Don't Be Afraid of the Ball

I used to play soccer B.C. (before children). Well, before marriage really. Somewhat embarrassingly, it was 'Bend It Like Beckham' that finally got me out the door and joining up with the local team (I don't think I've ever been described as 'sporty'). I was a back row defender, the main reason being that while I was more than happy to mark people like a champ (well, as much as I could manage to keep up with them *wheeze, wheeze, puff, puff!*) and use my body to physically block girls charging towards the goals (soccer really isn't a non-contact sport), I wasn't really expected to "do" anything with the ball apart from keep it away from our goal. Yep. I was afraid to have a go at scoring. I didn't think I, and honestly I probably didn't, have the ball skills necessary to get past the other teams defenders.

I was afraid of the ball.

Why am I telling you this? Is it a limping attempt to relive my sporting "glory days"?  Actually, no. It all started with a conversation that my lovely husband and I had a couple of weeks ago about evangelism. He was saying that the church is like an AFL team, with "Your evangelists out the front, looking to score goals..."  At which point I was lost. Sorry. I only lived in Victoria until I was 6. How on earth does that strange game work?  I started thinking about soccer. 

I'm afraid most of the time I've rated my evangelism skills as being roughly on par with my soccer ball skills. I'm more than happy to support the "evangelists", cheer them on, defend in the back line, but please don't think I can make any opportunities to "score", because I just don't have the skills!  

I've come to realise that the final sentence above should finish with the word 'confidence'. A thought that I have to admit, troubles me. But it's an issue i think, however stitlingly, I think I've slowly been getting better at.

I love the realisation that I know the gospel, and that's all that I need to know to tell people about Jesus. While evangelistic tools can be helpful, the most important thing to do is to just start talking. I can talk as openly about God as I do the other things I love, and God can use that to lead to an opportunity for me to share more of his Word with people. And as God said to Isaiah in Isaiah 55:11, "So it is my word that goes out from my mouth:  It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.  Every conversation that I have with someone about God may not lead them straight to trust in him immediately, or even at all, but it may lead to another conversation sometime, with someone. And the person I've spoken to will know that I am a Christian, so if they do have questions later, they'll know I'm more than happy to talk about it. I don't need special words, or a special formula, but I can just talk.  That's not to say that I don't get ridiculously excited when I do get the opportunity to talk to someone about God, and don't have the voice in my head screaming, "Oh my goodness!  An opportunity!  Don't stuff it up!!!!"

Even if I may not feel like I'm a 'striker', or have particular skills in evangelism, it's great to know that I can be ready to make the most of the opportunities that I do have (Ephesians 5:15-16), and sometimes to even make some.  As it says in 1 Peter 3:15, "But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect."

Photo by anekphoto on Flickr

A Proper Grown Up

How do you feel about your age?  Do you feel your age?  I remember thinking, when I was a child, that the grown ups had it all together.  They were in control, knew what had to be done, and were so confident in moving about in their lives.  I just turned 33 (eeep!) and most of the time I don't think I feel terribly much different than when I was about 14.  I know that I have grown and changed immensely since then, but on the average day, that's pretty much my perception of the view from the inside.  And that is why what I am about to share gives me a right ol' slap in the face, shaking me back into reality.

My lovely husband has recently been voted in to be the next senior minister (well, they only have one so there's not much choice!) of a fairly recent church plant in Melbourne.  What a flood of conflicting emotions!  We're so excited to be stepping into this position next year - what an amazing opportunity and a wonderful privilege!  ...  And what an immense responsibility!  He's going to be the church minister.  I'm going to be the minister's wife.  Our family will be on show, for all to see (a confronting prospect when you're a bit sleep deprived, low on patience and trying to teach small people how to control their tempers...).  It is all a bit daunting when you still like doing things like swishing your feet through crunchy autumn leaves, jumping on trampolines, eating Cheezles off your fingers, clapping like a maniac when you get excited and still finding toilet humour quite hilarious (that one I also blame on a background in nursing - you've got to laugh, otherwise you'd cry).  It's nearly time to step up and be a proper grown up.

Recently though, I started thinking about other things that people have done by the time that they were my age; responsibilities that other people have taken on.  Calvin had already churned out his first version of the "Institutes" by the time he was 27.  I'm pretty sure that Andrew Reid was the national director of AFES well before 33.  Albeit he was God the Son, but Jesus died on the cross for the sins of all humanity when he was 33, and that we following a 3 year public teaching ministry.  I by no means assume that my influence will ever be anywhere near such people, but it did encourage me that it is possible, and no doubt time, to not be afraid to be a "proper grown up", with proper grown up sized responsibilities.  After all, that is why we came to Bible college.  And even though I know I am going to do and say things that I will regret, I can hold fast to my God, who says, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." 2 Corinthians 12:9  And I pray that I can emulate Paul when he says, "Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong." 2 Corinthians 12:9-10.

Definitely time to take some deep breathes, get a solid diet of God's Word happening again (toll of a new baby) and keep praying!

Image is by bulldog1 of flickr

Book Spine Poetry Meme

A couple of weeks ago (eek! I am slow!) Jean tagged me and challenged me to create a poem using only the spines of books.  I eagerly set out that day and photographed it, but sadly I am only now sharing it with you. It's been a busy couple of weeks...

Here are the rules:

• Create a book spine poem (see some more examples here).
• Take a photograph of it.
• Post it on your blog.
• Link back to this post.
• Tag another blogger, or two, or ten!

So here is my poem (apologies for the quality of the photograph) - bear in mind that we'd just finished watching through season 9 of Spooks.

Here I stand
No name
The Secret Agent
Where angels fear to tread
No guts no glory
To kill a mockingbird

I tag Emily, Sharon, John, Dan and Farrah. I can't wait to see what you guys come up with!

It's Not Easy Being Green

Envy.  What do you think about envy?  Until recently I thought it sounded like a less offensive term than jealousy.  I felt better saying that I was 'envious' of someone or something, rather than saying I was 'jealous'.  I thought that they were a pretty much synonymous. Then I went on our third year college weekend away.

Did you know that envy is more than just jealousy?  Envy adds a whole new level of maliciousness.  According to my ancient and pre-political correctness Chambers's Dictionary, envy is "grief at the sight of another's success: to hate on account of prosperity".  Now that sounds pretty darn serious, but as Bill Salier pointed out, it can be seen on all kinds of levels in our society.  At a seeminlgy harmless level, you see it in the gossip magazine's "Celebrities without makeup" photo shoots.  We get that little surge of pleasure at seeing seemingly flawless beauties with bad hair and pimples.  You also get a sense of it on Funniest Home Videos.  At an extreme, you see it when parents hurt their children so that their estranged partners "can't have them".  Societally, you see it played out in our 'tall poppy syndrome'.  We Aussies love to cut those who rise above us back down to size.  Envy is rife.

I don't like to admit it, but envy is resident in my heart too.  Honestly, sometimes when I hear about good things being given to other people there is a little part of me that wishes that I could have it instead of them.  The little voice that whispers, "Why them?  I work so much harder. I am so much more deserving!"  Or that thought that if only Jane had a little bit of a taste of how hard things are for me, then she'd really know what this job/parenting/running a household is all about.

How quickly I forget everything that God has given me that I have not, can not and will never deserve.  I have forgiveness and every spiritual blessing (Ephesians 1:3), and yet I stew over and begrudge these tiny fleeting things that appear so very big at the time.  Envy is evidently something that we are seriously warned to put off (1 Corinthians 13:4, Galatians 5:21, Galatians 5:26,  Titus 3:3, 1 Peter 2:1), but how do we do this?  To scratch the surface, Galatians 5 implores us to keep in step with the Spirit and it's desires, and to put off the desires of our sinful natures.  I think regular Bible reading can be a big help here, reminding ourselves of God's big plan and everything he's done for us and keeping our priorities in line with his.  Prayer is another huge one - asking for God's help to overcome envy and praying for those that we feel envious of, perhaps even thanking God for the way that he was blessed them.  Steering clear of people or situations that provoke us to envy might also be helpful.  Be encouraged that in imploring us to put off envy, with the Spirit's help, it is possible.

How wonderful that it is not only our actions, but also our thoughts that are important to God.  He loves us in our entirety and changes us entirely through his Spirit. Thank you Lord for a new hearts. Please help us not to return to our old ones.

Image is by lamazone of flickr

Sugar-Free Since 18/03 ... and then not..

As a follow-up to my No Added Sugar post, I thought I should probably tell you how that actually went.  My goal was to go for one week without eating anything with added sugar.

It all started fairly well - will power was high, to the point of even turning down freshly baked blueberry crumble muffins that everybody was raving about in Bible study.  The first couple of days weren't too bad, although getting used to tea and coffee sans sugar was interesting (it added a tinge of sadness to my morning tea coffee ).  About two days in I started feeling quite awful.  I'm still not 100% convinced it was the lack of sugar, but perhaps it was.  After a day or two, I was feeling better again, but nothing significantly better than normal.

It was all going so well, I was six days in with one more to go, when we went out for our Friday night take away.  There we were, sitting in McDonalds (we're very classy) watching Hannah drinking water from her little happy meal bottle.  I raised my cup and took a long draught through my straw, and thought to myselfm "Hmm, Hannah's drinking water.  My water tastes quite sweet ... Hang on a minute!"  It was lemonade.  I was 24 hours from reaching my goal when I found myself accidentally quaffing down a medium sized cup of sprite.  Oh well, close enough.  It turns out that I would have had to break it the next day anyway, because the only morning tea that was served at the Equip conference were little 'sweetie treaties', as we have come to call them in our house.

So, at the end of all that I have nothing particularly remarkable to report.  I went without sugar for a while. Now I'm eating it again.  I have noticed though, I do tend to feel a mild sense of rising panic when I watch my child each chocolate or lollies, while I'm happy enough to eat them myself.  I'm not quite sure what is with that.

Photograph by Uwe Hermann on Flickr

Fun Around the House

I realised a few weeks ago that I'd stopped taking photos of the kids for a while.  This is something that I've tried to rectify, especially as I feel like they're growing up at warp speed.  I'd like to learn how to use our camera better.  Here are some recent photos from our place.  And yes, this is David's most common facial expression.

Our small life at home.

Here's a happy Davey - sometimes I call him Mr Funshine

Hannah's choice of pose - Hmmm...

Here we go, cooking in the kitchen! Small people call for interesting measures.

Yes, we like our food!

We really like our food!  It's a whole sensory experience.

Of Hearth and Home - Natural Mould Killer Spray

I was excited to feel a bit of a nip of cold in the air last night and again today. Ah, hopefully Autumn is finally beginning and we can return to tights with skirts and boots, long sleeves and the skin colour that God originally blessed us with (which for me is just about glow in the dark white).  I wanted to share this most excellent mould killer spray recipe with you, although hopefully with the turn in the weather, it won't be quite so necessary.  Although, having said that there was one share house I lived in that had such bad bathroom ventilation that your towel would never fully dry during the winter months...

This great concoction is brought to you by the wonderful people at the Western Australia Office of Public Health and I found it particularly good when I was pregnant and didn't want to be sucking great wafts of bleachy nastiness.  It's even better in regard to bleach because the WA Public Health people say that bleach doesn't actually kill mould due to its high pH, it just bleaches it.  So much for my bottle of Exit Mould's claims!

Anyway, here it is:

Tea Tree Oil Mould Killer

Put 2 teaspoons of tea tree oil and 2 cups of water in a spray bottle, shake and use.

That's it!  So simple and it's great for getting rid of relatively new mould.  The best tip for getting rid of mould in the long term, however, is to reduce the humidity, so maybe think of installing an exhaust fan in your bathroom, or hitting your real estate agent up for one, if necessary.  May your bathrooms look like the one below (in terms of cleanliness)!

Image by NickNguyen of flikr.com