Hi there.
Well it's a bit cold in Timaru today.
We have spring bulbs a bit confused at this time of year because they are spring up and growing.
With the frosts and ice, it's amazing to see their bright green spears coming through the cold frosted dirt.
I was with my best friend yesterday, and she was going through a lot, and recently she got her car stolen from Christchurch, and my heart went out to her. She has been in Timaru for 5 years and loving it.
I gently smile at how courageous she has been with this situation.
We were talking about how we hear from God, and how to live our lives well.
We are all in different chapters of our lives, we raise our kids to grow toward the light of the Lord, we all are different.
After all, when God made the world, he didn't only just make one type of human, one type of tree, flower, and tree. he made different types.
Life is so short, we need to live it well.
And as we get older, we get more tired, and how do we know that God is still with us?
These are some of my thoughts that I am thinking.
It's not that I doubt God, it's not that I'm not trusting him with the things that I am thinking.
So what do we do with the things we're thinking about? we're told to take every thought captive, and we come to God with it.
It takes courage to reach out to God, with everything we've got, because we often want to trust in the things we see, not in the things that are unseen.
So what does that look like?
And I struggle, with this sometimes, because the more we reach out, the more we might get hurt. and trusting God with that hurt.
You might think I don't have any hurt, I have it, I have somethings that have been done, said, acted on, that I can't write down, but I know that's not my load to carry anymore.
God is the one carrying it for me, and who better to understand me, than God.
Faith comes by hearing, I didn't come to God, because it was a good idea, or that I was brought up in a Christian home, and yes we did have struggles.
When I moved away from home, I had to embrace change I had to go with it.
Change is good, and needed in our lives everyday, if we do things every day some thing, day in day out, we get bored and despondent.
As my friends talked over lunch today at my friends farm, we talked about Naomi, and what changes she had to make.
She was bitter, bitter and probably rightly so, she was picked up, and placed in an area that wasn't her own country, she had one daughter in-law turn back, but Ruth stayed with her.
Naomi was also a match maker, and she decided to change her game plan, and see and believe good things for her.
And I believe we need to believe good things for ourselves.
We need to encourage others, and ourselves, in God's word, we need to help when we are needed, and to seek God's face every day.
How do we do that? we listen to what God says to us each day.
it will be a small voice, but it will grow believe me.
See God knows your dreams, and each day you'll see a silver lining in the clouds, and you'll see each day that you are moved to love.
Competition is big, but God calls us to put that aside, and to serve others, what God wants us to do.
Me included can separate who God is and what Jesus has done for us, but they are the same person.
You might not agree on somethings I've done, but you might agree that we do need to grow up and make the world a better place, and we're not doing that if we sit on down with our hands in our pockets.
Everyday there's a blessing a new thing to unwrap it's up to us on what we choose to see, and what do with it.
Chloe
