Obedience

Obedience is not something that we like to talk about. If we think of traditional marriage vows it was not uncommon to love, cherish and obey.
Today I even found myself talking about obeying when one of my children tried to negotiate extra time to play with friends.
Sometimes obedience means submission and that can also be a foreign concept to some.
Not many people like being told what they have to do. The concept of being servant hearted can be somewhat lost.
It can be easy to say that "I have a right" or this is not fair.
Obedience is sometimes committing to something, even when it does not make rational sense.
Moravians sold themselves into slavery for the sake of the Gospel.
Why would I give up 13 years of a professional salary to serve the community I love.
It would be so easy to have ignored the call that I felt in my Spirit and have a nice wage, a bigger house, foreign holidays and more.
As I browse job vacancies, you just know what seems right and what seems wrong. Its instinct, its in your spirit, DNA... it's the call of God in your life.

Why are you being kind to me?

What's the catch?

The concept of a sacrificial act with no underlying motive is also a foreign concept.

As Christians we are called to love. Not cast judgement. Not add conditions.
Not control. Just love.

Open handed. You might get rejected, you might get falsely accused, it most definitely won't be the smoothest path...

But are you willing to follow the rough path...

Are you willing to be battered in the the winds

Will your anchor hold in the storms of life?

Who do you put your trust in? Who is your rock and salvation?
Who never leaves you or forsakes you?

Are you willing to go against the tide, if asked?

Following a call of God in my life is an act of obedience. You take the rough with the smooth.

The Joy of School Sports Day

As the summer term fast comes to an end, I wonder how many mums are seeing their days just slip through their fingers.

As a child I hated sports days. It may surprise you but not everyone is good at athletics. (Now if sports day had included playing tabletennis for your house, I would have enjoyed them better.)

Not only did you have to spend weeks building up to the big day in PE and your teacher would decide what you were doing in secondary, you also had the day itself.

Now I thought my days of torture were over but now I have kids the nightmare of sports day is once again here.

Now before I have legions of you complaining at what a bad mum I am and what a spoiler, let me just explain.

I live in Scotland. Sports day is an outdoor event, so in Scotland our school has 3 proposed dates for sports day as it is weather dependant. Now I am fortunate I do not have to ask for time off, I work round my week and catch up where necessary. If I was not so fortunate taking time off to support you star is not quite so easy. You are lucky to get a days notice.

This year I think it will be fine, the weather is grand and the first date will be the day that it is on... mind you the fact that we had 2 dates this week I was kind of stressing about how to plan work this week.

Sports day used to be an hour and a half in the afternoon, recently it has been 3 hours in the morning.

Last year was the first time they tried this and to be frank it was awful. I had 2 kids at primary last year and I spent most of my time walking round a field trying to show support. The had multiple stations that the kids rotated round and due to age difference my kids were at opposite ends most of the time. (This year I only have 1 child at that school, so it will be a bit easier.)

The kids did their tasks, then the bell went and the kids were all taken across the field back to the play ground to have play time (leaving some rather bewildered mum and dads in the field wondering what was happening.) After the play time the kids came back in order to continue their challenges.

Now last year communication was not the best, so most parents were not prepared for the 3 hours sports day. I must confess I had sun lotion but no water and I could feel my head slowly burn.

Now my son has hyper mobility too so by the end of the day he was crying in pain, the school had not pre warned me the length of the programme so I could suggest a way for him to have coping strategies. So needless to say I was not best pleased he was in so much pain for the next 2 days.

So the question is how prepared will I be tomorrow? If it is as sunny as today water, a hat and sun screen will be required....maybe a book for the times we have to wait and something to sit on.

One last thing GO NEBIT GO!