Being transformed by the renewing of our minds …
Narnia has been fun. There is a Witch who calls herself the Queen of Narnia, but she is actually the White Witch. There is a wardrobe and the wardrobe is magical and it leads to the land of Narnia and the White Witch made it always winter time there, and never Christmas.
Daddy has been reading lots of chapters to us. We still have a while to go until we are finished.
It’s a lot easier to find reasons not to be involved in things than it is to find reasons to be involved.
We have been investigating what God’s word says about “Church” with the help of the “Multiply” material. Coming out of our investigations. Here are 10 reason to engage in the Church Jesus is building.
It is where the powerful creator of the world is putting His resources and His energies. You should join your maker in His mission (Matthew 16:18; Matthew 28:18-20).
If you want to get the tools you need to bring the fullness of Christ to the world, then the church is the place to get “tooled up”. (Ephesians 4:11-16)
The New Testament is full of “one another” commands (Check out this infographic). You can’t “love one another” (Romans 13:8), “bear one another’s burdens” (Galatians 6:2) or “be hospitible to one another” (1 Peter 4:9) by yourself. This is a two way street, get involved, be loved and love.
Deep down, you are messy. So am I. There are attitudes and lusts of the heart that need to be dealt with (Matthew 15:18). The church is designed to work with the mess (Luke 15 , Luke 5:31). It is made for you and me.
Do you want to change for the better? If you want to be more like Christ, surround yourself with people who have His Spirit prompting them (John 6:63), who have His Word (2 Timothy 3:16–17), and who can petition Him (James 5:16–20). This is His church. A God-equipped people, for your lasting transformation.
God has poured His love into His church so it can be poured out to others (John 17:26). You included. You are loved by God directly, and by God through His church.
One of the major metaphors in scripture used to describe the church is that of a body (Ephesians 4:15-16; 1 Corinthians 12:12-31). Each person has a part to play. Get off the bench, your team needs you in there.
If (like me) you want the one life you have been given to count, join with God in the mission of making disciples that stay made forever. (1 Thessalonians 5:9-11)
There is nothing more certain than God achieving His mission and His mission is to grow His church. We need to align our will with His. Spurgeon said it best,
When your will is God’s will, you will have your will.
Get what you want by getting your want lined up with His.
A group of people unified under a good cause is compelling. We see it at concerts and sporting events. When we see it under Christ, the cause is awesome, lasting, beautiful, compelling, and people want in. (John 17:20–23).
The post 10 Reasons You Should Engage in Church appeared first on FLBC Blog.
Source: Spur
This is a lego creation I have been working on for a while. I hope you like it.
There may be a mini egg blogger on the way here… stay tuned!
I’ve recently been put onto a low-fodmap elimination diet, to see if it helps me to feel any better. I’m still trying to get my head around it, and find foods that I enjoy that I’m allowed to eat. So today, in desperate need of a grocery shop, I decided to whip something up with what I had. The kids loved it (have both just come back for more) and I enjoyed it to. It’s the first time I’ve cooked rice vermicelli in my Thermomix, so was quite pleased with the result. I think I’ll try it again and play with the flavours a bit, and add some more veggies next time (when I have some!).
Ingredients:
300g sliced Beef
2 large Carrots, thinly sliced
1 tablespoon Garlic-infused Olive Oil
2 tablespoons Ayam Oyster Sauce
2 tablespoons Gluten-Free Soy Sauce
1 packet (200g) Rice Vermicelli
460g water
Fresh coriander to serve
Method
Marinade sliced beef in 1 tablespoon garlic-inflused oil, 1 tablespoon oyster sauce and 1 tablespoon soy sauce.
Rinse rice vermicelli well in cold water and let sit to drain (this can be done in a bowl, colander or varoma dish). This softens the noodles.
Add marinated meat to thermomix bowl and cook for 5min on varoma, reverse speed soft.
Add carrots and cook for 3min on varoma, reverse speed soft.
Add rice vermicelli, water and remainder of sauces (1 tablespoon oyster, 1 tablespoon soy) and cook for 7min on varoma, reverse speed soft.
Serve with fresh Coriander.
Hubby was away for a few days, so last Friday I had decided I was going to let the place get messy and have to have some fun with the kids. Baking. It was kind of funny, because I usually find baking with the boys stressful – very stressful.
The day arrived. My Facebook status update said it all “After very little sleep I’m attempting Christmas baking today with 3 kids, including a sick bubba & a toilet-training 2yo #extremeChristmasbaking”. Yep. Sleep deprived, a sick bubba and toilet training. The day was shaping up to be so intense that it even got its own hashtag. #extremeChristmasbaking. So how did we go???
Whilst the boys got dressed, I started by grinding up arrowroot biscuits and sugar for the day’s recipes, and then whipped up some of my Chocolate Breakfast Biscuits (recipe to come soon!). So quick & easy. Whilst they were in the oven, I mixed up some of the simplest ever chocolate truffles. Soooooo ridiculously simple.
By the time the boys were ready (and I had stopped to feed Bubba Girl her rice cereal), I felt like I had already made some progress so could relax and let the boys ‘help’ (ie. make everything take three times as long, be twice as messy and half as good.).
We used the ground arrowroot biscuits to mix chocolate balls (rum balls minus the rum). I decided that it was time to let the boys get their hands dirty and have some fun, so it was their job to roll and coat the balls. I setup their small table and let them go for it. The floor underneath certainly needed a sweep and mop… And B2 had a little toilet-training accident (ok, it wasn’t so little. It required a bath), so the floor got that mop it needed.
Whilst the boys were finishing off rolling the balls, I made the gingerbread dough. My favourite recipe I found online when I was wanting to make a gingerbread house years ago with a friend. I loved it so much that the following year I made the recipe again, but that time I made it into biscuits. It makes a lot. I mean, a lot. Like about 100 biscuits. I’ve thought each time I make it that I should halve it, so this time I did so that I could make it in my Thermomix. Another status update pretty much summed it up. “Converting my favourite gingerbread recipe for the #thermomix. Falling in love with my thermomix all over again. #lostcountofhowmuchgingeriputin #extremeChristmasbaking”. It was so quick and easy, and I didn’t get cramps in my hand trying to mix in the butter and knead the dough. I’ll try to get the recipe onto the blog so that I can share it around next Christmas 🙂
The boys had a turn at rolling out the dough, but their main job was with the cookie cutters. The boys then had the important job of icing and decorating the biscuits. Somewhere in there, Bubba Girl had another feed too. I let them do a few each, and one of my nephews joined in, but after that I lost my mojo. The kids were getting tired and hungry, mummy was getting tired and hungry… it was time for lunch and naps. And Bubba girl needed her solids.
When the kids went down for their early naps at midday (we’d been up since 5am!), my sis-in-law and I quickly made some rum balls. Then we rested. And rested some more. Then sat outside with a cuppa whilst the kids played in the sandpit.
It was nice to just remove the expectations for the day and just say “whatever I get done I get done, and whatever I don’t get done doesn’t”. No pressure on myself, so I put less pressure on the kids. I learnt a great lesson, and the kids had a bit of fun.
I find Christmas to be a challenging time of year. Don’t get me wrong… I LOVE Christmastime, but I also find it a struggle at times. Not because of grief or hard memories, like I’m sure many people would have (and my heart goes out to you), but because emotionally I feel torn in so many directions.
Reason for the Season: As a Christian, I believe Christmas is a celebration of the birth of Jesus – my Saviour and best friend. As a child, I knew Christmas was ‘about Jesus’, but it wasn’t personal. I want my heart to be in the right place and be thankful to Jesus for all He has done for me, and for my children to learn that this is what Christmas is about.
Festive Spirit: However, there is so much commercialism around Christmas that I find I get sucked into that. As I wrote about previously, I have a love for the festive side of Christmas – the decorations, cooking, smells, music, events etc. It’s very easy for this to become the focus for me, and forget the real meaning.
The Perfect Present: I also find the ‘presents thing’ difficult. I’m a left-brained organisation person, so buying presents at Christmas is an item on my to-do list. That sounds pretty horrible, doesn’t it? That’s why I find it a struggle. I LOVE buying presents for people, when I see something they’d like/use or something special to make them smile. I find Christmas tough because there’s the social expectation of finding a gift for each and every person in a set amount of time. I often start to look around early in the year, but I still find it difficult. I also am continually battling to de-clutter our house, so the thought of buying other people ‘clutter’ is something that doesn’t sit well with me, so its so consuming to find the ‘perfect’ thoughtful gift for each person that it becomes frustrating and a stress.
As I’ve become more aware of this battle within me, and how negative I can get around Christmas, I’ve tried to put some ‘safeguards’ in place to help me focus on the real meaning of Christmas, and I’m hoping that I’ll be able to win the battle and just relax and enjoying celebrating Christmas in the future.
I’d love to hear about how you find Christmastime. Do you have any battles with Christmas?
I have no idea where this recipe came from originally, but I remember making it as my “cooking demonstration” for my class in grade 3. That’s over 20 years ago :/
This year I tried “Googling” to find a good chocolate truffle recipe similar to this ( I remembered the ingredients, just not the quantities!) so ended up ringing my parents to get them to dig through mum’s recipes to find this one. Here it is! So simple, even the kids can make it!
Ingredients:
250g icing mixture
125g butter
50g cocoa
2 drops imitation rum (rum essence)
Optional: Something to coat truffles (eg. Sprinkles, coconut, drinking chocolate, crushed nuts)
Method:
Mix until combined. (In Thermomix – 15sec on sp6).
Roll into balls.
Leave balls as they are or coat in coconut, sprinkles or crushed nuts etc.
That’s it.
You’re welcome.
This week my “HappyHouseWifey” facebook page has ticked over to over 800 ‘likers’. It’s a milestone that I still find hard to believe.
When I first started blogging, for accountability and to record my journey through my “40 goals in 40 weeks“, I had no idea if anyone would read it. I hoped that a few of my closer friends and family would, and they would ask me how I was going with my goals so I wouldn’t give up. I have so many half-done projects and hobbies that I didn’t want my goals to be another half-done thing.
I started the facebook page merely as a way of people following my blog posts, so that I wouldn’t be spamming all my facebook friends that weren’t interested in seeing regular updates through their newsfeeds. I shared about the page on my personal profile, and soon there was 1, 2, 3 likers. Then 8, 9, 10…. 15, 16, 17… I was shocked.
I’m pretty sure it was liker 27 that was the turning point though. For some reason that number stands out, though I may be wrong. Whatever number it was, I remember turning to hubby and saying something along the lines of, “Oh my goodness! Someone who I don’t know just ‘liked’ my happyhousewifey page! Why would they be interested in reading my blog??” And so this awesome journey of blogging has begun.
I’ve loved the opportunity to write, both about my goals and about life, record what’s been going on and reflect upon my journey. There’s been ups and downs, and at times I’ve put too much pressure on myself. At times I’ve also been caught up in the statistics. It’s been disheartening sometimes to write something very personal to me, or feel like I’ve written something really cool, but then have not many people read it or no one share it with others. I’ve had to reminded myself about why I’m blogging. It’s also been cool in the opposite sense, to have written something and think not many people have read it, and then have friends or people I meet quote something I’ve written back to me or say how it’s encouraged or helped them.
Thankyou so much for taking the time out to read my blog. It has been such an amazing journey (sooooo far beyond what I imagined!), and I am so thankful for you taking the time to read my ramblings. I really hope and pray that you are encouraged and inspired by reading my blog, and that you leave with a smile on your face.
Hayley 🙂
My eldest, “B1” is starting Prep next year. At his Kindy they’ve been getting the kids ready, and they’ve done such a great job. We’ve also been talking about it at home, getting uniforms organised, lunchboxes etc. so he’s going to know what to expect. We recently went to his Kindy Graduation in preparation to move up to “big kids school”. B1 was so excited about his graduation, as they’d been practising songs to perform and were getting dressed up in special gowns. The pictures are below – how ridiculously cute are they in the gowns?!
Currently he’s in his second week of his Prep Orientation. We call it “Prep Practice”, since he’s practising being in Prep. They go two hours every school day for TWO WEEKS! The school said that it helps the kids get used to the classroom, teacher and routine etc. and that last year on the first official day of school they didn’t have any tears from the kids who had come to the orientation program. They just had a few tears from the parents 😉
It’s been such a great experience for him. Half the kids go 9-11am and the other half 1-3pm, so there is a much smaller class for the teacher to know the kids and it’s less intense whilst they familiarise themselves with the room, routine etc. On the last day the whole class comes together for the morning.
What I’ve decided, though, is that it’s just as much for the parents benefit as for the kids (at least in our case!). It’s been really good practise trying to get the kids organised in the morning, get to the school in peak traffic, find a park and walk him into his room… and not being late.
I confess, we’ve been late. I prefer to think of it as stylishly late 🙂 We’ve also raced in on the bell. And that’s even with hubby home on holidays at the moment helping :/
There was a day we had to get there early to meet a lady to buy a second hand uniform at 8am and then meet the teacher at 8:30am to individually discuss our son. We rushed to get his toilet-training little brother organised and drop him off, breastfeed the baby and pack her solids. We got there on time, only to realise we’d forgotten B1’s lunchbag with his morning tea.
I know it will get easier as we both get into a routine, and when we can drop them off and don’t have to walk them into the classroom…. so for now, I’m making the most of this practice time!
So nearly 2 weeks down… only 16 years of school drop-off’s to go 😀
