Awrite troopsh?...
Good to feel hungry fir writin' again, courtesy o Papa G n some breakthrough I got on Friday night from him and my church family. This week has been really tough for me - really tough. The enemy has been bombarding me continually with abuse and has been fairly relentless in his attacks.
If you didn't read my last blog, I mentioned how Andy at church had lead his sermon on how what the enemy really wants above all is the authority that Jesus gave us spiritually. Well, he took it upon himself that this week he was out to try and get mine. If you don't have a Scoobert de Doo what I'm on about try reading my last blog and if that doesn't explain it to your satisfaction let me know and I'll write to you personally and get you kitted out wi some info.
So, yeah, the enemy's being having a field day with me this week, so much so that by Friday I was feeling the old feelings that I used to feel when I suffered from depression around 5 years ago - not good. The enemy has been hitting me with "you don't contribute to your house", "you'll never get a job", "you're nothing but a house slave" - there were plenty more, I can assure you, but i'm sure you get the picture. Now, normally when these fiery darts come my way I clearly hear them coming in and just laugh at him and before long the attacks stop, but this week he sent his "apathetic fog", as I call it, ahead of him which attacks me in a s.a.s. stealth stylee and before I knew it I was struggling to fight him off and then he really started work on me - it was relentless and I didn't know how to fight back with these lying thoughts. You know what its like? - If you put a frog in hot water it will jump straight out, but if you put it in cold water and slowly heat the water it will stay in the hot water and boil to death - that's how lost I felt this week.
The enemy was attacking my manhood (no, not my twig n two berries - sheesh!) and by standing all over that he started to rob me of my authority - the b#####d. The worst part about it is that I came into agreement with a couple of things he had whispered about - that's the thing with him - there's always an element of truth in what he says, but he twists it and makes it contorted thus contorting you, if you let him - that's what happened to me. I've since apologised to my lord for agreeing with the enemy and will try my best in future not to agree with anything he says - it will be tough, but I'm gonna try - I have to - there's no way I'm gonna be his slave - no chance!
By Friday night I had had enough and decided to text some of my bros and sis's and ask for their prayers to help me, what a response I got! - thank you all. I felt something shift as Lin was praying for me and giving me good advice and with the awesome covering prayer that was coming my way courtesy of my church family. My bud John said I should go read Psalm 35 and gain strength from it so I got out my Message Bible and got flicking. What an awesome passage! - I read it out loud in bed before going to sleep as I felt that doing that would help and left my bible open at the pages overnight and for the first time in a while slept really soundly.
Since Friday night I've felt good and a lot more "back on track" within myself, i'm so thankful to my church family, not just because they helped me, but because I knew I could reach out to them for help. I wonder how many churches don't have that bond?... I love that feeling of unity at our church, it's just awesome. I remember one day Richard, our pastor, got us to stand together, put our right arm around the person next to us and our left arm on the person in front. We stood in a square like Romans in a defensive position, it felt brilliant - that's how I think we should be at church and on our journey with Papa - tight together and if someone goes down in battle the others should pick him/her up, put him/her back on his/her feet and get back on with the battle. I don't know if I could go to a church without that type of fellowship as it is invaluable to me.
The whole thing with attacks is that they should be a learning curve, if you don't learn from them then the enemy will get you in the same place and with the same tactic every time. With good advice from my Church Mum (Yolanda) and Church Aunt (Mariette) I hope I've learned a little better how to handle these attacks.
I hope that if my bros n sisters ever need my prayers then they'll know to ask me.
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Church was good this morning, Linette lead worship even though she was quite stressed, she hadn't had enough time to prepare properly due to art commissions and deadlines and wasn't looking forward to "winging it". Turns out she did fine and the worship was great. We did a couple of old school Christmas tunes this morning which went down as well as the excellent mince pies that were on offer. :-) It's always nice when someone like Sarah Mayers makes the worship team a cup of tea whilst we're rehearsing or setting up, God bless her servant heart, we never have enough time to rehearse everything and are usually running around trying to put chord sheets together or soundcheck so when someone asks "would you like a cup of tea?" it's like someone saying "would you like a shot in my jacuzzi?" - "Yes, PLEASE!!" :-)
Andy Hall was speaking again today - what an annointed guy, he's never boring and always gives food for thought. Andy spoke about Jesus this morning - and why not? - it's his birthday coming up soon in't it? ;-)
I learned a few new things about him this morning, about how he wouldn't have had long hair, like most people's (mine included) misconceptions, about how when he met with the spirits of Moses and Elijah on the mountain, that he wasn't asking for council or just having a nice con-flab between spiritual troopsh - what he was really saying was "thanks for leading the way boys, but I'll take it from here and what I say will be final" - ooft! - Jesus rocks man, what authority!! \,,/
The main thing I got from Andy's sermon was Jesus was and will forever be the best Christmas present EVER.
Be blessed in your spiritual authority guys, have a wonderful Christmas, with all its non-sensical trappings, but above all, please try and remember why it's called CHRISTmas, eh? :-)
Have a good one - K x \,,/
Sunday, 19 December 2010
Sunday, 12 December 2010
12/12/10
Ooft! - it's nearly been a month since my last blog!, my apologies to anyone who bothers to read/care. I guess I still think of my blog as something I write for myself so, again, apologies to anyone who reads it for the belatedness of my digits to keys.
Hmmm, so what's been happening? - let me see... well, on a spiritual level and I'm gonna be honest, I've felt quite distant from Papa recently - probably the reason why I haven't been writing. One thing I've sussed out on my journey is that if you don't make time to be with Papa then he can sometimes feel really distant from you, even though he isn't - as it says in Jeremiah 29:13 - "You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart" - that is so true.
Being with Papa is like anything, if you put in the effort you will reap the reward of feeling him, if you don't you won't. If you spend time with him he will seem so much nearer to you, if you don't he won't, simple as.
One thing that has become clearer to me is that I need to surround myself with fellowship more than I have been doing as fellowship really does help me connect with God and just keep me on the guid path easier. Being a Christian isn't a walk in the ballpark by ANY means and walking that path is easier when surrounded by others on the same journey. Don't get me wrong, Linette helps me and guides me every day, and (hopefully) vice versa, but what I need is regular brotherly fellowship and/or church fellowship, more than I've been getting, so I intend to work on that and not let "I've not got any money" defeat me before I even bring the idea up. I agree with Linette when she says that if we agree with a poverty spirit it can become a law that we end up living under. Wise words.
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The days have been very hard for me recently, due to my lack of work - the never ending chores of housework with all the things that need doing every day and my debts staring me in the face haven't kept me that upbeat and if anything they've got me quite down. It was only this week when walking Ruby that something changed in me and I managed to return to a nice place of being able to talk to Papa again and have a giggle with him. Not that I'd stopped praying, just I hadn't made the effort to be with him. Now, I can't stress this enough - if you're struggling with anything then I would strongly advise you to make the effort, even though it will be hard and spend time with Papa. You might not think you've made any headway, but you will have - Papa hears your prayers and helps you every day, even when you're sure he hasn't - keep pressing in.
We all struggle with different strokes folks ("what you talkin' 'bout Willis?") - no, not THOSE Different Strokes!" ;-), none of us are perfect, we all have issues, sin, past and present damage, whatever and if we don't take it to Papa then we'll never be able to be shake these chains off and the enema, sorry, enemy, heh heh ;-) will always keep us in those chains.
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My mate Michael was leading the meeting at church today and one thing he asked us was what does Satan want from us? - to keep us imprisoned? to steal us away from God? - well, there was a few different thoughts from everyone in the congregation and to be honest they were probably all right, but the one Michael wanted to point out to us was that Satan wants to rid us of the authority that Jesus has given us.
Now, that's quite a thing if you think about it, isn't it? - he doesn't really give a stuff if we end up with a toasting fork up our jacksies for all eternity or if we want to sit at his left hand side up until the point he gets bored of us and chucks us into the fires - what he really wants is our authority.
Ha! Ha! Ha! - well guess what ya wee red fayrt?, it's not gonna happen! Having prophetically swallowed "the red pill" (ala 'Matrix' stylee) and suddenly having my eyes opening to what's really going on, why on earth would I want to give up such a precious gift from someone who loves me without question to someone who would rather have me out of the way?....
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A question has been going round and round in my head recently, I wonder if you've ever asked yourself the same?
1: Why would anyone ever want to be a follower of the enemy when all the enemy want is destruction?..
2: What would the enemy do if they ever got to destroy everything? - what would be left for them to do when they've destroyed everything?..
Everything about the enemy and what they're trying to achieve seems a complete waste of time...but then I guess I'm biased as I've felt my Father's love and his never ending love for me.
Thank you Father, thank you Jesus, my lord, and thank you Holy Spirit for continuing to nudge me when i'm heading off the path and putting me back on course. I love you.
Hmmm, so what's been happening? - let me see... well, on a spiritual level and I'm gonna be honest, I've felt quite distant from Papa recently - probably the reason why I haven't been writing. One thing I've sussed out on my journey is that if you don't make time to be with Papa then he can sometimes feel really distant from you, even though he isn't - as it says in Jeremiah 29:13 - "You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart" - that is so true.
Being with Papa is like anything, if you put in the effort you will reap the reward of feeling him, if you don't you won't. If you spend time with him he will seem so much nearer to you, if you don't he won't, simple as.
One thing that has become clearer to me is that I need to surround myself with fellowship more than I have been doing as fellowship really does help me connect with God and just keep me on the guid path easier. Being a Christian isn't a walk in the ballpark by ANY means and walking that path is easier when surrounded by others on the same journey. Don't get me wrong, Linette helps me and guides me every day, and (hopefully) vice versa, but what I need is regular brotherly fellowship and/or church fellowship, more than I've been getting, so I intend to work on that and not let "I've not got any money" defeat me before I even bring the idea up. I agree with Linette when she says that if we agree with a poverty spirit it can become a law that we end up living under. Wise words.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The days have been very hard for me recently, due to my lack of work - the never ending chores of housework with all the things that need doing every day and my debts staring me in the face haven't kept me that upbeat and if anything they've got me quite down. It was only this week when walking Ruby that something changed in me and I managed to return to a nice place of being able to talk to Papa again and have a giggle with him. Not that I'd stopped praying, just I hadn't made the effort to be with him. Now, I can't stress this enough - if you're struggling with anything then I would strongly advise you to make the effort, even though it will be hard and spend time with Papa. You might not think you've made any headway, but you will have - Papa hears your prayers and helps you every day, even when you're sure he hasn't - keep pressing in.
We all struggle with different strokes folks ("what you talkin' 'bout Willis?") - no, not THOSE Different Strokes!" ;-), none of us are perfect, we all have issues, sin, past and present damage, whatever and if we don't take it to Papa then we'll never be able to be shake these chains off and the enema, sorry, enemy, heh heh ;-) will always keep us in those chains.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
My mate Michael was leading the meeting at church today and one thing he asked us was what does Satan want from us? - to keep us imprisoned? to steal us away from God? - well, there was a few different thoughts from everyone in the congregation and to be honest they were probably all right, but the one Michael wanted to point out to us was that Satan wants to rid us of the authority that Jesus has given us.
Now, that's quite a thing if you think about it, isn't it? - he doesn't really give a stuff if we end up with a toasting fork up our jacksies for all eternity or if we want to sit at his left hand side up until the point he gets bored of us and chucks us into the fires - what he really wants is our authority.
Ha! Ha! Ha! - well guess what ya wee red fayrt?, it's not gonna happen! Having prophetically swallowed "the red pill" (ala 'Matrix' stylee) and suddenly having my eyes opening to what's really going on, why on earth would I want to give up such a precious gift from someone who loves me without question to someone who would rather have me out of the way?....
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A question has been going round and round in my head recently, I wonder if you've ever asked yourself the same?
1: Why would anyone ever want to be a follower of the enemy when all the enemy want is destruction?..
2: What would the enemy do if they ever got to destroy everything? - what would be left for them to do when they've destroyed everything?..
Everything about the enemy and what they're trying to achieve seems a complete waste of time...but then I guess I'm biased as I've felt my Father's love and his never ending love for me.
Thank you Father, thank you Jesus, my lord, and thank you Holy Spirit for continuing to nudge me when i'm heading off the path and putting me back on course. I love you.
Sunday, 14 November 2010
14/11/10
Good afternoon world! Nice to have some quiet time with Papa and put digits to keys again.
So whit's been goin' oan? - well, Linette recently held a prophetic art seminar at The Lighthouse in Troon, which was f.a.b. as the Thunderbirds would say, it was a lovely relaxed day with some awesome talent on show and some newly discovered talent having come out of their shells. It's funny how some people before Lin's seminar say "oh, I can only draw stickmen" or "ahm no artist" and then at the end of the day they're posing for a photo for me holding an awesome piece of prophetic art in their hands! Ha! Ha! - Papa is de man. :-)
It's always the same, setting up for the seminars is the stressfull part - making sure floors are covered incase of spills, protecting tables (incase of spills), making sure audio and visual stuffs are all working correctly, stocking the tables with everything the students will need etc etc etc, but the day itself is usually hassle-free and there's always a lovely sense of calm (courtesy of Papa G).
I like helping Lin at her seminars, my roles are to greet everyone at registration, operate the sound board whilst Lin (and guests, if there are some) provide worship, play background music during the creative times, help Linette with her timing, near the end take photos of everyone's finished peice(s), help pack up and just generally be there for support for her. It's a long day, but usually an enjoyable one. I haven't seen anyone go away dissapointed yet, which means we (and Papa) must be doing something right. :-)
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We were also fortunate enough to watch the legendary Kilmarnock fireworks display this year too - Linette, Francesca, Oli, Callum and I all wrapped up nice n warm and headed on down to Kilmarnock's Kay park and got there in good time to see the display. I'd heard tale that they were thinking of cracking down on the budget a little at the Killie display, but you'd never have known it as just when you thought "ok, that must be it" then something else would go off - amazing.
I think going to the fireworks displays might be a hassle to some and it is in a way, but when you're there and you see these magical displays then it suddenly reminds you "oh yeah!, that's why we come - 'cause it's just AMAZING!" - ANYone can watch fireworks from their house or on the telly, but you actually have to be there IN PERSON for the message to hit you. I don't know anyone who, when at a display, can say "what a load of crap, wish I'd stayed in". There's something magical about being at a fireworks display that turns (or SHOULD turn) you back into an 8 year old again.
Going to a fireworks display is a little like having not been at church for a while, it's easy to get lethargic and go "auch, ah'll not bother, church'll always be there next week, next month, next year won't it?..." but it's only when you go back you go ""oh yeah!! - THAT's why we come! - 'cause God is just AMAZING!" and you know what? - that's when you realise you've been missing the most amazing fireworks you'll EVER see.
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Men's group has reconveined lately, which has been good, we're taking time to listen to the Jack Frost sermons - quite different to the John Eldredge 'Wild At Heart' dvd seminars which we'd been concentrating on, but they're good too, just in a different way. I'd lost faith a little in the men's group - I'd seen the numbers dwindle each week after we'd finished the John Eldredge dvds and even though we'd been praying and seeing some amazing things happen the numbers had become half to a quarter of what they had been before.
I took it quite personally as I couldn't understand why some guys who had said "this group is great!" / "this group is amazing!" etc etc weren't now coming anymore. I'd put a lot of enthusiasm into gathering the guys every week and there's only so long you can do that and watch numbers dwindle before you go "err, wtf?..." y'know?... After some council I reached the conclusion that not everyone is where I am in my faith and you can take a horse to water, but you can't make it drink, so after that I chilled a bit more with my possible over-reactions. I'm now at the point of "hey, if you can come that's a bonus and if you can't then bless you, we hope to see you again", that's given me a lot more piece of mind. I'm also at the point where I feel "hey, you know what? - I'm gonna let YOU guys drive the bus, I'd prefer to be a passenger tonight" - I think it's a healthy thing to know when to let other troops do the work.
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Church has been great too, last week Richard started the meeting with a bold question - to ask yourself "why am I here?..." Ho! Ho! you could literally SEE people squirming in their seats! - Here was our pastor really cutting out the shit and getting to the heart of the matter - are we just there to drinks tea, eat some biscuits and leave none the wiser or are we here to really be with God?...
I LOVE it when Rich gets all fired up, it's good to see his baws come out every now and then (not literally though, lol!) I love to see our leadership challenge the congregation (myself included), it's good for them to be seen as accountable and it's good for the congregation to wake up too. After that Yolanda spoke on how we should and could try to be more Christ-like - what we can do and what we shouldn't be doing. Again, that made a few people squirm, but Yol stuck her ground and kept going. That's a tough sermon to preach 'cause no one likes being reminded of their possible short comings and some offence is sure to be had by those embarrassed, but Yol presented it in such a way so's not be judgemental - well done missis. Yolanda is a great preacher and MAN you should be in the room when she roars sometimes - JINGS!! :-0
This week we had Andy Hall back fresh from Bethel and his sermon was about our dreams and aspirations and God's dreams for us amongst other things. Ooft, it was a good sermon - wanna hear one of the things he said? he said "God had a dream and wrapped your body around it" - now what do you think o THEY apples?! - wowee, powerful stuff. We're so blessed to have Andy as one of the leaders, he might not be the world's best interactive person, but golly gosh has God annointed him in his speeches. Andy has this amazing talent of preaching, but it being real easy to follow, kind of like reading a prophetic d.i.y. manual out loud - brilliant to hear. He's a good man and even though he's not a touchy feely kind of guy like me, I like him a lot.
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This week has had its ups n downs for me - the downs being still no sign of work, having to finally pull my head out of the sand as to debt problems and asking for help. Lin and I have also had a couple of probs, which i won;t go into as they're of a deeply personal nature, but the ups have been that we've seen the enemies hand using those problems against us and trying to distance us from each other and then combatted against him.
F ME, it MUST get boring for him CONSTANTLY getting beaten by the lord -he's been fighting since the dawn of time and STILL hasn't come to the conclusion "I'm wasting my time". Yeah, he's savvy and yeah, he's consistent (OH, how we KNOW he's consistent!), but for feck's sake GET THE MESSAGE LOSER - F OFF!!
Ooft, got a bit fired up there, did you see it? - lol. Well, nae wunner! - wee red bas##rd really does ma nut in. ;-)
Let's keep fighting and doing HIS nut in folks ok?...
Blessings to you and yours
- Beef X
So whit's been goin' oan? - well, Linette recently held a prophetic art seminar at The Lighthouse in Troon, which was f.a.b. as the Thunderbirds would say, it was a lovely relaxed day with some awesome talent on show and some newly discovered talent having come out of their shells. It's funny how some people before Lin's seminar say "oh, I can only draw stickmen" or "ahm no artist" and then at the end of the day they're posing for a photo for me holding an awesome piece of prophetic art in their hands! Ha! Ha! - Papa is de man. :-)
It's always the same, setting up for the seminars is the stressfull part - making sure floors are covered incase of spills, protecting tables (incase of spills), making sure audio and visual stuffs are all working correctly, stocking the tables with everything the students will need etc etc etc, but the day itself is usually hassle-free and there's always a lovely sense of calm (courtesy of Papa G).
I like helping Lin at her seminars, my roles are to greet everyone at registration, operate the sound board whilst Lin (and guests, if there are some) provide worship, play background music during the creative times, help Linette with her timing, near the end take photos of everyone's finished peice(s), help pack up and just generally be there for support for her. It's a long day, but usually an enjoyable one. I haven't seen anyone go away dissapointed yet, which means we (and Papa) must be doing something right. :-)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
We were also fortunate enough to watch the legendary Kilmarnock fireworks display this year too - Linette, Francesca, Oli, Callum and I all wrapped up nice n warm and headed on down to Kilmarnock's Kay park and got there in good time to see the display. I'd heard tale that they were thinking of cracking down on the budget a little at the Killie display, but you'd never have known it as just when you thought "ok, that must be it" then something else would go off - amazing.
I think going to the fireworks displays might be a hassle to some and it is in a way, but when you're there and you see these magical displays then it suddenly reminds you "oh yeah!, that's why we come - 'cause it's just AMAZING!" - ANYone can watch fireworks from their house or on the telly, but you actually have to be there IN PERSON for the message to hit you. I don't know anyone who, when at a display, can say "what a load of crap, wish I'd stayed in". There's something magical about being at a fireworks display that turns (or SHOULD turn) you back into an 8 year old again.
Going to a fireworks display is a little like having not been at church for a while, it's easy to get lethargic and go "auch, ah'll not bother, church'll always be there next week, next month, next year won't it?..." but it's only when you go back you go ""oh yeah!! - THAT's why we come! - 'cause God is just AMAZING!" and you know what? - that's when you realise you've been missing the most amazing fireworks you'll EVER see.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Men's group has reconveined lately, which has been good, we're taking time to listen to the Jack Frost sermons - quite different to the John Eldredge 'Wild At Heart' dvd seminars which we'd been concentrating on, but they're good too, just in a different way. I'd lost faith a little in the men's group - I'd seen the numbers dwindle each week after we'd finished the John Eldredge dvds and even though we'd been praying and seeing some amazing things happen the numbers had become half to a quarter of what they had been before.
I took it quite personally as I couldn't understand why some guys who had said "this group is great!" / "this group is amazing!" etc etc weren't now coming anymore. I'd put a lot of enthusiasm into gathering the guys every week and there's only so long you can do that and watch numbers dwindle before you go "err, wtf?..." y'know?... After some council I reached the conclusion that not everyone is where I am in my faith and you can take a horse to water, but you can't make it drink, so after that I chilled a bit more with my possible over-reactions. I'm now at the point of "hey, if you can come that's a bonus and if you can't then bless you, we hope to see you again", that's given me a lot more piece of mind. I'm also at the point where I feel "hey, you know what? - I'm gonna let YOU guys drive the bus, I'd prefer to be a passenger tonight" - I think it's a healthy thing to know when to let other troops do the work.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Church has been great too, last week Richard started the meeting with a bold question - to ask yourself "why am I here?..." Ho! Ho! you could literally SEE people squirming in their seats! - Here was our pastor really cutting out the shit and getting to the heart of the matter - are we just there to drinks tea, eat some biscuits and leave none the wiser or are we here to really be with God?...
I LOVE it when Rich gets all fired up, it's good to see his baws come out every now and then (not literally though, lol!) I love to see our leadership challenge the congregation (myself included), it's good for them to be seen as accountable and it's good for the congregation to wake up too. After that Yolanda spoke on how we should and could try to be more Christ-like - what we can do and what we shouldn't be doing. Again, that made a few people squirm, but Yol stuck her ground and kept going. That's a tough sermon to preach 'cause no one likes being reminded of their possible short comings and some offence is sure to be had by those embarrassed, but Yol presented it in such a way so's not be judgemental - well done missis. Yolanda is a great preacher and MAN you should be in the room when she roars sometimes - JINGS!! :-0
This week we had Andy Hall back fresh from Bethel and his sermon was about our dreams and aspirations and God's dreams for us amongst other things. Ooft, it was a good sermon - wanna hear one of the things he said? he said "God had a dream and wrapped your body around it" - now what do you think o THEY apples?! - wowee, powerful stuff. We're so blessed to have Andy as one of the leaders, he might not be the world's best interactive person, but golly gosh has God annointed him in his speeches. Andy has this amazing talent of preaching, but it being real easy to follow, kind of like reading a prophetic d.i.y. manual out loud - brilliant to hear. He's a good man and even though he's not a touchy feely kind of guy like me, I like him a lot.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This week has had its ups n downs for me - the downs being still no sign of work, having to finally pull my head out of the sand as to debt problems and asking for help. Lin and I have also had a couple of probs, which i won;t go into as they're of a deeply personal nature, but the ups have been that we've seen the enemies hand using those problems against us and trying to distance us from each other and then combatted against him.
F ME, it MUST get boring for him CONSTANTLY getting beaten by the lord -he's been fighting since the dawn of time and STILL hasn't come to the conclusion "I'm wasting my time". Yeah, he's savvy and yeah, he's consistent (OH, how we KNOW he's consistent!), but for feck's sake GET THE MESSAGE LOSER - F OFF!!
Ooft, got a bit fired up there, did you see it? - lol. Well, nae wunner! - wee red bas##rd really does ma nut in. ;-)
Let's keep fighting and doing HIS nut in folks ok?...
Blessings to you and yours
- Beef X
Thursday, 4 November 2010
04/11/10
Goodly evening y'all, I haven't written since Sunday so thought tonight might be a guid time to put digits to keys. Today started off with my amazing hi-tech HTC HD2 phone not waking me up at the right time so at around 8.20am I was awoken by the wee men very politely knocking on the door telling us the time. The boys know that if Lin or I aren't up by that time to execute 'Plan B' and wake us up. So the usual ensued - me trying to wake up, putting on my dressing gown inside out whilst checking the boys room - very tidy, as usual, beds made and floor clear - cool, that's all we ask and it's once in a blue moon they don't have it done. Downstairs to cereal, quick wash of the face, brush of their teeth, coats and bags on and off they go - sweet.
After the boys left I got Lin some cereal and woke her up as we were heading off to help Rachael Howson this morning in Paisley. Her mum Lynn has a whole bunch of p.a. stuff left over from the KOG café that they need rid of so they'd asked if I could go over and see what they had. The drive over wasn't very nice - the weather was really dour - wet, foggy and pretty miserable, in fact it's stayed the same all day long. Cataloguing everything took longer than I thought, trying to take good quality photos of what they had, measuring things etc etc Lynn had a whole bunch of skipping ropes that had been gifted them so my morning was spent measuring skipping ropes and taking photos of them - my tough street cred. (or any that's left of it) finally died this morning, heh heh!
Bidding audieu, we left to get back to Stewarton ontime for a visit from our goodly friends Gail and Michael Montgomery. We got home with 5 minutes to spare before they arrived and we had a most enjoyable couple of hours with them. Lin made bacon butties and the Mont's had brought fruit cake too - yum! yum! yum! ;-) I like Gail and Michael immensley - they both stomach my rather risqué humour, are intelligent, caring and have a passionate heart for God. Gail is an amazing masseuse, organises loads of Christian events and is a Mum of two, Michael is an amazing graphic designer, film director/producer/actor and father of two - where the hell they find the time to do all these things I don't know, but they manage somehow.
It was very pleasant having them over, I lit the fire and we spent the time discussing this, that and slagging some folks off heh! heh!. I know we shouldn't, but we're not nasty with it so Papa just grins and lets us off (Keith wrote hopefully) ;-) Come 3pm the Monts had to go and the wee men arrived home - so, shoes and jackets off, into the kitchen for the obligatory homework. Sometimes homework can be done in 5 minutes, others an hour and a half - I love it, no, REALLY... :-( Today was graphs and the boys had to answer questions about halfs - but,they haven't been taught about graphs!, so...time to don my teacher head again and explain halfs to them. W.T.F.? - why give the boys homework dealing with halfs when they've not been taught them yet? - I tell you, I wish I had a pound for every time that I've had to teach them something they haven't been taught yet at school for homework, I'd have a couple of bob, I can tell you! Why am I doing the teachers job out of hours? - Why don't I get paid a teachers wage for doing their work for them? - all this and more will be answered in the next episode of 'Soap'! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1rUxKq7w6ec ;-)
After homework the boys got into their jammies (which they love) and I worked on a new logo for The Howard centre in Kilmarnock, Jamie from the H.C. really like my new design so I was just finishing it off for him and e-mailing him the final version as jpegs and transparent gifs (confused? - don't worry, so am I) ;-) I'm looking forward to designing new things for him, it's great when the client likes what you've done - if he didn't I'd just hit him over the head with his p.c. monitor ;-) Actually, Jamie's and ex-officer of the law, so best behaviour Keith - no, you're not allowed to taser anyone in Jamie's company and no, I don't think he'd like to taser anyone in your company either. :-s
I'm going to be working on a new logo for 'The Well' café that's just opened in the H.C., looking forward to getting my teeth into something new, might make a star on it tomorrow, if I have the time. Tomorrow Lin and Francesca (Linette's daughter 'Ceca') and I are heading down to The Lighthouse in Troon to make a start preparing it for Linette's art seminar on saturday. Lin will be doing some worshipping and leading the seminar, whilst Ceca will be in charge of the food side of things for the hungry budding-artists and I'll be doing the technical side of things (working the sound desk), taking photos and the general admin.
There's a great feeling of freedom at these seminars and we're all looking forward to it. After we've done that, if we've got time we might try and take the boys to the Kilmarnock fireworks display. If the weather is like today I think it'll be called off, but hey Papa G sometimes changes the weather - he certainly did for our wedding. It had been peein' doon all day up until around 4pm then just stayed overcast. So when it came time to get wed there wasn't a drop - thank you Abba!! :-) (for those of you with a nervous disposition I wouldn't advise you undergo an outside wedding - it's not for the faint hearted!)
My lovely wife has just got back from Asda with the food shop for Saturday's event so I'm gonna keep it short n sweet tonight you lucky swines! The enemy has been ragging her the last few days so I'm off to go spend some nishe quiet time with her, SO, LOVE God, be BLESSED and don't let the enemy win/in.
Blessings to you - 'The Bridge' ;-) X
After the boys left I got Lin some cereal and woke her up as we were heading off to help Rachael Howson this morning in Paisley. Her mum Lynn has a whole bunch of p.a. stuff left over from the KOG café that they need rid of so they'd asked if I could go over and see what they had. The drive over wasn't very nice - the weather was really dour - wet, foggy and pretty miserable, in fact it's stayed the same all day long. Cataloguing everything took longer than I thought, trying to take good quality photos of what they had, measuring things etc etc Lynn had a whole bunch of skipping ropes that had been gifted them so my morning was spent measuring skipping ropes and taking photos of them - my tough street cred. (or any that's left of it) finally died this morning, heh heh!
Bidding audieu, we left to get back to Stewarton ontime for a visit from our goodly friends Gail and Michael Montgomery. We got home with 5 minutes to spare before they arrived and we had a most enjoyable couple of hours with them. Lin made bacon butties and the Mont's had brought fruit cake too - yum! yum! yum! ;-) I like Gail and Michael immensley - they both stomach my rather risqué humour, are intelligent, caring and have a passionate heart for God. Gail is an amazing masseuse, organises loads of Christian events and is a Mum of two, Michael is an amazing graphic designer, film director/producer/actor and father of two - where the hell they find the time to do all these things I don't know, but they manage somehow.
It was very pleasant having them over, I lit the fire and we spent the time discussing this, that and slagging some folks off heh! heh!. I know we shouldn't, but we're not nasty with it so Papa just grins and lets us off (Keith wrote hopefully) ;-) Come 3pm the Monts had to go and the wee men arrived home - so, shoes and jackets off, into the kitchen for the obligatory homework. Sometimes homework can be done in 5 minutes, others an hour and a half - I love it, no, REALLY... :-( Today was graphs and the boys had to answer questions about halfs - but,they haven't been taught about graphs!, so...time to don my teacher head again and explain halfs to them. W.T.F.? - why give the boys homework dealing with halfs when they've not been taught them yet? - I tell you, I wish I had a pound for every time that I've had to teach them something they haven't been taught yet at school for homework, I'd have a couple of bob, I can tell you! Why am I doing the teachers job out of hours? - Why don't I get paid a teachers wage for doing their work for them? - all this and more will be answered in the next episode of 'Soap'! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1rUxKq7w6ec ;-)
After homework the boys got into their jammies (which they love) and I worked on a new logo for The Howard centre in Kilmarnock, Jamie from the H.C. really like my new design so I was just finishing it off for him and e-mailing him the final version as jpegs and transparent gifs (confused? - don't worry, so am I) ;-) I'm looking forward to designing new things for him, it's great when the client likes what you've done - if he didn't I'd just hit him over the head with his p.c. monitor ;-) Actually, Jamie's and ex-officer of the law, so best behaviour Keith - no, you're not allowed to taser anyone in Jamie's company and no, I don't think he'd like to taser anyone in your company either. :-s
I'm going to be working on a new logo for 'The Well' café that's just opened in the H.C., looking forward to getting my teeth into something new, might make a star on it tomorrow, if I have the time. Tomorrow Lin and Francesca (Linette's daughter 'Ceca') and I are heading down to The Lighthouse in Troon to make a start preparing it for Linette's art seminar on saturday. Lin will be doing some worshipping and leading the seminar, whilst Ceca will be in charge of the food side of things for the hungry budding-artists and I'll be doing the technical side of things (working the sound desk), taking photos and the general admin.
There's a great feeling of freedom at these seminars and we're all looking forward to it. After we've done that, if we've got time we might try and take the boys to the Kilmarnock fireworks display. If the weather is like today I think it'll be called off, but hey Papa G sometimes changes the weather - he certainly did for our wedding. It had been peein' doon all day up until around 4pm then just stayed overcast. So when it came time to get wed there wasn't a drop - thank you Abba!! :-) (for those of you with a nervous disposition I wouldn't advise you undergo an outside wedding - it's not for the faint hearted!)
My lovely wife has just got back from Asda with the food shop for Saturday's event so I'm gonna keep it short n sweet tonight you lucky swines! The enemy has been ragging her the last few days so I'm off to go spend some nishe quiet time with her, SO, LOVE God, be BLESSED and don't let the enemy win/in.
Blessings to you - 'The Bridge' ;-) X
Sunday, 31 October 2010
UP TO & INCLUDING 30/10/10
"Evenin' all", as Dixon of Dock Green used to say (whit dae ye mean "who's Dixon of Dock Green?"! - go 'Google it' - jings.) It's been a few days since my last blog - apologies to anyone who waits on my words like the cliffhanger at the end of an old episode of Buck Rogers with "Buster Crabbe (whit dae ye mean "who's "Buster Crabbe"?! - JINGS!!!) Yeah, have had a busy few days juggling housework, babysitting, conducting the promotion etc etc of Linette's Penney lane Studios stuffs, some graphic design work for The Howard Centre in Kilmarnock and some live work with Hyper P.A., so sorry it's taken me a while to put digits to keys.
Ok, so what's been goin' on? - last Saturday (23rd Oct.) was awesome, Lin and I went to the Light & Life training day at the Holy Trinity Church in Westerhailes on the outskirts of Eedinburger. Linette was training the volunteers in prophetic art and I was helping the amazingly annointed Mark Higginson with worship on drums and then conducting my usual role of taking photos for L&L Facebook and just "being around" as Barbara (the leader of L&L) would say, for whatever I was needed for.
It was a great day, Barbara lead the event with an introduction as to what 'Light & Life' is and what we're looking for from volunteers and she was on amazing form - I know a few, what I call "lionesses" in the body and man was she roaring - awesome and good to see. Another "lioness", our good friend Beth Sciallo, would have been proud.
The event was great, met some really cool people and really felt at the end of the event that we'd been part of something which would produce good fruit. After that it was back down to Kilmarnock where 'Mini-Clan' was underway at The newly and costly refurbed 'Howard Centre', where Linette's 'Penney Lane Studios' stall was being "womaned" by our good friend Kim Wylie for the day as a favour. So although Lin & I were a bit cream crackered after the effort of preparing everything for sale at mini-clan, Linette's paintings to be hanged there, ourselves for the L&L training event and then all the travelling it was good to thank Kim for her help and take over.
Mini-clan seemed a success and a lot of people seemed to get a lot out of it, was good to see my bros Allan McKinley leading worship, Michael Clayton on guitar and my "predator bro" Ben Monteith play drums. It was also really nice to see Lin's stall looking good with plenty for sale. Some folks are really daft though, they come up to Lin's stall, look at her paintings or flick through her prints for sale and go "Wow! - did you paint that?" - I have to bite my lip, 'cos what I really want to say is "DUHHHHH!!! - NAW! - IT WAS MAHATMA GHANDI, YA F##NY!" - jings, gie me strength. Hahahaha ;-)
"Anyhoo", as J.D. from 'Scrubs' would say - ("Google it" if you've never seen it.) The rest of the week was spent based around the boys' comings and goings - getting them ready for school, doing P.L.S. stuff for Linette or graphic design work, housework during the afternoon then homework at 3pm when the boys come home, after homework and depending on the day of the week the boys will either get to play outside, play the Playstation or watch their programmes for a wee while, whilst they do its time to do packed lunches and get their clothes ready for school the next day. If Lin's working late then I get dinner, the aftermath of dishes, get the boys ready for bed and then Lin and I slump onto the couch and sigh "i'm knackered" - time fir jammies and mibbe a good film, some prayer or a large beer - on a good night all three! ;-)
The last couple of days and nights Linette as been at Hamilton college where the International House Of Prayer guys were worshipping, she had her stall there and was also painting and said that even though it was very long hours she was there it was amazing, the worship was fantastic and she was blessed by loads of people buying her paintings, prints or metalwork.
I, on the other hand, was away with 'Hyper P.A.' and 'MacFloyd' (Scotland's Pink Floyd tribute) in Paisley on the Friday and Langholm near the borders yesterday. A typical 'MacFloyd' show can be anything from a 12-16 hour day for the p.a. crew so it can be tiring, but the general banter and niceness of the guys and girls in 'MacFloyd' does help get you through it. Paisley Town Hall is great for the band as it's a fairly lage venue, but a nightmare for sound as it's so loud and boomy - it wasn't designed acoustically at all and running anything from the stage to 'front of house' (the sound desk) isn't exactly plain sailing. Cammy (Cambell Forbes from 'Hyper P.A.') and I aren't too keen on it generally, but the band like it.
There was a couple of flies in the ointment - the first being the fire-alarm going off in the interval meaning everyone in the venue having to stand out in the rain while the fire crews investigate and Michelle, one of MacFloyd's backing vocalists phone got stolen from the dressing room whilst the band were playing. This is very un-professional as a bands dressing room should be safe and secure - not a pilfering place for chancing their arm local crims to come and see what they can get away with. Turns out the venue captured the thieves on their cctv - they were in there for 7 minutes - not exactly an 's.a.s. style' quick in and get out eh? - they really took their time! but for all that footage I still don't think Michelle got her phone back, what a load of pish. :-(
Yesterday (Saturday 30th Oct.) Cammy and I were in Langholm near the borders, what a lovely quaint village! Upon arrival after a long, but pleasant drive down we enjoyed a quick bite to eat at a local café and then went to load in the gear. The load-in was dead easy and the stage although not particularly high was very clean, wide and reasonably deep too - sweet! (It's sad, but I appreciate things like that). The in-house technician was a guy called Walter and what an amazing wee host he was, he really bent over backwards for us and was very welcoming.The gig went well, but without the two lady backing vocalists for this gig it did sound empty at parts. Still, the punters seemed to love it and after the gig we left for the long drive homewards. Cammy's a guid lad, he keeps my spirits up and I think, vice versa. We mainly talk a lot of old bol###ks to pass the time, but sometimes can get into serious debates or discussions about life, the universe and everything, to quote Douglas Adams. A typical phrase of Cammy's would be the time when he tried to remember what a golf ball was called got frustrated and said " you know...a pig-sheep!" hahahaha! - fanny. So a golf ball is now called a "pig sheep" - there are plenty of other similair tales, but I won't go into them tonight :-)
I love Cammy, he's a good man, he doesn't want much out of life and isn't a greedy person. I've known and worked with him for many years and love the fact that he's been very respectful of the change in me, hasn't belittled it and hasn't gone all weird on me because he thinks that just because I've become a Christian that I've suddenly become all "holier than thou" and totally changed ha! ha! - far from it - yeah, I have changed, but I've tried to change the bad things in me and become a better person for myself, my family and my friends, isn't that a good thing? - why do some people fear that change?... (that is a rhetorical question, by the way)
After such a long day and night yesterday Linette and I were both pretty shattered this morning and underwent the question that crops up every blue moon "should we go to church?" - we didn't go last Sunday as we really were too tired, but something inside us pushed us out of bed and down to The Lighthouse in Troon, where our church resides. We were both a little late and snuck in quietly doing the whole mouthing silently "soreeee!" thing and generally trying to be invisible. It is hard though when pretty much everyone you see is also saying "HIIII!!!" in the same silent style hahaha! It was good to be back at church, even though it was only one Sunday that we'd missed, it felt like a lot longer.
Lin and I sat way over at the side because it so busy, but I actually liked it -I think it's good to sit in different places because it gives you different perspectives on things. Everyone should do it. It frustrates me a little when I see the same people sitting in their usual chairs with a cup of tea and a biscuit as if waiting for the entertainment to start and then I see them leave afterwards I think - what did you get from that? - did you even hear what was said? or do you just come out of habit?... I think Richard, Yolanda and Andy (the church leaders) should make everyone sit in a different place every week, it would force people out of their comfort zone and maybe wake them up a little too, but then i'm just that challenging type of guy ;-)
It was lovely to see Yolanda and Mariette back - what a blessing these two, strong "Seth Efreecun" women are to our church, but they're not just strong - on the opposite side of the coin they can be amazingly tender and gentle too. Not that long ago they both helped me with some prayer and some gentle "exorcism" of some things inside me that I needed help with and I will always be thankful to them for that. I think Y & M are both amazingly annointed women, but also know that they need prayer, affirmation and shoulders to cry on too - they're just the same as you and I and I love that.
As the worship team are having a small hi-atus I was off the kit today so it was just time to praise and try to just thank God without a set of sticks in my hands - weird. Listening to the guest worship leader all I could think about at times was getting behind the kit and joining in and I'm sure the rest of the team also thought so, but as that wasn't happening we just concentrated on the music and in turn worshipping Papa.
During the worship I felt drawn to my bro Ken Browne who was kneeling in prayer I felt such a wave of sadness for him that it must have been from God, Gail Montgomery and I prayed over him and then I felt like God was asking me to get him to stand up and just tell him "I love you son" over and over and over again. I think that was what Ken really needed, was just to hear what god was saying. I LOVE when God does that through me - it's as if I'm just a shell on a beach and he's just blowing his words for people through me and they're coming out of my mouth! I'd like MORE of that please! Going round the room I was waiting to pray for Andy and Sadie Billingham, but noticed a troubled looking Robert Ballantyne, I simply put my hand on his shoulder told him he was a blessed brother. I can't really describe his reaction other than he looked up at me like a child looks at his daddy who's been gone a long time and we simply hugged for ages without saying anything - MAN, it was POWERFUL! The men's group that we've been running has had such a huge impact on the church's male brethren that beforehand that would never have happened between us, but yet now that's not a big deal at all. Thank you Daddy for bringing us together.
My mate Michael Montgomery was guest speaker today, something I was well chuffed about, Michael speaks all over the world, but yet this is his first time he's been asked to speak on his "hame turf", so I waited to hear what he had to say with bated breasts ;-) Michael is amazingly annointed, but can also be a bit of a nervous chap, so he kinda humbly felt his way along at the start, but when he got into gear the "Lord Montgomery" in him came out and took over! - I like Michael's approach, he is thoughtful, but also doesn't mince his words - GREAT!! - another like minded man! Michael's sermon was short, sharp, practical and to the point, all things I like - BANG, BANG, BANG! - get in, make your point and get out with something people can think about, remember and most importantly USE in their lives. I'd like to hear more of what he has to say and I'm sure I speak for many of the other Lighthouse keepers when I say that.
After the meeting there was the rushed "hi's" to everyone you haven't had time to speak to and really want to (and some you really don't want to) Heh heh! ;-) Nicky McCormack gave Lin and I some beautiful prayer just before we left about the two different types of people we are and how I am "such an amazing warrior" she then followed with this belter - "I've never seen such a huge sword"........ Now........ I would like it noted in the minutes of the meeting that A: Nicky was speaking purely prophetically & B: I managed to keep my dirty jokes and laughter to myself, even although my wife was giggling next to me at the time. ;-)
Joking aside, I'm always the same after church I want to withdraw to a quiet room, really think about what's just been taught and write down my thoughts, but it never goes that way. Lin and I always have to do many other things before I/we get that personal time to reflect.
Joking aside, I'm always the same after church I want to withdraw to a quiet room, really think about what's just been taught and write down my thoughts, but it never goes that way. Lin and I always have to do many other things before I/we get that personal time to reflect.
I know that before getting to the prayer room tonight I was quite short with the boys and very short with Linette, it wasn't because they were being naughty or that Linette was being a pain or anything, it was merely my frustration at not having some quiet personal time to write down my thoughts and feelings which had been burning away at me all day. I will apologise to her when I've finished typing this blog, the good thing is that she will give me grace to apologise and that she'll decide that be the end of it. She's a very understanding, gracious woman, I am blessed that she is my wife.
"Anyhoo" - God has told me that I've to try and write more, so if I haven't please slap me on Facebook and I'll get my butt in order. Until then I'm off to go hug my wife, tell her I love her and that I'm sorry for being a Mr.Grumpypuss.
Be B L E S S E D - 'The Bridge' ;-) x
Friday, 22 October 2010
21/10/10
"Good moaning!" - the boys have left for school and I'm now in the position of having some time to put digits to keys before the day really starts. I do like the efficiency in which I can get the wee men ready for school in the morning, it gets easier every time (touch wood). Here's how I work it (please be advised that the following list is very anal, but that the writer doesn't give a stuff what you think, if it gets the job done quickly and quietly) ;-)
THE NIGHT BEFORE:
1: Make the boys packed lunches.
2: Put two bowls, spoons and tissues on the breakfast bar.
3: Put the boys clothes neatly on their dresser, in order of how they put them on for them with shoes underneath.
THE MORNING AFTER THE NIGHT BEFORE:
1: Whoever's getting the boys up's alarm goes off at 8.15am, Lin or I wander dazed through to the bathroom, quick pee and a wash of the hands and then go say hi - the boys have usually tidied their room by now, have made their beds and are neatly dressed for their day at school.
2: Quietly we go downstairs, so's not to wake whoever is getting the illustrious sleep in, the boys choose their cereal and all we have to do is pour it into their bowls and add milk - easy-peasy.
3: After brekkie the boys tell us "the two q's" - QUICKLY and QUIETLY, then off they go to clean their teeth and wash their faces. Our walls are paper thin and our bedroom is right next to the bathroom, so it's great when the boys are nice n quiet, that way they don't wake Mummy or I up, depending on who's overseeing and who's getting the sleep in that morning.
4: Ok, so next it's just a case of putting on jackets and bags answering any wacky questions the boys might have stored up in their craniums, hug time and then off they go.
I've got the morning part down to 15 minutes from me going into seeing the boys to them going out the door, which, for me, is a real blessing as i'm not good in the mornings so the less I have to do the better as I'm still in the "waking up process" lol. Linette is an amazing multi-tasker and can handle loads of things at the same time - me? - nup, I do one thing at a time - but do it WELL. ;-)
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So yesterday, well it started with Lin and I heading down to Troon to collect her paintings from church so that I could take some good-quality digital snaps of them for her Facebook site and to prepare them for sale at 'Mini-Clan' in Kilmarnock this weekend. When we got to the church I couldn't help myself by doing a quick tidy-up of the worship area - you can't switch off the stage manager in me, it's my default setting. A little known fact is that God created man, woman and Gaffa tape. ;-)
Leaving the church we popped over to B&Q in Kilmarnock to get picture hanging stuffs for the prophetic paintings Linette will be displaying at the Howard Centre from the weekend onwards. The Howard centre's just had a MAJOR refurb., so I'm looking forward to seeing it. After leaving B&Q upon asking my wife why she was taking her mobile phone into the garage to pay for petrol she said in her finest 5 year old, upset and confused voice "I don't know! 'cause I'm tired and lonely, grumpy, fizzy pop" - she sure has a way with words my wife! lol - I love that silly side of her, she's not scared at acting daft around me, I find it very endearing. :-)
After B&Q our tummies were fair rumbling so off to 'The Coffee Pot' in Stewarton, we do like it there - the food is great, well priced and it's a welcoming environment. We were unfortunate enough to be sat near some "ladies" talking about some sort of creams they had to use regularly and then endure them bitching about some other women they know and referring to them as sluts - NOT what I want to hear whilst I'm eating my brunch thank you very much, so we went to the other section of "The Pot" where it was much quieter - ahhhhh! luvlee. :-)
After brunch we went home so that Lin could work on some paintings and I could work on things like Penney Lane Studios stickers and painting tags etc. Working out how to print stickers took longer than I wanted and some swear words were banded out there in the process,to which I apologised to Lin for later, she was right it wasn't fair on her. The boys came home just after 3pm and settled down to CBBC whilst Mum and I carried on with PLS stuffs.
We'd been invited to Richard and Jan's for tea which was nice - what a welcoming and peaceful environment their house is. It really helped Lin and I chill and just forget about PLS things for a while. The boys were well behaved, as usual, so it meant we could all just have a good gab together. We enjoyed a lovely meal and sat next to their fire afterwards chatting - good times. :-)
After that it was straight to bed for the boys as it was way past their bedtime and then back onto working on PLS stuffs. Linette was painting and I was designing the tags that go with her artwork - you know the kind of things - they explain the name of the piece, how much it is, the artist's thoughts etc. etc. etc. this took us up to well after 1 in the morning when after laminating the tags I had reached my limit methinks. I can't stay up all day and all night anymore, must be getting old... so off to bed with my wife wearing two dressing gowns 'cause it was so cold. Who says newly weds aren't romantic? heh heh ;-)
Blessings to you all!
p.s. you can check out Linette's art at www.facebook.com/penneylanestudios
Wednesday, 20 October 2010
19/10/10 (part 2) + 20/10/10 (part1)
Had quite a day yesterday - Papa spoke to me on lots of things. I had done loads of housework, which meant that I could relax a lot more today. I am writing a day behind so as to be able to reflect on things with a sounder mind and write more comfortably and even better get to spend some much needed time with my wife.
Linette and I were very kindly offered a baby sitter last night, courtesy of a good friend of ours Mrs Sarah Mayers. I suddenly felt obliged to take her up on it because we don't get many babysitting offers - family and friends help when needed, but to actually get VOLUNTEERS?! is unHEARD of, lol! The only fly-in-the-ointment was that Papa had been speaking to me since Sunday saying that I've to spend more time just being with him and to stop concentrating on what I've to do for him - HE is the light at the end of my tunnel, not a job or church direction, so this left me in the uncomfortable situation of having to explain to Linette that I think we'd have to decline Sarah's amazing offer this time.
Linette was understandably disappointed - we don't get much "us time" at all and here was I asking if we could turn down such an opportunity. After some huffing and puffing on both sides we both understood that if God tells you to do something you just DO it - after all HE was the one who brought us back together for heaven's sake, so off to the prayer room I went with my wife's blessing and understanding, which made it so much easier.
Sunday I really struggled with where I was with myself and with God, I have been feeling surplus to requirements and rudderless recently and my usual warrior-like self had become a real withered balloon. I'd lost interest in my men's group, in Light & Life and even going to church, if I'm really honest, but God spoke through Janis, Kim and Andy at church and gave me such amazing words that refreshed me again.
Andy's sermon definitely felt like it was solely aimed at me, but it wasn't until one of my best mates Allan offered to come round and go for a coffee on Sunday night that I felt I really got the answers and since my time with Al I have been experiencing such peace and a real sense of direction - not who I am in the "kingdom", not what i'm meant to be, not what I can do for him, but simply just being with him - MORE - spending QUALITY time with him.
So, my aim is to do exactly that, Papa told me to go get a devotional, so today I did, Linette and I went up to Wesley Owens in Glasgow and got a copy of Eugene Peterson's 'Message Solo', which I think will help me in my "Papa tahm" nicely. Today I feel very chilled and am looking forward to nothing more than just spending time with him.
Before I go I would like to thank Sarah for her lovely offer and my bro's at mens group - Richard, Ken, Robert and John for their prayers and texts - your support and love is amazing guys, thank you, I appreciate them more than you know and am happy to report that what you have told me is exactly what G has been telling me too. :-)
Blessings to you and yours....
Linette and I were very kindly offered a baby sitter last night, courtesy of a good friend of ours Mrs Sarah Mayers. I suddenly felt obliged to take her up on it because we don't get many babysitting offers - family and friends help when needed, but to actually get VOLUNTEERS?! is unHEARD of, lol! The only fly-in-the-ointment was that Papa had been speaking to me since Sunday saying that I've to spend more time just being with him and to stop concentrating on what I've to do for him - HE is the light at the end of my tunnel, not a job or church direction, so this left me in the uncomfortable situation of having to explain to Linette that I think we'd have to decline Sarah's amazing offer this time.
Linette was understandably disappointed - we don't get much "us time" at all and here was I asking if we could turn down such an opportunity. After some huffing and puffing on both sides we both understood that if God tells you to do something you just DO it - after all HE was the one who brought us back together for heaven's sake, so off to the prayer room I went with my wife's blessing and understanding, which made it so much easier.
Sunday I really struggled with where I was with myself and with God, I have been feeling surplus to requirements and rudderless recently and my usual warrior-like self had become a real withered balloon. I'd lost interest in my men's group, in Light & Life and even going to church, if I'm really honest, but God spoke through Janis, Kim and Andy at church and gave me such amazing words that refreshed me again.
Andy's sermon definitely felt like it was solely aimed at me, but it wasn't until one of my best mates Allan offered to come round and go for a coffee on Sunday night that I felt I really got the answers and since my time with Al I have been experiencing such peace and a real sense of direction - not who I am in the "kingdom", not what i'm meant to be, not what I can do for him, but simply just being with him - MORE - spending QUALITY time with him.
So, my aim is to do exactly that, Papa told me to go get a devotional, so today I did, Linette and I went up to Wesley Owens in Glasgow and got a copy of Eugene Peterson's 'Message Solo', which I think will help me in my "Papa tahm" nicely. Today I feel very chilled and am looking forward to nothing more than just spending time with him.
Before I go I would like to thank Sarah for her lovely offer and my bro's at mens group - Richard, Ken, Robert and John for their prayers and texts - your support and love is amazing guys, thank you, I appreciate them more than you know and am happy to report that what you have told me is exactly what G has been telling me too. :-)
Blessings to you and yours....
Tuesday, 19 October 2010
TUESDAY 19TH OCTOBER 2010
I'm watching over the boys again today, thankfully it's the last day of their October break, so back to school tomorrow, but that still leaves me doing the customary washing, drying, washing up, making lunches and snacks and generally being a "house husband" as some would say.
I've struggled with it recently, not because I don't want to be with the boys, but rather the mundainess and monotony of it. Every day is the same "routine", to a certain extent - get up, get the boys breakfast, let them watch some t.v. for a short while, then go through the "that's enough now" and the consequent "but, can't we just watch another episode?" - "'fraid not, time to go play".
The boys'll play, popping in and out constantly until I say "either you're in or you're out" and then that nips it in the bud ;-) Housework begins and I have to have some music on - I struggle to do it without some tunes, funny how music can help things like that, isn't it?..
The day'll roll on with the usual fishing from the boys "can we play the Playstation now Daddy/Keith?" - "nope, it's a beautiful day guys, go! enjoy!, I'll put it on later for you". Linette and I have strict times when the boys watch t.v. and play games as we don't want them to grow up "square eyed", especially as they'll get way more out of being outside and interacting with other kids, falling off their bikes, getting skint knees etc - it's what boys are meant to do.
Anyhoo, "enough of my yakkin'" as Marti Di Bergi would say - better get on with the hum drums, will write again later with the rest of the day's business.
Blessings y'all.
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