more in a sermon than we can possibly digest at once. That’s why when we talk to different people after a service they will invariably relate different things that the message spoke to them. And we tend to forget those things that were not immediately pertinent to us. Notes help us to bring out the other thoughts to digest during the week. Just like a cow chewing its cud.
• Accept the responsibility to be at services every week, rain (rain, rain, rain…) hail (hail storms only last a short time) or shine (even though the beach beckons), houseguests (bring them), feelings (live a self-controlled life)…
• Engage in connections with the family. Remember that the table is not just about food. There’s so much more that feeds us spiritually at a service.
• Engage in consistent personal study of the Bible and prayer.
• Engage in corporate study of the Bible and prayer.
• Serve in some capacity. Help set the table, serve your family members and clean up afterwards. This helps us convert all that food not into fat but spiritual muscle.
• Thank those who feed you. Alfred Painter  said, “Saying thank you is not just good manners; it is also good spirituality.”

Be in church every week armed with a thankful, servant heart and a notebook and pen.

“Mum, I’m hungry.”

“Well, wash your hands and hop up to the table. I am about to dish up.”

Now while it is right and good that we grow in the art of feeding ourselves,

this is not to say that we should ever cut ourselves off from the family dinner table, that is, our weekly service of worship. There is so much more to dinnertime than the food on the table.

But even if it were only about the food, that is reason enough to come to weekly services. Your pastor prepares food that you have not been able to. He spends time in prayer and study hearing the voice of God, so that he knows what our church needs to nourish it and make it grow healthy and strong.

As a child of a church family, no one is exempt from participating in family mealtimes. No child is allowed to sulk in his room because someone offended him or because he is full from eating at Ps So-and-So’s. Any one who believes he can survive by only feeding himself and eating at Ps So-and-So’s, will sadly be stunted in growth and become critical of the food that is presented at weekly services. How very sad is this state of affairs!

Additionally, it behooves us to remember that spiritual food is not just for ourselves.  Sermons may contain truths that we individually have absorbed into our being but that are new to others. They may be truths that are meant for the whole body to hear and absorb. We should celebrate the variety of nourishment we receive and feed on what is presented with thanksgiving. The sermons are for the whole body so that the whole body may be built up – not just each of us individually.

The WHOLE family should to be present at the family table every week to receive the food for the WHOLE body and to celebrate and grow spiritually strong TOGETHER!

Be in church every week.

What do you think the cartoon caption is? Read on to see if your answer is better than the original.

“Mum, I’m hungry!”

“Make yourself a sandwich. Dinner will be another hour yet.”

Have you heard this as a parent? “I’m HUNGRY!” Did you say this to your Mum? Lots??

Parents encourage their children to learn to feed themselves. It is good for children to learn to feed themselves outside of mealtimes.

“Mum, I’m hungry!”

“Ok, I’ll come and help you get a snack.”

Sometimes, of course, the mum might stop what she is doing and help the child make the snack, particularly a more healthy choice and portion than they would otherwise make for themselves.

“Mum, I’m hungry.”

“Well, wash your hands and hop up to the table. I am about to dish up.”

Or

“Dinner’s ready.”

“I’m not hungry…”

“Come to the table anyway.”

Parents also make sure that their children join the family meal table because mealtime is much more than eating. It is also about relationships, being thankful for provision, celebrating blessings and successes, celebrating each other, becoming closer, showing love and appreciation for one another.

The child who refuses to come to the dinner table, cuts himself off not only from food the parents have spent time preparing but also the love and closeness of family life.

When a child stays in his room on xbox, instead of coming to dinner with the family, he is placing a higher value on xbox than on his family.

It is like this with church. Services are family mealtimes. They are so much more than a time to be fed spiritually. They are about relationships, celebrating God, being thankful for provision, celebrating blessings and successes, celebrating each other, becoming closer, showing love and appreciation for one another.

The person who stays away from services, cuts himself off from firstly, the spiritual nourishment that the pastor has spent many hours preparing and also, the love and closeness of family life. He does not learn by joining in the time-honoured traditions of ministry to be a valued and appreciated member of the church family.

Bluntly, when we choose another activity over coming to church, we are placing more importance on that activity than on worshipping God with our church family.

Be in church every week!

Cartoon Caption: “Well, yes, we could just read your blog…or you could tell us how your day went.“

Saturday morning.

Jake’s mum was in the laundry, doing what she did every Saturday morning….washing the sheets and towels and clothes. He could hear her singing, badly and very loudly, some old song that she and Dad used to dance to when they first met. “Come on, come on, do the locomotion with me…”

Jake pulled up his bedcovers, fished under his bed and pulled out his new skateboard. This was the moment he’d been waiting for all school week long…the first real tryout of his birthday present!

“Yayyyyy”, he yelled as he rushed down the passage and onto the front veranda.

“Don’t you play on the veranda,” called his Mum, “Don’t want any broken windows.”

Jake didn’t answer. How did Mum always know stuff!

“Hey, Smithy”, he called to his friend across the street, “Ready….Where’s Matt?”

Soon the three friends were skating up and down Jake’s driveway. Jake was stoked. His skateboard was THE BEST. It was the newest, coolest, fastest and did the best tricks! Matty and Smithy were impressed.

Jake was impressed. He was impressed with his skateboard.  He was impressed with himself. So impressed was he that he forgot to be Jake Lawson, grade five at Carrington Primary School and became Jake Lawson Champion Skater Extraordinaire, loved and admired as number one skater in the whole wide world, star of skate videos, and skate mags and mobbed by autograph hunters wherever he went. His board was part of him: he had been born with it attached to his feet! And he began to do more and more daring and dangerous feats.

Very soon, Jake Lawson, Proud # 1 International Skate Star, began skating closer and closer to the veranda. He did ollies and nollies, kick flips and heel flips. Then he skated straight at the veranda steps with great speed in readiness for a huge ollie that he imagined would have him complete a marvellous kick flip into a board slide along the veranda edge and land back on the path.

But it didn’t go quite as it had played out in his head. The ollie went spectacularly. Then into the kick flip. But here it all went wrong. Before you could say “skinny, rotten bananas” or “my Dad’s bigger’n your Dad” or even “tail slide, lip slide, nose slide”, Jake had parted company with the skateboard and was flat on his back on the concrete while the board travelled on without him.

Jake lay there and watched it all in slow motion. His beautiful, new skateboard was flying; twisting gracefully like a dolphin breaking the waves, looping the loop and heading straight through the living room window. There was the crashy, smashy, shattering sound of breaking glass, the thud of the board hitting the carpeted living room floor, another bump, followed several seconds later by a very loud smash as Mum’s favourite glass vase hit the floor. Then just a tinkly, tinkly tinkle as little bits of broken window found their way to the ground. Then all was silent.

Silent that is until Jake’s heart began to beat again…..loud, deafening thumps that felt as if his heart would break out of his chest. Jake sprung to his feet.

“Oh, no!” The three friends drew in a collective breath.

Next, two things happened almost simultaneously.

Jake’s big brother, Thomas, rode up the drive on his bike, skidded to a stop by the front veranda and dropped his bike to the ground. He swore softly under his breath as he realised what had happened.

And from inside the house, loud running footsteps, a shrill cry from the living room, a whoosh as the front door was pulled open with force…and then there was Mum, her face a strange purple-red colour, her eyes darting around the scene at her feet, her mouth working strangely as she tried to get out words of fury.

But no words came.

Just then, Thomas stepped forward in between Mum and Jake.

“I’m so sorry, Mum!” he said really quickly, “I lost control coz I was going too fast. I’m sorry. I’m really sorry. I’ll pay for it…the window and all.”

Mum still said nothing. She glowered down at Thomas and tried to look around him at her younger son. What was going on here? Something didn’t seem quite right. It was Jake’s skateboard. Why was he not dobbing his brother in like he always did? At last she spoke: a torrent of words tumbled out of her mouth.

“You know I told you not to play on the veranda with skateboards. I told you this might happen! Why did you disobey me? You’ve broken the window AND my best vase. It’s the one my Grandma gave me. Don’t you EVER listen! I will have to punish you, you know!”

She ran out of steam.

“I’m so sorry, Mum,” Thomas was still saying. “I’ll pay for it all from my pocket money.”

Mum gave up trying to understand. She shook her head and said, “Urrrrgh!”

Then she sighed and shrugged. Her eyes looked all glassy.

Mum went back into the house, with Thomas close behind her.

Later…

Matty and Smithy had gone home. Jake stood alone in the front garden. He wasn’t Jake Lawson International Skate Star anymore.

His stomach hurt. There was a big lump in the back of his throat like when you try to swallow half-chewed brussell sprouts. His hands and his neck felt hot and clammy.

He knew that inside the house, Thomas was getting a walloping from Mum.

He knew that that walloping was really his to get.

Why had Thomas done that? Why had he said that he had broken the window and the vase?

Jake felt oh, so bad! Inside he knew that it was his fault. He knew that he had disobeyed his Mum.

Saturday Night

Jake lay in his bed that night. He could hear his Mum and Dad talking in their bedroom next to his…not what they were saying, but the sound of Mum’s voice and then Dad’s low one answering. He just knew that Mum was telling Dad about the skateboard incident. His stomach still felt sick. It had felt too sick to eat his dinner. He was to blame but Thomas had been punished instead.

Then he couldn’t stand it any longer. He climbed out of bed and crept silently to the door of his parents’ bedroom where he stood unsure of what to do next.

There was a movement from the bed and Mum’s pale face appeared as she propped herself on one elbow to see who was in their doorway. Then she beckoned for him to come.

That was signal enough for Jake. He ran. He landed on the bed in between the two people who loved him the most and burst into tears. Mum held him until his sobbing quieted.

“I-I-I d-d-did it, Mum. It wasn’t Thomas. It was me. I’m so-o—o-r-ry!” And he began to sob again.

“There, there,” comforted Mum, “I know, I know. It’s alright.”

Sunday

Jake sat with Dad at the breakfast table. His stomach had stopped hurting. His throat was clear. In fact, he felt good all over. He felt hungry enough to eat two plates of the bacon and eggs that Mum was cooking in the kitchen.

Thomas came to the kitchen. Jake watched through the doorway as Mum gave Thomas a huge hug.  “Hey, champ,” said Dad. Thomas smiled at Jake and ruffled his hair as he sat down.

Jake moved his chair closer to Thomas’s.

With a cheery “Here we go!” Mum placed the breakfast plates in front of them. Jake saw that she had given him two eyes of bacon and Thomas only had one. The eyes were the bits they had always fought over. They both liked them the best.

Jake picked up both his pieces and carefully placed them on Thomas’s plate.

“Huh,” said Thomas with a smile and gave him a soft punch on the arm.

Mum said, “Oh, bother, forgot to put in my brain today” and went to the kitchen to get her cup of tea.

Dad asked in a gruff sort of voice, “Skating today are we boys?”

Jake’s stomach did a back flip with double pike then bellyflopped in his shoes. His throat tightened. But then he looked at his Dad and saw the crinkle lines around his shiny eyes. Dad was only having a go!

Thomas replied for them both, “Nuh, we’re going to the markets, shopping,” and dropping his voice to a whisper, “…a present for Mum!”

They all laughed. Jake felt good. Today was a great day.

And when Thomas got up to leave, Jake was right behind him.

___________________________________________________________________________

Jake’s Story was written by Ps Adrienne Easton for the C3 Robina Kids for Easter 2008.

Can you tell how it is like the Easter story of Jesus Christ? Chat to your Mum and Dad about this, about the way Jesus took the punishment for us, just like Thomas did for his brother Jake.

At our 20th anniversary service we asked  people to complete ‘C3 Robina is my church because…’

Here’s a few of the comments, categorised into when people joined.

At Bond Uni 22/11/1991-23/8/92

Gail: Here is where I found my family. These are the people who have supported and loved us through a lot of highs and lows. Nowhere else I want to be!

Judy: My church is where I come to worship the Great I Am! A place where my family loves , grows, experiences their own relationship with Christ. The start of an awesome journey which will continue into eternity.

Adrienne: my church because here I experience and know God’s overwhelming love and grace through his people, my family. It is my home. It is my family. It is my purpose. It is my life.

Josh: My church firstly because it was my parent’s church (they wouldn’t have let me stay home, ha!) but mostly because it became my home- where my other family was and my God was worshipped. And plus, it was just so much fun!

Di and Allan: the first time we heard Don preach it was like he was talking to us. We knew we had found our spiritual home. The journey has had its ups and downs, but the ups have made the downs bearable. Thank you to our fabulous pastors, Don and Adrienne.

Craig: met Don after arriving in the country in Feb/Mar 89 and have followed this beautiful man of God ever since. This man of God is my friend.

Sarah: my first home

Renee: I wouldn’t be anywhere else. I feel at home. I love the worship, I love my friends, I love God and this church!

Mike and Kaye: It was and is where we are called to be… we love it here! So many memories, so many good times and so many friends. Look out future… here we come!

Hayley: I firstly came with Mum and Dad, wasn’t sure with the new crazy music but about the second song in, thought, this is the place for me. My children and I come now still enjoying making memories in God and life. Thankyou God for starting and building and awesome house to be a part of.

Miami Great Hall 23/8/92- 6/6/93

Joyce: the spirit of God in the services and strong families.

The Lutheran Church 6/6/93-11/93

James: saved my life…in fact, gave me one!!

East Quay 31/11/93-2/99

Valmai, Sarah and Ben: the start of a new beginning, that has brought great friendships (treasures from heaven) and a wonderful new family, in meeting new and wonderful people who have inputted into all of us in such a beautiful way… and added to our family with Michelle and Mikayla and Ruby and more to come…

Steve and Jo: the beginning of the rest of our lives. Love you Don and Adrienne and love this church.

Rhys and Ang: the warm friendliness of the people and the move of God’s spirit is what moved us to stay @ Christian City Church Gold Coast Central. LOL!

Chris and Julie: we found the music and the worship and the sermons touched us because they related to our life and our situation at the time. They held us in friendship and care and still do to this day. Thank you Don and Adrienne for your amazing love.

Peter and Heather: it is our home and friends for good and bad times.

Linda and David: Thank you, lots of love from us.

Matt: because it’s my home. It’s where I met God and it’s where I make awesome friends.

Christian: it’s my family

Ben: C3 Church Robina is my church because the people are really good and it’s my second home.

Jay: It’s my family

Mike: it’s where I met my best friends and was supported in life

Salli: care, friendship, forgiveness, family and friends!

Robyn: this is my spiritual home and family

Rod and Lesley and Mel: our wonderful churchJ we love you very much and all the wonderful people in it (our family) especially our amazing pastors

Michele and Adam: It’s our home. We love our church and Ps Don and Ps Adrienne

The Radisson Resort 28/2/99- 7/99

Jeremy and Karen: This is our church because we love being part of the family

Christine Ave 25/7/99 -4/04

Tom: it’s where I met my wife

Elissa: you are wonderful pastors

Josh: joined in 2003 and loved it

Helen, Lauren, Ben and Phoebe: walked in, didn’t even notice the building’s shortcomings. We were gobbled up with the love and simply stayed and stayed… met my future husband.

Robyn: it is home, full of love, amazing people presence of God.

Reuben: it was awesome!

Andrew and Ang, Aimee and Matthew: came to find knowledge and returned because we found a family, friendship and love. Thank you to te wonderful people.

Bonogin Road 4/4/04

Amanda: because I have learned lots about myself through how the nature of God is to heal things that the world can’t- and he does this through his incredible people.

José: definitely home, such a wonderful family. Jesus found me here, am so grateful. Ps Don and Adrienne, thank you so much.

Belinda and Robert, Kimberly, Alicia, Rochelle: we came from C3 Watson in Canberra and moved to the Gold Coast in 2010. We love C3 so what better church to join and was welcomed with open arms. Love it.

Simon, Sumana, Isabella, Grace, Charlise: joined C3 Robina; we love having our children grow here and look forward to coming years with this great C3 family.

Matt, Claire, Alicia, Sophie: call this church our family and our home. A place of great love. God’s presence is alive in this house.

Talia: thank you for being our pastors!!!

David: Love of God really showed himself to me. Love this place!

Kate: it’s my family and my life! It’s where God has called me to be; to grow in him and do all that He wants me to. And the Youth Pastor here is good-looking!!

Lisa: For five years now I have called C3 Robina my home. Could not think of a better place to be and people to be with.

Alicia: Love this church. So welcoming.

Elisha: This is family where God and I meet and together we as a family build the Kingdom of God.

Rach: This place has become home. Love it, love the people, love how God works in it!

Pam: love being here at this church. Love the people- I’ve met so many people.

Gloria: I love this church. It has given me so much. Thank you God.

Ray and Vicki: this church has welcomed us with open arms and love. We love it here and love the friends we have made. Thank you so much, Ps Don and Adrienne.

David and Lyn: we love the family love we found here…

Sheridan, Dave Mitch and Alisha: what a wonderful family we have gained in the last twelve months. We love and bless you all with all our hearts. We’re home! Thank you!

Andrew and Chrissie: Came from Sydney to establish ourselves here in Southern Queensland. Felt so warmly welcomed and we felt so accepted. Now we love it even better. Great people!!

For if dreams die

Life is a broken-winged bird

That cannot fly.

Hold fast to dreams

For when dreams go

Life is a barren field

Frozen with snow.

by Langston Hughes

You’re cleaning out Grandma’s storeroom and find a tarnished lamp, you rub it with your sleeve and lo, a genie appears!

‘Ok,’ he says, ‘you know the drill: one wish. What’s it to be?’

‘Only one!? But I thought I could have three!’

‘No. One. Only one.’

‘Oh, crikey!’  you think. ‘This is a trick- I can’t get this wrong. No second or third chances! What can I ask for????… Is there something that will make everything else I wish for happen…or be irrelevant…or unnecessary…?

I posed this question at our Dream Anointing service, where our people write out their hopes and dreams for the coming year, and we anoint them and pray over them that God will bless, empower and help them to see their dreams fulfilled.

If you only had one wish, what would you ask God for?

Jesus reveals the BEST answer in Mark 2:1-12 Four friends bring a paralytic to Jesus for healing but instead of granting the man his obvious desire, Jesus declares that his sins are forgiven. A cruel joke, you may think!

But no, Jesus is saying that if I were to make him walk, most likely he would go away, get on with life in his own strength and forget all about me apart from a quick word of thanks now and then or retelling the story to a few friends under his vine and fig tree.

You see, a miracle without relationship with Jesus is just a miracle (as wonderful as that is) and will not sustain us in the end. It will not hold us to God. Miracles are signs to the Saviour, they are not the saviour themselves.

Jesus actually was giving the paralytic the very BEST thing that he could ever have- something of eternal value that would last far beyond the state of the man’s physical body.

And in His gracious love, Jesus also healed the man!

First the spiritual; then the natural. “Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” Matthew 6:33

We must make our relationship with God our first desire, repent of our sins that hinder that relationship, and seek Jesus as our saviour. Only then will we find real and lasting fulfilment, satisfaction and contentment in life and this despite when and how and if our other dreams come to pass.

God knows our heart’s longings even better than we do! We may dream for something, but in his great love, he knows what’s BEST for us!

“To celebrate growing older, I once wrote the 45 lessons life taught me. It is the most requested column I’ve ever written.My odometer rolled over to 90 in August, so here is the column once more:

1. Life isn’t fair, but it’s still good..

2. When in doubt, just take the next small step.

3. Life is too short to waste time hating anyone.

4. Your job won’t take care of you when you are sick. Your friends and parents will. Stay in touch.

5. Pay off your credit cards every month.

6. You don’t have to win every argument. Agree to disagree.

7. Cry with someone. It’s more healing than crying alone.

8. It’s OK to get angry with God. He can take it.

9. Save for retirement starting with your first paycheck.

10. When it comes to chocolate, resistance is futile.

11. Make peace with your past so it won’t screw up the present.

12. It’s OK to let your children see you cry.

13. Don’t compare your life to others. You have no idea what their journey is all about.

14. If a relationship has to be a secret, you shouldn’t be in it.

15. Everything can change in the blink of an eye. But don’t worry; God never blinks.

16. Take a deep breath It calms the mind.

17. Get rid of anything that isn’t useful, beautiful or joyful.

18. Whatever doesn’t kill you really does make you stronger.

19. It’s never too late to have a happy childhood. But the second one is up to you and no one else.

20. When it comes to going after what you love in life, don’t take no for an answer.

21. Burn the candles, use the nice sheets, wear the fancy lingerie. Don’t save it for a special occasion. Today is special.

22. Over prepare, then go with the flow.

23. Be eccentric now. Don’t wait for old age to wear purple.

24. The most important sex organ is the brain.

25. No one is in charge of your happiness but you.

26. Frame every so-called disaster with these word: ‘In five years, will this matter?’

27. Always choose life.

28. Forgive everyone everything.

29. What other people think of you is none of your business.

30. Time heals almost everything. Give time time.

31. However good or bad a situation is, it will change.

32. Don’t take yourself so seriously. No one else does.

33. Believe in miracles.

34. God loves you because of who God is, not because of anything you did or didn’t do.

35. Don’t audit life. Show up and make the most of it now.

36. Growing old beats the alternative — dying young.

37. Your children get only one childhood.

38. All that truly matters in the end is that you loved.

39. Get outside every day. Miracles are waiting everywhere.

40. If we all threw our problems in a pile and saw everyone else’s, we’d grab ours back.

41. Envy is a waste of time. You already have all you need.

42. The best is yet to come…

43. No matter how you feel, get up, dress up and show up.

44. Yield.

45. Life isn’t tied with a bow, but it’s still a gift.”

In Grade 3, I was chosen to play the lead role in our musical, “Little Gypsy Gay” (In those days, ‘gay’ had a completely different meaning. Then it meant happy, bright and carefree. It was also a popular girls’ name.)

Only years later did I realize the reason to choose me was because the part required a child with blonde hair. I was not chosen for any singing ability that I thought I might have had. You see, little gypsy Gay was a baby stolen by gypsies and growing up with them but always yearning for a different life.

I remained hopeful that I had at least some acting ability that helped in the teachers’ decision. About the singing ability, I had my hopes but I am not delusional!

I recall a rather exasperated Mrs Raftery asking me to sing my solo over and over again and then deciding that I should speak my song while the piano accompanied me softly. I thought it was a special idea for my part (which it was!) and rose to the occasion, standing on the front lighted podium in front of the piano, the audience in darkness apart from the glimmers of light reflecting on glasses, and wistfully longing for ‘a bed of my own and a knife and a fork and a plate.’

God did not give me the ability to sing like an angel but the Bible says, “Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth; make a loud noise, and rejoice and sing praise.” Psalm 98:4

So, I sing anyway. And do you know what? My singing has got better!

During January, Mum took us to swimming lessons. I hated those lessons…

The pool was not like the lovely clear waters of pools now. It had green water because of the chlorine that was used to kill the bacteria. It was no use opening your eyes underwater. There was no visibility at all. And the green water turned us fair-haired kids green.

I hated those lessons. I was terrified of my teacher. I was terrified of putting my head under. I was terrified of drowning. I remember hanging to the side of the pool while the teacher yelled at the little girl in front of me to put her head under. I remember that little girl had a pink flowered swim cap on and she burst into tears. And I just knew that I was next to be yelled at so I burst into tears too.

I don’t remember what happened next… The next year I didn’t go back to swimming lessons but instead my Dad and Mum taught me at the beach in clean water and with encouragement and praise.

What is the best way for someone to help you do something you are afraid of?

I was about six years old when Dad installed our new toilet. No more frightening runs out into the dark night (we would have eaten our carrots to help us see better, too) across the creepy expanse of the back yard to the little corrugated iron house in the corner, generally termed ‘the Dunny’.

No more wondering whether the big daddy long legs would come a creep-creep-creeping down from the high corners and catch us sitting there.

Our backyard loo was a grand affair really. Not quite hidden by a screen creeper of yellow jasmine, which refused to grow quickly, it graced its corner: corrugated iron, white slat door with picketed top and the most glorious of all – two seats. The high one was for the big people and the lower one for the little people. You were a big person when you could sit on the big seat by yourself.

High up in the darkest corners or sometimes along the back of the seat and in the corrugations in the iron lived the permanent inhabitants; big hairy spiders, little hairy spiders and spindly daddy long legs with their tiny bodies swaying between guy-rope legs. And cobwebs festooned the high wooden supports and, dangling from them, the perfect spheres of woven white that were spider egg sacs.

But not all was scary with our two-seater. One day, I played a trick on my brother Neil, who was three at the time and very gullible. I suppose it was because I feared falling into the dark hole but whatever the reason, I hid behind the dunny as I saw Neil coming out into the yard. Then with a loud shout for help, I called, “Quick, Neil, help. I’ve fallen down.” Then as he dashed inside for Mum, I submerged into laughter thinking my trick had succeeded.

And it had, but too much… for before I could move from my hiding place Mum was dashing up the path armed with sheaths of newspaper and the garden rake. And of course, I wasn’t at the bottom of the loo covered in poo as she thought! Punishment for my trickery was duly administered by Mum’s hand to my bottom.

Another word for trick is deceit. I deceived my Mum into thinking something that wasn’t true. I thought I was very clever and that it was funny when it happened… but it was wrong.

Can you think of times when others have been deceived?  How did it make them feel and act? What does God’s word say about deceit?

Breaking God’s 8^th Commandment

When I was six, my Mum used to give me sixpence for pocket money- one penny for every year of my life. My older brother Kevin, got eight pence because he was eight. Neil and Alan were too little to get any just then.

She kept her red purse in a kitchen drawer along with the scissors and string and scraps of paper for shopping lists and pens and pencils and sticky tape and spare batteries and paper clips and stamps and envelopes and old keys and broken toys that might get fixed one day… the kind of kitchen drawer that everybody has.

Every Friday she would take out the coins for our pocket money and put them in little piles for each of us on the kitchen windowsill. Then we would take what was ours and use it how we wanted.

One day, when Mum was out in the garden, I opened the kitchen drawer, opened her red purse and took out a shiny silver sixpence. I didn’t even think about why I was doing it. I took that shiny silver sixpence and ran to my bedroom, where I hid it under my undies and shut the drawer. Slam!

Straight away, I began to feel sick in my tummy. I felt bad. I felt wrong. I knew that what I had done was a bad thing. That night I was very quiet at the table. I felt too bad to enjoy my food. After, I said to Mum, “I don’t want any pocket money this week,” thinking that I could make myself feel better by this.

But Mum said, “Oh? Well, I’ll give it to you anyway.” That didn’t work! And I still felt so, so bad and sick!

All that night and the next morning I felt guilty and miserable. What if Mum knew I had stolen from her? She would say, “Young lady, I am so disappointed in you!” and paddle me hard to punish me, saying, “This hurts me more than it hurts you.”

I finally knew what I would do. As soon as there was no one in the house, I ran to my bedroom and I took out that shiny silver sixpence. It felt like a red back spider in my hand, poisonous and nasty and dangerous, and I put it back in my Mum’s red purse. Errrr, a shiver ran up my spine!

Then how good it felt! I was free!

I never told my Mum what I had done. I think I was still scared of a paddling but I have never forgotten what it felt like to know I had done wrong in stealing. And I never want to feel like that again.

How do you feel when you know that you have done the wrong thing?

What do you do about it?

Check out what God’s word says about stealing in Exodus 20:15

One of the questions asked was “Can I miss God’s plan for my life?”

The panel answered unanimously, “Yes!”

Here are a few further thoughts on how we can miss God’s plan for our life:

Our own sin. Read the story of Esau in Exodus 25. This is referred to in Hebrews 12:16,17. Did Esau miss out on the best plan of God for His life? Yes! Do you think it is really the plan of God that a young girl become a single parent by fooling around with her boyfriend in direct disobedience to God’s law?

The sin of others affecting us. Do you think it is in God’s plan for a child to be brought up without a dad because the parents fooled around? Do you think it was God’s plan for a woman to live with her face disfigured because her ex burned her? Is it God’s plan for children to be sold as sex slaves, for the Jews to go to the gas chambers, for wars to maim, displace and kill millions? The list seems endless…

Accidents. Do you think it was God’s plan for Joni Eareckson to become a quadriplegic by breaking her neck in a diving accident? Was it God’s plan for a teenage girl to spend her life as a quadriplegic because she was knocked off her bike by a careless driver?

The state of the fallen world. We do live in a world marred by sin. Do you think it was God’s plan for Adam and Eve to eat the forbidden fruit and so gain the knowledge of good and evil? Didn’t God create them to live in perfect fellowship with Him in the beautiful Garden of Eden? Yet, sin caused a separation, not only between Adam and Eve and God, but also between us and God and between God and his creation. Sin entering the world has caused disease, sickness, poverty, disasters and disharmony that thwarts the ultimate plan of God for our lives.

So, in a nutshell, we can miss the plan of God for our lives because of sin that separates us from Him.

NOW: here’s the GOOD NEWS!

Romans 8:28 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. 

Oh, how amazingly gracious, forgiving, kind and loving is our God! Despite the things we do wrong, the things others do to us and the state of the fallen world, He is sovereign and powerful enough to take all those things and create a new ‘recipe’ for us! Read about Joni Eareakson Tada at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joni_Eareckson_Tada What a new recipe God created for her!

Your task?   Is to be one of ‘those who love Him’. This means that despite what life throws up at you and what mistakes you make, you will still trust that God is all loving and all good and that He is well able to work everything for your good. Remember that your ‘good’ is not necessarily a life of ease and comfort and pleasure. Rather is it a life that makes you grow to be more Christlike.

Now there is another thought here. How about the verse that says Godcarried the Israelites into captivity in Babylon? (2 Chronicles 36:20) You have surely had this asked of you, ‘If God is all loving, why does he let bad things happen to us?’ The verse implies that God actually made, not just let, the Israelites become exiles in Babylon.

From the whole story, we would conclude that God wanted to ‘teach them a lesson’ and eventually bring them back to into a closer walk with Him. Consequences of sin have the propensity to do this and yet sadly many times people won’t accept that they must accept responsibility for their actions and learn from their mistakes. Allow the consequences of sin to drive you into the loving, forgiveness of God rather than in the other direction.

God has a wonderful plan for your life. And He is big, powerful, gracious and loving to take all your human frailty and mistakes and make your life great!

She was beautiful, she was twenty-two and she shared my name! She had long dark hair and a beautiful warm smile. She sat on the little Sunday School chair while we sat at her feet listening to her tell us a story. Adrienne was my idol. I wanted to be just like her.

Every Sunday, Mum would dress us in our Sunday best (I had a brown coat with tortoiseshell buttons like motley ‘bobby-dazzler’ lollies) and comb our hair (Kevin had Brylcream and a left-side, straight-as-a-die part.)

Then she would give each of us a penny and help us tie it in the corner of our hanky and send us off to the Methodist Sunday School.

We would sing “Clink, clink, clink, hear the pennies falling….” as we untied our hankies and dropped the pennies into the offering bag.

And if it was your birthday, wow, you got to sit in the white wicker cane birthday chair while everyone sang ‘Happy Birthday’ and you felt the most important person in the world.

There was a felt-board for storytelling and a sand tray (which was never as fun as Dad’s sand bay that was sooo big!)

But the best part of Sunday School was my teacher, Adrienne, because she made me feel special and gave me a glimpse, a dream, an idea, a desire of what I could become.

Who do you want to be like? Why?

My Dad and I set off through the crowds of people at the Melrose Show. Being so little, I held his hand as we negotiated the bewildering maze of grown up legs…

At one point I let go of his hand to pull up my socks. When I reached up to take hold again, I put my hand into the hand of another man. In my surprise, I panicked, ‘Where was my Daddy? I can’t find him…I’m lost…I’m alone…Daddy!’ He was of course, quite close but I shall never forget the sick, panicky fear of losing my lifeline and clutching the wrong one.

Oh, feeling safe in his arms as he scooped me up above the scary crowd!

Have you ever been lost?

Some kids feel lost most of the time in their scary life. Some feel unsafe. How can you help them to feel safe? 

Dad stood at the top of the ladder in my bedroom, paintbrush in hand…

looking down at me with a big smile on his face. “Look, Girlie,” he said, “I’m painting the night sky on your ceiling.”

I envisioned little stars twinkling all over my ceiling. “Oooh,” I said.

But instead he only painted a beautiful blue ceiling with white cornices around the edges. I felt disappointed that there were no stars.  Edges aren’t stars! There should have been stars!

My imagination couldn’t see what my Dad could see.

Have you been disappointed because what you imagined was not what something turned out like?

While visiting little villages in Germany, we came across several doors with 20*C*B*M*11 written on them in chalk.

We asked our host, “What does this mean?”

He replied that on the sixth of January, the traditional church Feast of Epiphany, children from the village dress up as the Three Wise Men. They go from house to house collecting tribute for the village church and if the occupants give a donation, the children bless the house by writing with chalk on the door. The 2011 part of course changes each year. But the C*M*B stays the same as the initials of the traditional names for the Three Wise Men- Caspar, Baltazar and Melchior.

As you visit with friends in their homes over the holiday season, remember the wise men who visited Jesus and brought gifts and honour to Him. Bring gifts and honour to your friends. Bless them and their households with peace for the coming year.

Notice the permanent fixture on the door in the photo: “Gruss Gott” means God Bless. What a wonderful ‘welcome mat’!

Mum bought a goat named Lily to give us milk. She was white with yellow eyes with elliptical pupils, and wobbly bits under her chin. She was joined by Snowdrop and Daisy and Buttercup…

I loved the goats. They were my friends.

On winter days, when Dad was at the footy, Mum would pack a picnic lunch for the rest of us and we would take the goats out along the roadside so that they could graze on the luscious grasses there. We would sit in the glorious sunshine with our picnic and then make dandelion chains to hang on our necks and put in our hair.

We’d play in the grass playing hidey or make paths through them to play cars along. We’d pluck the salvation jane flowers and suck the sweet nectar. We’d lie on our backs in the grass and make pictures in the clouds and Mum would tell us stories about them.

And all the while there was the soft munch, munch, munching of the goats eating the grasses.

Such a peaceful time.

What is a most peaceful time that you remember?

I was eighteen months old and had caught a little bug called scabies. It’s a nasty thing that burrows under the skin and causes little red raised tracks that itch like crazy. I had it all over my body!

To get rid of it, Mum had to rub me from head to foot with a lotion after my bath. It burned and stung as if I’d fallen into a fire. I remember running wildly, screaming and crying from the bathroom. I ran through the kitchen toward the pool of sunlight that poured in the dining-room window onto the gleaming linoleum.

This is the very first memory that I have. It is one of pain and fear. I often have wished that my earliest memory could be one of joy and love and contentment.

What is your earliest memory? How did it make you feel?

Sunday Again, Afternoon

“Just let me borrow it for the arvo, please, please, please!” Matty’s voice became an insistent whine.

Jake held his skateboard tight under his arm and stood his ground.

“Nuh, Don’t reckon you can.”

“Why, I won’t break it or nuthin’. I’ll bring it back straight after.”

Jake’s family were heading out to the beach. They had their boogie boards, towels, and Pog the dog in the back of the car. Jake was playing in the driveway while he waited for his mum to finish packing the basket with food for a barbie, Dad was on the phone and Thomas had gone to fill a bottle of water to take for Pog. (She’d tried drinking seawater once but it hadn’t agreed with her. On the way home she’d spewed up all over the back of the seat and Thomas’ shoulders. Foul!)

And then Matty had come to beg for Jake’s new skateboard.

“You don’t need it at the beach,” he reasoned. “I’ll bring it back soon as. Come on, Jakey, you’re my friend. Please! Please Pleeeeease!”

Behind him Jake could hear his family getting in the car. Pog barked with excitement as if to say, ”Hurry up, Jake!”

“Ready, Kiddo,” called his Dad, “See ya later, Matty.”

Matty made one last plea to his friend, “Pleeeeeeeese!”

Jake sighed and offered up his skateboard.

“Make sure you don’t bust it or my Dad’ll bust you!”

Matty laughed. “Yeah, ‘course, thanks a million, squillion, trillion, Jake. See you tonight!” Before he had even finished saying thanks, he had the skateboard on the ground and was riding it down the driveway and heading towards the skate park to meet his other friends.

Dad looked at his second son in the rear view mirror. “What was that all about?” he asked.

“He wanted to borrow my new skateboard.”

“Oh…. and you gave it to him?”

The query in Dad’s voice made Jake wonder if he had done the right thing.

Jake was so tired.  The waves had been huge and so much fun.  He’d been dumped so many times he’d lost count. He felt sore all over.

Pog lay between him and Thomas on the car seat. Her fur was stringy and matted from the salt water. She was dreaming, probably about chasing seagulls and jumping through waves, because she was twitching and every now and then a whimper would escape her mouth.

It was dark and peaceful in the car, so Jake leaned against the doorframe and closed his eyes. The engine made its continuous drone and the sound of Mum and Dad talking came from further and further away. He slept.

It seemed much, much later when Jake woke. They were home and Mum and Dad were unpacking the car. Pog and Thomas were gone. Jake’s body felt so heavy that he just stayed where he was with his eyes shut, hoping that Dad would think he was still asleep and carry him into his room. But it got too uncomfortable. It was hot, his body ached from the dumping waves and now mossies the size of jet bombers were annoying him with their “ziiizz…ziiiiizz…ziiiiiiizzing” sound of impending doom. Jake pulled himself out of the car and dragged into his bed and wonderful sleep.

He had forgotten completely about Matty and his skateboard.

Monday Holiday

The next day though, he remembered.

Why hadn’t Matty brought back his skateboard last night like he’d said he would?

When he’d eaten an after-a-day-at-the-beach-sized breakfast and helped his Mum shake the sand out of his bedclothes, Jake went out into the street looking for Matty and his skateboard.

Smithy was in his front yard trying to fix a flat tyre on his bike. He was having trouble getting the tyre back on. Just when he got one lever in, another would drop off the other side. Smithy was getting cranky. He was about to throw the lever on the ground and kick his bike when Jake called, “Hey! You seen Matty?”

“Nuh, not today. He probably don’t wanna see you, anyway.” Smithy went red. Oops, he’d said too much. He turned back to his bike so Jake wouldn’t see his face.

“What d’ya mean?”

“Nuthin’” Smithy changed the subject. “Give me a hand would ya.”

“Nuh, don’t reckon. I gotta find Matty and get my skateboard back.”

As Jake rode his own bike towards the skate park, he wondered what Smithy had meant when he’d said, “He probably don’t wanna see you.”

Matty wasn’t at the skate park either, only Pete May and Brian mucking around with an old car tyre that they were rolling from the top of the ramp down across and up the other side. They had snails placed across the flat and were counting who could smash the most with each roll. When Jake asked if they had seen Matty, they just said, “Nuh.”

Jake couldn’t see Matty in the arcade, or the main street or the playground or the tree house. Anyone he asked just said, “No, not today.”

Finally, Jake went around to Matty’s place. It’d be a bit strange if he were there, he thought, because Matty didn’t like being at home at all. His Dad had run off two years ago with Liz the barmaid and had never come back. All the town people had said was, “Good riddance!”

Matty’s Mum worked two jobs to feed her kids. Matty was the only boy with four sisters and he was smack bang in the middle. His two younger sisters, twins, chased him a lot and tried to climb all over him and hug and kiss him. His two older sisters filled the house with boyband music and smells of nail polish and hairspray. Once when Jake had gone there to see Matty, he’d found him pinned to the ground by one sister (she was big, really big) and the other sister was painting his toenails. Yuck! It was tough to be a guy in that house, so Matty spent most of his time riding the streets with his mates.

Jake realised he had butterflies when he came up the path. He’d never been to Matty’s house by himself before. What if Matty wasn’t home and his sisters captured him?

But he wanted his skateboard back. Today. Now! Jake knocked on the door. Someone yelled out over the top of the music, “Someone’s at the door!”

Thumping of running feet came closer, the door knob jiggled and the door swung open to show two little girls jumping up and down, squealing with the delight of a visit from Jake.  Behind them came one of the older sisters. She was obviously hoping it would be someone else.

“Oh, it’s you. What do you want?”

Jake found his voice. “Matty. Is he home?”

“ ’round the back.”

The door was shut in his face. He could hear disappointed noises from the twins.

The back yard was a mess. It sure looked like it had no Dad to fix stuff, to pull out weeds and mow grass and tidy up rubbish. There were noises coming from the work shed that leaned against the fence. There Jake found Matty intently working on something lying on the bench.

“Hey!”

Matty whipped around to face his friend in surprise. He hadn’t heard Jake come.

He tried to hide what was on the bench by leaning back against it and sort of spreading his body as wide as he could. But it was no use. Jake could see as plain as day that it was his skateboard.

And he could also see that it was busted! There was a huge chunk out of the nose and the front wheels were bent in a really weird sort of way.

“What’d you do to my skateboard?” Jake yelled as he rushed to pick it up. He turned it over and over in his hands.

“I had an accident…I’m really sorry…I was trying to fix it. I was gunna buy you a new one. I’ll try and get it by next week…I’m really, really, really sorry.”

But Jake exploded in anger. “I told you not to bust it!” And then without pausing to think, he threw the skateboard on the floor and rushed into Matty ramming him with his shoulder against the shelves that lined the wall. Little boxes of nails and screws rained down on them from above. So hot was Jake’s anger that he completely lost control and began to flail his fists into Matty’s stomach. With a groaning exhalation of breath, Matt crumpled to the floor, rolled sideways and curled into a pitiful huddle against the workbench.

Jake stood over him, still fuming. “You’ll pay for this, that’s for sure. You’ll get me a new one by next week or I’ll tell my Dad and he’ll bust you!”

And with that, Jake picked up his skateboard and stomped out.

Jake sat on his bed with his board across his knees. He’d stopped being angry enough to make his body shake and now he was arguing with himself inside.

One side of him was saying that he had every right to be angry. It was his skateboard and it was now a wreck.

Then in his mind he would see his friend lying hurt on the shed floor because of what he had done to him, and his stomach felt sick.

“Yeah, but he deserved it,” the other part of him was saying, “He busted my new skateboard.”

But the part that was really him, the soft part that knew right from wrong, felt ashamed and really, really knew that he had done the wrong thing.

There was a knock on the front door. Jake heard his Mum’s footsteps as she went to answer it.

“Hi, Tricia,” he heard his Mum say.

Oh, no, it was Matt’s mum!

Snatches of conversation came drifting down the passage to his room; “…sisters found him…crying…shed… hurt bad…sorry he broke the board …buy a new one … not a lot of spare cash… sorry Matthew didn’t own up straight away…really, really sorry…” By the sound of her voice Mrs Butler was crying as she talked to Mum. He could picture his Mum patting Mrs Butler’s arm and saying comforting things. His Mum was like that.

Now Mum was speaking, although too softly for Jake to hear what she said. Then the front door closed and Mum’s footsteps came down the passage towards his room. Jake’s stomach tightened into a little knot and a hot guilty feeling crept up around his neck and ears and constricted his throat. He held his breath.

The footsteps stopped outside his room for what seemed like an eternity. What was Mum doing? Why didn’t she come in?

Then she walked away down the passage and into the kitchen.

And Jake sat there thinking. He hated feeling like this.

He remembered when he had had the accident with the skateboard and broken the window and Mum’s favourite vase. Matty had been there and seen it all. He’d seen Thomas say it was him so Jake wouldn’t have to get the belting. He’d seen Jake get off scot-free.

And now Jake’d let his parents down. He’d let Thomas down and he’d let himself down. He’d hurt his friend and hadn’t kept his temper. Dad was always saying, “You only become a man when you learn to control your temper.” Dad was always saying stuff like that.

It gradually got later. The square of sunlight on the floor became longer. It crept its way across the room and up the wardrobe doors. The shadow of the apricot tree made leafy patterns at the bottom of the light. They moved very gently as the afternoon gully breeze chased in and out among them. Then the light faded.

Still Jake sat on his bed with his skateboard across his knees.

He didn’t know what to do. He waited for someone to come and rescue him from his indecision. He wanted someone to come but then he wanted to run away so that no one would ever find him and how bad he was.

At last it was over.

His backside hurt so bad where Dad had belted him, saying as he did, “This hurts me more than it hurts you, Kiddo.”

He had tried not to yell ‘cause he knew that he was getting what he deserved.

And he had walked gingerly next to Dad to the Butler’s and been the one who had stood forward and knocked on the door and then apologised to Mrs Butler and to Matty. And Matty had said, “Thanks” and Jake had said, “Don’t worry about buying me another skateboard.” And Matty had said, “Thanks” again while his mum went glassy eyed and wobbly mouthed. They’d said, “See you tomorrow” and meant it because they were friends.

As they went home, Jake walked as close to his Dad as he could. He really wanted to hold his hand but thought this might not be grown up enough and didn’t want to risk being seen.

This felt so much better than all the time he had spent in his room feeling so rotten. This felt so much better than seeing the pain of disappointment in his Dad’s and Mum’s and Thomas’s eyes. This was a relief. He felt warm and right on the inside.

Dad ruffled Jake’s hair and said, “You did good, son.”

Jake’s Story was written by Ps Adrienne Easton.

Chat to your Mum and Dad about how the story is like the parable of the Unmerciful Servant in Matthew 18:21-35. What does Jake do differently from the unmerciful servant? Do you agree with his Dad that he ‘did good’ in the end? Chat and pray with Mum and Dad about anything that you need to forgive someone for.

Don and I visited many art galleries and churches while in Italy. Three most often recurring themes of paintings and sculpture were ‘The Annunciation’ ‘The Nativity’ and ‘The Crucifixion’.

I came away with a far greater admiration for Mary the mother of Jesus. I wonder if she really knew what she was saying yes to when the angel Gabriel turned up at her place to announce that she was going to be the mother of God’s son.

Did she really know that she would be in such demand with artists everywhere? It seems that every artist wanted her to sit for him; Michelangelo, Botticelli, Bernini, Raphael, Perugino

I wonder if Mary had any spare time at all up until Jesus was about three. She sat for so many portraits!

Jesus was a great little kid to sit still for so long too, although he did get a bit fidgety at times, pushing his mum’s chin away and pulling her hair and trying to get off her lap.

However, she kept him amused with books and

birds and pomegranates and

even called in his cousin John or an angel or two, to keep him company and amused. What a patient and creative lady!

In one portrait, he was fast asleep on Mary’s lap, still starkers in his birthday suit, poor little mite. I hope they weren’t painting in a molto freddo castello!

Then, of course, he needed to be fed, so Mary had to bare a breast right then, while Jesus looked slyly or mischievously at the artist. Mary was a courageous girl!  They named these portraits ‘Madonna del Latte’.

I hope Mary earned a lot of money sitting for these portraits. I’m thinking that she was so over it by the time Jesus turned three, that she and Joseph took the family into hiding, so that they could get on with some kind of normal life. That would account for the lack of portraits until his time of ministry.

Mary was one brave and spunky lady!

I am full of admiration for her. In every portrait she has an amazing smile that says ‘no matter if my back aches from sitting here, or that Joseph will be wanting his dinner or that Jesus needs his bath and bed, I am going to smile anyway’!

Jokes aside, how fearful and shocked would you have been at fourteen/ fifteen to have an enormous angel land in front of you unannounced!

And then to have him tell you that you are going to have a baby and you are still a virgin but you know what it takes to make a baby!

And you would lose your betrothed and the opportunity of a married life; in fact you would lose your life!

You know that the penalty for adultery is death by stoning!

And then to have the angel tell you that it will be God’s son! Who is going to believe that?

And yet this happened to Mary.

And despite the shock, Mary accepted the angel’s words, and God’s requirement of her.

How long did she have to weigh up the consequences of the announcement?

It seems from the scripture that she said ok straight away. ‘I am the Lord’s servant. May it be to me as you have said.’

How did Mary go to this place of resolution and submission at all, let alone so quickly?