And his heart was filled with love

Sarah asked me to read the book, 'Ragged Bear' to her this morning. It's one of my favourite stories about a toy bear who gets left behind in the rain one day, but is later rescued by another child. He is then mended and cared for.

The youth group girls gave the book to me and the girls almost two years ago, along with a huge box of other goodies. They were so thoughtful - I had a good cry when they dropped around with the surprise!!

I love the end of the story, '... he was the happiest teddy in the world. He was still old - and a little bit worn - but he was no longer ragged and torn. And his heart was filled with love.'

Getting to know the real you

Growing in friendship involves learning through conversation who you are as individuals. It's having fun together and spending quality and quantity time together... The strategic question to keep in mind is: How can you let each other see the 'real you'?

From Boy Meets Girl, p86 by Joshua Harris

God's Spirit reveals our own brokenness

so that God can restore us.

A friend has been reading 'Broken Down House' by Paul David Trip and suggested I read a particular chapter she's just finished. Really enjoyed it, keen to read the rest of the book!

Found this brief video of Paul sharing a bit about the book.

Steps towards growth?

In Cloud's book, 'How to get a date worth keeping', he suggests undertaking an assignment to review your current interactions with people of the opposite sex, so that you can then make any necessary changes. I'm kind of keen to do the 'assignment' as he suggests it will help identify issues within ourselves that we can then work on so we can improve our interactions with people of the opposite sex. But I'm not sure if that's then suggesting that it's all up to me? I guess maybe it's not, maybe it's seeing the part I play in God's overall plan?

Anyway, Cloud writes (p52):

'God Himself will guide you into the next step of growth in your relational life, if you ask Him. When you ask Him how you need to change, God will bring you the wisdom and the circumstances that will help, and then you have to persevere in taking action.'

Reading books about these sorts of issues makes me realise the importance of seeking God's wisdom. It'd be great if God made these issues a little clearer and less grey in the Bible!

^{James 1: 4-6} Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. ⁵ If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you.

Anticlimax

So I got hooked reading Elisabeth Elliot's Passion & Purity, and decided to read it before finishing Cloud's book. I was disappointed when I got to the end of the book - it just kind of ended. Not sure what I was expecting, but it was a bit of an anticlimax. Found some of their letters pretty surprising, especially one Jim wrote to her when they were engaged - perhaps 'fondling' meant something different to them than what comes to mind when I hear the word?!

What I appreciated about the book is that Elisabeth continually emphasises the importance of trusting God, even when we don't understand, of seeking Him first, and of surrendering everything to Him.

Clogged with wishes

'I was wishing that my wishes were what God wished, and if my wishes were not what God wished, I wished that I could wish that my wishes would go away, but the wishes were still there.'

Passion and Purity (p47), Elisabeth Elliot

in six months or your money back

On the topic of dating, a friend sent me a message yesterday recommending a book by Henry Cloud, 'How to get a date work keeping'. Googled the book and the caption is 'Be dating in six months or your money back'. Now that I've seen that part I'm not sure I'm so keen to read the book - yeah, I love the idea of it happening in six months if it's the right person and if that's God's timing, but I don't want to be just dating anybody for the sake of dating. My suspicion is that six months probably won't be God's timing either if the past is anything to go by.

Anyone else read this book, or Passion and Purity by Elisabeth Elliott?

Instrumental vs Relational

I really dislike reading papers and books put together by intellectuals. Words for the sake of words bug me. It's good to challenge your thinking, but a lot of documents put together by intellectuals seem to only challenge your thinking if you think hard enough to figure out the language they use, and then what they're trying to say.

Unfortunately uni love these kinds of documents. I was reading one of them today for maths curriculum and the author referred to this idea of instrumental understanding and relational understanding. I won't try and explain it here, I kind of struggled my way through it. But it made me think about relationships with other people and how the internet could be considered a tool that provides us with instrumental understanding. We learn about each other through emails, blogs, facebook, online dating services. It's the quick way to build a picture, but it's not the full picture, it's only a tiny glimpse of the picture and the picture someone wants us to see.

Relationships the way they should be are based on relational understanding. Sounds kind of obvious but I think the internet prevents us from gaining this kind of understanding of other people. I've fallen into the 'trap' - not that I'm blaming the internent, I'm the one who decided to use it!!

Where to from here? Stop writing on my blog? Stop using facebook? Remove my profile from the sites I've signed up to? I don't necessarily think I need to do that at this point, but perhaps limit my use of them, and focus on trying to gain better 'relational' understanding of others, outside of the internet.

So far from home...

"You'll like this place once you get used to it," Peter said.

"I don't want to get used to it," said Sara. "I want to go home."

"Well, maybe if you give it a chance... Do you want me to show you around? You might as well know where you're going since you're gonna be here for a while."

From Road to Avonlea, The Journey Begins


Tonight our Pastor mentioned the feeling of being away from home and longing to go back home, and how church, the way God intended it to be, is a place where we can all come just as we are, and feel at home, secure and loved. That's what I felt tonight.

"Sarah watched for a second as Peter took off towards the pond. Then she took off after him. What a wonderful feeling!"

Bitter Providence

I've read about Ruth (the book of the Bible) on a few people's blogs today, so had another read of it for myself. It's been a very long time since I last read it.

John Piper's book A Sweet and Bitter Providence sounds like an interesting read. There's a brief video about it on the Desiring God website.

Still pondering why God specifically drew me to the book of Ruth. As I read John's comments about Ruth this stands out:

Is God's bitter providence the last word?... Everywhere I look in the world today, whether near or far, the issue for real people in real life is, Can I trust and love the God who has dealt me this painful hand in life? That is the question the book of Ruth intends to answer.

Bitter providence. Divorced. Now what? In the hands of our Sovereign God. The end of the story is yet to be written.

Top 5 books that have impacted me

A friend listed the five most influential books in their life (aside from the Bible) on their blog recently, and asked what ours were. So here are mine:

The Wounded Healer by Henry Nouwen
I read this book when I was studying a few pastoral care subjects at Morling (our lecturer, John Reid, often referred to it!), and really loved what Henry had to say. He has helped shape my thinking in terms of suffering and how God can use this for His glory, that my woundedness enables me to help others with similar struggles and to share with them the lessons God has taught me amidst my own suffering.

A Heart Like His by Rebecca Manley-Pippert
A friend from Texas either gave me this book or suggested I get it when she stayed with our family about 15 years ago. I loved it - it's very easy to read, it's encouraging and challenging. It's real. She talks about David's realness and how he deals with the struggles of every day life and brings everything to God, questions and all, yet still trusts in God's faithfulness amidst it all. I think it might have contributed to my love of the Psalms.

Redeeming Love by Francine Rivers
I was loaned a copy of this a few years ago and it made me see God's love in a new light. Until then I hadn't read the book of Hosea, and it inspired me to read it. I was shocked and baffled that God would expect Hosea to marry a prostitute and continue to love her despite her unfaithfulness. But the book helped me to see that THAT is just how amazing God's love for us is. Despite our continued 'unfaithfulness' and disregard of Him, He still loves us.

Esther by Charles Swindoll
I loved this book about the character of Esther. I enjoy Charles' writing - easy to read, challenging, inspiring, practical, insightful. It made me want to be like Esther, a woman of strength and dignity. But when I say a woman of strength, that's the strength that God provides me with - nothing of my own. The Bible tells me that in my weakness His strength is made perfect.

Charles also wrote a book on David which is excellent too.

Perfectionism: A Sure Cure for Happiness by Drs. Lorraine and J. Clayton Lafferty
Lorraine, our HR Manager, loaned me this book when I was her Personal Assistant at AGL about five years ago. She knew I struggled with wanting to do everything just right and said I needed to read this book. I remember reading it and identifying some actions to stop being so perfectionist... can't remember now what they were specifically, but remember it was really helpful for me at the time.