Kindness

This is a quote from Roald Dahl and I quite agree with him.....
From an interview with Brian Sibley broadcast by the BBC world service, November 1988


I think probably kindness is my number one attribute in a human being. I'll put it before any of the things like courage or bravery or generosity or anything else.


B.S. or brians even?


oh,gosh,yes,brians are one of the least.you can be a lovely person without brians, absolutely lovely.kindness-that simple word. to be kind-it covers everything in my mind.
If you're kind that's it.

Wings of an angel

Fragile yet Strong

www.wingsofangels.net

Angelwings

We have had housemartins nesting in our roof this year. I has been exciting to hear the rustle of feathers in the attic and we have eagarly awaited their fledging.
Sadly, my little girl just raced upstairs, her eyes stung by tears with the sad news that she found one of the little birds, fallen from the nest in our garden.
" Oh Mummy" she said in her sweet trembling voice " I'm so sad the little birdy died but I know that the angels have brought some new wings for it so that it can fly up to heaven."

"Jesus is in my heart".

I love making crafts with my girls. I put the baby in her rocking seat and sit at the play table cutting, sticking, gluing and painting. ( A big tub of wet wipes close at hand!)
Over the weekend we studied the story of creation and made two collages. One was of the sky, dividing the nightime from the daytime with the moon, stars and sun bordered by feathers and the other was of the earth as a beautiful and unspoiled garden.
My three year old is starting to understand much better the bible stories I read her now.
" I have jesus in my heart"
She said before her prayers the other night.
She is such a loing little girl and I am so happy that she knows Jesus is in her heart already.

Extract from a devotional by Charles Stanley

There are certain important points to understand about joy. This gift to every believer in Christ has a spiritual source — the Holy Spirit — and is produced from within by Him. Being supernatural in nature, divine joy exists independently of our circumstances. Happiness, on the other hand, comes from external causes, is earthly in character, and increases or decreases as events change. The success of a sports team, recognition by others, or completion of a project all represent sources of earthly happiness.

Pure simple Joys

Pure, simple Joys.

Sunlight seeping through the gap between the curtains in the morning.

The sunsetting behind the stark outlines of winter trees.

The smell of hot chocolate after a walk in the countryside.

The heavenly peace of a sleeping child.

A smile from a stranger.

Crisp, clean, freshly washed bed linen.

A cool breeze on a hot sunny day.

God is expressed through the beauty of the world in so many ways!

Those who live in accordance with the spirit

"Those who live in accordance with the spirit have their minds set on what the spirit desires."

Romans 8:5

As one has to give before they can recieve so our hearts must be tempered by our focus on God day by day, hour by hour and moment by moment.

If we keep communion with God through every breath then our deeds become a living prayer.

By giving our bodies minds and hearts to God we can find the freedom from our own desires and inadequacies.

Often our own desires have no other function than to prop up a sense of identity wrought within the imperfect framework of an imperfect world.

Faith in God replaces both the oppression of our desires and the reppression of our limited abilities with a quiet strength and a fearless peace. With Gods strength and peace we can see beyond the limited perspective of our isolated selves and the perameters of our foreshortend horizons. With faith we can find out what true fullfillment means and stretch to our full potential. With faith we may see with vision instead of just sight.

Yet by it's very definition faith must take it's first steps in the darkness before it can be illuminated. Therefore we must look towards the kingdom of God in every step we take so as not to lose our direction along the way.

Standing at the gate of a new year

Unless a wheat of grain falls on the ground and dies,

it remains only a single grain;

but if it dies,

it yields a rich harvest."

(John. 12:17)

"For it is from within, from men's hearts, that evil intentions emerge: fornication, theft, murder, adultery, avarice, malice, deceit, indecency, envy, slander, pride, folly. All these evil things come from within and make a man unclean."

(Mark. 7:13)

There is so much emphasis, especially at this time of year, on "decluttering" "setting goals" and "making resolutions."

Most of these adjendas centre around the concept of renewal as the new year dawns upon us. But is it an internal renewal we are looking for or a quick sweep around the external framework, of our lives: dusting the cobwebs from the windowframes instead of the residues from the windows. Is the renewal we are seeking focused on the interiers of our being or are we simply trying to gain a little curb appeal? Certainly most of the tasks we set ourselves centre around material objectives. The grand resolutions we proclaim to make are more often than not simply an attempt to control the variables of life by managing risk factors (i.e.) giving up various vices and/or reaffirming or redesigning our identities to fit the life we think we aspire to have. In the modern world we consume the symbols which affilate with the lifestyles we hope to attain and as a result the emphasis seems to be upon owning our lives as opposed to living them. The incentive is not to become better from within but to patent the exteriors with physcological gloss of smoke and mirrors. Beneath the facade this ideology comes down to what we want to have as opposed to what we want to be.

The real business of de-cluttering means striping back the surfaces not applying more whitewash to the walls.

Becoming that which you were intended to be from the beggining is really what it means to be reborn and renewed along with the change from one year to the next.

It is the distractions that lead you away from God, turn your head from the light and your body from the path are what should really be put out with the trash.

Whether this is the television, overtime at work, video games, shopping, unhealthy food, alcohol, drugs or negative people.

The elements that often provide transient, mute, numbing pleasure to our senses while desensitising us to the truths about ourselves and our lives are like non degradable rubbish in an ever deepening landfill.

The sadness being that the landfill is our soul.

And I said to the man who stood at the gate of the new year: "Give me a light that I may tread saftley into the unknown." And he replied :" Go out into the darkness and put your hand into the hand of God. That shall be to you better than light and safer than a known way.

Prayer of Saint Francis of Assisi

Prayer of Saint Francis of Assisi

Lord make us instruments

of your peace.

Where there is hatred

let us sow love;

Where there is injury, pardon;

Where there is discord, union;

Where there is doubt, faith;

Where there is despair, hope;

Where there is darkenss, light;

Where there is saddness, joy.

Grant that we may not

so much seek

To be consoled as to console;

To be understood

as to understand;

To be loved as to love.

For it is in giving

that we recieve;

It is in pardoning

that we are pardoned;

And it is in dying that we are

born to eternal life.

Amen