Lessons Learned – Faith, emergencies and anatomy!
We have just had an amazing weekend at our church – very inspiring, encouraging and challenging – all rolled into one!
A team came together from other Methodist churches to share with us – the theme of the weekend being There’s More of God for us.
Here are a few lines that have really struck a cord with me :
“God can use me.
God wants to use me
God needs to use me, my gifts, my talents, my personality, my home, my job, my failures and my insecurities……….
But how?
……What I do have, is the Father’s gift to me. But what I choose to do with it, is my gift to Him.”
Last night in church we came together to share where we go from here, both within our congregation, and as we reach out to our local community, and their needs.
I rarely speak in public, and had NO intention of speaking, but I found myself going to the front. What I said is a bit of a blur as the tears flowed…but everyone was so supportive….and a number who spoke after me said they would not have had the courage to, until they saw me up there! When I came home, I received some lovely phone calls, texts and even visits, showing that they cared.
The two main themes I came away from the weekend with, and I will share as my first two lessons this week are:
– we need to give ourselves more opportunities to share our own stories of our journey and faith within our church.
– we need to be more open, and share our fears and insecurities. It is too easy put on a mask, especially in church, to pretend we have it “all together”. A member of the congregation shared a lovely image of broken pots with light shining through the cracks. She explained that to her we were the broken pots, the light was God, and through our imperfections God can use us.
On to other lessons!!!
My daughter rang me from school today to inform me she had forgotten to take her packed lunch to school. I asked her if she had her dinner card (to use in the canteen) and her emergency £1 coin. She informed me she had spent her £1 on a sticky iced bun at breaktime as she was SO HUNGRY that it was an EMERGENCY!! So I learned that my daughter’s idea of an emergency was much different from mine! Fortunately she had enough money left on her dinner card, as I was not able to deliver her packed lunch.
My 5 year old son, who became a Christian last week, fell at the park and cut his knee. He was asking all sorts of questions about the blood, and where it came from etc. We explained about his heart, which pumped the blood around his body, and that his heart was full of blood. “No” he replied, “my heart isn’t full of blood, it is full of Jesus!”
Lesson 5 – I am VERY excited about my new store, opening soon, which will be selling my jewelery/jewellery creations online (www.janmarydesigns.com). However, I won’t have much stock left to sell if my sales levels continue at this rate. Not that I am complaining, but it is certainly keeping me busy. Here are a couple of recent items for sale.
Later this week I will be reviewing a Wii game, and will have the chance to give away FIVE copies to UK commentors.
Finally, the two winners of the £25 Marks and Spencers Vouchers (courtesy of www.voucherscodes.co.uk) go to
Domestic Godd-esque
quasi serendipita
Thanks to everyone who entered, and I promise some day to post more about M&S Percy Pigs!
For more lessons learned around the bloggy world, visit Musings of a Housewife
Wow, I am so excited! Thank you so much, I will send you a picture of what I send to my cousin!
Your five year old comes up with the cutest things!
Can’t wait to see your store opening – I’ll pop open a virtual champagne cork and toast you from way over here!
first of all…congratulations for speaking in front of your community!!! i have that same fear…and oftentimes when i am talking about personal stuff i can’t help but cry making it more difficult to speak.
secondly i love your sharing about letting one’s self being used by God. i had my own share of difficult time but God has helped me get past through that and now He has blessed me more than i asked for. i try to be a better person so people can see God in me.
congratulations on your store and more sales for you!!
do i qualify for a WII game? hahaha… oh i wish i live in the UK. well…goodluck to those UK commentors!!
That is a beautiful image about letting the light shine through our “cracks.”
What your son said was very cute! Miss Pink once asked me if there were “a whole lot of Jesuses” since so many people have Him in their hearts!
What amazing news! What a wonderful testimony – and I’m so proud of you for your very public witness, both here on your blog and in your community. I agree fully, we must be transparent for if we come across as ‘perfect’ (what a lot of people assume) then we don’t appear as very friendly – at any rate it would create a difficult situation for someone to open up in. I think of a saying I coined – “If I were perfect, I’d be perfectly unlovable”
I am so delighted with your son’s continued working out of his salvation and the meaning of it all in his mind. I think children are able to much more readily “see” it in their minds than we are. They know God is bigger than anything, they know He can do all things. We THINK it – but sometimes thats about as far as we get. Children step out in it without blinking an eye. How refreshing it is to find faith through the eyes of a child. Thank you for sharing.
Your jewellery is simply smashing. I hope you run out of stock entirely LOL!
Love, Barb
Oh that is beautiful. My heart is full of Jesus too. xx
Your jewelry is gorgeous!!
I so like your daughters reasoning, I have my son using the exact logic.
Very fitting that your son knows who is key in his heart.
Thanks for sharing and congrats to the winners.
That’s so wonderful about your son becoming a Christian last week!!!
Great lessons!
Wonderful that your son accepted Jesus. I know what a blessing it is to have your children’s salvation assured.
Mama Bear
Your jewelry looks gorgeous. Good luck with your new endeavor.
That’s great that your jewellery is selling so well ;)!!!
I have to agree with your first 2 lessons. The weekend was amazing and not what I expected. So annoyed that hubby won the battle over who was going on Sunday night though! You are an inspiration to many.
Love your youngests comments. It always makes me laugh. A childs faith is amazing. Wish we all had it.
Lots of great lessons. An emergency in a child’s eyes is certainly different than a parents. Good luck with your jewelry store – how exciting!
A sticky iced bun to be had constitutes an emergency in my book, too! :o)
Well…I LOVE your courage and your speaking in public.. WOW! God knew what He was doing working through you!
And your little man becoming a Christian is AMAZING!!! Yeah!!
Ia m SOOOOO happy for you and your family!
Blessings-
Amanda