Blog Sharing ~ From my Liddy [Libby] to you.♥

Good morning!



25I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. 26I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. 27And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. Ezekiel 36  {Lib's mission verse}
Just a brief request for prayer support.


This coming Saturday the Qld State Directors, the Missions Team Leaders of BBC and myself will be meeting to have a chat. There are complications currently within the situation. If you could spare a moment to pray for this particularly I’d appreciate it. J

With Love - Libby

On a lighter note: Sibling Wars: the Great Couch War.

The bone of contention &...

The winner.

The Loser.

Opting for 2nd best.

When my mother moved house she had a couch going spare ~ & we snavelled it.  All our cats have adored this couch.  No idea why.  The back is good for sleeping along ~ but so is our green couch.  It is usually bereft of humans ~ but so is the brown couch.  However this couch is unique for being the one that interrupts Dearest's line of vision to the t.v set as soon as a cat's body is draped along it's length.  Our cats know this. On the days Star & I are absent & the boys are feeling particularly insecure they bookend together at the critical point.  When we are home the cat who owns the couch is king of the castle.

The fight to own the couch has been prolonged & ongoing.  Marlow is a chunky cat & hefty in the beam end.  He has weight on his side.  Kirby is just plain smart.  At present, smart is winning.

The war to be top cat starts the moment Kirby comes in at night.  Round & round they go: around the walls, across the ceiling, over chairs & tables, cups & people.  The winner plonks himself bang between Dearest & the t.v set. The nearest human removes cat ~ & around they go again.  The winner plonks his butt between Dearest & his t.v!

I tell you, these cats have it worked out.  They both get plenty of attention mileage out of this one ~ & trust me it is all about attention.  When they don't wish to be disturbed they sleep at the other end, well out of visual interruption.  They'll even share.   Hmmm.  Having raised one set of males twins you would have thought I'd have more sense than to take on another twinned pair!

Can you up the prayer ante, please.

...and having done all, to stand. ~ Ephesians 6:13It can be hard sometimes to decide what to share here.  We're a diverse bunch & we don't always see stuff eye to eye & sometimes in the heat of the moment people forget to speak the truth in love ~ especially if our church tradition conflicts with another church tradition, so it was really nice yesterday to put all the angst on the back burner & just sit on the sidelines yahooing for my boy, Dino, playing his cricket finals on the island. Heaven alone knows what the other team, all muslim, thought of the beer swilling islanders [no, not me; I stick to yahooing] shouting encouragement to their cricketers.  I certainly heard from one or two of the islanders what they thought of the muslims using the lunch break to face Mecca & pray.  Not repeatable.  The heathens won.  I think we are still celebrating.




You have all been following along, haven't you?  You remember that I made gurgling noises about prophecy & even gurglier noises about speaking & ended up creating another blog just so I could gurgle in peace. And I only did it because I felt the Lord leaning on me really hard.  But it's ok.  It's quiet over there.  No~one talks to me.  Very few people even read over there & it's all good.  That's the Lord's business, you know.  I just gotta put up what he tells me & I try to be quiet about it over here because in all honesty some of what I've been seeing is downright terrifying ~ so lunacy making in fact that the Lord's gone to rather great pains to make sure I know I'm not the only one seeing this stuff & that other's with far more street cred are seeing the same things.

And I was paddling along nicely. Calm is good in this house.  I have 5 kids.  I already have all the chaos I can handle.  I had almost forgotten, almost but not quite, a conversation I had back with the Lord months & months ago ~ back when I started up that other blog because the Lord was talking & I had no~one to talk to about what He was talking to me about ~ & the conversation went something along the lines of: Well, Lord, you know I am never ever going to initiate this stuff so if you have a message & you want it spoken you are going to have to get someone to ask me.  That was my fleece.  I'm so pleased Gideon was an insecure man.  It makes me feel heaps better.

I happily prayed & wrote my little messages & checked occasionally to see if anyone had anything to say but mostly they didn't & I'm ok with that ~ & then it came.  The invitation I never really expected to get.  I missed it the first time because I didn't recognise the format it came in but the 3rd time ~ well, unmistakable is the word that comes to mind. And I am not a happy little vegemiter.

It is none of the things you might expect.  I do not melt down about having to stand before a crowd of strangers & speak.  I do not suffer stage fright, whatever it looks like.  By the time we've got that far I am really sure about what God's got to say.  I'm a Quaker; I accept women's ministry.  Nope.  I just know, that everything's going to hit the fan & explode all over my life in a smelly, smelly mess.  It's already started ~ & I'm not the warrior sort.  I just want to pick up my metaphorical skirts & run for the hills.

Nothing is set in stone yet.  It may yet fall in a wet miserable puddle but the stuff's already hitting the fan & I'm just gob~smacked every single time. It's not like I'm some sort of brilliant super Christian ~ just your usual messy inadequate sort doing their best to walk with Jesus. My little house of cards is wobbling badly ~ but I have the message ~ or at least the first bit of it & some idea of the general direction.

If you belong to the *no women in the pulpit* brigade ~ please, take it up with the Lord, don't rant at me.  This is not my idea & quite bluntly I've always wondered how Jonah managed to defy the Lord under the weight of the Holy Spirit's conviction because that is something I just can't manage myself.  I may be a little slow of hearing but once I'm sure the Lord's said, "Jump!" I'm a~hopping all over the place. So can you pray please, for me ~ & especially for Liddy.  Some days I just get so tired of standing plonk in the middle of a war zone.

"I loved Mr. Darcy far more than any of my own husbands."  ~ Rumor Godden

It's  well known that  Rumur Godden is pretty much my all time favourite author ~ & there is a reason for this; She makes the ordinary fascinating.  I worked my way through her children's stories as a child, her short stories as a teen & gradually found my feet amongst her adult novels before I was done with high school. 

It was only much latter, long after I had read Black Narcissus & In this House of Brede that I waded through her biography & read her father's quote that went, if I remember correctly, something along the lines of: You don't want to write a book about nuns; no~one will read it.

Well, Godden not only wrote one book about nuns; she wrote several ~ & people read them!

Black Narcissus was the first & it was made into a fairly memorable movie with Deborah Kerr & Jean Simmons. It is not my favourite, mostly because Godden wrote it as an unbeliever & it lacks that deep sense of spirituality that her latter books have.  My favourite is the one that has stood the test of time & endured unscathed: In this House of Brede; the story of 3 very different women pursuing life as contemplative Benedictine nuns. Don't yawn.

Now one of the reasons I really like Godden is that she almost never writes her books in sequential order.  They do tend to hop all over the place which is like sweet ambrosia to me. I have tried to explain to my highly sequential children that books, like history, can be pieced together like a jig~saw; it is not necessary to have all the pieces in order before one starts.  One can begin anywhere & slot  the pieces in place as one finds them ~ an attitude that simply horrifies Liddy.  But what about suspense? she is prone to wail.  Well, what about it? See I am far more interested in character than I am in plot & happily ignore all sorts of inconsistencies in plot so long as the character development makes sense.  Screw up a character & believe me not only will I notice, I'll complain, usually long & loud!

If I had been born Catholic I might have chosen such a life with it's round of prayer & worship.  Religion wasn't always a dirty word in the media & I am of that era that fell in love with Audrey Hepburn playing Kathryn Hulme in the Nun's Story ~ do you remember that one?  An oldie but a goodie.  Or Spencer Tracey as Father Flanagan in Boy's Town Or Bing Crosby in Bells of St Mary's...or even Halyey Mills in the Trouble with Angels. Against these I had Godden's books, with her footnotes, indexes & bibliographies to explain all the odd things in Catholicism I didn't understand. What's more she spoke about religion in a sane & reasonable way ~ which is hardly surprising from a long time agnostic raised in the religious hot bed of diverse Indian religious ideas. As a homeschooler I find it fascinating that she never set foot in a school until she was about 12 ~ & her home education was just a tad erratic. Here you can listen to her speak about the very last book she wrote at the end of a long & eventful life that survived both world wars.  If you have never read one of her books you have missed an inestimable pleasure.  She is an extraordinary craftsman, a formidable storyteller & a very unique lady.

He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God? ~ Micah 6:8

It continues to fascinate ~ & sometimes apall me ~ how diverse this thing we call Christianity is.  Surely we cannot all be right...& if we cannot all be right then some of us must be wrong ~ & that opens a whole 'nother can of worms!
 
I have been reading here...& here ~ sober, thoughtful, Quaker posts that are not afraid to tackle the difficult questions & wrestle with them in prayer & discussion to a reasoned & prayerful conclusion.  Which is more than I can do.  It's not that I can't follow the arguments.  It's not a question of what I personally believe or actually endorse or even where I am in my own walk.  It's not even that I don't see the point because actually I do. Having the truth is important but...here we go! Again.  It's not the most important thing! And because it's not the most important thing I actually think it's a lot of wasted hot air.
 
See I happen to think, my thinks, that it all rather misses the point because thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. [Deut.6.5] It is all about relationship. This was all rather drummed into my thick skull by a wonderful little book  The Lord Our Shepherd  by J. Douglas Macmillan.  Macmillan was a Scots shepherd before he came to Christ & his insights on Psalm 23 are fascinating but what I concluded was profound was his comments that go something like this: if you do not know the shepherd of the pslam, if Christ is not your shepherd, then this pslam has nothing to say to you & you cannot claim its promises because the personal pronoun is possessive: my shepherd. It's like talking about my husband or my children.  It speaks of an existing relationship.

Now the thing with relationships is they tend to be messy.  Messy is ok.  Really it is.  King David screwed up big time & by biblical account he was a most apalling father but God still calls him a man after His own heart!  I used to look at that & think, huh?! This adulterer, this murderer, this crummy father. Yep ~ he was all of that & then some but he had this most amazing relationship & it transcended everything else that he was. No, I am not advocating a wayward lifestyle.  What I am saying is we need to grasp our nettles &  sort out the important things.  There is no point in being right in our theology if we are wrong in our relationship.  Our theology cannot save us.  Only our relationship with Christ can save us ~ & because that is so I tend to think we can be wrong in matters of faith & still be saved.  First things first.  Do you have a relationship with this Jesus they called the Christ?  Because if you do all else will fall in to place.  How do I know?  When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.  He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you.  All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you. John 16:12~15 & I can trust the Spirit because Christ also said My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me; John 10:2


Now I can hear the theological hounds baying for my blood but you can argue theology till the cows come home & the world ends not with a bang but a whimper & it will make absolutely no difference to anyone. But, if you love God you will ask, what does God require of me? And that changes everything. The only requirement is love; love of God, love of one's fellow man. The bible is all about how we then go about loving God & loving our neighbour as ourselves.

No, this is not what God's been on me about.  I'm merely entertaining myself ~ &  I don't mind if you disagree with me.  You are entitled & I am open to whatever is said so long as it is said in love & with respect for differing opinions. Floor's all yours.

Condemned man's last meal.

Boys will be boys.  And even that wouldn't matter if only we could prevent girls from being girls. ~ Anne Frank.
Theo is on a boat headed back to Hamilton Island where he works.    Despite the fact my sons drive me nuts I am nagged by the desire to tuck all my chicklets under my wing & under the one roof come nightfall.  I sleep better when I know the head count is right: 2 cats, 3 boys, 2 girls ~ & Dearest ~ all tucked up snug in their own warm beds, safe & cozy.  This wandering around the planet jangles my nerves.

So knowing he was going back today Theo asked for a *Last Meal* ~ which is invariably meatballs.  Meatballs is one of those time honoured childhood meals that nourish the soul as well as the body.  My brother, Mark, adored this meal & everywhere he went people served it up knowing they had a sure~fire winner.

It is a good thing he's gone back though.  Schooling has been at a minimum as the house has been in constant uproar for the last month. *sigh* The girls have been complaining loudly how noisy the boys are ~ noisy enough that  Liddy raised no objections at all about driving him in to the airport. ☺

Today the house reeks of Theo's aftershave & deoderant.  As I work my way through the debris & detritus he has left behind, calculating which small items of mine found their way into his possession, but not out again, I will gradually sweep up & tidy away all traces of his presence until, unexpectedly finding a forgotten shirt jammed behind a sofa cushion the faintest hint of his scent brings a rush of memories.  Life is full of bitter/sweet moments.

Update & Prayer Request..

We are guilty of many errors & many faults but our worst crime  is abandoning the children...Gabriela Mistra.

Many of you know my daughter, Liddy.  You know she has a heart for children & a heart for missions & the calling on her life is to minister to the street children of South America.

She applied to the mission field last year & was accepted ~ with some reservations.  Her age was against her ~ & the fact she looks about 12 instead of 21.  The fact she had never lived away from home counted against her & the fact that for most of her life her church home had been a little island church of barely 20 people.  She was asked to wait ~ & I can assure you that stung because not only was Liddy really sure of the call on her life  many of the mature Christians in her life were also very sure of that call ~ & told her so.  Still, wait she was asked to do & wait she did.

This week OM sent through confirmation of her acceptance.  This is a double whammy for me.  On one hand I am pleased & relieved because I am absolutely sure of the calling on Liddy's life.  I know without a doubt this is God's will for her life.  On the other hand I know that our time together grows short & that what is left will be filled to the brim with necessary things & little room to devote to her mother & family.  After all, she knows she can count absolutely on our love & support.

So there are some things I would ask the prayer sort amongst you to pray for:

1.  That her church missions would come on board with their support.
2. That all her financial support arrives smoothly.
3. That anything she needs to sort out with her church is sorted quickly & easily
4.  That her path will be made straight
5. That all the doors that need to open will open.
6. That despite the busyness her walk with God continues to grow deeper & stronger day by day.
7.  The last one is an odd one, but we wish to contribute to Liddy's cause as well [& also for Star's music career lol] despite my husband's disability & our financial situation so to this end Dearest has been busily putting together a home business out of his life~long hobby & could you pray for it's success so that we can meet the needs of both our girls.

Whew!  Exciting times.  Sad times.  Happy times.  I am planning international holidays. Waddya think, girls? Shall I buy a sombrero in preparation?

A day without radiation is a day without sunshine.

- A lot of people on my friends list never go outside, so this won’t apply to them.
I have a Facebook page.  Lots of you already know this because you're on my friends list.  I have Facebook because I have kids.  Liddy thinks it's easier to Facebook me than ring home ~ that aside it's the easy way to keep track of what my under age child is doing.  She's pretty good because basically she's a pretty good kid & I spend most of my Facebook time playing games.  I wanna talk, I come blog.
 
After 5 years or so I have a pretty random list of *friends*. Some actually are, some are on~line friends & some are...well, completely random.  And some are friends & family.  I'm not a huge fan of Facebook as a social network thing but as a social phenomenon it's weird.  How weird is weird?  Well, I have a *friend* I only know on Facebook.  She seems nice enough & she's a Christian & her posts are mostly kind & often interesting.  I don't often comment because she gets lots of males whose comments are downright harsh so I was shocked but hardly surprised when one gentleman derided another for the content of his Facebook page.
 
Now I have no idea what the content in question was ~ & I do not care ~ but it has raised a very interesting question for me.  I have noticed many Christians use Facebook to propagate their brand of Christianity &  they spend a lot of time arguing theology ~ which screws with my head.  I honestly don't see the point.  They hob~nob together in their own little enclave ~ & again, that is fine.  I do not care.  Why would I? But, huge but,  if the Holy Spirit has not convicted a person about something then condemning that person is a pretty useless act.  Thing number one.  Thing number two: I've logged onto my Facebook page some days & the comments that come up make my hair stand on end.  True.  Because not everyone on my friend's list is a Christian.
 
If you've read here long enough you know I'm not a big evangelizer.  I have a different sort of calling on my life & the Spirit rarely gives me opportunities to spread the word as such ~ not the way Liddy is always getting opportunities.  However here is the thing; I do get opportunities on Facebook to contribute a stray, gentle comment testifying to the Truth that resides within me ~ opportunities I would never get if I eradicated certain people off my friend's list. 
 
And so dear blogging buddies, if you are unfortunate enough to come across some highly dubious content on Facebook do not for a moment think I endorse this way of life but in charity & for Christ's sake remember that these may provide opportunities for outreach & the spreading of the kingdom of Grace.  Ditto for others you may know.  That is all.

To sleep, perchance to dream...Hamlet

In one of those random conversations with my older daughter I learnt not everyone dreams in vivid full screen technicolour.  I can see there might be advantages to dreaming in B&W ~ but I don't. I spent most of my adolescence in war zones fleeing across exposed landscapes to flimsy barns whose walls disintegrated around me under machine gun fire.  My sleep was hardly restful.  I would wake exhausted having spent my whole night running from the enemy while my adrenaline went through the roof.

I am a connoisseur of bad dreams, from the ball of string that went on forever [courtesy of this book] to the terrifying drift past stars & planets & galaxy after galaxy into the grey nether land of eternity!  More mornings than I care to number I've woken with the grim taste of dust & ashes in my mouth & my blood thrumming with anxiety ~ or worse the voices in my head jabbering like mad.  For years I put it down to bad t.v choices just before bed, an overactive imagination, an out of control sub~conscious but just recently I have noticed something ~ & it has nothing whatsoever to do with anything I do ~ or don't do.

When God starts nudging me the dreaming suddenly gets very bad.  I become restless in my sleep.  I know because Dearest starts complaining.  He is used to me sleeping like a log.  Once I start tossing & turning & moaning his chances of a restful night dissolve rapidly.  I wake exhausted as if carrying a heavy burden & when I go into prayer tears pour forth like the proverbial deluge. I start avoiding prayer.  Weeping for I know not what  hardly makes me feel  sane.

And then it starts: the verse here, a quote there, the story I heard once from the friend of a friend ~ a slow slow drift of ideas that coalesces into a log jam in my mind  & beaver~like forms a dam holding back a gush of words.

Now I'm not normally shy about telling the Lord what I think & it occurred to me that I could perfectly well write without all the angst ~ & do a better job with my head screwed on right way round & the emotional trauma on hold.  That, however, does not seem to be the way it works.  For His own purposes the Lord wants me to experience something of His burden & His heart in the message He conveys & so we do this slow dance wherein I try & squirm away from the burden, the great depths of sorrow as our Lord grieves for the world He created & the people He loved enough to die for, & the sense of urgency that the time does indeed grow short, the harvest is ripening in the fields yet the workers dally in their pleasure gardens playing with toys.

I don't like this place which leaves me exposed, emotionally raw & very vulnerable.  My instinct is to curl up, curl away, throw up my defences & protect the soft, delicate tissues of my inner being ~ but this is not allowed either.  And so, dear friends, over the coming days & weeks while I grasp its tail & ride the tiger, if you can spare a prayer or two my way I would be most grateful. Muchos gratias.

THE RAIN is raining all around,

It falls on field and tree,
It rains on the umbrellas here,
And on the ships at sea. R.L. Stevenson

Yesterday Star had dance class, Dino had cricket training & Liddy went to soccer.  Today it is raining & I am off to make *American* Pancakes ~ which are not really American but the result of me not clarifing cultural differences.  The full works.  Walnuts.  Cream. Icecream.  Maple syrup. Yum. I feel my waistline expanding already. There won't be leftovers so don't ask. ☺