Category Archives: Life Lessons

Life Lessons

One Step at a Time!

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    Many years ago we had a good friend who had come to know the Lord from a dark background. The difference in his life was noticeable to all who had known him previously. He now had a perpetual smile on his face, and went around singing all the hymns he knew. It was always a joy to meet him and to hear what he had been discovering as he read his Bible every day. He was growing in his Christian life noticeably from day to day.

     But there were things we learned from him too. His infectious grin was always heartwarming. He was always very careful where he put his Bible down. Never would he put it on the floor beside his feet when he was sitting down. To him, this was an insult to Almighty God. As far as he was concerned there were plenty of other places to put it, rather than on the floor. This was one thing we never forgot.

    One day he came to us very concerned. “I feel so ignorant of the Word”, he said, “How can I remember and learn it better than I do? I was never very good at school,” he went on, “What can I do about it?” “Well, you know what a sieve is like?”, we asked. “Yes,” he said, “And that is just what I feel like, not able to hold anything at all!” “Ah,” we said, “But the point is that the water going through all the time keeps it clean. In the same way, the Water of the Word keeps you clean as you read it, even if you don’t remember much later.” His face broke into a big beaming smile. “Oh, I see it now”, he said, “It’s just a matter of keeping on keeping on!”

   Another time he was still worrying about his lack of knowledge. “What should I do about it?” he asked. “Well, the Lord knows all about it and how you feel so inadequate,” we said, “But the main thing is to be obedient to the little bit you DO know, and then tomorrow or maybe the next day, He will show you the next step that you should do!” “Oh, that’s great!” he said, “I’ll do it that way then!” “It’s just a case of one step at a time…..as we do that one, then we will see the next step to take!”

    We moved away from the district shortly after that and heard of him periodically. But always, he was still going on for his Lord and rejoicing in Him until the day of his death some years later. We still smile as we remember our good friend and the things that he taught us as we interacted with him.

Life Lessons

How to Get Peace!

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If only we could have instant peace in times of trouble! Instead, our stomach muscles tighten, and our blood pressure goes up. We get a panicky feeling and our mind reels as we wonder what to do.

    When the initial shock has worn off, then our mind starts to go around in circles. Peace seems further away than ever. But there is one way to settle one’s mind, and that is to concentrate on the blessings we still have. It could always have been worse, and we are not the only ones to suffer. If we count our blessings and concentrate on  what we have rather than on what we don’t have makes all the difference. To be able to thank God that things are no worse lifts our spirits out of ourselves and we reach a higher plane than just feeling sorry for ourselves!

   One lady in our group said the other day that she is making it a habit to always think of ten blessings that are waiting for her each  new day. The first one she said was to thank God for the blessing of being able to hear. To wake up each morning and be able to hear the birds chirping was one of the first blessings she thought of every morning.

    This really challenged me as I thought of how we had been complaining about the interminable cooing of the doves around our house. We thought it was such a monotonous sound, always the same tones with no variation at all. But what if we couldn’t hear them at all? That WOULD be a matter of concern! So I started to listen with a fresh vision of thankfulness rather than one of complaining.

   There are so many other things that we can be thankful for too….so let’s cultivate the habit of thankfulness, rather than one of complaints!!

Life Lessons

Near Enough!

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    We were working on a project together, and I was thinking it  was time we were finished. “Well, that’s near enough”, I said as I put my gear down. My brother looked at it, and said, “Near enough is not good enough, Gwenyth, you’ll have to spend a bit more time on it!” Those words have stuck with me for over forty years, and whenever I am tempted to think “Near enough”, they come back to haunt me.

   King Solomon was one who chose what was good, but it was not the best. He felt his own inadequacies, and asked for wisdom to govern wisely and well. But he forgot all about his own weaknesses and used human wisdom when it came to himself. He was near enough, but it was not good enough.

    How often we do this ourselves! We can give others good, sound advice, but when we are faced with the same problems in our own life, our advice goes out the window!

   As we face new problems along life’s way, we must make sure that we ask God for fresh wisdom in each challenge. Solomon felt he had to make political alliances with the neighbouring kings by marrying their princesses, but in doing so he was going directly against one of God’s cardinal rules about not marrying into an ungodly line. As a result, he ended up taking not only the girl into his house, but also her heathen idols, and thus fell away from the Lord his God. His “near enough” became his “not good enough”, and he became a bitter disillusioned old man in later life.

    We can be so thankful that our Lord Jesus Christ didn’t think He had gone “near enough” after leaving the Garden of Gethsemane, but instead He went all the way to the cross to pay for our salvation. He was prepared to put aside His will for His Father’s perfect will…. “not My will, but Yours be done”, He said.

    “Near enough” was nowhere near “good enough” to save us from our sins!

Life Lessons

Choices, Choices!

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    “Enter through the narrow gate, because the gate is wide and the way is spacious that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. But the gate is narrow and the way is difficult that leads to life, and there are few who find it.”

    As I read these verses from Matthew 7:13-14, it made me realise that every person is confronted with the gates of choices in their life. One gate is wide and the way looks easy with crowds of people going along in a downward direction, while the other gate is small, with a narrow path beyond leading upwards and not many people going that way. But what a difference the end result is! One leads to destruction and the other one leads to life.

    Our Lord tells people to seek to enter the narrow gate leading to life but this gate is too narrow to allow any baggage through. There is no room for the suitcase of possessions or the bag of good works. There is not even space to squeeze through with the backpack of pride, to say nothing of towing in the trolley of sinful ways and habits! All these have to be left on the outside of the narrow gate….there is only room for the under clothing of contrition and a broken spirit with confession of our need. All our good deeds and self righteousness are nothing more than filthy rags in God’s sight!

Once through the gate, the Lord provides clothes of righteousness and a robe of salvation. He gives us new songs to sing, and peace of mind with a light and joyful heart to travel the path. When trials and difficulties come (and they will) He is there to help and to take us by the hand, telling us that His grace is more than enough to see us through. There really is no option as to which choice is the better one of the two….let’s make sure we all find this way that leads to unending life with the Maker of the Universe.

Life Lessons

Reaching for the Sky!

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    As I said last week, I’ve been trimming and tying up the young rose cuttings from last year, and imagining a conversation I could have had with one of them. The particular rose in the photo had one long strong branch coming out of the main stem, reaching out to the side. It’s head wasn’t particularly strong looking and certainly wasn’t a good shape. So I picked the strong stalk up and tied it firmly  into an upright position onto the stake.

“Ouch!” exclaimed the rose, “That hurts!”

“I’m sorry about that,” I said, “But this is how I want you to grow. I want you to look up and grow into a taller plant with your head on higher things.”

The rose got a bit sulky at that and muttered, “I wanted to grow my branches out low, down to the ground because that’s how I would be if you weren’t watching me. After all, I AM a carpet rose you know!”

    I looked further along the row and saw a rose that I had trained a few years earlier. It is tall, with a bushy head  looking up to the sky, and is covered with flowers being a thing of beauty and joy to everyone who sees it.

 “Do you see that rose over there?” I asked the one I was dealing with, “That’s how you will look  too in a couple of years time. You will be able to have other flowers growing beneath your branches instead of being a tangled mess lying on the ground with other branches growing all over the place. You are a good strong plant and have great potential if you obey my pruning and staking!”

“I suppose so,” sighed the one I was dealing with, “But it’s not very nice being tied up tight like this. It hurts when you take my little side branches off too!”

“It’ all for your own good, my dear,” I said, “and you will thank me for it one day!”

   This little story has an application that we should all take to heart. It is only as we respond to the tying and staking of the Master Gardener in our life, and lift our heads to look up into His face that we will be able to reach our full potential that He plans for us. Yes, there will be experiences that we could well do without, but if we remember that He always knows what is best and can see the wider plan, we can take it all happily and rest in knowing His love for us.

Life Lessons

Pruning in our Lives.

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I have recently been trimming up my small rose plants which I have grown from cuttings. Most of them are doing well and have started to flower, making a cheerful splash of colour in the garden. But I want more than that from them….I want them to grow taller with a strong head on them so they stand up instead of sprawling all over the ground as they would if left alone. So I have to keep taking off the lower side shoots, and if there is a very strong shoot near the top, I tie it up to the stake to train it to be the main stem for the new head. As I have been doing this, I think of the parallels in our Christian life. If I’m left to my own ways, I will grow close to the ground and sprawl all over it just becoming a tangled mess. So the Master Gardener has to keep taking off those bad habits and selfish desires to keep us growing low to the ground. We need to have the painful experiences of life to make us look up into His face, and ask what He wants from us. This is how we will grow tall and straight with a strong head of flowers on us to give pleasure to all those around us. I suppose taking the shoots off the roses causes them pain, and many of the experiences we go through are painful and not what we would choose, but the end result is worth all the pain as we are able to comfort those who go through times of sorrow and doubt. We too need to be firmly tied to our stake of the Lord Himself to keep us firm and solid in His things or else we will wobble around not really sure of what we believe, and end up with broken off branches as the storms come through as they will.

So the next time you are tempted to ask “Why?” when things go wrong, just think of the young rose plants that need to be tied up and trimmed off , and remember to look up to the One Who loves us beyond compare!

Life Lessons

Another Family Broken.

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  We attended the funeral of a very much loved wife, mother, grandmother and friend the other day  who  seemed to have been taken far too soon. It was an extremely large funeral service, one that paid many tributes to our friend and to her faith in her God. Once again, it impressed itself on me the brevity and uncertainty of life, and I wondered how many of those who were present were ready to take this, their last trip from this earth.

The overall message from the Lord to several members of that family was that verse that says…”You will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on You”, and that is what makes all the difference. If our mind is stayed (or steadfast) on the God of our salvation, we have nothing to fear, but if we don’t know Him, the best that we can face is an uncertain hope.

When an untimely death like this occurs, we can know with certainty that it is God’s doing, not man’s. It is a clean break that can heal in time, giving the opportunity for a fresh new start in another direction. What a difference to a messy break in a family that is caused by man’s interference!

Yes, the sorrow is still there, and the gap is still as great, but it is like a pot of  boiling water that has a potato and an egg in the shell put into it. The boiling water makes the egg go hard, while the same boiling water makes the potato go soft! When the boiling water of serious trouble strikes us, which are we going to be…the egg or the potato? Let’s remember that picture and turn to the God of all comfort, softening to His will and moving on.

Life Lessons

Beauty in the Garden!

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I’m a fan of bearded irises! They are such a beautiful flower, coming from a rather uninteresting looking plant. There are many different coloured varieties, from deep purples and wines, to delicate mauves and pure white. Still others have a faint blush of pink. Each petal in the flower has its own brush (or beard), often a yellow in contrast to the rest of the flower. Over all , the flower when picked has a definite faint scent, that can be noticed as soon as you enter the room where it is.

Many have been cross bred to have the most distinctive colours and the combination of colours is quite startling. This all goes to show the creative genius of the Master Gardener who has given them to us to enjoy.  Man may have adapted and bred different colours into them, but it all comes from the Great Creator in the first place!

I couldn’t help thinking how we are like this beautiful flower in many ways. We may not have had the most wonderful start in life, but if we give ourselves to God, He can mould us and breed in us the things that please Him, making something beautiful from a very mundane beginning. Not a one of us can say that we are good for nothing, or have nothing to give….this is a just an excuse and often because we can’t be bothered making the effort. We can all give a smile and make a comment that will brighten someone else’s day, from the girl behind the supermarket counter to the gardener working in the council gardens in the car park! People don’t remember you for how you look, as much as for how you make them feel!