Bible Verses and Meaningful Quotes

I've just read one of Michele's posts A Prayer and Scripture Journal where she links to another blogger's Scripture Journal, this particular blogger (a lady called Susan) has many organised categories in her journal.  Anyway, my own journals are messy and all over the place but I do have a system of saving scriptures and quotes into categories so that I can refer back to them when I want to.  I use envelopes.  When I come across a scripture or quote that is meaningful to me in some way I write it out on a small square of paper and save it in labelled envelopes.  Some scriptures/quotes may fit into many categories, in those cases I write them out a few times and save them in different relevant envelopes.  I keep the envelopes in my bedside drawer to refer to when I want.

It's easier to explain in pictures, Boots helps out in making my system more attractive as you will see. :)

All my different envelopes

Boots being helpful

Obviously caught a whiff of her armpit

Some of the categories - as you can see I can't spell repentance! :) LOL you can just see Boots' paws at the top of the photo.

The one on the right, 'A man will be satisfied with good by the fruit of his mouth' is full of scriptures that remind me to try to concentrate on speaking the good that God does rather than negative things (I need to read this often).

On the left you can see one of my scripture notes made on the little squares of paper.

Some examples from my Gossip/keeping secrets/covering shame envelope

Psalm 34:7 is in here twice.  Doubly meaningful! :)

Hope you enjoyed your little tour. :)

Don't take your Bible for granted!

This video really moved me. I think I take my pile of Bibles rather for granted when really the Bible is a treasure to be cherished.

Chinese Christians see Bible for the first time:

Who is in control?

Michele at Our Daily Work set me off thinking with her recent post about meekness, the quote she shares makes an excellent point about meekness and our responses to irritation.

One of the things I have learned is that often my anger or irritation comes from a number of sources - fear, indignation, frustration, a sense that I have lost control of a situation, self-righteousness.

I get very irate, for example, by the behaviour of certain drivers who seem to think it ok to drive along with two wheels on the pavement whilst I am walking past with my children.  I have had various altercations with people on this very score.  One van driver apologised to me and I graciously shouted at him, "AND I SHOULD THINK SO TOO!!", as I stalked off in the opposite direction, head held high with Squidge looking terribly embarrassed. LOL.

Here is the key to my anger in this situation: 1. Fear (of being hit by a car); 2. Indignation (at the idiots who seem oblivious to pedestrians); 3. Self-righteousness (I am right, the driver is wrong and I'm going to jolly-well make sure he/she knows that he/she is wrong!).  Result: Nine times out of ten I end up in a shouting match with some random stranger.  Who wins? No-one, I'm shaking with anger, Squidge and Chatterbox are embarrassed, and the driver of the car is either oblivious or angry and so screeches off and probably has a rotten afternoon perhaps driving the whole day on the pavement because no-one is going to tell me what to do!!

But I am right, I know I am right.  They are driving dangerously and illegally.  I have every right to make my anger known.  But, apart from the very sweet van driver who got a stern telling off and responded with an apology, most people are unaffected by my displeasure.  I see them week after week around the school and local streets doing the same thing. Too impatient to wait, they drive along with two wheels on the pavement to get past whatever is obstructing their path - pedestrians, other drivers, the road....

I get the same anger in relation to people who do not pick up their dog's poo.  "PICK UP YOUR DOG POO!" I shouted at some fella on the field near our house (NB: in the child's play area of all places thus justifying extra dollops of self-righteousness on my part), "YOU pick it up!!!" he screamed back.  You see, shouting at people just makes them angry and unreasonable.  It doesn't work.  But I digress...

One day, after such an altercation,  I heard in the quietness of my heart, "Who is in control?"  And I realised the answer.  My anger comes from fear - but God is in control - my anger comes from indignation - but God is in control - my anger comes from self-righteousness - but God is in control.

I don't always remember in time, sometimes my words of anger are out of my mouth before I remember, but God is still in control and I can rein myself in and take a step back to think.

If God is truly in control I have no reason to fear. If God is in control why am I indignant? Instead I should feel compassion for someone who has allowed impatience, or indifference, or whatever, to allow them to think it is OK to drive along the pavement when someone is walking past.  If God is in control, why do I feel so self-righteous?  If He is in control then the outward working of my life will be: love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23).

None of this precludes making an official complaint about someone who is driving dangerously (or whatever) and if one is feeling especially peaceful and full of the fruit of the Spirit (something that takes me about an hour of prayer to reach, lol, thus rather time consuming) it may be fruitful to speak to someone directly about something (also,difficult if they are driving, unless you throw yourselves under their wheels to make them stop, thus putting oneself in more danger than one was in the first place).  But what is does mean is that I can take a step back, to not allow circumstances or people to control my emotions, but to allow God control.

Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him;
Do not fret because of him who prospers in his way,
Because of the man who brings wicked schemes to pass.
Cease from anger, and forsake wrath;
Do not fret—it only causes harm.

~Psalm 37:7-8

If I rest I find peace.  If I react one day I'm going to get run over or have a coronary - LOL.

xx

The best laid schemes...

O' [Sarah], Gang aft agley,
An' lea'e us nought but grief an' pain.

Aye, Rabbie Burns knew what he was talking about.

Yes I have grand plans for the day, and I am ignoring the sense of impending doom that often clouds my big plans.

I AM GOING TO SORT OUT MY FILING!

This is my confident proclamation for the day.  The small print says that this will mean that by the time Gary gets home from work the house will be awash with a sea of paper and I will have a headache and be a bit grumpy.

But I don't ever read the small print, so I forge ahead.

Such a cute picture, just like my Boots.  From here: Flickr

It's a lovely day today. The sun is shining.  The washing is on the line.  The guinea pigs are pigging around the lawn hopefully reducing our need to get the lawnmower out. :)

I am absolutely not noticing the finger-prints and dust on the living room window that the sunshine is highlighting, no, it's not there, I can't see it. ;)

I have plans to pull out dandelions in the garden too, but one thing at a time.

Have a lovely day. xxx

Cooking, baking and being a general domestic goddess...

It's hard to admit in the world of Mommy blogs that I am RUBBISH in the kitchen.  Facebook knows it well, I am often lamenting some kitchen disaster or another.

I have a talent for burning food and oven gloves.  I nearly killed me and Chatterbox once with an incident with an oven glove, we nearly passed out from the smoke - so toxic and thick. Urgh - BE CAREFUL WITH OVEN GLOVES (they should come with a health warning).  At work I burned a hole in an oven cloth, they were amazed.  No-one had ever managed to burn an oven cloth before on a hot plate that wasn't hot enough to burn an oven cloth.  Yes my people, if Britain's Got Talent ever allowed me on the show I would most certainly win, but I feel that it's a talent I should only share with my family.

Rice - always gets burned.  So, I tried to make it in the microwave yesterday, I followed some instructions I found online to the letter and it boiled over.  I open the door and it floods my countertop.  Then I can't pick up the microwave plate because it's covered in boiling hot water.  If I pick it up with my new super dooper flame, burn, heat resistant expensive oven gloves that Gary bought me (which already has holes in because of my previously mentioned miraculous oven glove burning ability) then the water would seep through the oven glove causing me to drop the plate.  So I had to put plastic bags over my oven gloves to stop the hot water seeping through and scalding me.

*sigh*

Cakes and pizza are awful.  I must admit this isn't just my fault, I have a slimline oven which is terrible.  The heat is too intense (I think the heating elements are in the base, top AND sides).  Cake and pizza is burned at the edges and uncooked in the middle.  Even if I turn down the oven temperature they still burn around the edges and are uncooked in the middle.  So frustrating.

However, I've just seen on Sandra's blog that you can enable a cake to cook evenly by wrapping damp towel strips around the edges of a cake tin.  I might try that and see if I have any success!  Here's her post: Cleaning, Cake, Cooking.  Oh and if you love cooking visit her food blog, Full Bellies, Happy Kids one of her lasagne recipes I adapted for us and it is a great success - one of my few culinary successes LOL!

I can make a great baked potato though!  Actually I'm OK if I concentrate - I'm one of those people who is always doing 3 things at once.  You can't always do that with cooking.   You need to be checking and stirring.  Instead I set something cooking, wander off, get distracted and am brought back to reality by a loud hissing spitting noise or the smoke alarm going off. :)

Stuff and nonsense

I don't know why the title. LOL

It's been a wonderful Easter holidays, the girls have been off school and I've been off work since Good Friday, we all return on Monday next week.

I'm quite nervous returning to work.  I have been working in the school kitchen now for almost three years, but on Monday I start work in the school office.  It's more hours over four days a week.  It'll be interesting at first getting into a new routine, so if I don't post here or visit your blog you'll understand!  I'm rather nervous because it's more hours, but rather excited because I'm back in a job I think I do well - those who know me know that catering in any form is not my biggest talent! :)

So last week we did two exciting things - we visited the Lake District (see my previous post for some AMAZING photos of the beautiful landscape) and we bought a new car!  Well, new to us.  It's so SHINY!

This week so far I've visited Granddad (Dad's dad) on Monday with the girls, he's doing well - thank you to those blog friends who have been praying for him, please continue to pray though. In the afternoon Chatterbox had a friend over for tea, which was fun.  Yesterday I went to see my Grandma (Mum's mum) in the morning, in the afternoon me and the girls did some drawing and then went on a bit of a walk. Today I need to try to get some cleaning and ironing done.  Tomorrow I'm not sure...

Hope you're having a great week! :)

Beeeeuuuutiful Lake District

We spent a night away at the Lake District - Windermere to be exact - we had a lovely time. Cumbria has had some SERIOUS snow, some of it beat the snow we got around our house recently (big snowdrifts everywhere!), but the snow only remained really on the higher ground, it made the mountains and hills beeeeuuutiful!

Lots of trees to climb

Aira Force- Aira from old Norse meaning gravel bank, force is a northern English word for waterfall.

Skimming stones