Have you ever noticed...

Have you ever noticed - seven of the most positive words that I can think of start with the letter 'L'.

LOVE

LAUGHTER

LIGHT

LIFE

LIFT

LIKE

LORD

I just realised that this morning and I've decided that from now on these seven "l's" are going to become my daily motto. The Lord will always be present but I am going to try and weave in at least one, two or maybe all the others in every day.

To love is precious

To laugh is priceless

To walk in the light is a gift

To celebrate life is a must

To like and be liked is truly special and

To experience the lift that God provides is a blessing!

If you can add any more positive "l's" to my list - let me have it!!

Finally - my wish for you this day is that all of the above will be yours in abundance!



All in God's time...

'In everything, through prayer and petition with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God.' - Philippians 4:6

My seas are calm right now and I feel as if I'm breathing in pure, clean air. God certainly is in the business of restoration - thank you to the wonderful woman who left that comment here a while back! When I started thinking about what I'd like to write about today, the above verse jumped out at me. Isn't it amazing how you just know when you've found what God wants to communicate to you...

That is how it's become for me and I thank Him for that. Since I've started actually listening to the messages that are there for me every day, I feel as if my internal navigational system has been switched on again.

More importantly, the verse above serves to remind me to be specific about my prayer requests. To be ever thankful, in good as well as bad times. All in God's time - another line that keeps coming up for me again and again.

So today I ask the following in prayer:

~ For a marriage filled with love, respect and happiness.

~ For healing for my parents.

~ For peace and happiness in the lives of my children and siblings.

~ For consolation for one of my very good friends - on this, the day after her father's death.

~ For world peace - in every single corner of our little piece of the universe.

~ For you Jen - that the right words and thoughts come to you when you have to deliver your speeches.

~ For you, dear reader - peace and blessings in abundance on this day.

I'm so happy to have found the women at Soli Deo Gloria! I prayed, I asked, I waited. And God answered.

The right people, at the right time, delivering the right words and support. Miles and continents apart.

Thank you Lord!

To have a friend, be a friend!

Today I met someone who really made a positive impression on me. We clicked like old friends who've had a thousand conversations and I have been left pondering... What is it about another human being, male or female, that makes it easy to instantly connect?

I can tell in a second after meeting someone for the first time whether I can be friends with this person or whether we'll merely be acquaintances. I will add that I invested a lot in a friendship a few years ago that went sadly wrong and I still wonder how my judgement could have been so off, but it is what it is and I've tried to learn from it rather than procrastinate and allow it to continue to cast a big negative cloud over me. (Trust me, it did for a very long time...).

This feeling of kinship that I felt today has left me with a few questions and I've decided to explore it in order to get to grips with building better relationships.

I remembered a book my parents had at home that really fascinated me as a teenager. I based a few of my presentations at school on things I read in this book and I remember that the other kids were always all ears when I spoke about the basic principles of leading a happy, successful life, as described by the author.

The book was the well known 'How to win friends and influence people' by Dale Carnegie.

I went a-googling and found a summary, taken from this bestseller, written in the 1930's but still as relevant as ever:

Six ways to make people like you

Become genuinely interested in other people.

Remember that a person's name is to that person the sweetest and most important sound in any language.

Be a good listener. Encourage others to talk about themselves.

Talk in terms of the other person's interests.

Make the other person feel important - and do it sincerely.

Smile!

Reading this, I realised that the person I met today, did all of the above in the interaction we had. It was from the heart and I could sense that it was sincere. I've been reminded how easy it is to make someone feel special.

So today, I am making a mental note of these six rules, not only to be liked as the heading suggests, but also to pass on the gift of making someone feel special. In this day and age we can all do with a bit of that...

No to negativity!

" When you walk to the edge of all the light you know and take that first step into the darkness of the unknown, you must believe that one of two things will happen: There will be something solid for you to stand upon, or, you will be taught how to fly ".

I can't take credit for this thought, and have to confess that it was quoted on one of my favourite blogs in a different context today but it made such an impact on me that I had to capture it so that I don't forget it myself. Then I found this photograph that I took a while ago and wondered what went through my mind when I took it. It seems like all it needed was this caption...

I hope these words are exactly what you needed to hear today as well!