A life guaranteed...

Today, as I walked along the beach, breathing in cool salt air, I was reminded of the little bee I found on that same beach not so long ago. I remember being on auto pilot at the time, my body operating automatically, one foot moving in front of the other whilst my mind was a million miles away. The chances of me spotting a single struggling bee on the wide expanse of sand in front of me was really remote, and realizing that fact now, as I reflect on it, makes the significance of the encounter stand out even more. I saw her struggling to move, a little black dot that did not belong on the white canvas that stretched below and beyond her.  She was in obvious distress, seemingly unable to fly, as if something was weighing her down. I was immediately drawn to her and picked her up. In her distress she did not even attempt to sting me. I had no idea what to do to help but taking her away from the water, which clearly wasn't were she was supposed to be, seemed to me the onl...

I’ve always felt strangely uncomfortable when someone states, with bold presumption, that the Lord told them to do something, to go somewhere or to believe or not to believe something. My discomfort lies not with the fact that someone feels that the Lord has guided them somehow, but to say that the Lord ‘told me’ or ‘the Lord said’, implies that He communicated almost audibly, in no uncertain terms - the same way as we would to each other. It does not factor in that we are human, flawed and fallible and perhaps what we thought we heard, came from ourselves and not from God. We know that the Lord spoke to a fortunate few who lived in Biblical times. Moses heard the voice of God coming from within a burning bush, Saul heard Him through a light on the road to Damascus. There are so many more examples. I love the story of how God spoke to Joshua, the son of Nun. After Moses died, the Lord instructed him in no uncertain terms regarding the future of the Israelites. The Lord tel...

Every mother I know has her own arsenal of wisdom that she imparts to her children. Words of encouragement, words that are meant to sooth, words that direct and guide. The underlying sentiment of these arsenals is always one of positivity. I have always told my children that you can only ever have one thought in your mind. If negativity fights to invade my mind, I actively work on replacing it with something positive. I have found that this strategy has had a profound impact on how I navigate my way through life. What a tremendous gift it is to discover time and again, that every bit of wisdom that we need to understand our own bigger picture, is to be found within the pages of the Bible. The only thing required  from us is to make the time to search, understand, embrace and implement it. One of  the rewards of reviving this blog, for me personally, is that I am actually making time to think about topics that are important to me. Then I go on to research it somew...

I was drawn to this woman from the minute I saw her. She sat quietly in her little corner but her smile had a magnetic force that was irresistible. We were in Funchal, Madeira and she was taking part in one of the many Christmas events that they had all over town. I started chatting to her in my broken Portuguese and even though our exchange was basic, the warmth that emanated from her was tangible. The thing that stayed with me most was the expression in her eyes. She truly smiled through those eyes. When she heard I was from Africa she handed me a handful of goats hair as a gift - little did she know that the real gift she gave me was so much more precious! This morning, as I prayed about the Lord laying a message on my heart, I was led back to this picture and the following piece in the Bible: 'No-one lights a lamp and puts it in a place where it will be hidden, or under a bowl. Instead he puts it on a stand, so that those who come may see th...

Life is all about choices. Every single issue that you'll ever be presented with will also afford you the option of choosing different responses. Yes or no, up or down, stay or go, do something or let it be. Some options have pretty predictable endings, but some could go either way.  You point your car at the edge of a cliff and accelerate, well.... no prize if you can guess how that's going to end. You eat a Big Mac a day for two months - guaranteed you'll have to go clothes shopping at some stage. Certain risks are worth taking but there are some that simply aren't worth even considering. It is a given fact that we are on this earth for only a short while. I can choose how I would like to live my own personal life while I'm here - I definitely can't complain about the range of choices available to me. I can throw all caution to the wind and do exactly what I please, the sky is the limit. So why then, with all the...