Plans and Locusts

Thanks for dropping by, I hope all is going well in your world :-)

Have you had those moments when the lightbulb goes off?  I'm not talking about a power cut, here - I mean that second when the penny drops, the light blinds you and you suddenly come to an earth-shattering realisation.

I had a couple recently - although not quite enough to register on the Richter scale.  And I got excited. I realised that a couple of promises I was given years ago have actually come to pass. Let me explain.

Plans:

At the end of 2012, our circumstances were such that we had to move house.  The rental house we were in was sold; and with the offspring moving out, and a stack of bills/debts, we were not able to stay in the city we lived in.  Around about the same time, a small flat became available in a town about 40 minutes drive away.  My inital reaction was Nuh-Uh.  No way!  Absolutely not!!  Among other reasons, we would be going from a 3-bedroom house with gas heating, garage for storage, and a decent fenced yard, to a one-bedroomed self-contained flat with no heating.  Period.  Plus it meant longer travel time to work. And the town wasn't exactly the greatest place in the area. So, after lengthy discussions, I told Wookieeman "No", and went to bed.  And thought.

The next morning, I went out to the dining room where my hubby was, and said to him, "OK, let's do it."  His response? "Are you serious??  Who are you and what have you done with my wife??"

You see, my mind was made up that there was no way on God's green earth I was interesting in living in the small town. But the maker of said green earth had other ideas, and wouldn't let me have a closed mind about it.  

So how does all this tie in with promises? What promise am I waffling on about? 

 Jeremiah 29:11-12

That one.

We have been living in said one-bedroomed self-contained flat since November 2012.  It's been a huge adjustment for me - WookieeMan has lived here before, so it wasn't so difficult for him.  But since we've been here, we have experienced times of trials and troubles.  Such as:

Being on one income for about six months:  If we had stayed in the city, we would not have survived financially. 

Selling one car, and relying on one for both of us:  The car we sold belonged to the DP, who asked us to sell it.  While it did create an inconvenience, it was one less vehicle that needed warrants, rego, running costs, etc.  It also meant I had to start using the local bus transport, which was not always a wonderful experience.  But it left our car available for WookieeMan as he continued on his recovery journey.

Financial recovery:  When we moved here, paying the bills was a big struggle; the power bill was in the high hundreds, and the phone bill wasn't far behind.  We had to learn to cut back and live within our means.  We have awesome friends and family - including our church - who helped us occasionally, but it was a huge learning experience.  Thanks to tips and techniques we learnt through CAP Money (www.CAPmoney.org), we DID it!! And we are still heading in the right direction - praise God!  As a bonus, our power bill has been in credit, and the phone bill is also heading that way.  Woop woop!!!!

Locusts:

While I was a member of the Salvation Army, we had an interesting period where for about 4 weeks our officer (pastor) tried to deliver his sermon.  And for 4 weeks, the Spirit wouldn't let him.  It was a time of revelations, healings, teachings, etc... including, for me, the following promise:

Joel 2:25

²⁵ “I will repay you for the years the locusts have eaten — 

 the great locust and the young locust, the other locusts and the locust swarm..."

If you've read my earlier posts, you'll be aware that my formative years and beyond were not all laughter and roses.  Anything but.  So there was a lot of "locust damage" hanging around.  But God brought people to me to help in all sorts of ways:  not only to provide guidance, friendship and love, but also to teach me about love, respect, acceptance, judgement, honesty, truth and worth.

By far, one of the most influential people the Lord has given me ... is my husband.  We have both learnt a lot about and from each other, and about and from others.  Very recently, an incident occured that left me concerned about how he would react to it; past history with my father - not good - about a similar event was very much in the back of my mind.  But WookieeMan was wonderful.  He looked after me, and did everything he could to SHOW me that while it was a biggie, the outcome certainly could have been a whole lot worse, and that it's ok.  I was like, "huh??  You have every right to be fuming mad, but you're not.  How does that work, again?"

Friends, that right there was some major healing for a whole lot of my locust damage. And there have been other healing times with him.  He loves me for the person that God made me to be. And I am more important to him that anything else, except our Lord.  We've been married aince 2009 years.  He's 8 years my junior.  And he is more of a man than anyone I have ever known.  

I thank God so very much for the gift of my WookieeMan.  Neither of us have any doubt that God brought us together for reasons known only to Him.

If you don't believe what I say about the promises, hey - that's cool.  But you are more than welcome to find out for yourself.  I've been talking to a good friend of mine recently, who I would say is an agnostic.  But she listens to what I have to say, without giving me a slap upside the head (for which I am very grateful!)  And I'd like to share something that I shared with her:

My bible has this commentary for John 20:24-28:  "Some people need to doubt before they believe.  If doubt leads to questions, questions lead to answers, and the answers are accepted, then doubt has done good work.  It is when doubt becomes stubborness and stubbornness becomes a lifestyle, that doubt harms faith.  When you doubt, don't stop there.  Let your doubt deepen your faith as you continue to search for the answer."

Don'tcha just LOVE it when we're given the OK to explore, and question?  That's how we learn.  And when we join the flock, it will be because we know that's where we're meant to be - not because someone says we have to.

 

Now I want you to head out there, and have one of the BEST days of your life!!  And I'll see you later!!

See you back here real soon!!

 

Yes, That's Life - But It's Never All It Seems

Michael Buble sings about it; someone made a board-game about it; and let's not forget the COUNTLESS movies, documentaries, games, etc, etc about it.  Yep, life can be a very prosperous money-maker for a lot of people. But not everyone.

There's an adage that says "kids should come with a handbook". Oh, if only!!!  What a money-spinner that would be!!!  But who thinks that life needs one, too?  Me!!

For some people, their handbook is the Bible; indeed, the Word of God is absolutely chocka with guidelines for so many different aspects of living.  For others, they might turn to self-styled gurus who have the multi-million-dollar lifestyles paid for by their TV shows and hundreds of books. And others yet might seek advice from friends and/or family.

If you have seen my previous "life" post, you would have noticed it provided a glimpse into the chicky behind the Goof.  And, as with everyone else, there is a back story to that person.

The cute photos hid an extremely dysfunctional family life, the shadow of which continued right through to adulthood.  They don't show the reality of a deeply shy little girl, and young woman, who struggled to make friends and have rgular peer relationships; a girl who was such a sook that if anyone looked at her the wrong way, she'd go crying to her older sister.  Nor do they depict the child who was a Daddy's girl, until someone told him he was too soft with her, so he went to the opposite extreme.  The comments about my love of food are quite correct.  Comfort eating was my friend, my way of dealing with the loneliness, bullying, and fighting at home, as well as subsequent issues in adulthood, including depression.  As to be expected, the weight went on, and wasn't letting go without a fight.  It's something I still struggle with, but now I'm comin' out swingin' at it!!

Don't get me wrong, my formative years weren't all doom and gloom.  It just seemed that way.  Materially, we had everything we needed, and a lot of what we wanted.  I'm the first to admit that I was a spoilt brat when I was a kid, and still was spoilt - although not as much - right up to when my mother passed on 5 years ago.  But the emotionally nurturing that we really needed wasn't there; it was a home of anger, control and fear, not love.

Which led me to vow that when I became a mother, I would make sure that my kids would not have the same kind of upbringing.  And I hope I acheived that goal.  We certainly had our struggles as the offspring grew and developed to adulthood.  But certain health issues helped to develop an incredible bond between us that still stand strong to this day.  And I am extremely pleased with that. Life as a single parent meant that I couldn't provide everything we wanted, but that was a good thing, because we learnt

• (a) to make do with what we had, and don't be too proud to accept a helping hand; and 
• (b) that material possessions don't matter as much as we think.

Gosh, that all seems really depressing, doesn't it?  And that's only some of it.  But I promise it's not all gloomy-gus fodder.  In fact, there have been a whole lot of positive stemming from what was seemingly a life-time of negatives.




For example, my faith.

The Bible classes I went to in primary school was the fertile ground that the mustard seed was planted in.  A brief sojourn into the New Age spiritual arena as an adult helped me realise that wasn't for me.  Ironically, it was becoming a single mum that helped me get my foot in the door of the Salvation Army - and I was on my way.

Now, some 20+ years down the track, I'm a baptised, bible-studying, psalm-singin' Christian, who owes a whole lot to my Heavenly Father for not giving up on a sinner like me.  HALLELUJAH!!!

And then there's friendship.

When I was younger, all I wanted was to be popular, and have a lot of friends.  Now I know it's not that important.  I can count the number of really good friends I have on ten fingers or less: some from high school,  some from churches, some from that great university of life - including My Wonderful WookieeMan.  Oh, there are quite a few aquaintences, but only a few that I know I can turn to in the not-quite-so-rosy times.

So BlondeFT, BodyGuard, Baroness, FarmGirlScout, Crafty, WookieeMan - I thank you all for your friendship and support, and your help along the way over the years to becoming the Goof I am today. Love you all in my own way.



 

Let's see, what else is there...?  Oh yeah - the lessons

No matter where we come from, no-one is immune to problems or struggles.  There isn't one person in this great big ol' world of ours that hasn't been touched by something:- whether it be health or financial issues, dysfunction in family or relationship, unemployment, homelessness; everyone from presidents and royalty, celebrities and politicians, millionaires and professionals, right on down to the person at the food bank or soup kitchen. 

I had a timely reminder of this the other day, in the supermarket.  There was a family of three adults and 2 young children.  One of the adults was keeping the kids entertained in the trolley, the problem was that their squeals of glee were just that - squeals, bordering on screams and shrieks.  It seemed that no matter where I was in the supermarket, they weren't that far away, and it was really starting to get to me a bit.

Halfway through my shopping, I noticed that there was something different about this group:  two of the adults were using sign language.  I found that that the whole family - including the kids - had some level of deafness.  But if I hadn't stopped to ask them about the signing (and communicate with them in my very ultrabasic NZSL), I never would have known.  It made a big difference, and the two littlies gave me such beaming smiles and waves when they saw me again at the checkouts.

Everyone has a story - but unless we take a chance to find out, we just don't know what it is.  And so we go on in our own judgemental way.

~//~

Well, it's nearly that time of year again.  Only a few more sleeps till December 25.  The Silly Season; commemoration of Jesus' birth; a time to eat, drink and/or be merry; be with family and friends.  Whatever you do this holiday season, whether you celebrate Christmas or Hannukah, or just let the day go by with no special acknowledgment, I wish you all a very safe and happy festive season, and a very prosperous 2015.  God bless you all.

 

Mere Kirihimete!!                    

Merry Christmas!

Y'all come back now, y'hear?!