Sunday, November 8, 2009

Alone


Since Steve and I got married, maybe since we were engaged, I have wondered:

Father God...why did you cause me to get married so young??

I DO NOT regret getting married.
I LOVE Steve with all my heart and this grows everyday.

But I often look at more than eligible singletons and wonder "Why are they are still single, and I'm the one that's married??"

Lets face it: not many of us thought I'd be the first one to settle down. There's not much about me that suggests I'd make a submissive and obedient housewife making dinners for husband as he returns from work. And having someone determine how much money I can spend on shopping?? Jog on son!!

And I look at some of you BEAUTIFUL girls who are single and I think "They are a much better catch than me!! They care, they're supportive, they're helpful, they're loving and compassionate, they cook well, they're tidy, they're gorgeous!"

A few weeks ago in a preach, Father God revealed something to me.

It is not good for man to be alone. I'll make a helper for him, a companion. [Genesis 2:18]

The speaker explained that it wasn't good for us to be alone and think we could do things all by ourselves - we need to be interdependent with others around us, and that one day will include with a husband.

Within me is such a fiercely independent spirit.

When you grow up without your biological dad, and a mother that is strong beyond compare, you realise that you can make it on your own - you don't need anyone else, you can do what you need to do and no one else needs to help you. Being alone is just fine.

And that's why God got me married so young.

That spirit of independence had grown within me to cause distrust of men, and reliance on myself. I didn't want to be vulnerable through fear of getting hurt, and didn't want anyone too close.

By bringing a husband into my life, Father has taught me that yes I can make it on my own, but I don't have to. There is great strength in a wife that supports her husband. There is great strength in a wife that provides for her family. There is great strength in a woman who opens her heart to be loved, and to love, unconditionally.

God is doing a different thing in each of us.

We cannot compare our lives to oneanother.

There is a reason we are either married or single right now. And Father God wants to show us that reason.

Maybe you're single because Father realises that you so desperately need someone in your life to make you complete and justify and affirm you, that He can't bring someone into your life until you learn to love yourself and seek completion in another.

Maybe you're married because God wants to use you as an example to your family who are broken and need a strong family to set a new example an status quo.

Maybe you're single because God is creating an awesome man for you, and is preparing you to be the wife for him.

Maybe you're married because you are going to be put in situations so hard in the near future that you need to have a mate who is there in those difficult times.

I don't know why you have the dating relationship you do.

But I know Father God has a plan for you within that.
I know He is shaping your story.
I know He has a plan and a purpose for you life that He doesn't want you to miss out on.

I know that faith is trusting in the things unseen, the things that have not been revealed yet to you, but believing that it is going to work out the way its supposed to.

I love you so much beautiful girls.
And no matter what husbands, boyfriends, dates, or fathers we have in our life...

...we will always have each other's love...

...and we will always have the love of Father God.

The joy that comes from learning to love...
[Photography by Sarah Frost]




Friday, November 6, 2009

Drink

H20
An essential for life
Probably the most basic need we have.

We can go up to three weeks without food,
But we can only last three days without water.

Our body is 70% water.
The earth is made up of 70-75% water.

We can't live without it.

I stumbled upon Psalm 42 this morning:

“I want to drink God!! Deep draughts of God. I'm thirsty for God-alive.”

Then I skipped to another verse:

“Many words rush along like rivers from a flood, but deep wisdom flows up from artesian springs.”

You know I'm a food snob, preferring Marks & Spencers and Whole Foods to Tesco and Walmart.

And I'm a snob spiritually.

I don't want to have a relationship with God, and just listen to those people around me, taking advice that comes from rivers - long, dirty, generic...
I want the heart of God from artisan springs - refined, classy, special....

I don't drink tap water – I prefer Evian!!

My heart is that we would have the BEST...God came for us to have abundant life, this full amazing Evian, artesian spring life.

And today I want us all to drink that.

We could get wasted on vodka and have an awesome high but feel the pain
The hangover
The downward fall
The next day.

Or we could get wasted on God's water, and have it in us
Continually
Abundantly
Each moment
Each day in each situation.

I don’t want to reinvent the wheel. I have never been an engineer.
I probably haven’t said anything life-changingly new.

My intention is to remind us of the basics.

Food.
Clothing.

Water.

God said to Gideon: "Everyone who laps with his tongue, the way a dog laps, set on one side. And everyone who kneels to drink, drinking with his face to the water, set to the other side." Three hundred lapped with their tongues from their cupped hands. All the rest knelt to drink.

God said to Gideon: "I'll use the three hundred men who lapped at the stream. All the rest may go home."

Taking a drink of a water...well a milkshake,
but the metaphor is still there!!