Spring 25/3/12

Spring 25/3/12

The clocks have just gone forward, the nights are longer, the daffodils are blooming and the lambs are jumping. Spring is here again. Aren’t you thankful for the different seasons? We have come through winter and all the dried up and dead stuff starts to bud and produce new life. The trees will blossom and grow new leaves. The flowers will come out and bring colour into our gardens. The wild flowers will spring into life in fields and hedgerows.

We all get a new lease of life in the Springtime. The sun comes out and with it, our garden furniture, barbecue’s and plant pots. We are hopeful of a good ‘spring’ into a warm and sunny summer!

Soon we will be celebrating the new life that’s been made available to us through the cross and resurrection of Jesus.

Everything has a newness of life and the possibility of being able to start again fresh.

Thank God for fresh starts.

Thank God for the second chance.

Thank God for Spring!

Life is so daily. We all mess up at sometime, but failure is not final.

Tomorrow is a new day.

Just go again and be thankful for the opportunity to do so.

Nan

Laughter

One of the greatest ways to relieve stress is to have a good laugh.

Some folks go around looking so glum and can’t remember when was the last time they had a real good laugh!

When we are good natured and full of joy, taking the time to laugh and enjoy life, we release creativity and we have a positive outlook on life.

Laughter is a God given gift and it is like medicine, it does us good. It’s better than taking a pill! Some of the medication we get has so many bad side effects , so if there is a natural alternative we should take it. What can be more natural than a good belly laugh!

In my marriage we have learned to use humour to diffuse difficult situations & issues. I have been married for 44 years and without a sense of humour I wouldn’t have got through some of the stuff and stayed together.

Someone asked me once if I ever woke up grumpy.

I replied “No, I just let him sleep!”

If I didn’t have the ability to laugh and see the funny side of some of the things I have had to face I would have been a ‘basket case’!.

It amazes me how a smile can change the visage of not only my face but I see it also in the recipient’s face!

Our winters in Scotland can be grey and ‘dreich’ (depressing!) but we don’t have to be subject to the greyness around us.

Proverbs 17:22 says, ‘A happy heart is like a good medicine and a cheerful mind works healing.’

I want some of that and I am sure you do too.

Life is so daily and we have to have a sense of humour to get us through it.

Nan

Christmas Eve

One of the most precious times of the year for me is Christmas Eve. For me it is a time of reflection, expectancy and excitement. Every year we have our Christmas Eve family service at our church and we are never disappointed with our special Christmas programme and the input from our children’s church. When we get home from that we usually attend the Watchnight service in the village church. I love singing the traditional carols and hearing the familiar Gospel readings on the birth of our Saviour. It is a bonus if we have a white Christmas and experience the sound of our boots crunching the snow as we walk home. After a cup of tea we retire to bed and get up on Christmas morning ready for the family coming over for a huge dinner and the gift exchange.

I like to think back on my childhood Christmases and the joy we used to have in opening our presents on Christmas morning. We always checked that Santa had eaten his biscuit and drank his milk. We didn’t think to leave anything our for the reindeer! Our stockings were stuffed with fruit and perhaps a chocolate bar. We got a Dandy or a Beano book, which was read cover to cover by all in the house. Christmas was much more simpler then and not as celebrated as our Scottish New Year.

Let me know what you remember best about your Christmas past. I would love to get your feedback.

Have a truly wonderful Christmas and let be full of peace and joy.

God bless you

Nan

Born To Shop

We now have 18 days left for our Christmas shopping, so there is no need for panic.

We are still within the time zones for shopping on the web, M & S food ordering, and Post Office deliveries.

This is most reassuring to us all and perhaps a reminder to get it done this week!

To those who still like to shop retail store or high street, the shops are looking for customers and are putting on some great deals to entice us in and spend our money.

Personally, I like the shopping days when the shortbread and freebies are being handed out.

I like the smells of Christmas, cinnamon and spiced apple. I'm in to carol singing, Christmas trees, school Nativity plays, store Santas, It's A Wonderful life, White Christmas and all the stuff that comes with this special season of celebration.

I know that for some it can be a difficult time but we can soften that for people by embracing the spirit of Christmas, peace, joy and goodwill to all.

Choose not be get stressed out, or burned out, but rather enjoy every moment, and take the time to smile and greet folks with a word of life and encouragement.

It took the ghost of Christmas future to soften the heart of old Scrooge.

With all the hopelessness around, I want to give people something that they can look forward to.

We can all remind people the reason we celebrate Christmas is that there is a God in heaven who loves them and gave His Son, so that they could have a future and a hope.

The Christmas message is a simple one, peace, hope faith, joy and love, all wrapped up in swaddling clothes, and placed in the manger.

I wish you all the best for this Christmas season and extend an invitation to join me at the Bridge Church this Christmas Eve as we get together around that wonderful gift of life.

www.bridge-church.com

Hope to see you there.

Nan

Putting Up With

“Putting Up With’ is an expression we hear often. It amazes me the stuff people ‘put up with’.

You live with what you allow!!

I put up with his/her moods!

I’m putting up with my mother-in-law!!!!

I’m putting up with my broken washing machine.

I’m putting up with sleepless nights. (If you are up feeding baby, this is only a phase. They do grow out of it.)

The list goes on and on.

You can define putting up with in two words, long suffering.

I heard a man say that due to his marriage, his face was long and he was suffering!!

But that is not the correct definition.

To me, long suffering is bearing up with difficult people or situations, with good will and forbearance.

You can put up with something gracefully, or not!

In the economic climate of the now, there are things we may not want, but we are going to have to learn to make the adjustments.

There are people who can be difficult, (you may be married to one!!) but we have to with grace and make allowances for their bad behaviour.

Nelson Mandela was imprisoned in Africa for 27 years.

He did more than ‘put up with’ this and used his experience to bring a nation together.

Although he had every reason to be bitter and full of resentment, his words to us are,

“Do not react, respond.”

Life is so daily, but we can make the best of a bad situation by putting up with, gracefully.

Nan

Weddings

Weddings

Traditionally, summer is wedding time here in Scotland. We live across from a hotel where they have weddings nearly every day in the summer. We are serenaded by the skirl of the bagpipes as the piper pipes in the bride and groom. Mharie’s Wedding is the most popular tune and very appropriate for getting the toes tapping. Our Scottish weddings are very colourful, with the men mostly in kilts in all the different tartans. The guys with skinny legs, however, opt for tartan trousers or a tuxedo!

I like to see the bride and check out what the guests are wearing. Many ladies wear hats and of course the ‘fascinator’ which is a hair clasp with feathers and bling! Some of them look like a bird had made a nest in their hair, but they don’t care. They are there to enjoy themselves.

Weddings are for family and you get to catch up with folks you haven’t seen for years. All great stuff but spare a thought for the father of the bride. He’s the guy who has his bank manager sitting across from him!! I have seen many of these Dad’s grow pale when they are handed the final bill at the wedding’s close!

But it’s all so worth it to see the look of joy on the bride’s face. We only had one daughter who is married now 17 years. Has it really been that long?

I am thankful she has a wonderful husband and I look back to her wedding day with joy. Marriage is a covenant between two people and is a stabilising force in our nation. It’s great the couples are still getting married and long may it continue.

Life is so daily and means so much more when we share it with our spouse.

God sets us in families and marriage was His idea, so celebrate with those couples who are not afraid to commit and enjoy the ceremony and the dancing!!

Nan

Mistakes

We all make mistakes either by word or deed, intentionally or unintentionally. Some of the mistakes I have made were brought about by stupidity, but I am getting smarter by the day due to all the wisdom I am learning through all the mistakes I make! If wisdom was measured by experience through mistakes, then I would out shine Solomon himself.

The hardest thing about mistakes is admitting you make them. It’s always easier to blame someone else or an inanimate object. When you blame someone else it can come back on you, as they tend to speak up and let it be known it wasn’t them but inanimate objects can’t talk so that’s the best route to go down. For example, if you are late for an appointment you could always blame your stupid car that ran out of fuel. It should have known to drive itself to the garage and get filled up. When you mess up the dinner you can blame the oven.

Businesses have their mistakes taken care of big time. It’s all computer error!! Give me a break. You just know that at the other end of the telephone there is someone fudging on the reason you have paid the same bill six times by direct debit. It was the computer that took your money! Try getting the computer to refund it and see what happens.

I have found that the best thing to do when you make a mistake is to quickly admit it and then move on. I do get fed up with myself when I keep making the same mistakes but I am not perfect, only forgiven. Most of the time I get things wrong trying to get them right. Does that make sense to you? I am not a bad person nor a stupid person but I do sometimes say or do things without putting thought into it and even though my intentions were good and pure, it doesn’t always come out that way.

My long suffering husband is quick to show mercy towards me for which I am thankful. Life is so daily as is mistakes, so be forbearing and remember, we all make them!

Nan