A posh lady reflects

Well, well, well. Let me begin by saying that it is totally and utterly impossible to learn to tie a bow tie in 3 hours. Please treat this statement as public service information so that you, dear reader,can save yourself the angst.

Anyhow, we managed to be washed, dressed, teeth cleaned and in shiny shoes in time for the taxi to take us to the very lovely venue where the poshest do we have been to in many years was getting under way with lots of lovely Bucks Fizz.

The vicar looked quite ravishing in his dinner jacket and hastily borrowed, already made up bow tie. We turned the house upside down looking for his cuff links. No luck. But honestly what you can't do with a paper clip isn't worth doing! (He did also wear trousers!)

It was a great evening. The food was sumptuous and the whole event raised loads of money for charity. AND it was just so fantastic to spend the evening with 6 (well,7 if you include the vicar) such great friends. ( There were other people there obviously...!!)

So a great time was had by all. My daughter's shoes made for immense pain so I was thankful there was no dancing. I didn't drop anything on the dress, I didn't tell any rude jokes and think I possibly...almost, could have passed for posh. Huzzah!!!!!!

So, that was that. The weekend then trolled on in its usual way, although we did have glorious Christmas lunch on Saturday, bit that's another story. In the midst of so much mundane routine it is great to have these special respites of loveliness. They do keep you going when life is full of cooking, cleaning, washing and children. God is good.

With love,

Rachel.

Going posh.

Tonight I am going to be a posh and beautiful lady!!!!!!!!

Well, that's the theory anyway. The vicar who lives here and I have been invited to a black tie dinner and auction of things money can't buy. We are going with some very lovely friends. But..I am nervous.

As the mother of 4 full on children, all lovely but not what you might call demure, I am not used to posh. I always think we've been reasonably posh when no-one has burped or farted at the tea table for once.

And as for dressing up and looking gorgeous..well the word "never" springs to mind. I try to remind myself each day that the Lord looks on the heart not the outward appearance. I use this as an excuse for looking like I've been dragged through a hedge backwards most days. But as I also struggle with a quiet time I'm not too sure how my inner appearance looks either.

However, I am in possession of a b-e-a-u-tiful dress, lent to me by a very dear friend. I am borrowing my eldest daughter's shoes which are a perfect colour to match...a sort of raspberry pink. The dress feels gorgeous and I shall be trying my hardest not to spill anything on it.

The vicar is wearing a dinner jacket and trousers he found in a charity shop 5 or so years ago for a tenner. As long as he remains in the right light you would never know that the jacket and trousers are a different colour.

I bought him a bow tie and with 3 hours to go until we leave it is all systems go to learn how to tie the blinking thing!!!!!! My small girls who are very girly girls are keen to help me with my hair and make up. This does not help my nerves.

So, why am I nervous?? Well, can I really do this? Can I look ok? Will I be able to walk in these very lovely shoes that have a....heel?? Will I be able to manage a glass of wine and not tell a dirty joke? Will my hold-everything- in- pants be all that should be? Will I manage not to nod my head in the auction and spend several thousand pounds on a scuba diving experience in The Wash?

All these questions and more will be answered at the earliest opportunity. In the meantime I have a nearly seven year old daughter weilding the hair straightners. Pray for me Sisters!!!!!!!

With love,

Rachel.

Funny old thing, time...

I have been transported back in time these last couple of weeks. My eldest daughter is doing her options. This means she has to choose 4 subjects to study for her GCSEs. She has to do English, maths and science but she gets to choose four things that interest her and that she wants to study a bit more in depth and to take exams in, in a couple of years time.

We went to parents evening to see the teachers (they all looked incredibly young).I asked her English teacher how the course worked and he told me that it was all very different from "your day." Arghh.

It really doesn't seem that long ago since I did my options...and what a terrible hash up I made of it to be honest. School just did not do it for me. I had no desire to work, so didn't. I was eventually dropped from virtually all my O level subjects (remember them?) and walked away with a CSE in religious studies. Hardly a glittering academic career!

Thankfully my beautiful daughter has a bit more about her than I did (and probably still do). I have been so impressed with her level of maturity in choosing, her desire to achieve and her sheer enthusiasm for school, something which was just not my experience at all.

It worries me that I will not be able to give her the academic support she needs. In honesty I will probably learn a great deal from her. It is true to say that it is only since my children have had to learn their tables that I have really learned mine and I'm still a bit ropey on the 6x table.Mind you, as long as you can cut a cake into as many portions as there are people round the table, does it really matter?????

And I can teach her other things like how to fold washing, so you don't have to iron it, how to make a sound like an owl, how to make it look like you've broken your thumb, how to cook an entire meal whilst holding the phone and finally (this is my number one skill) how to breast feed while driving. See, not so useless after all eh ??!!

With love,

Rachel.

Useless information.

This blog is brought to you with help from 2 small girls who helped to tell me what I
should list.



Things I like....



The smell of a new book.

Walkers cheese and onion crisps with a banana.(Honestly, it is delicious).

Letters from friends.

The sound of scissors cutting through wet hair.

Freesias.

My children's drawings.

The sittng room when it is clean and tidy.

The first cup of tea of the day.

Jules Holland.

Johnny Cash.

Watching a film with the family and sharing a tub of ice cream...one tub, six spoons.

Being with people who have loved Jesus for a very long time so that He shines through them.

Looking at photos of the children when they were first born.

The smell of coffee.

A new bottle of shower gel.

Sherry.

Opening a new pack of cards.


Things I am not so keen on.

What the scales say.

Mint chocolate.

Kids hairwash evening.

Nails down a blackboard.

Ironing.

Trips to the dentist.

Spiders.

Finding mouldy food down the side of the sofa.

Liver casserole... even with a fine chianti.

Crumbs in the bed.

Letters from the tv licensing people telling me we are breaking the law when we are not and have it in writing that we are not. Grrrr.


Post me a comment and let me know your likes and dislikes.

Love,

Rachel.

The third part in a trilogy of three!!!!!!!!

Isaiah 35: 1-end.

" The desert and the parched land will be glad; the wilderness will rejoice and blossom."

Colour,texture, vibrancy, LIFE. All these things burst forth in this wonderful passage from Isaiah. It is a feast for the senses and is filled with hope.

And this message of hope and wonder comes to us from..the wilderness. God promises to bring life into the wilderness and do something new and amazing.

This is God, our God, who brings hope out of despair, order out of chaos, life out death, as He ultimately did through His Son, Jesus.

I love the fact that the huge and wonderful story of God's love for us is shown so often through the lives of individuals who faced their own wilderness times.
We thought of Elijah,seeing the glory of God on the mountain of Horeb. But think too of Abraham, Moses, David, Jeremiah, Hosea and Jesus Himself as He hung on the cross for us. All experiencing wilderness times and feeling cut off from God.

And yet God was faithful. He showed His love to them and His committment and brought them through bleak and difficult times.And He promises to do that for us...to be with us in our wilderness and to bring us through.

The rivers of water in this passage speak ofJesus who offers us the Water of Life that cleanses, refreshes and revives us. And the Way of Holiness...Jesus, who is The Way. This is our God, the God who is on our side, who rescues us and delivers us and gives us strength for today and hope for the future, the promise of life the promise and of His presence.

1) Can you identify any times in your life when God has brought rivers of life to the dryness of your life?
2) Do you need to know God's refreshing now? Ask Him to help you and believe that He will.
3) Read Isaiah 43: 5. Allow God to speak to you through it.
4) Do you know anyone who needs you to walk through the wilderness with them? How can you do this?

Heavenly Father,
Thank you that you cleanse and revive me through the Living Water that your Son freely offers me.Thank you for the hope you bring me.For being with me in the wilderness and for never leaving me, I praise and thank you. Amen.

The Wilderness. Part 2.

In the previous post we thought about how Jesus’ wilderness experience came hard on the heels of the amazing experience of His Baptism. We turn our thoughts now to Elijah, one of the greatest Old Testament prophets.

He too has had an amazing experience. He has just defeated the 400 prophets of Baal. He has been witness to God’s awesome power. Elijah should surely be on a real high, dining out on the story of what has just happened and feeling really pleased with all that has happened. But no. He sinks into a real dark depression. To be fair, things are not good for him. Jezebel is after his blood for slaying her prophets, he is alone and he wants to die.

So he runs…to the wilderness, to lick his wounds, to be on his own. He spends forty days and forty nights traveling to Horeb, the mountain of God. I can only imagine that the journey seemed interminable, that all that was burdening him seemed to get worse because he complains to God about all that has happened to him.

But isn’t that interesting?…He complains to God and God lets Elijah complain and get it all out in the open. I love that God doesn’t tell Elijah to pull himself together , nor does he tell Elijah off and remind Elijah of all that He, God, has done. He complains to God because when he gets to Horeb he discovers that God is already there. God says to him, ”What are you doing here , Elijah?” Just think about that for a moment. God was already in the wilderness when Elijah got there. Very often we think that the wilderness is a God-forsaken place. It feels like that certainly. It can feel like there is no life there and yet God is there and totally present with Elijah.

And what happens next? Elijah sees the glory of God in a way he has never seen it before. It is a totally unexpected way, without noise, without visual drama. The glory of God comes as a profound and unmistakeable silence on the mountain of God. And Elijah heard the silence.

Psalm 139 reminds us that there is no-where any of us can go that is where God isn’t. And that most certainly includes the desert wilderness of our lives. Even when we cannot hear God, even when there seems too be no evidence of His presence He is there. His glory abounds even when we are unaware of it or perhaps looking for it in the wrong place or maybe we don’t even have the strength to seek it anymore. It is there, God is wherever we are and that is where our hope lies… God present, God listening to us. We are never alone in the wilderness. Jesus has redeemed the wilderness.

1) As you think back over your wilderness times are you able to look back and see that God was there? How did He show Himself to you?
2) Read Psalm 139 slowly to yourself. Ask God to speak to you through it.Remember that God allowed Elijah to say what he needed to say. Spend some time being honest with God, knowing that He hears you.

Father God, Thank you that You are already in the wilderness with me, even though I may not see you, hear you or sense your presence. Help me to hang on to the fact that you are with me and help me to trust you in the dark and bleak times of my life.

Amen.

With love,

Rachel.

And now for something totally different...

This morning I led a Lent Quiet morning at church. I thought I would post the 3 short talks I did. Maybe something will speak to you. Will post the other two over the next two days.

Matthew 4: 1-11.

Then Jesus was led out into the wilderness by the spirit for forty days and forty nights to be tested by the devil.Matt 4: 1

Prior to this reading of Jesus being tempted in the desert we have the account of His baptism by John. Such an amazing experience. God is so obviously present….The Holy Spirit descends like a dove and the voice of the Father is heard…”This is my beloved Son with whom I am well pleased.”

And now the same Spirit who was present at His baptism leads Jesus into the desert for 40 days and forty nights specifically so He can be tempted by the devil.

Jesus was called by God into the wilderness for a specific time, a specific reason and purpose. Going into the wilderness has been a tradition in the church since the earliest days of Christianity. Men and women have felt the call of God to withdraw from society and live life alone, focusing their entire attentions on hearing the voice of God, praying for the world and coming face to face with who they really are and acknowledging their complete dependence on God. The call of the wilderness, the draw of solitude, a life lived alone or sometimes in community but away from society, totally reliant on God.

Of course along with the actual physical wilderness there is spiritual wilderness. I guess all of us at some point in our lives have experienced times when it feels like we are in some kind of dark Godless place and it is not an easy place to be. The experience of Jesus shows that wilderness time is hard, frightening, lonely and unlike those who are called to solitary life, not something we would choose!

So how do we end up in the wilderness, the last place on earth we want to be? People end up in the wilderness for so many reasons. Situations and circumstances throw us in there, our faces covered with hot and painful sand causing us to be blind and feeling like we have lost our way.

Death, divorce, addiction, fear and loneliness, physical, emotional and mental illness can all drive us into the wilderness.

So what then do we learn from the account of Jesus in the wilderness? What can we hear God saying to us as we ponder these words of scripture? Is there any hope for us and for others when we find ourselves in hard places?

Jesus has redeemed the wilderness. He has been there, conquered it and shown us His power in it.

1) Can you identify any wilderness times in your life? What took you there, what brought you out the other side or are you still there?
2) Do you see any hope in this passage and if so what gives you hope?
3) Who do you know who is in the wilderness and needs to know the grace and comfort of Jesus who because of His own experience knows what they are going through?
4) Read Psalm 42. How did David respond to his time of wilderness experience?


Lord, thank you for the things you long to teach me and show me about your love in the wilderness areas of my life. Amen.

With love,

Rachel.

Senior moments....or something!

One of the things I really struggle with is my memory, or to be honest, my lack of it. I spent over half an hour this morning turning the house upside down trying to find some really important notes for a meeting I was having. A real senoir moment!I was panicing because not finding them meant that firstly I would look totally unprofessional and secondly I would have to decide whether to come clean and say I'd lost them, or lie!

As it is Lent I thought I'd give being honest a go. I confessed my sin at the meeting only to be told that I hadn't yet been given any information, indeed that was the reason for the meeting.

I sighed with relief that I hadn't lost it, felt a total idiot that I hadn't remembered the reason for the meeting and wished I'd kept my big mouth shut and at least tried to look as if I'd got a handle on life.

But frankly I don't a lot of the time. I forget stuff so easily, write dates incorrectly in my diary...if I remember to put them in it in the first place, forget to pass on messages (why do I have to pass on messages to my husband from the congrgation anyway? I am his wife not his secretary but don't get me started). I forget birthdays, often forget things the children have to take to school and once (only once) forgot to pick up one of the children from school even though I picked the other two up from the same place.

I try to console myself with the fact that I am a busy woman with four children, a husband who works every hour that God sends, a house to clean, verging on the menopausal, tired and with a lot on my plate. I find myself unconvinced though. I think I probably live in my own little world, doing my own thing and that I am just not blessed with admin and organisational skills...or, I'm just old with increasing senior moments and off my head. Who knows?????


Love ,

Rachel.

Lenten Thoughts

This week sees the start of Lent. Of course this year it is extra early so I have had to get my thinking cap on and kick myself into gear as I ponder on what I am going to give up for Lent this year.

As I failed miserably wih my New Year resolutions it would be easy to have another crack at them. To be honest though I think I would just be setting myself up for another quick and easy fall so won't do that.

Of course the whole idea of giving things up for Lent is that you do something worthy instead. But what to give up??

I could give up ironing and use the time to do some much needed exercise but that's not possible as I don't do ironing unless there is an emergency. I could give up watching "Neighbours" and do some extra cleaning but my kids always have it on and the hoover would disturb them so that's not possible either. I could give up writing my blog and reading other people's blogs but I'm now firmly in the habit and withdrawal from that might create behaviour in me that would be difficult for my family to live with so that's a no-no too. I think I can probably come up with an excuse for everything!!

Oh dear...it's not going well is it??? And yet I am really drawn to the idea of making something special of these 40 days. But much like Advent and New Year I get my hopes up that these special times will be life changing and make me a bit more of the holy woman that I honestly do want to be and then feel I have totally failed at.

Paul, somewhere in one of his letters talks about us being changed one degree at a time. We already are holy because of what Jesus has done for us and the Holy Spirit is making us holy through His living in us. One day we will be perfectly holy when we see God face to face.Can't get my head round all this time and eternity stuff but think it's amazing!!

In the meantime we keep going, often one step forward, two steps back holding on in faith to the fact that God picks us up, dusts us down ansd sets us on our way again.

Maybe Lent is a chance to to remind myself that actually it's not about me but about God's work of Grace in me and that maybe my role in it all is to say Yes to Him more often and more readily.

Maybe I need to add a few more things to my life so that I have got things I can give up. I could take up biting my nails or indeed actually do some ironing and better cleaning, especially as cleanliness is next to Godliness....or would that mean I'd have to do even more cleaning next year? It's all getting terribly complicated. Think I need a lie down and a large coffee. Will give up the biscuit though....gotta start somewhere.

Much love,

Rachel.