Category Archives: Diaries of the Heart

Diaries of the Heart

MARRIAGE #1 THE BEGINNING

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Hey everyone, I have been thinking for quite a while about doing a series of posts on marriage. I know there are so many posts on this topic and I did wonder if I needed to jump on the band wagon at all, did I have anything else to add. Maybe I don’t but I feel that I need to put my thoughts down and share them.

This has probably come to mind more over the last 12 months as my husband has been running the Good to Great Fathering Course. Among many other things that course hits on the biblical principal of…

Ephesians 5:25 Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it.

My husband has come away from the course loving me, not trying to change me, but purely loving me and when he does this, I guess I just feel so loved and accepted for who I am.

I hear women saying that “my husband does this or my husband does that” and “he needs to change and be a better husband and father” and numerous other sayings.

We live in a society that devalues men and is trying to de-masculise them. We live in a society where woman want to rule and be equal and lead.

We are created equal, to that there is no doubt, but right from the beginning we women were created to be our husbands help meet.

Genesis 2:18 And the LORD God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him.

Right from that point, the point of creation our role was made clear. What a blessing to be able to serve our husbands and be their help meet.

Then Adam and Eve sinned and our punishment was that we would desire our husband’s position, we would desire to be in charge  but he would rule over us.

Genesis 3:16 To the woman He said: “I will greatly multiply your sorrow and your conception; In pain you shall bring forth children; Your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you.”

From that point we were in trouble, we were going to desire to change our positions and rule over our husband, to be in charge. It wasn’t a blessing it was a curse.

We can see that so clearly in society that women desire the same rights, the same everything as men. They have a can do attitude and want to prove themselves better.  That isn’t what we were created to be and we’ve come so far from what God’s original plan was.

Genesis 1:28 And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.

We were to be fruitful and multiply and subdue the earth, together, as a partnership. Our husband leading and us, not following behind but us beside him, encouraging him and supporting him.

So this is my introductory post, I’m not sure how often I will get them out or how many but stick with me and it’ll be a journey.

So stay tuned for the next installment…

Blessings my friends xxx

 

You will find me linked up at some of these great blogs.

Diaries of the Heart

BROTHER LET ME BE YOUR SERVANT…

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Brother, let me be your servant.
Let me be as Christ to you.
Pray that I might have the grace
To let you be my servant, too.

We are pilgrims on a journey.
We are brothers on the road.
We are here to help each other
Walk the mile and bear the load.

I will hold the Christ-light for you
In the night time of your fear.
I will hold my hand out to you;
Speak the peace you long to hear.

I will weep when you are weeping.
When you laugh, I’ll laugh with you.
I will share your joy and sorrow
Till we’ve seen this journey through.

When we sing to God in heaven,
We shall find such harmony
Born of all we’ve known together
Of Christ’s love and agony.

Brother, let me be your servant.
Let me be as Christ to you.
Pray that I might have the grace
To let you be my servant, too.

 Copyright © 1977 Scripture in Song/Maranatha!Music

This song was one of the ones we sang last week at church. It really is amazing how you can sing a song for years and years and I suppose appreciate it but never really understand all the verses until God has you in a place where you need to really HEAR the words.

This song really brought tears to my eyes, especially the first verse. The whole song is a tribute to Christian brotherhood (family) and what we should be to each other and how we should care for each other but the last two lines of the first verse really hit home.

Pray that I might have the grace
To let you be my servant, too.

Oh believe me it is so easy to help people and to be the one who loves to give and care for others but when the boot is on the other foot it is a very humbling experience.

I have really had to think about how I allow people to serve me and actually whether I do so with grace and humility.

To have people filling our freezers and caring for us in various ways is such a blessing, but one that I find difficult.

Not being able to do too much has made me feel like a burden, not only to my most wonderful dear husband and children but to our friends as well. I am not used to being looked after physically and I sometimes feel I could have learnt this lesson somewhat easier, but God knows and God is in control and although at times I wonder “why me”, I know deep down that God’s plans are greatest and He only has good plans for us.

One dear friend sent me a text the other day to encourage me, these were her words:

You are being an agent of blessing to your family (as hard a it is when you are such a giver). You’re allowing them to be blessed by serving. I love the way God works, all upside down. Soak in the blessings!

What wonderful words of encouragement and with the song we sang on Sunday my eyes have been opened to how I allow others to bless me.

I don’t want to inhibit other people when their desire is to care for me and love me in whatever way they can.

I pray, Lord please give me the grace to allow others to serve me, so in turn they can be blessed.

You will find me linked up at some of these great blogs.

Diaries of the Heart

WHERE I AM UP TO…

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Hi everyone, I just thought I would take a couple of minutes to update you all on my progress and also say a big thank you to you all for your prayers.

After my fall down the stairs I spent a week in the Geelong hospital, recovering from surgery to my right leg. My husband now calls me his bionic woman because of the plates and screws in my leg.

I have now been in our local hospital for nearly a week, and am now able to toilet and shower myself , which is fantastic.

I am now just waiting on a wheelchair and I should be going home tomorrow. I can’t wait, although I don’t believe that it is going to be 100% easier at home, it will just be better to be back together as a family again and start to get some routine happening.

I want to thank you all for your prayers and thoughts and comments during this time. I have felt the comfort of these prayers surrounding me, although not all things went to plan the past couple of weeks I know that God is in control and that He will bring good from this situation, some we are seeing already, some we may never know.

When I get home this week I will post more and I hope to have Good Morning Mondays back up this coming Sunday.

Blessings to you all my dear friends and once again thank you.

BLESSING UPDATE: our third grandchild was born late last week, we now have 2 granddaughters and a little grandson. We are so very thrilled and feel extremely blessed.

 

Diaries of the Heart

Where’s Terri???

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To all of the faithful and lovely readers of this blog, and followers of the popular “Good Morning Mondays” Link-up…  

I’m sure that many of you have been wondering where Terri (aka: my Mum) has been this last week.  She is known for her promptness and consistency here in this space and has so many beautiful relationships and connections with many of you.

Mum (Terri), had a very unfortunate fall on Sunday morning last week, resulting in four complex breaks to her right leg.  Due to this, she has been in hospital (three hours away from home) all week and undergone surgery and all the difficulties you can just imagine this has brought.

She has asked me to update you all and let you know that she won’t be gone long.  Mum is hoping to be able to bring back the Link-Up this coming Monday, God willing.  I’m sure she will love reading your latest inspirations, as they have so often blessed her in the past (and me also, through her!).

Mum also specifically asked me to thank Cheryl Smith from Homespun Devotions for her beautiful, tear-invoking post; honouring Mum and seeking prayers for her.  Cheryl, your words and resulting comments touched not just Mum, but Dad and myself also.  Thank you so very much!!  (PS: I would have loved to taste the cake if it could have happened:))

Thank you all for your prayers, thoughts, love, kind words and also for your incredible friendships you have given and shared with my Mum in the past.  I’m inspired by this community and in awe of the place Mum has been able to create, by God’s grace, for us all to ‘have a cuppa’ together.

Love to you all.

Until the better writing, Terri returns…

Adelaide :Terri’s No. One Daughter (her name not mine:))

Diaries of the Heart

APOLOGY TO SUBSCRIBERS

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Dear subscribers to Darling Downs Diaries.

Please accept my apologies regarding any emails you may have received from me or this blog with reference to subscribing or unsubscribing.

I have been trying to organise a weekly newsletter and I am having some difficulty doing this.

Please ignore these emails and any further ones you may receive. I will hopefully have this issue sorted out this week.

I hope and pray you are all well.

Blessings to you all dear friends xxxx

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Diaries of the Heart

LIFE IS LIKE A JIGSAW PUZZLE

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Since our no 2 daughter has been away skiing with her older siblings no 2 son has wanted to do some jigsaw puzzles.

I had a box of 10 that I bought from the op-shop (thrift store) ages ago that had never been opened, they are quite lovely and only 300 – 500 pieces each, so not too big.

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We have already completed two and we are now onto our third one. As I was sitting placing the puzzles together it came to me that life is just like a puzzle.

When God opens the box of our puzzle and He spreads the pieces out and puts them all the right way round, our life is beginning.

Then God being God He probably doesn’t need to do the border first (like I do) but let’s just say that He does.

So as we piece the border together we see where we are coming from, what family we are placed in.

As we grow the pieces are placed and they become denser with each year that we age.

Each little puzzle piece holds a bit of the bigger picture of our life story.

Some of these pieces are filled with pain and sorrow, some are filled with longing. Maybe the piece that finishes off the picture of our future life partner is a long time coming. Maybe we have our husband or wife and the piece that is our children seems to take forever for God to place, or maybe not at all.

As I was doing the puzzles I was convinced at times that there must be pieces missing because I just couldn’t find the exact ones I was after, the exact colour and shape for what I needed.

There is a great guarantee in our life’s jigsaw puzzle and that is that God never looses any pieces, He has them all in front of Him. Sometimes He has to put pieces in later because of our own choices making it difficult for Him to complete His plans. Sometimes our plans take over and then we have to wait for His perfect timing on placing the pieces exactly where He wanted too.

That being said, the puzzle will one day be complete and I pray that my husband and myself will be in His word and placing ourselves and our family in the right position so that He can place the puzzle pieces without us getting in the way.

Jeremiah 29:11  For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

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Joshua 24:15  And if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”

 

You will find me linked up at some of these great blogs.

 

Diaries of the Heart

TRADITION

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One of my favourite movies is “Fiddler on the Roof“. I love the music and the story, until the end when they are cast away from their homes.

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Tevye’s first song is “Traditions” in which he sings about the way it is and how things have been done the same way for a long time, why change, this is how it works and  as far as they are concerned it works well.

Then he is faced with challenges concerning his traditions, that being the marriage of his 3 eldest daughters .  The first one pledging herself to her intended (a poor tailor instead of a wealthy man) without the “Papas” approval.

The second one marrying a new ideas educated Jew who was fighting for the rights and freedom of the Jews in Russia.  They told the “Papa” they were marrying without his permission  – another break in tradition.

Then there was the 3rd daughter who ended up marrying a man who wasn’t a Jew behind her “Papas ” back and was excommunicated from her family and her friends, it was as if she had died.

You can see how with each daughters marriage the “Papa” bent just a little bit and then a little bit more, he struggled with the traditions of his faith and his cultural ways.

What traditions do we carry out because it has been done that way for years?

Maybe it’s attending the same church because our family does. Maybe it’s just attending because it’s a family tradition not because of a living faith.

Maybe you send your kids to a certain school or college because it’s the place where so many family members have attended or maybe you don’t eat red meat on Fridays. There are so many things we do out of tradition, without questioning,

I have been doing a lot of thinking on this topic lately and I think some family traditions are great, daily devotions, meal times together, teaching our children about God and encouraging their own relationship with our Lord.

I also think that we should continually challenge ourselves on our faith and our lives to make sure we are truly connected to God and His leading in our lives, not just living out of our families traditions or our own, and as it says in Philippians 2:12 let us work out our own salvation with fear and trembling.

Philippians 2:12 Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.

Proverbs 16:9 A man’s heart deviseth his way: but the LORD directeth his steps.

Romans 12:2  And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what [is] that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

 

You will find me linked up at some of these great blogs.

 

Diaries of the Heart

IS YOUR DENOMINATION YOUR GOD

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Deuteronomy 5:7 Thou shalt have none other gods before me.

The first commandment states that we should have no other gods other than our God.

Now in our lives there are so many things that  can take the place of God, sports, money, cars just to name a few, even our family can become more important to us than God.

But there is another thing that we can place in front of God and that is our Church denomination.

Does the church we attend, the denomination that we hang our hat on mean more to us than God.

At the moment we attend a local semi traditional protestant church and both my husband and myself were brought up in this denomination.

We have had a journey which took us from this church to some pentecostal ones and then back again. That is a long story in itself and will be left for another time

Because of our journey our eyes have been opened to lots of good and some bad things, and we have come to realise that we would rather be known for being Christian instead of a certain denomination.

This isn’t to say that we are ashamed of the denomination of our  upbringing, this is to say that we put the word of God over it.

At the moment our church is having some issues that is taking peoples eyes off the word of God.

If our church starts allowing and preaching things that don’t line up with the word of God, what are we to do, do we stay, do we go? Do we follow the word of God or the word of our denomination??  I know that we have been in prayer about these issues for a long time and we are still waiting for direction on this matter.

One thing I do know and that is that God is our God, no denomination will ever take His place in our lives.

Hebrews 10:23 Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful;

Hebrews 6:11 And we desire that each one of you show the same diligence so as to realize the full assurance of hope until the end,

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You will find me linked up at some of these great blogs.

Diaries of the Heart

GOD TOLD ME TO DO IT

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There were a couple of instances last week when I felt that God spoke to my heart. Instances when He told me to do something in particular.

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Now I must admit when I hear people say that “God told me to” do such and such I cringe, especially when it doesn’t seem to line up with the word of God.

How do people hear from God?? It doesn’t seem to me to be like Moses in the Old Testament where they met on Mt Sinai and spoke together.

It seems to me it comes more in the form of scripture which speaks to our heart or we get an idea or feeling about something.

Now I also cringe when I use that word “feeling”, I don’t believe we should use our feelings to decide anything.

A couple of weeks ago I had an incident at church with a certain lady. A lady who just doesn’t seem to like me and she had a go at one of our children.  Now I don’t know about you but you can have a go at me, but start on one or more of my children and my hackles rise, especially when he wasn’t doing anything wrong.

Now I let my emotions take over and although I didn’t really have a go at her my tone of voice showed signs of frustration.

At the time I thought I was justified, my child wasn’t in the wrong, how dare she. You must see where I am going with this I am sure.

I must admit also to harbouring feelings of frustration and annoyance and this stayed with me until one evening last week, when I was in the shower.  (I tend to have these thoughts in the shower, maybe it is because I am not focused on anything in particular).

The thought that I had was the following: I shouldn’t have spoken to that lady that way, (even if she was wrong). I should show her love even when she doesn’t like me and last but definitely not least I really felt the urge to apologise.

I believe this was God speaking to my heart and I remember saying to him, really I need to apologise???? and guess what, the answer was yes.

Now you can dodge doing what God wants you to do for a certain amount of time until you just need to do it. So instead of wasting time I decided that I would apologise and I really felt better about the whole thing immediately.  Unfortunately our younger two children were unwell and my husband asked me to stay home with them, so I didn’t make it to church. Instead I wrote her a nice card and apologised to her for my words, I didn’t justify myself by saying that my son did nothing wrong, I plain and simply apologised to her for my attitude.

My attitude is all I can work on, I am my own problem, she isn’t my problem, she is in God’s hands.

I also have to come to a place where I can forgive her even if she doesn’t apologise.  This I believe to be one of the hardest things, but so very necessary for my own spiritual health.

Dear Lord, please help me to love this lady, to help her, care for her and forgive her. Please help her to forgive me and let us come to a place where we can be friends. In Jesus name, Amen.

Ephesians 4:31-32 Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you

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You will find me linked up at some of these great blogs.

Diaries of the Heart

I LEARNT A COUPLE VALUABLE LESSONS

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The other night my friend rang me and asked my husband and myself to go to a Trivia Night. Now as far as I was concerned we don’t do Trivia Nights, we don’t enjoy them. So I told my friend that we couldn’t come, that it wasn’t our thing.

When I got off the phone from my friend and was talking to my husband he said that if we had a baby sitter we would go.

I was amazed I didn’t realise that he enjoyed Trivia Nights, after all these years of marriage there was something that I didn’t know about it, I had assumed something else.

So what did I learn from this:

  1. Don’t decide not to do something on my own;
  2. Sometimes you have to step out of your comfort zone to enjoy yourself.

So as No 1 says I should never have said no to my friend, I should have asked my husband first. I usually do this and when I don’t it is because we are “one” and I know what he would say. Basically we are normally so tuned into each other that I couldn’t get it wrong.

Well I definitely got it wrong this time.

My other lesson was that when you step out and do something that is not always comfortable for you to do, you can have a great time.

As my husband said we don’t have to go to the Trivia Night to answer questions, this wasn’t the main reason. We have to go to the Trivia Night to spend time with people we like. To enjoy our time together of fun and fellowship.

We did go to that Trivia Night because we were able to take the children and we had a wonderful time. Our table came equal third, we didn’t win and we didn’t come last, but again that doesn’t matter.

What mattered most was that we spent time with our friends and actually got to know them better along with the others on our table.

This night was truly a blessing.

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PS. It was also pretty cool that when we got to the round on “The Bible” our No 2 daughter was able to answer most of the questions. Just as well she has been reading up. She was so thrilled.

 

You will find me linked up at some of these great blogs.