Hope

The other day I realised that the only reason we have hope is because of God.  Everyone has hope for something or in something, but a hope that gives us confidence and peace is a hope that results from something that is constant.

What is hope?

Hope according to an online dictionary, hope is a feeling or desire of expectation and desire for something particular to happen. Hope is also a feeling of trust. 

Just to go round in circles for a bit, when we have hope we're trusting in something, (an object, an event, something happening) or in someone, (a person or God).  When we place our trust in something or someone we are not always guaranteed that that thing won't break or that person won't be faithful and then leave us broken, hopeless and hurt.  There is however one person who is faithful no matter what and that person is God. He is ALWAYS faithful. Hebrews 6:13- 19 says

"When God made his promise to Abraham, since there was no one greater for him to swear by, he swore by himself, ¹⁴ saying, “I will surely bless you and give you many descendants.” ¹⁵ And so after waiting patiently, Abraham received what was promised. ¹⁶ People swear by someone greater than themselves, and the oath confirms what is said and puts an end to all argument. ¹⁷ Because God wanted to make the unchanging nature of his purpose very clear to the heirs of what was promised, he confirmed it with an oath. ¹⁸ God did this so that, by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled to take hold of the hope set before us may be greatly encouraged. ¹⁹ We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure.

The highlighted section is the who reason we're able to have hope, it's because God can't lie and he is unchangeable. He is always faithful, meaning we can be secure in Him and have peace.

To sum up my thinking...

We have hope because of God and who he is. Without him we don't have hope.

The really scary thing is that there are MILLIONS of people out there who are either not a Christian or haven't heard about Jesus. Where are they placing their hope? In other Gods? Idols? Things? People? Do they even have peace and confidence in what they are hoping for in the future?  Are they getting hurt because they are let down by all these things?

This kind of encourages me to go out and tell the world about Jesus - to shine my light so that people can come to know Jesus and to discover the wonderful peace that comes from placing our hope in Him and not people or things.

xKx

Beauty

I'm pretty drawn by beauty. When I say beauty I don't mean material beauty, I mean way more than that.  I love pretty things but there's nothing that compares to  getting a glimpse of beauty around us.  Lately I've become more aware of the beauty around me and in the world I live in, it's almost like my eyes have been opened and I'm seeing everything for the first time.

When I walk down the street and I see the clouds in the sky with the early morning sun shining through and the sky is almost golden yellow from the rising sun, that is beauty. It makes me go "wow" almost every single morning when I see it.  The way the setting sun makes the ocean look super blue, that's also SUPER beautiful.  A flower growing on the side of the road, a baby duck learning to swim, a child holding their mothers hand and talking animatedly and they mother looking down with interest, a new sprout of growth on a tree... These are a few of the things that give me a glimpse of the immense beauty that God has created around us and it blows me away. 

Every day God paints a sunrise and a sunset to enjoy, he creates and has creates TONS of beautiful things that we really should be looking at daily. When I walk to walk or around Town at lunch I look around, often very distracted by what I can see and the beauty around that I walk in to poles... but there isn't s moment when I don't see the beauty around me because I actively look for it. 

I never ever want to stop seeing beauty in the world....

xKx

a few things that I like

I was doing some reflecting about myself now. The main question I was trying to answer was, "What do I like?" Normally, I answer that with good food, sunflowers, laughter, ice-cream and bubbles.... but I really think that there is more than that.

So what do I like/love...

Romance in all forms. Pinks, hearts, flowers, lace, a romantic evening out, candle light, "girly things". I also really like vintage things, these things kind of link to romantic things because it's all about florals, lace and sigh..... it's so beautiful.

Picnics. There's something about sandwiches, fruit and outdoors that I love about picnics. I really think this is one of my favourite things to do with people, besides drink tea and have tea parties.

Hearts. I love hearts. Wire hearts. plastic hearts. paper hearts. flower hearts. ALL types of hearts.

Cooking and baking more than I love eating good food. There's something about creating something yummy for other people that makes my heart smile.

Hugs.  A hug can make you feel better, it can show love, it comforts when words can't.

Swings.  I have developed a liking for swings.

Sunsets and Sunrises. I don't have a preference, the one welcomes the day with beauty and the one ends your day off with beauty.

....mmmm I think I need to think of a few more likes/loves.

xKx 

Letting Go

One of the things that I struggle with the most in walk with God is letting go.

I think this is the hardest thing for me to do, and I think it stems from the fact that I have a deep need to be in control of EVERYTHING. There have been countless things over the past few years where God has asked me to let go of things such as relationships, friendships, dreams, material stuff, etc.  Each time He tells me to let it go there's generally a battle between us and then gradually I surrender control over to Him.  Often it's a draining process for me, because I fight God every step of the way, drag my feet and hold on to the corner of the thing until I just give up and surrender it. This normally occurs after a few "angry words" and A LOT of tears. One thing I have learnt through this traumatic process is that life is so much better when we just let go of the things we hold onto and let God have them. 

So why does God want us to let go of things?

Idols

MOST of the time we need to let go of something because we've turned it into an idol. It's become something or someone who is more important to us than God. We become totally fixated on that thing, person or relationship and care more about it, or opinion etc. of the person than God and what He thinks.  We somehow get so wrapped up in the thing, that we forget God in a way. 

In Leviticus in the bible, God says that we shouldn't have idols. It also tells us that God is a jealous God. He doesn't want us to worship anything or anyone other than him. When we make something or someone more important than Him, that's what we do.

When we create an idol, God often shakes it and asks us to let it go.

Control

God wants to be in control and He wants the glory for something. When we hold onto control and try to control the outcome, often it goes pear shaped and not how God wants it turn out.

God often tells us to let go of control so that He can work in the situation and do what he wants to do.

my musings...

People often say that hind sight is 20:20, or whatever the expression is and it's so true.  When I've let go of the idol or surrendered control over to God things often improve.  I've also discovered that it allows God to work and turn that situation out for our good. I've also learnt that letting go of friendships or relationships doesn't always mean it's over and you can't be their friend, it just means that God wants to do something new and different - often making the friendship/relationship stronger and way better.  I've also learnt from letting go that God does really have something better in store for you, something cooler, more awesome and greater than you can possibly imagine or comprehend.

I think I can honestly say that letting go of what God tells you to let go of is generally the best option.

xKx

Daddy... when did you get so old?

For a while now I've been wanting to do a post on righteousness and one on standing on the truth. I keep putting it off, but really all I need to do is sit down and type out my thoughts.  While I was driving home from Dave now, I thought "I must write at least one of these when I get home" I had decided on the righteousness one... but when I walked through the front door and saw my dad and his friend Colin sitting there my thought of what I would blog about changed.

I looked at my dad and at Colin and thought, "WOW! When did they get so old?" I then let my mind drift for a bit, as I slipped into a realm of memories. I remember when I was little and we would go and visit Colin and have braai's my with them. I thought about how brother and I stayed over there one night.  I thought about my dad and how he was always busy doing things we were younger, fixing things, working in the garden, on his car, building things and playing golf.  I thought about how he was so full life and how nothing seemed to bother him.

When I look at my dad now, I see a frail man, who is less than full of life. He's gone from being my hero, the man in my life who could conquer the world and protect me from all monsters and bad things to a really old man.  It scares me a little bit to see him like this. It also scares me because it feels like he got really old, very quickly but I know it's been gradual over the past few days.  I'm also really scared that he is going to die soon, like a lot sooner than we think.  I know that everyone has a time a time to die and we die eventually. It even says in the bible, "There is a time for everything and a season for every activity under the heavens^:

a time to be born and a time to die", (Ecclesiastes 3:1-2). I also know that God is control of when we die and all that BUT at the end of the day it's still scary.

It's funny how when you're little you imagine that your parents will be around for forever, but the older you get the more you let that go as you come to the realisation that, that is so not true.  I think it's a tough thing to grapple with and come to terms with.  I try not to be scared or to worry about my dad dying, and to trust God with everything linked to it and some days are better than others. 

mmmm... I guess I'll have to blog about righteousness and standing on truth another day. 

xKx

Public Transport

I've come to the conclusion that if you take public transport you HAVE to be considerate of the other people who also need to take public transport.  You can not be selfish and take up all the space or block the way of other commuters from getting to a seat or having a place to stand or blocking the way of people getting on and off the train/taxi or bus.

I use public transport because parking in Town is ridiculous, traffic is horrible and the petrol price is sky high , so for me taking the train just makes sense.  I also take a taxi from the station to work after work back to the station.


Trains

Z, who often takes the train with me to work and home agrees with me that people who take the train need to follow some kind of etiquette.  People who have HUGE backpacks should take them off when getting on the train so that they don't bash everyone around with it, especially when the train is full.  The funny thing that always happens is that after they have bashed someone a couple of times, that person gets annoyed and pushes them. They then turn around as if to say, can I help you.  This is normally followed with a grumpy, 'take off your back pack" and a few more people getting bashed around.   Another pet peeve about taking trains is how they get SUPER full. What I really don't understand is why people have  to try and squish into a train when it is already about to explode because it's so full... and then we have the people who take a running leap into super full trains crushing everyone in their way.  This has happened a few time.

When people need to get off the train when the train is full... this is another situation that makes people REALLY angry. I understand that when the train is super full, you can't move anywhere so it's virtually impossible to let someone past you so they can get out.  This is where people need to think and realise that the only possible thing to do is get off, let the people out and then get back on.  People get super angry when they can't get off the train, they shove, push and bash people. I think getting off and letting then off is a better option.  All that happens if that more people get angry.

Windows is another pet peeve and how no one opens them, but that's another blog post all together.

Taxi's

I never had a big issue with taxi's until recently. Normally people are pretty nice and move so you're not blocked in and can get out, but recently this has changed.  Two mornings in a row a lady refused to get off the taxi to let myself and someone else get off. We had to literally climb over her. We were sitting in the back seat and she was in the chair that lifts up to let the people out, so obviously she had to get off and back in.  She did not do this and then got annoyed with us when we climbed over her and our bums went into her face, or our bags knocked her. I was like really, you can't get upset about that when you should have moved.

I think yesterday took the cake in taxi travelling and inconsiderate people though.  Myself and another lady got onto the taxi and had to go and sit at the back. Two people were already there and wouldn't move over to let us sit there, they just sat there blocking the way to the far back corner. While I was asking them to move, which the ignored the taxi driver shot off and I went flying into the guy blocking the way. Hands landed inappropriate and things got squashed. He then got angry with me for falling on him.  I just looked at him and said, you could have moved over and I wouldn't have fallen onto you.  The lady who got on with me, looked at him and said the same thing as we climbed over him. We also had to climb over the lady sitting next to him, who got annoyed because our arms were going into her face and we were toppling over because the taxi was going at full speed down the road.  When I eventually got to sit down, I was like "sjoe - people need to think of other people. I totally get that sitting in the back isn't the best seat, but you are not the only person on the taxi and there are other people who need to sit there as well."

It doesn't take a lot for  someone to be considerate of the other people around them and move over or be polite. Often people shout at the taxi driver over silly things, when they should be saying thank you for the lift.  What happened to "treating people how you want to be treated"?  Have people become so self involved and selfish that it's all about them, where they want to sit, where they want to go and how they want things to be?  What happened to manners, politeness, respect and consideration of other people? 

Using public transport often irritates me and makes me angry, but I never shout at the driver or the people around me. I always ask them to move before I have a hundred canaries because they're annoy me. There are plenty of times when I want to bash someone with my bag or snap at them, but I don't because everyone needs to be shown a little bit of grace every now and again and I certainly wouldn't want someone to bash me around, if I was in the way.

xKx