Why Pain?

I had just pulled out the rest of the summer plants which were well and truly finished, from the main border of the garden. I usually planted fresh plants this time of the year, to give a profusion of colour the following spring. So I followed this pattern this year, and then we had a week of wet weather. Even though the plants were liberally sprinkled with snail bait, nearly half of them ended up being eaten, and my border was ruined.

    I had striped agapanthus planted in another part of the garden, so I dug some of them out, split them up, and replanted them along the border. They were quite difficult to get apart, but I persisted and eventually had them where I wanted them. Now they have to get rooted, grow and then flower where they have been put.

     I couldn’t help thinking that in spite of the pain the plants felt, yet they were now where the gardener wanted them to be, and their job was to grow and flower. In the same way, pain we experience in life is sometimes unpleasant, but we are still to grow and flower in our new situation. Life never stands still for any of us, and we sometimes have to face facts and be prepared to make changes. Let’s always remember this and give thanks to God for the new situations we find ourselves in, and do what we can to be positive and a light for Him  no matter what.

Whose Job?

Hullo, this is God, I will be handling all of your problems and concerns today.  That’s My job!

Your job is to give them to Me and then trust Me to deal with them. Have a great day!!

       We were staying with a friend for a couple of days, and this note was on the inside  of the door of their toilet room. It reminded me of the little ditty based on Philippians 4:6 in the Bible which says…                If ever you are in a fix, remember Philippians four and six! This says (depending which translation of the Bible you are using)…. Don’t worry about ANYTHING. Instead, pray about EVERYTHING! And whatever happens, don’t forget to give thanks for the answer!

    We saw this put into practice one weekend, when we were in charge of a girl’s camp. The visiting speaker was from down country, and he had chosen this verse as the weekend’s lesson. So at the evening meal on the first day, we all learned to say it the way he instructed…with great emphasis on the “Anything” and the “Everything”. He gave a short talk about what it was saying and later on we all went to our dormitories. He and his wife were sleeping in an outside cottage with their car parked beside it.

    When he got up in the morning and looked outside, horrors! His car was gone!! That was bad enough, but in the front up under the driver’s seat, was a packet with a couple of month’s rent that one of his friends had asked him to pick up for them, amounting to several hundred dollars. After breakfast, he got up and told the girls what had happened.

“Now,” he said,  “ We are going to put our memory verse  into practice. What did it say?”

The girls remembered it and recited it all together.

“Yes,” he said, “And what do we have to remember after telling God all about it?”

One bright young thing put up her hand and said, “We have to say thankyou for the answer no matter what happens!”

    That day probably would have been one of the hardest days that that man ever had to go through. Thoughts running through his head would have been, “How are we going to get home?”  and, “Will the police be able to find the car? I hope that rent money is still safe there!”

   However, he got through the day with the rest of his talks and the girls’ programmes, and once more took the girls through the memory verse that night.

    He got up early the next morning, still anxious, and looked around not feeling particularly thankful. But then he could hardly believe his eyes. Down at the entry gate he could see a car parked under the trees. And what’s more, it looked like his car! So he ran down the driveway, and sure enough it WAS his car. He opened the door and saw the keys there, and then put his hand under the seat, and sure enough the rent money hadn’t been touched!!

    How pleased he was to find all this! We can imagine how much he would have given thanks to God for having brought everything back to him safely ! At breakfast that morning, he could hardly wait to tell the girls how God had answered his prayers with a YES! What an example it was to each of them, and something that we leaders never forgot.

Being a Man!

      I came across a podcast this week which made quite an impression on me. It talked about the difference between being a man and being a boy, and shows how in men not taking their proper role in life, whether in business or in the home, they have lost their right role in being a man, and have become merely a boy again!

It talked about how in the Bible times, the men sat in the gate as protectors and law givers, not as those who laid down the law, but as those who upheld the law. A real woman back then was not a downtrodden second rate person, but one who upheld her man, and respected what he said, teaching her children to do the same. She was busy from morning to night, always doing something constructive. Her husband could trust her implicitly to always do the right thing, and he didn’t have to worry about anything that was going on in the home. (Proverbs 31:23-30)

    His neighbours and townspeople that he knew, all knew that he was an upright person. He also taught his boys to treat their mother and sisters kindly, and to respect them. This teaching started when they were little boys, and they knew that even when they were playing boisterous games, not to go too far and hurt their sisters in doing it.

    When this principle is forgotten and put to one side in the interest of “equality”, the men lose their authority and become just one of the boys again. They forget to come home on time, but prefer the company of their “mates” thus creating a vicious circle. The wife puts the uneaten meal to one side, and the children go to bed without seeing their father…father has become a “boy” with no responsibilities!

    Manhood is not about oppression. It is virtue. Duty, service. That’s what our whole life is supposed to be. At the heart of manhood and at the heart of woman hood is love. Love is patient and kind and selfless. It’s not irritable. It’s not selfish. It doesn’t insist on doing things “my way”. It rejects darkness. It rejoices in faith, and hope.

That’s manhood. At its finest.

    This  principle needs to be spread far and wide, and maybe we’ll get the men back, but we must remember too, that it is a two way thing. The women need to uphold their men, and support them in all their finest aspirations. The podcast finished up by saying…..Hard times create strong men. Strong men create good times. Good times create weak men. And weak men create hard times….a vicious circle!

    We are in the — in the era of hard times. Because weak, pathetic men have allowed themselves to be stomped into oblivion with lies. Women need men like fish need a bicycle. Really? Really? Men can get pregnant! These are all lies. Men need women. Any good husband knows — no. Let me rephrase that. Any good husband will do anything for his wife.

    But that actually does come from a place of love, and good women are the same. They may not understand, but they just want their husband to be happy. Hard times are here, because we have had weak men. But hard times create strong men.  That means, a new era of good men are just over the horizon.

It’s our job to raise them. It’s our job to encourage them. It’s our job to be what we should be, ourselves.”