Pea-licious!
My daughter Frankie is two going on twenty-two years old. Yes she has certainly gained vast amounts of life experience in that time, even enough to not even require parenting any more! Take dinner the other day for instance. Frankie was eating sausages with green peas (gourmet I know), now even I struggle to keep peas balanced on a fork or spoon long enough to be able to put them in my mouth, so anticipating that this may also be a problem for Frankie I offered my assistance, 'darling, would you like Daddy to help you with that?' Without any thought Frankie snapped back, 'No! I do'd it by myself!' As I watched Frankie attempt to eat peas with a fork for the next few minutes, my only regret was not filming the numerous comedic attempts she made, including the good old 'thumb holding the pea on the fork' trick. Eventually the moment I anticipated finally arrived, 'Daddy......help pleeeease.'
Be More Like A Horse
Whilst writing this blog, a mild curiosity sparked up in me to Google what the symbol for the upcoming Chinese new year was. Imagine my disappointment when I found out it was not the year of the ferocious tiger, or cunning snake, but rather the year of the flipping horse! I was absolutely gutted because I can't stand Black Beauty or Equestrian. Gutted that is, until I read what the horse represented in Chinese symbolism.The spirit of the horse is recognized to be the Chinese people's ethos – making unremitting efforts to improve themselves. It is energetic, bright, warm-hearted, intelligent and able. Ancient people liked to designate an able person as 'Qianli Ma', a horse that covers a thousand li a day (one li equals 500 meters, so basically they cover a lot of ground). Pretty cool hey?
It's around this time of year that we all start cautiously making promises we hope we can keep, plans for a fresh new start (for the fourth year running), and status updates declaring 'this year is gonna be my year...!' I totally get it, I'm part of the same group, but if we are going to have any success whatsoever we need to recruit some help, because let's face it we struggle to eat peas by ourselves so how do we expect to be more generous or loose weight?
But if we get the right help anything is possible! Get a personal trainer and you are right on course to loose weight, create a water tight budget and you will certainly climb out of debt and if you are making any types of changes to who you are as a person, be sure to get God right into the equation.
I say the latter because in July this year I will be celebrating 10 years since becoming a Christian. I'm a completely different person inside and out now to what I was back then, had I not started walking with God I feel certain that things would have kept on becoming messier and messier. Perhaps I might reflect again on this landmark decision closer to the occasion. For now, let me share a Bible verse that has helped me greatly - I have found that by inviting God in to work with my mess, rather than pushing it aside and postponing change for yet another year, that I've actually been able to make progress that I am proud of.
2 Corinthians 3:18
The Message Translation
16-18 Whenever, though, they turn to face God as Moses did, God removes the veil and there they are—face-to-face! They suddenly recognize that God is a living, personal presence, not a piece of chiseled stone. And when God is personally present, a living Spirit, that old, constricting legislation is recognized as obsolete. We’re free of it! All of us! Nothing between us and God, our faces shining with the brightness of his face. And so we are transfigured much like the Messiah, our lives gradually becoming brighter and more beautiful as God enters our lives and we become like him.
What's the secret to a successful 2014? 10 years have taught me, keeping God as close as possible to the centre of our lives is the answer. Frankie and I pray that you'll have much success and victory obtaining the dreams and goals you are putting in place for this year. Be a horse!
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| Frankie says.....be a horse! |
