I AM ONE OF THE PRIVILEGED FEW...

We should see Gods hand in everything that happens to us.......

I suffer from asthma and during the dry winter months, my hometown is absolutely unsuitable for me. There are gold mines, and the dust that comes from the mine dumps makes it impossible for me to breath properly as it induces my asthma. Due to circumstances beyond our control we cannot move away to a more suitable environment, so I often visit one of my daughters during the winter months. This year I saw once again how God works in mysterious ways...

A cloud of dust lifting off a mine dump

Another cloud of dust from the dump

 

                                                                                                                                                                                      Not many people can boast great grandchildren, but I can. I have one great grandson and one great granddaughter.

Shayne on his 7th birthday

Bianca showing off her "jewelry"

Besides being able to see them develop into real little people, I am very privileged to be in a position to help the boy get to grips with his first year at school.

He is a very active little boy and finds it difficult to sit still long enough to concentrate. His teacher insisted that he should be put on treatment for ADD even though he has not been tested correctly for ADD. We are all dead set against any kind of drugs, especially for little ones, so everyone has stood together and we are watching his diet making sure that he eats healthy food without artificial coloring, preservatives and too much sugar.

I offered to take him under my wing and oversee his homework. Although he is very sharp and quick when it comes to Maths, when I started helping him with his reading, he could not even recognize a word by spelling it. He also could not remember the letters, getting confused with d's, b's and p's.  Now, after three months of working with him intensely every afternoon, he has improved to such an extent that he gets 100% for his reading.

I am very proud of the way he has improved, but I am also thankful that I may have played a small role in getting him this far. He is reading well and puts expression into what he reads as apposed to his monotonous little voice and stilted reading in the past.

I thank God every day for the privilege and opportunity that He granted me in helping to get one of His children on the road to success. He loves reading so much now, that he wants to read more and more every day. He is never keen to keep to the time table the teacher set him for his reading, insisting on reading at least twice the number of pages that are set for him.

If I didn't suffer so badly with asthma, I would not have been here to help him, so it was a blessing in disguise. We must look for the good in everything that happens to us, even though it is sometimes very difficult. It is too easy to simply say: "Why does it always have to happen to me"  or  "I always have bad luck, no matter what I do"

Be thankful every day that we are showered with blessings. If we look in the right places, we will find them. Unfortunately human nature is such that it is easier to find the bad rather than looking just a little harder for the blessing in disguise. As long as we believe that our way is set out by God, then we will also manage to find the good in everything. Nothing is ALL bad - there is always something good as well.

Let us all look for the silver lining rather than only seeing the dark clouds and thank the Lord for that silver lining.

Find the silver lining - it IS there

Once in a lifetime - 09/09/09

This morning I received a text message from a friend and it reminded me of how privileged we are to receive Blessings every day.

The message......

"What a special day..... 09/09/09 and we will only experience this once in our lifetime BUT.... God blesses us 90x90x90 times."

This statement is very true , but I want to add something to it....... What a pity that we so easily forget our blessings.


I know that every year has it's special days like 06/06/06 or 07/07/07, but to me 09/09/09 seems an extra special day - don't ask me why!!

When I think of blessings from God, I don't only think of my own blessings. He blesses every living thing in the universe. Just look around you - besides us humans, we have animals that are blessed with the knowledge of what to do to survive. They know how to bring their young into this world and how to feed them and keep them safe. They have the instinct that God gave them to know what is best for them and their young.

Many plants have a special built in instinct for survival. In drought stricken regions, such as a deserts, some seeds will lie dormant for years until there is a good down pour, which will let them spring into life.

It is a miracle to see arid regions suddenly burst into life with the most amazing plants blooming like there never was a day without them.

God creates new life every minute of the day and what a blessing!! The blessing of survival of all living things. The cycle of life.

Count your Blessings!!!

I love this poem written by Sandra Lewis Pringle.......

The Morning Glory

I awaken to the glory of the morn',
sunshine streaking, birds cheerfully cheeping,
another day is born.

The Morning Glory inaudibly climbs,
and shares its shy beauty, so rare.
And, we know that behind its mystery,
Our Creative God is there.

He blesses us with sunshine,
He blesses us with rain,
because it's only through the showers,
that do we not, remain the same.

So, as this new day awakens,
and I'm cradled securely in Your arms,
May Your love forever keep me safe,
and sheltered from all storms.

~ Sandra Lewis Pringle~

HEAVEN'S SPOTLIGHTS

I have many dark days when I imagine that the sun will never shine for me again. I think we all have those days when nothing goes our way. Everything we want to pick up and hold, either falls and breaks, or we knock it over before we even pick it up..... like the last bit of milk - just enough for the desperately needed cup of tea!! We encounter stumbling blocks wherever we go and run into obstacles around every corner.

Many a day I feel like simply crawling back into bed and pulling the covers over my head. On days like these we only need to look that little bit harder to find the beautiful sunshine that breaks through life's clouds. All we have to do is remember that behind all our dark clouds, the sun still shines and that when it finds a chink in the cloud's armor, it will shine through like a spotlight from heaven.

Instead of burying our heads in the sand, rather look up to heaven and find that beautiful brightness in the dark cloud. If you look really hard, you will always find it. Be thankful in the knowledge that we can always depend on that - we may not always see our blessings, but they are always there - looking for the chink in our protective armor.

We are so fond of putting up a fence around us, keeping "things" out. Some fences are primitive and hand-made.....others are well planned and expensive.









We think that the fences are there to keep us safe - to keep bad elements out, but at the same time we are really building a fence around ourselves, keeping us in!! Unless we have a gate built into the fence, we are really building prisons for ourselves. Just like the opening in the clouds that let the sun shine through, we need openings in our fences to let ourselves through. We need the opportunity to let our light shine through. Counting our blessings can inspire us to share them with others and unless we can go through the gate in our fence, it becomes impossible to share and that would be such a pity.

We should seize any opportunity of being a shining light in someones life - someone who still has to find Heaven's Spotlights. Instead of hiding behind our fences, let us help them find the light.

Here are some quotes I would like to share with you:

“ God is the Sun and when His rays fall upon your heart, not impeded by the clouds of egoism, the lotus blooms and the petals unfold.”........Sri Sathya Sai Baba quotes

“In the hour of adversity be not without hope For crystal rain falls from black clouds” ....Persian Proverb

“It is the mind that makes the body rich; and as the sun breaks through the darkest clouds, so honor peereth in the meanest habit.”...........William Shakespeare

I am..........

I am grateful to be alive.....
I am grateful for all my blessings....
I am grateful for everything around me....

It is Spring and I love the new life it brings....I know I sound crazy but I live in South Africa which is in the Southern Hemisphere, so our seasons are opposite to those in the Northern Hemisphere.

I love the beauty of the fresh young leaves that appear in Spring.... The blossoms on what seems like dead plants and trees. Soon the blossoms will turn to lovely fruit, to be enjoyed by all - humans, birds and animals alike. The abundance of nature is unbelievable. From nothing, or what seems like nothing, there are the most amazing flowers and fruit.

All the animals reproduce and their young are as welcome as the fruit on the trees and the fresh young shoots of grass that feed many of the animals.

The sound of tiny newly hatched birds calling for food - forever hungry - and the parents always tirelessly carrying food to them. They need this continuous flow of food to ensure their rapid growth so that they can find their wings and learn to fly before the next winter sets in. They have to be independent from their parents by then.

The new lambs and calves frolicking in the meadows are so energetic it inspires me to want to do so much more!!

Everywhere you look there are young ones - the wonders of nature.

Look and listen.....

it is a wonderful sight to see and beautiful music to my ears.