Happy birthday

Wow! I have just realised that I completely missed my blogiversary! I began my blog on the 7th of January 2013... which means that my blog has now been going for well over two years!

I feel a bit annoyed at myself for missing it. I was going to do something awesome but since I missed it, I'll have to wait until next year.

Happy birthday, Bonnie's Blessings!

Are you a seeker?

Let the heart of those who seek the Lord be glad. Seek the Lord and his strength; seek his face continually. 
- 1 Chronicles 16:10b-11


Seeking God. It's an interesting topic. (And yes, one that I have a stackload of pertinent Bible verses on, lol!)

But before we really dive into it in any depth, here's a question for you, no matter who you are.

Are you seeking God?

(There you are. I put it in a nice big font so you couldn't avoid seeing it.)

Here's the official definition of the word 'seek'. Just because it's fascinating.

seek

siːk/

verb

1. attempt to find (something).

   "they came here to seek shelter from biting winter winds"

   synonyms:

   search for, try to find, look for, look about/around/round for, cast about/around/round for, be on the lookout for, be after, hunt for, be in quest of, quest (after), be in pursuit of "six bombers took off and flew southwards to seek the enemy"

   • attempt or desire to obtain or achieve (something).

     "the new regime sought his extradition"

     synonyms:

     try to obtain, pursue, go after, strive for, go for, push towards, work towards, be intent on, aim at/for, have as a goal, have as an objective

   • ask for (something) from someone.

     "he sought help from the police"

     synonyms:

     ask for, request, solicit, call on, invite, entreat, beg for, petition for,appeal for, apply for, put in for "you may need to seek the advice of a specialist"

Some of my favourite synonyms are "hunt for, be in quest of, be in pursuit of, have as a goal, be intent on, strive for, pursue, beg for, petition for, try to find, and cast about for".

So, are you hunting for God? Are you in quest of him? Are you in pursuit of him, is he your goal, are you intent on him, do you strive for, pursue, beg for, petition for him? Are you trying to find him and casting about for him?

Because can I very respectfully say, dear friend, that if you answered no to any of those questions, then you should seriously review why not.

Seek the Lord, all who are humble, and follow his commands. Seek to do what is right and to live humbly.
- Zephaniah 2:3


If you follow his commands, you are commanded to seek him.

Seeking God most definitely has it's advantages. And not only because we are commanded to seek him! He rewards us if we seek him.


[Uzziah] continued to seek God in the days of Zechariah, who had understanding through the vision of God; and as long as he sought the Lord, God prospered him.
- 2 Chronicles 26:5

But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.
- Matthew 6:33

"The Lord is my portion", says my soul, "Therefore I have hope in him." The Lord is good to those who wait for him, to the person who seeks him.
- Lamentations 3:24-25

.....he rewards those who earnestly seek him.
- Hebrews 11:6b


He rewards those who earnestly seek him. Let's not be half-hearted about it!


You will seek the Lord your God, and you will find him if you search for him with all your heart and all your soul.
- Deuteronomy 4:29
(With all your heart. All of it. )

You will seek me and find me when you search for me with all your heart.
- Jeremiah 29:13


Those two verses are mighty similar. I've found that if God says something twice, it's because he means it and really really wants to get his point across.

Friends, if we seek after God with all of our heart and all of our soul, he will be found by us.


The Lord is with you when you are with him. And if you seek him, he will let you find him.
- 2 Chronicles 15:2


Go back and read that last verse again.
I think that makes it pretty clear, to be honest!


One thing I ask from the Lord, this only do I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze on the beauty of the Lord and to seek him in his temple. For in the day of trouble he will keep me safe in his dwelling; he will hide me in the shelter of his sacred tent and set me high upon a rock. 

Hear my voice when I call, Lord; be merciful to me and answer me. My heart says of you, “Seek his face!” Your face, Lord, I will seek.

- Psalm 27:4-5, 7-8

Are you seeking God?

PS. I've put all the Scripture verses in this post in a different font because I think it makes it easier to read. Sets them apart from what I'm saying and whatever. The thing is, though, do you think it makes it easier to read? I'd love to hear your thoughts on this.

'Faithful' 2015

I've seen the idea of having a 'one word' for the year instead of a bunch of resolutions. I think it's quite a fascinating idea. You are supposed to pick one word for the year and focus on that.

I've decided to do that this year (well I've got a resolution as well, but I liked the one word idea so I'm doing it too :P ).

My word isn't really so much to do with a resolution. My word is more a reflection on my spiritual walk with God and a word to remember throughout the year and try to keep focused, I guess. If that makes sense!

And as you can probably see, my word that I have picked is "faithful".

For two reasons.

1. I keep being reminded by various people/things/events that God is faithful. And I can trust him. No matter what happens. (Don't ask me why, but I feel like that knowledge is going to help get me through the year. )
2. I want to be more faithful. To God. To my family. To my friends. In my relationships with others. Faithfulness is a great fruit of the spirit and since I tend to be impatient, it will be good for me to focus on being faithful.


So, yes. That is an explanation of my word for the year and why I picked it. In case you're wondering why I dilly-dallied on posting this and didn't get it up at the start of January (which is when I picked the word) it's because I didn't really want to share it with the entire world to start with. (It's sort of a bit of a private thing for me and one which not even my family knew about.. lol, not after this though!) But I feel that God wants me to post this for some reason. He knows best. Maybe it will help someone out there!

Have you heard of this One Word idea? Are you doing/going to do it? (You should! Join me!)

A + A // My Hilarious Pirate Jokes

Awkward:
- Picking up the phone and saying repeatedly "Hello? Hello? Is anyone there?" because the line was dead and although there was no dial tone there was no one on the other end either! Turned out it was one of the many telephone pranks that get pulled by my family members. :)
- Near misses.
- Being taught how to properly cut hot bread.
- Sophie trying to explain the different types of exercise. "So there's like, 'really' exercise, and then there's like, 'not really' exercise. "
- Being punished in a Kangaroo Court at camp because nobody liked your [hilarious] pirate jokes.
- Discovering that secrets can become widespread very easily.
- When you're walking down a grass verge beside the road, talking to your sister, when all of a sudden a voice right beside you says "hello" and you get an awful shock and almost cry out! Turned out to be a jogger who had come up beside me very silently. So scary though.
- When someone takes a very terribly awkward photo of you and puts it on social media. For all the world to see. Like, seriously? It's kind of funny at the same time, however.
- Being so terribly tired that you say the first thing that comes into your mind. Believe you me, it was most certainly not the sort of thing I would have said if I had been in my right mind, so to speak.

Awesome:
- When your four year old brother comes up to you and says "You're beautiful."
- Camp!
- Listening to Danella practicing her harp music.
- Parallel parking the car for the first time. Granted, it took, like, forever to do it, but Dad was patient and we got there in the end.
- Having lots of fruit to bottle and make into jam.
- Winning card game after card game after card game. No feeling quite like it.
- This photo of Lydia and Baxter.

- All the funny things Jacob comes up with to say. Today at lunchtime Sophie went to get him a drink of water and Daddy said, "Isn't it wonderful, all the things that Sophie does for you." Jacob looked thoughtful and said, "Sophie makes me hungrier."
- Apricots. Fresh ones. Sun ripened ones. Nothing nicer in all the world.


Are you a pro at cutting hot bread?
What's your favourite pirate joke?
Are you a card game or a board game sort of person?

Meet Baxter

Meet the newest addition of our family..... Baxter!

Baxter is a seven year old border collie. He's very sweet and a lovely dog to have around.

He's staying with us for a while and if everything goes well, hopefully he'll stay with us permanently!

Oh and yes, I'm back from camp (which was awesome!) now.

Dealing With Change

by yours truly  (yes another poem by me! I just know you love reading them.)

Change is unavoidable. It's sometimes hard to miss
Our lives are tracking beautifully, a picture of sweet bliss
When suddenly some news comes. Nothing is the same
Life is upside down and it won't turn right way up again.

Change itself is not the issue. It's the way with it we deal
Whether we respond to it with the emotions that we feel
Or whether we first stop and think and start to seek the Lord
Finding peace in Jesus by dwelling in His holy word.

It's hard to respond rightly when the change is looking scary
Think of the Bible people. Esther, David, Ruth and Mary
Their lives were changed forever by things they could not control
But they kept their eyes on Jesus, and looked towards the goal.

Changes are things that come with life. It's a package deal
We must realise change will come to us. It's something very real
But change is really, truly, not something frightening to be feared
It can be an adventure. We don't have to get all scared.

Remember to watch Jesus. He's the one to look upon
When change is looming nearer, He will be your strength and song
Because when we trust in Father God He shows us what to do
He'll be there right beside us, no matter what we go through.

God Is In Control So Have Courage!

Success is not final, failure is not fatal. It is the courage to continue that counts. - Winston Churchill

I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear. - Nelson Mandela

Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear - not absence of fear. - Mark Twain

There are no easy answers but there are simple answers. We must have the courage to do what we know is morally right. - Ronald Reagan

Courage. What a lovely big subject, friends! (It's one that I've tackled before - here, if you're interested.)

I've been thinking about it a wee bit lately (hence the post, lol! I tend to post on what I've been thinking about, don't I)  and I thought I might share some of my thoughts.

You will have noticed that bunch of lovely quotes from some very famous folk about this subject. What I wanted to mostly talk about was the Nelson Mandela quote. Here it is again, just because I want to put it in again.

I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear. - Nelson Mandela

Isn't that so profound? But what's more - isn't it so true?

If you think about some of the really famous courageous people from history, what about David and Mary (from the Bible) for example, I think we can be pretty sure that they were not courageous because they didn't feel afraid, but courageous because they conquered their fear.

Courage is not the absence of fear. Guess what. That means we're allowed to feel scared. (We're allowed to feel scared! *excited happy dance* Yay! I'm allowed to be afraid!) It doesn't mean, however, that I can go hide under a bush and sit there in my own little scared shell and refuse to do whatever it was that scared me. That is not courage. That is cowardice. 

You see, it's the action not the feeling that changes us from coward to courageous. 

It's the act of triumphing over the fear. The action of conquering our fear and being brave anyway. As I said before, we are allowed to be scared. But we must conquer our timidity and rise above it if we want to show courage.

Let's take Mary, Jesus' mother as an example. (We've just had Christmas. She's a great example.) She was probably only a young teenage girl when this angel turns up and tells her that she's going to have a baby. Not just any baby. Jesus Christ, Saviour of the entire world. Saviour of all of mankind. I am quite sure that Mary would not have just been afraid. She would have been terrified. (Well face it, I would have been if I was her.) This is scared-out-of-your-socks material here!

Yet what did she do? She told the angel that she was the Lord's servant and asked that God's word be fulfilled. That, to me, seems awfully like the act of conquering her fear. 

Now I'm sure that no matter what situations we're facing, it's not quite as scary as what Mary faced. (Well okay I don't know what you're facing but even if it is bigger and scarier than what Mary faced, the following still applies. :) ) God is in control.

Let me say that again, this time in a huge font and purple letters. Just to make sure you get the message.

God is in control.

And what's more, he will always be in control. God is bigger than our circumstances. He is with us. He. Will. Not. Fail. Did you hear that? He. Will. Not. Fail.

Trust in God, because He knows the situation and He will never fail.

Matthew 19:26

But Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”

Joshua 1:9
Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.

God is in control... and He will always be in control!

PS. Starting today, I will be on camp for a week. All posts posted between now and the 16th of January have been scheduled.

Competition Results

So I'm heading off tomorrow to be gone on camp for a week (yes a week! How on earth can you stand me being gone that long???) and I suddenly thought that you might like me to let you know the competition results before I go. ;) Can't have you waiting an entire week in suspense, can we??

I ended up with a grand total of four entries. Which was great, since for much of the competition I only had one! I was happy to finally get the other three. (However, even with four entries, it still wasn't really worth doing the competition. I don't think I'll do another competition for quite a while.)

Each of those four entries was completely different and utterly brilliant in their own way. It was quite a task judging, that's for sure! I ended up enlisting the help of several family members to assist me in judging and finally ended up with two poems tie-ing for first, a second placing and a special mention.

Congratulations to each poem author. You all did so well and I loved reading your poems!

So without further ado, let me present to you: the two winners of the Bonnie's Blessings New Year Poem Competition:


First Place:
Matthew and Danella


Well done to those two.

As I promised, here are their winning poems.






The Woeful Tale of Farmer Ed

written and submitted by Matthew

This is the sad tale of a poor farmer on New Years Eve who has had a drought and a very hard, dry year in 2014, and is wishing that the year 2015 would arrive. (This poem also explains the mystery behind a nursery rhyme.) 


The year had been a tough one, and hard for Farmer Ed
The land was dry, the trees were bare, the ground it felt like lead.
But the year was almost done, and Edward had great hope
That the New Year would bring rain and he’d be able to cope.

All his crops were dying, his sheep were lying down.
Too weak to even try to stand, their wool was turning brown.
Farmer Ed let out a sigh, “if only it would rain
Perhaps the year ahead of me will not bring me such pain.”

The cattle out in barren fields were giving him no milk
The special worms inside a cage were giving him no silk.
And Farmer Ed looked to the skies, and wished the year would pass
“Perhaps the year ahead of me, will make green all the grass.”

The pinkish pigs were spotless clean—I’ll tell the reason why.
It was because their muddy pond was now all dusty, dry.
“What good are pigs?!” cried Farmer Ed, exasperation showing,
“If dirt does not encase them, from all their muddy wallowing?!”

“I need some rain—and lots of it—for me to run this place!”
A terror-stricken look had come upon the farmer’s face.
“My only chance—my only hope—rests in the coming year.
And it needs to bring some rain—oh why can’t it get here?!”

Farmer Ed looked out of doors, and saw the horse was dead.
And all that he could hope to do was sigh and shake his head.
Once more, once more, he prayed for rain although he sadly knew
It would not bring the horse to life—but what else could he do?

The chickens were not laying, the ducks were waterless,
The dogs and cats were out of food, the rain they both did miss.
The only animals that still, felt very, very fine
Were his cheeky Billy-goats who ate the washing line.

Numerous other animals that lived upon the farm
Were crying out in thirst and pain at poor old Edward Brown.
But Farmer Edward Brown he knew, of nothing he could do,
They needed rain, but no, alas! the sky it still stayed blue.

That night the worn out farmer, retired to his bed.
“Tomorrow it will be next year,” was what he glumly said.
But as he went to lay his head he badly cracked his skull
Upon the bedpost next to him—he didn’t feel too well.

He lay right down upon the bed and promptly fell asleep.
He did not even have to do, the counting of some sheep.
And soon Old Mr Edward Brown, was snoring very loud.
So loud, in fact, that he would make dwarves from The Hobbit proud.

But hark! But hark! When the clock struck twelve, above the Farmhouse Brown,
The heavens suddenly burst forth and rain came pouring down!
It beat upon the tinny roof of Edward’s old brown shed
What a way to start the year, rejoicing was ahead!

The animals of Farmer Brown, at once they felt alive!
All except that dead old horse (which you could not revive.)
The many, many creatures held a New Year’s party, grand
All except that dead old horse (who could not even stand.)

The story comes unto its close—the story endeth sad.
(And I can nearly promise you, it will not make you glad.)
Poor Old Farmer Edward Brown, who’d prayed so hard for rain
He never ever waked from sleep, he never woke again.

If truth be told of Farmer Brown, alas! he was now dead.
(The only thing that it could be, was that bump on the head)
The sad thing is that he’d become just like his deadened horse
Heaven now is where he’ll be, and happy too, of course.

And so at last you know the truth, the truth of that old rhyme.
I’ve more to tell you—other tales—but for another time.


It’s raining, it’s pouring, the old man is snoring.
He went to bed and bumped his head and couldn’t get up in the morning. 

Or, as some ancient authorities put it:
It’s raining, it’s pouring, the old man is snoring.
He went to bed and fell down dead and couldn’t get up in the morning. 

----
Judge's comments:

I thought that this poem was excellent. I always love poems that have a steady rhythm to them and this one certainly did! Each sentence was just the right number of syllables. I did think that the whole 'tying into the nursery rhyme' thing was unnecessary and very distracting. I felt that it took away from the poem itself, which was in itself a great poem (except for the farmer dying). If you had made the farmer live, cut out the nursery rhyme totally and left it at that, it would have been a stunning first-class poem. But overall I very much enjoyed it. Great humour and excellent everywhere. A magnificent effort.

So now we come to our other first place winner.

2015 is a Year For…
submitted and written by Danella

2- Two children crying over a broken doll
Struggling to remain friends on account of their toy
Smiling through tears they become again one in soul,
2015 is a year for new joy.

0- Zero hard feelings, zero regrets-
This is our goal, all to be a blessing.
Last year’s misgivings on our list of forgets,
2015 is a year for new beginning.

1- One Lord ever true, ever the same
We learn to be more like him, moulded on his lathe
Life on earth is a shadow, soon we’ll go home
2015 is a year for new faith.

5- Five fingers, five toes to bring him glory
Created in his image, all I am, my whole being
For all He has done, all of my story

2015 is a year for new thanksgiving.


-----

Judge's comments:

I thought that this was a beautifully structured poem. I loved how you had taken each letter of '2015' and written a stanza of the poem about it. I thought that that showed great creativity. I felt that the only thing that let this wonderful entry down was the fact that rhythm was a bit funny here and there. It seemed a bit disjointed and that disappointed me because this was such a great poem! A wonderful entry and a pleasure to read.



So now we come to the winner of Second Place.

Second Place:
Michael


Congratulations!
Here is Michael's entry:


2015
written and submitted by Michael

2014 is the year we're in now
But the end of it is drawing quite near
It's time to look forwards
To the coming brand New Year

There will be choice and decisions
Some hard, some not
But one things for sure
Our attitude affects a lot

If we choose to be angry
To storm rage and shout
Our loved ones will change
They'll look for a way out

Because anger does harm
It's a destroyer of trust
And if you find it in you
You must deal with it, you must

Or else we could choose to clamp our mouths shut
And fail to connect emotionally
Our friends and family will go elsewhere
And you'll see them leave unhappily

Because silence is loud
It speaks to our heart
"I don't value you
Go away, depart"

However a life boiling over
With tender openness
Is a year when others
We are sure to bless

"You're important and special to me
Sure I'll sit down, and have a chat"
I'm telling you guys
Tender openness means all that

If you decide to encourage others
To lift them up rather than pull them down
Your friends will come to be with you
Rushing from all over the town

Because when we learn to appreciate
The great things our loved ones do
It makes their life a little happier
As well as making yours too

So aim for the attitude of Christ
One of love and gentleness
With joy and peace and in the spirit
Of constant and quick forgiveness

And you'll find that 2015
Will the best you've ever had
Because others will be cheerfully smiling
And you my dear friend will be glad

-----
Judge's comments:
This entry was full of all sorts of helpful practical advice to have a good year. It was a great poem highlighting the importance of our attitude. I felt that having a steady rhythm would have improved it dramatically, as would have the careful use of punctuation (a stanza feels unfinished unless you put a period/full stop at the end of it!). But overall this was an enjoyable entry to read and a good reminder to us all to have a good attitude in 2015.

And.... our special mention....

Special Mention:
Helene

Good work!
Here is Helene's entry.


A New Year
written and submitted by Helene

A new year!
Oh, what a lovely time
A fresh year!
See the tall green pine
A gentle year!
The grass is brown and dry
A peaceful year!
Trees sound as if they sigh
A bright year!
The sun is yellow gold
A mellow year!
The gum tree’s getting old
An exciting year!
What will tomorrow bring?
A happy year!
God knows because he’s king

-----
Judge's comments:
This was a lovely little poem, short but sweet. All the rhymes worked out nicely (except for the first one: 'time' and 'pine' - but that's really neither here nor there) and I really liked the different adjectives about the new year in each alternative line. The last line about God knowing everything because he is king was great, I loved how you brought him into it - he is in charge of time, after all!! I would suggest making it a bit longer next time but I think it is a wonderful poem and a great entry. Well done Helene.
(Also, Helene was the only entrant under the age of 15. This was a great effort!)


Okey doke. The two first place winners now receive the opportunity to guest post on my blog! Matthew and Danella, I shall be emailing you in the sort of near future to discuss whether you would like to take up this opportunity.

And for the rest of you, I hope you have a wonderful week. I'll be scheduling posts to come up while I'm away so you're not completely abandoned... :)

Weren't those poems great! Did you enjoy reading them?

Reminder... competition closes TONIGHT!

Just a quick reminder. The competition closes TONIGHT! Yep, that's right.

It will close at 1am on Saturday morning/Friday night. NZ time. If that makes sense.

Go HERE to enter!!

(and please please please do because I really want entries and I haven't got very many [2 in actual fact] and it's closing tonight... )

-Bonnie

Who Is Your Best Friend?

I found out recently that not everyone has God as their best friend, even if they are a Christian. This surprised and saddened me.

The fact is, God can be our very best friend. And I know he wants to be.


John 15:5
No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.

John 15:14

You are my friends if you do what I command you.


God is our creator. He made us. He loves us so much that he sent his only son to die for us, so that if we believe in him, we can eventually end up in Heaven, spending eternity with our King.
And he's always there, he's always ready to listen, he gives good gifts and he loves us unconditionally.  

That sounds like a pretty good friend to me!

Proverbs 18:24
A man of many companions may come to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.

Revelation 3:20
Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.

God is not only our Heavenly father, if we allow him, he can become our best friend.

So how does one make God our best friend?

James 4:8

Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you.

Hebrews 11:6

And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.

God loves to hear us talk to him. Sure, he probably already knows all about our troubles and joys, but he loves to hear it from us anyhow. Best friends talk all the time.

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18
Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

It is a lot easier to see all this stuff written down and mentally agree with it, but another thing completely to live it out!

If you were asked who your best friend was, would you be able to say honestly, "God"?

PS. Don't forget to enter my competition!! Only THREE days left before it closes!

A Bit Of An Update - with photos :)

So it must be just about time I updated you what's been going on in our family over the past wee while. To make it a bit more interesting I've stuck some various recent-ish photos in as well.

(Oh and before I forget to mention it, I really really really need some entries into my competition! How hard is it to write a short poem?!? C'mon.. please enter! You only have five more days left before it closes!! Go HERE to read more info or to enter!)

-------------------------------------------------

So some of you may or may not know that my Dad has been made redundant and has work until the 31st of January. He hasn't yet found another job, so we would really really appreciate prayer that we would know what to do! At the moment we're looking at a bunch of different options but it's really hard to know what God wants. So if you could pray that God's will would become clear, that would be amazing. Thank you in advance.

These two photos (above and below) were taken when the whole family plus two of Abbie's horses went to this random river one evening. 

For those of you who always like to ask how our Christmas was, it was great thank you. We went to a Christmas Eve service at church the evening before and had fun opening presents in the morning. We had a friend from church around for Christmas lunch, and our cousins for dessert after tea. It was a lovely day and great fun celebrating Jesus' birth.

Lydia 

This was too cute not to post.... :)

For New Year's, we always go to bed early and get up again at about five to midnight to welcome in the new year. That way we don't miss out too much sleep but still get to farewell the old year and welcome the new! Last new year's (2013-2014) the boys and Sophie went swimming in our pool at midnight. They wanted to do that this year too but some of us were sick so they didn't. However, we still had a lot of fun making memories together.

Sophie, Lydia, Danella and Ben in the pool

Jana is 11 months old now! It's hard to believe, since it seems like yesterday we were thrilled to welcome her into the world. She is crawling around now and enjoying getting into anything she can find. She's an adorably cute wee girl and an absolute joy to the family.

Daddy and Jana

I haven't ever done a new years resolution before but this year I did do one so it will be interesting to see how it goes. I'm also trying out something else (sort of similar to a resolution-ish) so that will be interesting and fun, too!
I was very happy to finish my fourth diary on the day before New Year's Eve. I started my fifth diary on the 1st of January 2015. That was timed well, wasn't it!! :) If you don't keep a diary, I strongly recommend you do. Having a diary is one thing that I don't think I'll ever regret. It's fascinating looking back on old diaries and seeing how much I've changed since then! And also how much I haven't changed... but that's another story.

Danella and I being awesome in a christmassy photo Abbie took

One thing I've been dwelling on a lot recently is our God's faithfulness. He is ever present and ever loving. His mercies are new every morning and his faithfulness is great! He is a wonderful friend.

Jacob, Caleb, Ben, Johnny, me, Lydia

Well that's all the photos I can find that are suitable to post. And that's all the updates that I can possibly think of. So here's me finishing this post with a quick reminder to remember to enter my competition....

Blessings,

Faith Is...

Faith is reliance on the certainty that God has a pattern for my life
When everything seems meaningless
Recognising that God is the Lord of time
When my ideas of timing don't agree with his
Keeping on keeping on
When I am dog tired, discouraged, disillusioned, deserted, dusty, dry
Cast on his strength alone
Not a vague hope of a happy hereafter
But an assurance of heaven
Based on my trust in Christ's death as payment for my sins
Ceasing to worry
Leaving the future to the God who controls the future
The conviction: The promiser keeps his promises.
- Pamela Reeve

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           Have a wonderful day!