Going off line

For a while I've been thinking about going offline because I spend a large amount of my time on Facebook posting pictures, checking in, tagging people, updating my status and reading other peoples statuses. For the past few days I have been fasting and one of the things I was chose to fast was Facebook, and in all honesty the first day was bad, but the second day was ok. When I eventually checked Facebook I realised how little I had missed. I also spend a lot of time BBBM-ing and Whatsapp-ing people, sometimes it's full conversations bust mostly it's to tell a friend something random as it happens. 

With all the time that I spend on my phone or on Facebook, I started wondering how this builds community and the answer is that it doesn't really. I may what's "going" on in  your life because of  what you post but am I really going deep with you and really connecting? No, because I don't spend real time with you talking and finding out what's going on and sharing life with you.

David posted this on Facebook  yesterday and it really got me thinking about the whole offline thing seriously again.  http://www.ebaumsworld.com/video/watch/83896348/

I want to spend real time with people, talking, eating, and sharing moments with them, instead of only getting a glimpse of their life through the window  of Facebook.  I want more than superficial relationships with people where we know more about them because of a social media than because we actually sat down and found out what was really going on in their lives.

I think I'm going to delete Facebook from my phone for a while and only go on when I'm at computer as the first step in building real community and removing the temptation of sitting on my phone in social setting. If this works  and it becomes some what less consuming in my life, I'll give a little more thought to going offline in the near future.

xKx

Petrol Gauge

 

When the petrol price went up at the end of last month I decided to fill my tank, which I never do. As I pulled into the petrol station I thought, "Let's fill it".  When the petrol attendant walked over to my car I asked him to fill my tank. I watched in horror as the amount went from R400.00 to R500.00 to R550.00 and stopped just under R600.00. After paying and driving off in shock at the price I said a quiet prayer to God asking Him to make my petrol last the whole month, because I could not afford to fill my tank again, let alone put in more petrol this month.

A week after driving around I noticed that my petrol gauge hadn't moved from "full" but thought nothing of it. After two weeks, and driving 300km and it still said my tank was full, I started to get a bit worried that the gauge was stuck. Later that week it started it move down and I was like, "sjoe" and then I realised that the petrol attendant probably over filled my tank when he filled it, this being the reason that it stayed full for so long.

I then remembered my prayer when I filled my tank and thought that this was my answer to prayer. It's the end of the month and I haven't had to fill my tank yet. I fully believe that God totally answered my prayer.

xKx

The Squirrel

Today during lunch I decided to go and sit in the gardens and read my book, little did I know I was going to be visited by a little squirrel.

Along the way down from my office I stopped at the shop and bought some peanuts and raisins to munch while I read.  After about half an hour of reading little squirrel jumped up onto the bench, walked across my handbag and leg and stuck it's nose into the packet of nuts and helped himself to my nuts. He then sat on my  leg and proceed to finish my nuts.

 

 

When the nuts were finished he grabbed my hand as if to ask for more. He then jumped up onto my shoulder sat there for a while  before sitting on the back of the bench watching me.

 

This totally made my day so far.

 

 xKx

 

 



Spill Prevention

Over the last few months I've had had a few spillages at my desk to put it lightly, all resulting from when I put my cup of tea/coffee/water.

I usually put it right in front of my keyboards between my arms....

After a while the cup of tea ends up spilt either on my keyboard or on me because I forget that it is there, reach for something and "woops" there's tea pouring EVERYWHERE.

This morning I was telling O that I want a coaster like hers and the next minute Hugh whips out a piece of marble and says, "here, use this for your cup". I was like "YAY!" and Hugh was like, "now you won't knock your tea over because your cup has a proper place to go on your desk.

My new coaster with my tea cup.

 

Let your yes be yes and your no be no

I have a pet hate, it's when people reply "maybe" to an event on Facebook. I know that we live in a society where people are always looking for the next best thing so they don't want to commit to anything just in case something better pops up. I feel that this is rather rude, but I try to let it go.

I had a new thought on this the other day. I've been working through the book, "Keep your love on" and one of the points is when you say yes to something you're saying no to something else. It's all your choices and what you're choosing to do. When I read this, I thought about how people say maybe and thought maybe they say "maybe" to an event because they don't want make a choice, but what about not wanting to hurt the person's feelings who is organising the event.  I kind of feel when you say maybe, you're giving someone a false hope that you're coming - when in fact you're most likely not going to go and you don't want to hurt someone feelings.

This is being wishy-washy and hurts more in the long run than if you just say no.

I feel and I'm trying hard to do this, if you don't want to do something/go to an event just say no. Don't say maybe.

... what about the exception?

There is an exception for replying with a maybe.. if you genuinely don't know if you can make it or not because of an event you have before. I feel that it's acceptable to do this, but then please give a reason.

So let your yes be yes and your no be no.... and don't be undecided with a maybe.

xKx

a little bit of love displayed

Last night at Gap I was blown away a little bit by something the kids did.

During worship we put on a song that didn't have sub titles, (we play videos of songs during worship).  At first the kids were like, "we don't know this one, where are the words." I told them that the boys know it because we sang it at SNL on Sunday night. After a minute the boys were lying on their stomachs facing the girls who were also lying on their stomachs.  At first I was like, what are they doing and after watching them for a while I noticed that the boys were teaching the girls the words. They would sing the line just before it was sung on the video and the girls would follow. After a minute or so, they all go up and started singing the song and worshiping. 

It was incredible to watch and see how a small example of Gods love was shown between the kids last night.

xKx

Love Laguages

Over the last while I've been a bit stressed about love languages and "speaking" David's love language. I would work myself up to the point where I thought I was failing at everything if I wasn't getting it right. I read the five love languages book by Gary Chapman for ideas and help - which it did, but at the end of the day I was still getting horribly worked up about getting Dave love language right.

Lets back up and define what  love languages are. Love languages is expressing love to someone in a way that they understand and receive love. There are five; Acts of service, Gifts, Quality time, Words of affirmation and Physical touch. Most people have a dominant love language, if they don't receive love in their language the will feel anxious and as though they are not loved by you. No pressure to get this right :-).

I have discovered that this is true, when my love language isn't being spoken to me I do feel anxious and unloved but I have learnt that NOT everyone speaks your love language or knows what it is. They may use one of the others and you need to learn to receive that from them and be ok with it. I'm not saying that them not speaking your love langue is ok. It's still important that they do - but you have the responsibility to communicate your need/love language to them so that they know how to show you love.

When I came to this understanding, I was like "sjoe" and I was able to take some of the pressure off me and just love Dave the best I can, in all the different love languages I speak instead of just the one, but not forgetting to give extra attention to speaking words of affirmation.

This also helped with other relationships I have and showing my friends love and the kids at Gap and Teen church love. It really has helped go that one step deeper and helped to connect with people. It's been an interesting journey this - learning love languages and showing people love in a way that they understand.

xKx