Can we be an Island?

I had my playlist on this morning whilst I was making my breakfast and a song came on called No Man is an Island, and it made me think, can we be an Island? Do we have a capacity to be alone?

Sometimes we can end up going through stuff in life that makes us feel alone in what we stand for. Standing firm in the truth of the gospel can feel really lonely. But I don't think we can be an island.

As the chorus of the song says:

No man is an island, we can be found 
No man is an island, let your guard down! 
You don't have to fight me, I am for you 
We're not meant to live this life alone

We're not meant to live this life alone, Paul spends most of his new testament letters instructing the church in how to live together, to love and support each other, to share in each others sufferings and joys.

So can we be an Island? By no means,

If you're finding yourself standing alone as an Island, pray with your church family, on your own and find a way to get stuck in and share life with your church family. We're really not made to live alone, God says in Genesis 2v18, it is not good for man to be alone, so I will make him a helper.

Don't be alone, call on your brothers and sisters for support and love. And be that sister your family may need.

Reflect, Receive, Respond

Reflect: It's the end of a term and a great chance to reflect on some on the great things that have happened this term! I have had the brilliant opportunity of going into local schools and getting them to look at the evidence and see for themselves. The kids have all engaged with this so well, interviewing the eyewitnesses (who tell the story from the eyewitness accounts in the gospels) and deciding who rolled the stone. 

Then to finish we read the passage where it says, the Angel rolled the stone and sat on it! What an amazing image, this super heavy stone that probably took 10 men and kit to move it and this angel just pushes out the way effortlessly and sits on it! It was such a great chance to really get my head round the events of the Resurrection because you have to know the accounts inside out!

Receive: In thinking through the Easter story so many times to present in so many different ways this term I've come to this point totally in love with the Lord Jesus and in awe and wonder of how painful yet miraculous this time would have been for him. 

The biggest act of love ever shown, and it's for me and for you! It's such a personal thing and I am so incredibly thankful I don't think words exist to describe it.

Respond: My prayer this week as we run up to Easter is to be: Thank you Lord Jesus for your wonderful sacrifice demonstrating your complete and holy power. Lord help me to submit to your power and kneel at the foot of the cross leaving all my cares and worries with you. Jesus help me follow your example of humility as I serve you and work for the growth of your kingdom!

Women who made me the woman I am today

The Fruits of the Spirit are the true things we should be striving for, to grow in and pray through. Praying that we would grow in this is not an easy prayer because to become more patient we must stretch our levels of patience, to become more kind, we have to see how far our kindness will go, but with prayer for help from God, we can do it!

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"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control." 

Galatians ch 5v22-23

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There have been many Christian women who have influence many aspects of my personal growth in my faith and my approach to the bible and prayer life and showed me how to live out the fruits of the spirit. God has truly provided for me with all these wonderful women who have spent time with me teaching me, showing me and serving God wholeheartedly and I am incredibly thankful to them all.
I can't list everyone and I know that I have much more growing to do because really, I'm only just at the very beginning of my spiritual journey and I'm sure many many more people who will shape me and grow me to serve God and his Kingdom!

My Mother: She probably has the biggest influence. She has taught me everything from the day I was born, she has always encouraged me to challenge myself and always be kind. Even if being kind it's the hardest thing you ever have to do, try to make it top priority. When I was struggling with being bullied at school, she taught me to pray because my Heavenly Father is bigger than all of that and will give me the strength to carry on. When I feel lost she points me to my bible and shows me look to God for guidance. But most of all, she has shown me how to love, when I am cross with her, she still loves me, when I do things wrong, she still loves me. Even when things are totally imperfect, love conquers all. It is a God given thing, it has to!

Tinkerbell: This lovely curates wife spent a lot of time in my earliest years as a Christian discipling me and showing me how to be strong in my faith when it wasn't cool to be a Christian at school. Tink still to this day is only ever a phone-call away and has shown me ways of being a good Christian mum, friend and encourage me in single service of the Lord.

Climber girl: This lovely lady regularly trusts me with her children and has been a mentor to me throughout my apprenticeship! Her biggest influence has been showing me how to be Gracious and loving when having difficult conversations and teaching me to keep a clear focus in the growth of the Church in what I do.

Belle: When struggling with my body image, the lovely B took me straight to Psalm 139 and showed me God's grace and true love in creating me exactly how He intended me to be! She showed me that my heavenly Father truly cares for me and would never let one of His children go.

C'Cee: She has shown me how your what work God has for you to do is so much more important than your own preferences and being where you're comfortable. In one of my lowest moments at university she stood by me and showed me that God can give you the strength and courage to stand firm in your faith. She has always stood firm in every situation and gets straight back up when things knock her back, C'Cee has always shown me that Go will always hold your hand and pull you up if you ask him.

Mrs B: When I got to my uni church it was Mrs B who took the students under her wing like a wonderful mother hen. That was the first time at uni I felt safe and protected, as if she was my own mother! This lovely lady is married to a lovely man who (as far as I know) is not a Christian but supports her faith wonderfully, and I was really show by this lady to make sure that God was always top priority, He always took priority if it was home group, church, students coming over, prayer time, quiet time, anything! And rightly so, Mrs B showed me a true discipline of faith and a real hunger to serve God in everything she does.

Auntie J: Auntie, Grandmother to all, totally loving and a homemaker. If you were to pop round to auntie J's she'd truly make you feel like you belong, her home is like a safe space, a place to laugh, cry, be honest, be silly and talk about penguins with no knees! Auntie J has truly shown me that loving everyone with your whole self is so important, and that a Godly love can be to rebuke as well! But if you live by God's love, you're onto a good start!

Snow White: Snow is one of the most wonderful women I've met, she is kind, gentle, loving, patient and has a real heart to disciple women carefully studying the Word of God. She has truly shown me that challenging yourself with God'sword is so important, and whenever you're questioning what to do, pray. If you're doing well, pray. If you're struggling, pray. Snow has really shown me that a dependence on God, through prayer and disciplined study of His word is the way to get to know God and to grown in his knowledge. And that friends, couples, churches, families that pray together, stay together.

Ultimately though, I have been taught all these wonderful things by the grace of my Heavenly Father and without Him not only would I have none of this, but I wouldn't be here! So my aim is each morning to wake up thankful that He has given me another day to serve Him and to continue to study His word and grow in all these things.

Fearing the created or the Creator

This week I've been doing some work on the story in Luke's gospel where Jesus calms the storm and I've found some interesting things that I have never noticed before.

This storm terrified the disciples and they thought they were going to die, it was the most powerful thing in that situation. Until Jesus stood up and said Be Still.
Now what's intimidating is not really the storm, but Jesus, the one with power over the storm.

So now, would they trust the one who is in control of creation, the creator as opposed to fearing the created.

We need to do the same, we need to remember that we are children of the creator.
We need to fear nothing, because our heavenly Father will protect us.

We should pray that we would trust everything to God no matter what and that we would hand control over to Him.

What is the ideal Woman?

What do we think about when we think of image? 

What we should look like?

We’re comparing ourselves to this illusion of the ideal woman aren’t we. 

Well the average woman is 5’4” and weighs 10 stone. The average model is 5’11” and weighs 8 stone. 

That is a truly scary and unhealthy statistic. Only 2% of women are models. And we’re expected to aspire to that?! That’s ridiculous. It's a false standard. 

So here's what I think:

I think we need to forget what the media says to us and focus on the real women around us for a start! That is the reality, not some magazine. We can’t aspire to be like 2% of the population when we have been made to all be beautifully different.

Just pause and think

What are some of the issues that we struggle with when we think about our image?

Most of these things happen because we are comparing ourselves to someone. But why are we comparing ourselves? Well I think there are three underlying reasons which have come from Sophie De Witt's book, Compared to her:

• o Significance: making sure you’re worthwhile
• o    Satisfaction: making sure life is as good as it can be
• o    Security: making sure we have what we need

I’ve been reading this book and Sophie talks about something called Compulsive Comparison Syndrome or CCS for short, and I honestly believe we all suffer from it, I’ve struggled with it all my life I know that. But for me it all came to a head in my first year of university when I tried to change me and having the “ideal” body and being the most like this unrealistic expectation l I could be became the most important thing in the world. 

I found myself hating the body God had given me and trying to achieve the false ideal. Thankfully I kept going along to church and summer camps and God slapped me in the face with Psalm 139 in my face over and over again.

READ PSALM 139

God made us and knows everything about us. The creator of the whole universe made you and me exactly how we are supposed to be. We are made in the image of God, when we look in the mirror we see the image of God!

How does that make us feel?

How does that change how we view ourselves?

He has made us all differently however we look, it’s how he made us.

He has created a temple in us. 

This week has been a tough week from me, two people I knew at uni passed away within four days of each other and it made me truly realise just how important it is that we spread the good news that we have!
It was also an eye opening time for me to realise that it's okay to lose the front we have that everything is okay, it's human to struggle with these things and actually you need to open up and pray with Christian friends and let them help you.
They can actually have some pretty good advice!

Realisation of the week: Let people help you, don't keep that barrier up, because that is all it is, a barrier.