Disturb Us, Lord...

Disturb us, Lord,


when we are too well pleased with ourselves;

when our dreams have come true because we dreamed too little;

when we arrive safely because we sailed too close to the shore.



Disturb us, Lord, when with the abundance of things we possess

we have lost our thirst for the Waters of Life;

having fallen in love with life, we have ceased to dream of eternity;

and in our efforts to build a new earth,

we have allowed our vision of the new heaven to dim.



Disturb us, Lord, to dare more boldly -

to venture on wider seas where storms will show your mastery;

where losing sight of land, we shall find the stars.

We ask you push back the horizons of our hopes,

and to push us in the future with strength, courage, hope and love.



Possibly by Ted Loder, taken from Maggie Dawn's place...

Queen of the Castle: Week 7

And welcome once more to the irregular Queen of the Castle weekly post...Midge will probably make some joke about my being highly irregular, but I will put my metaphorical nose in the air and carry on! Colletta has done a summary here, if you'd like to read it...


This week is about prioritising one's activities between Urgent and Important, thereby giving oneself time to do the activities which are of true value.

Well Ha! Ha! How many of us actually find it easy to discern between the two? Trivial stuff is easy to recognise, even if we get hung up on it. Really important stuff is also fairly easily recognised...(does laundry come into that category? Hmmm, only when its school uniforms!!) But the rest of one's daily life????

LBW gives plenty of examples of what is urgent, important, and Bible passages where people have failed to be discerning- the most well known being Mary and Martha, Luke Ch 10 v 39-42, but the only really helpful observation I found was this:

'Decline the good in order to accept the best... stay on course, reaching the destination God has mapped out...for us.'

Knowing that I need to follow God's will is not the problem, its the discernment of 'how' which I find difficult.
Which is the truly important thing out of all the things I'm 'supposed' to do?
Which is the best use of my time?
Which person needs the most help?
Which person can really do with out my input?
How do I choose between a fellow Christian's need and witnessing by my actions to someone far from God?

I could go on, but I won't! All LBW's advice on these questions is to pray, and a verse from Ephesians Ch 5 v 15-17, which ends...

'...but understand what the will of the Lord is.'


BUT THAT'S THE WHOLE PROBLEM, WOMAN!!

I think I've been praying for discernment for the last donkey's number of years, and so far my track record leaves a whole lot to be desired...but perhaps, perhaps....in retrospect... I've been mistaking endurance for discernment...

Sooo, my prayer for this week is...

Lord, please teach me the difference between discernment and endurance; I'm sure there must be one? In fact, Lord, while I'm on the subject, I really need to learn to pray more effectively.

Now THERE'S a challenge for our Lord!!

Queen of the Castle: Week 4

So I missed last week because of being unwell, but if you want to catch up, Colletta posted about it.
And the irony of it is that last week's chapter was about us women looking after our health!
Ho hum!


For this week's Chapter, which is about including Bible reading as a regular part of one's day, Colletta has posted a summary.
Just to be boring, I agree with everything that LBW says in this Chapter, and I also agree that the most bizarre conversations can lead to a quick 'Jesus-chat' (especially in the car!).

To look at a couple of excerpts from her text:

'Without God's Word I won't be equipped for my work.'
Too true! How many times have I had to step off the Carousel for a minute and say, 'Dear Lord, PLEASE HELP!' If I'd asked in the first place the Carousel might not have got so dizzy, crazy fast!!


The Lord wants for us 'a life flowing with blessings, delight and fruit.'
SURE He does!
But the fact that the 'blessings' come with an unstoppable 'I Wanna' recording, like those old talking dolls there used to be (without the removable batteries);
the 'delight' can be tempered with much anxiety and sorrow;
and the 'fruit' is very often bitter, as well as having a stone in the middle, isn't mentioned.

Paul, and the New Testament letter writers make it perfectly clear that a life walked with the Lord is NOT a life free of troubles, but isn't it other people who are meant to have the troubles? Not our families and friends...troubles and despair are for the nebulous 'they', aren't they?????


Trying to 'read the Bible in a Year is aiming too high.'
AAAAA-MEN Sister!!!
Twice have I begun, and already this year I am floundering. Its just that when there's so much to read in a day, I leave it until I'm too tired to start. LBW points out that it is the 'small steps', acts, decisions which 'are the important ones, rather than the grand gestures' and sure haven't we all learned that by experience?
Two minutes is better than none.
Reading over a Psalm won't get the whole Bible read, but isn't there always comfort and even a new or forgotten lesson to be had from the Psalms?
Prayers at bedtime are better than none, as is Grace at mealtimes which gets everyone in the habit of saying 'thank you'.
(Funny story about saying Grace at the end!)


'Use every opportunity to share God's Word.'
Opportunity knocks more frequently than the door-to-door sales people, so grab 'em...uh...the opportunities rather than the salespeople, but then again........???
Children LIKE to talk and they have opinions on everything (I KNOW), so use this,
especially in the car,
or waiting rooms,
or hanging around,
or MacDonald's
(horror! you don't feed your children at MacDonald's do you?! Me? Moi? Noooo...uh...sometimes....)

One Bible verse which I have leaned on continuously over the last twenty-one years of rearing delightfully blessed fruit-cases, is this: Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it. (Proverbs 22 v6)


Lastly, two verses which I thought were relevant:

Jeremiah 15:16
When your words came, I ate them;
they were my joy and my heart’s delight,
for I bear your name,
LORD God Almighty.

(a bit odd of Jeremiah to eat a scroll, or us to chew on our Bibles, but the joy and heart's delight is right enough.)

Proverbs 12:15
The way of fools seems right to them,
but the wise listen to advice.

(HA! HA! HA! Isn't this SO TRUE!! The fools bit anyway!!)


OK, three verses:

Proverbs 9:10
The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom,
and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.

Yes and yes and YES!!


And, as mentioned above, I'll leave you with my favourite 'Grace' story:

When Eldest was little she loved sitting at the table with us for mealtimes, balanced on a stack of cushions, with a tea towel tied round her neck. (We lived in the African bush, ok? No mod cons) And she knew that 'Grace' was always said before eating.
What she hadn't twigged was that 'Grace' was about thanking God, but this we didn't realise.

One day, after the Hub said 'Grace', she studied her food for a minute then asked, 'Say 'Grace' again, Dad.'

So he did.
She picked up her spoon, tried her food, put it down and asked, 'Say 'Grace' again, Dad.'

He did, but we were well puzzled by then!

It transpired, after some questioning, that Little Eldest thought that 'Grace' was said to let the food cool down enough to eat! How we laughed! (Still do!!)

Goes to show, you can teach them good habits, but understanding is also necessary!!!!