she matters

UNLESS THE LORD BUILDS THE HOUSE.... (Part 1)

2011-06-11T14:56:00.008+10:00

Lately I cannot stop meditating ( SELAH-ING) this psalm 127:

Unless the Lord builds the House, those that build it labour in vain,

Unless the Lord watch over the city, the watchmen stay awake in vain.

It is vain to rise early, and stay up late eating the bread of sorrows,

So He gives His beloved sleep.

Lo, children are a heritage of the Lord,

The fruit of the womb , His reward.

As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man ( warrior)
So are children of the youth.

Happy is the man that has his quiver full of them:

they shall not be ashamed, but they shall speak to

the enemies in the gate.

This psalm came about in my life a few months ago when an incident occurred in our family. The details are not important, but it made me upset and that night I lay in bed thinking about it.

Now I have NEVER memorised or learnt by heart the above psalm, but word for word, it started to come to me.... I got to the part about :

IT IS VAIN TO RISE EARLY AND STAY UP LATE EATING THE BREAD OF SORROWS, FOR SO HE GIVES HIS BELOVED SLEEP.

Instantly I stopped and I said to myself: "yes Lord, I am NOT going to stay up late thinking over this, mulling over it, rehashing it, I am going to go to sleep. And so I did and what a beautiful sleep I had! And I arose the next day and decided to look up where that psalm was... and do you know what the next line was?

LO, CHILDREN ARE A HERITAGE FROM THE LORD, THE FRUIT OF HIS WOMB A REWARD. ( Because the incident that upset me was to do with one of my children).

I was blown away! Now I was curious and drawn into reading the rest of the psalm. It goes on to speak about how children are like arrows and how we shall not be ashamed but speak to the enemy at the gate. I was amazed that this psalm was actually referring to the building of a house.

My house,
my family,

my marriage
my children!

( You may have already knew this psalm was about this, but I am a little slow at 'getting it' sometimes).

In conjunction with this, God has been speaking to me about living life from a place of rest so my sister and I were conversing about how to do family life better, without the stress and without the burnout. So recently I have also added ( or maybe I should say subtracted) the principle of only doing what God has asked me to do!

This may seem obvious, but unknowingly in life we can ADD things into our family life without really consulting the Lord about it! Then we wonder why we get overloaded and exhausted.

So the next verse in Psalm 127, that God has been highlighting to me is: UNLESS THE LORD BUILD THE HOUSE THEY THAT BUILD IT LABOUR IN VAIN.... Hello!! If God has not added it in there, if He has not built it into the fabric of our family, household, then we are BUILDING IT OURSELVES, AND IT IS ALL IN VAIN!!

Let me give you two recent and very seemingly small examples which have shown me that God Himself is building our house.

EXAMPLE NO.1

I have 5 children still at home and of course the older ones are at an age where I have considered putting them in 'extra-curricula' activities ( sport, instruments, music etc). But due to my little ones being 2yrs and 3yrs I am hesitant to be dragging them around at the expense of the others. Also at the expense of my health and stamina!! In the meantime, my husband meets with a friend of his for coffee on Thursdays and his son, 'just happens' to go to boys brigade. My husband went one night with his friend to pick up his son and my husband really liked it. So he came home and asked me if we should put 'Boody' our almost 7yr old into Boys Brigade. It sounded ok to me and looked fun. It was full of 'boy' things like knot tying, rope activities, camping. The other advantage was that it was just down the bottom of our street so it was no hassle to get him to and from there. Now we never went looking for this, but God ordered our steps and ADDED or BUILT it into our family life! Our almost 7yr old son loves it! We honestly never would of considered it, but there it was, and it was effortless. Also God is good at doing 'Exceeding abundant' and now our two girls ( 8yrs, 10yrs) go also to the girls brigade. Same night, same time, same place. Is that not God???????? The mummy of the house ( that would be me) gets a Thursday night to herself as I put the two young ones down, and there you have it. Happy mummy, happy children, happy husband. HAPPY LIFE!

UNLESS THE LORD BUILDS THE HOUSE.......

EXAMPLE NO. 2 -
I have always felt bad because we didn't have a pet. Our house and yard is too small for a dog, ( I don't like cats), and fish are boring! So this year my husband, ( he's always the key player in the story!!) started a new job and has his new offices are up near the animal welfare league ( home for lost and stray, homeless pets). He started talking to the girl who worked there who suggested that He could adopt some guinea pigs! So we said that would be fun, and brought home one over the long weekend. We all fell in love with them, and long story short, we now have two guinea pigs! And those guinea pigs have added another dimension to our family. The children are enjoying feeding them, patting them, cuddling them. And Happy mummy again, because they are so low maintenance! I really don't have to do anything! Again we would never have considered or looked at guinea pigs as pets, but God ordered out steps and BUILT them into our house. And because God is a God of 'Exceeding Abundant", my friend who has a dog, comes twice a week in the afternoon and picks up 2 (sometimes 3) of our children and takes them to the dog park to run around with her dog and all the other dogs! So my children are getting their dog 'fix' without the hardwork!! Don't you love it!!

I have so much more to glean from this one Psalm and I am so loving what God is showing me so far.
How has God been building your house?? I would love to hear your families 'building' stories.

RESTING IS SO PRODUCTIVE

2011-04-23T19:35:00.008+10:00

LIVE LIFE FROM A PLACE OF REST!
I heard this statement recently at a women's conference and it has not kept resounding through my whole being. To live my life from a position of REST sounds waaaay more appealing than trying to create my own life from a position of manipulating events, controlling situations and fearing the future.

REST just sounds so peaceful. That very word makes you almost want to exhale, breathe out and smile. REST according to my cute little oxford pocket dictionary is: be still, cease from exertion or action, quiet, settled, tranquil. So how am I to live my life from a place of REST? Where is THAT place where I am still, quiet, settled in my heart and am no longer exerting myself or striving unecessarily?
I remember when I read a few years ago one of my favourite books Captivating the authors also spoke of the beauty of a woman at rest. They contrast these two scenes:

Caught in traffic, horns blaring, people shouting obscenities. Exhaust pouring into your windows suffocating you. Does this scene make you feel tense and unable to relax? Now remember what it is like to come into a beautiful place, a garden or a meadow or a quiet beach. There is room for your soul. It expands. You can REST. It is good. ALL IS WELL.

As I read those words I remembered thinking, 'How does my family see me? Like a noisy, blaring ,rushed woman in the traffic jam of life? OR do they see a calm, peaceful wife and mum that is saying in essence " Everything is going to be OK (all is well) just breathe, laugh and it will all be good?" I had moments of rest, but not really living a continual life OF REST.

Hebrews talks about living life from a place of rest. In chapter 4 the Word speaks of the people entering into GOD'S REST. It was readily available and an open invitation was (is ) given to ENTER INTO THAT REST.

For we which have beleived do ENTER INTO REST, as He said, I have sworn in My anger, if they shall enter into my rest: although the works were finished from the foundations of the world. There remains therefore a REST to the people of God. For he (she) that is entered into HIS REST, he (she) also has ceased from his (her ) own works, as God did from His.(vs 9-10)

God is not stressed at all! He did everything He had to do back when He laid the foundations of the World and He sat back and rested. He had it all sorted! So if the awesome God who created this whole amazing, huge universe is not at all phased, why should I be? The verse above says than when we enter in to His rest, we CEASE FROM OUR WORKS as He did from His. We don't have to be doing loads and loads of great works to be living a life that is full. We just need to be at rest and do what He would ask us to do.

How do we live our life from a place of rest?

Trust Him.

Trust His word.

Allow our 'doing' to switch to 'being'.

Wait for His small promptings.

Know yourself and what you are 'wired' for.

Allow the LORD to position you in life.

Don't try and do it all yourself.

You are far more productive when you are resting! Kind of an oxymoron. But living life from a place of REST brings far more lasting results than from a place of trying to force your life into the way you think it should go.

REST in Him. REST in His love. That is true Rest. Going to bed each night not exhausted from doing, but at peace because I did today what HE asked me to do.

Joshua 21: 44- And the Lord gave them REST all around, according to all that He swore unto their fathers: and there stood not a man of all their enemies against them, the LORD delivered their enemies into their hand. Not a word failed of any good thing which the LORD had spoken unto the house of Israel, ALL CAME TO PASS.

RE-ESTABLISHING VILLAGE LIFE

2011-02-25T21:19:00.000+10:00

....the highways were deserted and the travellers walked through byways,

VILLAGE LIFE HAD CEASED, they ceased in Israel,

Until I, Deborah, arose A MOTHER IN ISRAEL.

Judges 5: 6-7

Deborah, from the book of Judges is known for leading an army into battle and prevailing against her enemy. In her day, she was a judge, prophetess and a warrior. But as I read her victory song in chapter 5, I was captured by the above words. Her heart sang of a time when highways were full of people coming and going. Travellers passing through small towns. Villages full of life! Now as she looked around........village life was no longer existent.

No body connected anymore.

Community was gone.

Her heart cry, the MOTHER heart within her, rose up! She was moved to the battle field to see village life re-established!

I too felt this pang in my heart and have yearned to see community established again. Iwanted my children to know their neighbourhood. But not just know them -LOVE THEM! We are made for connection. We cannot isolate ourself. Recently I heard of a man who had died in his apartment and had been dead for 3 months before anyone noticed! He had no-one, not even his neighbours that knew he was gone. I was so disturbed by that it just made me even more determined to make effort to connect so that the lonely, the marginalized are made a part of our community.

It was so overwhelming I didn't to know where to start, how to re-build. But I have realised that it is as simple as opening up

our hearts,

our hands

and our homes.

When the Lord had gently whispered to me about loving my street, I knew he had birthed in me a desire to create community. So I started just doing little things, like talking to the neighbours, making meals for the mum's in the street that just had babies. Then we started to gather and had some street breakfasts. Everyone just brings along something and we set up tables on the driveway and just eat breakfast and talk.

My favourite recently has been a young chinese neighbour who has only moved over from China recently. She would see me in the street with my children and ask me questions about cooking Australian food and also parenting questions (yikes! not good at answering those). Then she asked me to teach her some australian recipes and she showed me how to make chinese dumplings. She came over to my house with her notepen and paper and I was so amazed at her hunger to learn. We had (are having) such fun and she is so amazing!

What I discovered in my little journey of 'village life' is this its a simple as

just making yourself available.

Our neighbourhood is now a place where everyone comes out onto the street and chats, plays, stops and takes time. I love what I am seeing God do in all of our hearts. As we extend, He knits our hearts together. I feel Deborah's heartbeat and I will arise a 'mother' in my street, in my town to see village life buzzing again!!

WHO AM I?

2011-01-28T20:28:00.000+10:00

I have been on a journey of answering the question of who am I for the last two years. I have been a mum for 21years, a wife for 10 years, a daughter for 41 years, a redeemed daughter for 20years.......But who am I really?

Layer by layer I bravely peeled away one strip at a time.

The layers of clothes that I used to portray who I was.
The pleasing of others to be accepted.
The do's and don'ts of wives.
The do's and don'ts of mothers.
What a 'good' well behaved woman acts like.
How my house should look.
How to be better organised.
How to be 'successful'........ and on and on and on the list goes.

Finally I came to the end of myself ( which is a good thing!), and I realized that I CANNOT do all those things and therefore NEITHER IS ANYONE ELSE! I had fully convinced myself that I was the only one not measuring up to these standards, when I finally started to lift my eyes and dare to ask a few questions of myself and others.

Who set these standards anyway?
When do I know I've fully attained everything to a satisfying standard?
Was this an indication I could never fully be a TRUE woman
Who really cares about all this anyway?

My questions led me on a journey of unveiling layers and peeling back lies that had wrapped themselves around my very identity of who I am.
This is what I have discovered. This is WHO I AM.
I am HIS.
The Creator of this whole universe.
The Magnificent Holy Father.
The One who made me and knows me.
That is who I am.
AND THAT IS WHO YOU ARE. NOTHING ADDED, NOTHING TAKEN AWAY. JUST BEAUTIFUL AND LOVED.
Isn't that freeing? Isn't that beautiful?
THE ONLY STANDARD I NEED TO HAVE IN MY LIFE IS HIS STANDARD. HIS STANDARD WHISPERS: 'I FORMED YOU, I LOVE YOU, I THINK YOU ARE BEAUTIFUL.'

I woke up the other morning with a few words running through my head. So I started to write them into some poetic form. I haven't really wrote poetry since my High School days, but this is just what formed onto the paper:

REFLECTION

Putting aside the outward tools that I use to adorn,

And looking beyond the girl in front of me,

so discontent, so forlorn.

I ask myself - Is this really me? The make-up, the clothes, the hair,

What if I took all this away,

would I even still be there?

In my heart I yearned for more than this reflection in the glass,

And to see my true beauty, not just hide behind a mask.

I scream inside - Does anyone want to know who I truly am?

Or do you only want to be with me when I'm all glitz and glam?

Bravely I start peeling pieces off my battered weary soul,

Layers placed there years ago, that now hide all the gold

'Your Beautiful!' I heard a whisper from Heaven up above.

'I made you just the way I wanted to, that's who I truly love.'

Could this be true? I dared to beleive that I WAS beautiful and loved,

Not just because I wear great clothes or be someone that I'm not.

I had heard long ago in childhood days

that I myself was first to love,

if I am to love others well, and show them heaven from above

But somehow along the days gone by, I had forgotten this gem of truth,

Until these words unearthed the gold

" YOUR BEAUTIFUL! I LOVE YOU JUST FOR YOU!"

New Year! New Perspective!

2011-01-01T13:01:00.010+10:00

I am loving going into a new year! There is something amazingly freeing about it! Its like it is a new adventure, a new chance for loving and living. We have a tradition that first started with just my husband and me and now our children participate as well.

Every new years day, the first day of that new year, we all gather around the table and talk about our dreams and goals for the year and the future. Even the little ones grab their little notepad and pencil and write down what they hope to acheive.

It is a time of focus, perspective , re-alignment and great possibilites. Nothing is too big. We allow them to dream big! We write them down, talk about them, encouage one another and truly beleive as a family that we can do more than last year.

We don't tend to reflect too much on last years shortcomings and failures, because we are moving forward, forgetting the past and keeping our eye fixed on the greater prize. If its one thing we have learnt in 2010, it is about just getting back up and dusting ourselves off, and being one another's cheerleaders! This has been what we have built into out family culture in 2010, so now we are using it as a spring board for bigger and greater things.

Although we plan our goals and dreams, we fully know that obstacles may come and we have learnt to be flexible and navigate another path if needed to get to what we are shooting for!

When I say we, I should really say 'ME'. Because I was always wanting to make sure the path was all cleared and set up ready to go BEFORE I took a step. 2010 has taught me to just start running into the forest and that we will deal with the bears as they come! It is definitely a more 'risky' way to live, but I am loving it. For too long, I was little miss planner, that had to know what the risk was before I did it. Now I am looking forward to a year of UNPREDICTABILITY!

It says in His Word 'without Faith it is impossible to please GOD..' Hebrews 11:6. And as God gently reminded me one day "Fiona, I am not in the predictable, in the known, I am out in the UNKNOWN."

So I am looking forward to all He has for me and my family in 2011.

HAPPY NEW YEAR ALL MY BEAUTIFUL FRIENDS! DIVE IN!

Two roads diverged in a wood,

and I-- I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference (Robert Frost)

THINGS I'M LOVING RIGHT NOW

2010-10-31T20:16:00.020+10:00

What I am reading right now:
My much loved copy of Selected essays by RALPH WALDO EMERSON. I bought this copy years ago at the op shop for $2. I love it!! He is a profound philosopher and poet from the 1800s who challenged the society of the day and people to not just believe everything they hear but question it and really be true to yourself about who you are and what you stand for!

Here is the handsome chappy himself! Here is a dose of some of his profoundness...

'My life is for itself and not a spectacle. I much prefer that it should be of a lower strain, so it be genuine and equal, than that it should be glittering and unsteady'

And another gem.....
'What I must do is what concerns me , not what the people think.'

And another....

' it is easy in the world to live after the world's opinion; it is easy in solitude to live after our own; but the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude.'

Don't you just love it! I do! There are heaps more. So that is what is feeding my mind right now. Great thoughts! By the way,do you like his comb over :)

What I am wearing right now?

My beautiful heart earrings from my sister They are so simple, so delicate, so me. I wear them with everything!

My Christian Dior nightie!! My mum gave it to me. She had it in her cupboard for years and has NEVER worn it! So I love the softness of it, the embroidery on it. It is so comfortable to sleep in. And I feel like I'm from a Jane Austen movie when I put it on. Mind you, sleeveless is probably a little 'risque' for our Jane Austen heroines ;)

What I am eating right now: My latest healthy alternative to choc balls. Simply blend in the food processor: nuts ( I used cashews and brazil nuts), dates and add cocoa. Then roll in coconut! Even my hubby who has a sweet tooth loves them. MMM!

Spirulina! Green superfood! Keeps my energy levels up. I put it in my fresh orange juice..... but it is definitely not something I would call yum! I just keep telling myself "Fiona , this is good for you"!

What I am making right now:

A cute little silk make-up purse. I have had this silk for ages in my fabric box, so I decided it would look nice as a make-up holder for lippy etc. I used the press studs up the top because I am loving them muchly right now! My friend bought me the press stud kit which comes with a little weird tool that you hit with a hammer and bang the studs together. It is great because it is heaps faster than sewing buttons or doing zippers! Just hit with a hammer and your done. Good therapy to for vented up frustration ( just kidding)!

White removable slipcovers for my armchair! Yah! I would never attempted this before as I was so scared of messing it up. But now my attitude is 'give anything a try because it doesn't have to be perfect' and voila I did it! I just saw a blog post with pictures on how to make it, and thought I can do that! Now I am so excited because I am going to do my whole large corner lounge and I get to have it just the way I want it!

So what are you LOVING RIGHT NOW?

Repairer of the Breach

2010-10-06T14:54:00.001+10:00

God's words leapt out to me as I read from the Living Word that day over 5 years ago. They leapt straight off the page and like an injection of liquid love, it seeped directly ito my heart.

In Isaiah He said :

And your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt;

you shall raise up the foundations of many generations;

you shall be called the repairer of the breach,

the restorer of streets to dwell in.

I started to cry. What the Lord was speaking to me about was women. The breakdown in generations of women imparting to each other, women connecting. Women needing each other. At that stage in my life, I was at home with little ones, I had just had my 5th baby and I was feeling so isolated. I tried to squeeze myself in somewhere, but I just wasn't fitting.

I fell into the in between category. I was not totally young. I was thirty-five. I had already been raising two sons on my own for the past 8 years, now I was re-married and we had, had 3 more children, so I was juggling new marriage and wondering how to mother 5 children.

The only advice I seemed to receive was a slight chuckling as they recalled 'those days' and ended their comment with a releif that they were over that season in their life. So I tried to join in, in a quest to discover what a real women was/is. Of course I was too old for the young girls, but too young for the old girls. I had tried to attend bible study but of course, I was the YOUNGEST one there, and it was not really 'convenient' to bring my little ones. I wanted to connect, but found it didn't really cater for my season in life.

I saw on Sundays how the 'older' people sat on one side of the church, and the 'younger' people sat on the other. I attended women's gatherings only to find mostly older women there. I started to do my own research. I would ask questions like ' Where are all the young girls? Why don't the young girls come?' I had replies mumbled such as, 'They are busy working.' Or something of that nature. I started to ask the young girls, 'Why don't you talk to the older ladies?' They jokingly replied that, 'the older ladies just ignored them.' I probed further. 'What do you think of when you hear the word 'Women.' The younger girls gave me words like, ' Old, craft, grandma.' Wow! Now I was unveling something.

I really wanted to see women connect.

I wanted the word WOMAN to be something that evoked thoughts of

beauty

love

kindness

being fully alive

This is the point I was at when, the Lord chose to speak to me that day. I was stuck in the middle. That's when the passage in Isaiah spoke directly to my heart. What I heard Him say in essence was:

Fiona, You are going to be one who gathers women together. You are positioned exactly in the right place because you are right in the middle. I have given you favour with the younger ones and favour with the older ones. You are going to dig up those ancient ruins (old ways of thinking) and you are going to be a repairer of the breach ( fix up that BIG GAP) and you are going to be a restorer of those streets ( put women back on that right path) that UNITED (not separate) they can start to make a difference.

This day I feel like the heavens opened and I received a mandate from God himself.

Slowly I sarted to be purposeful. I started to just plant small seeds about women being more powerful together. I started to encourage individually to each group their power and influence that they have united. It started small, but momentum started to gather. They actually started liking each other. Once those 'old waste places' were being destroyed, new foundations were starting to be laid.

They started looking beyond the differences and walking on common ground.

The common ground is this: WE ARE ALL WOMEN. WE ARE ALL DAUGHTERS LOVED BY OUR HEAVENLY FATHER.

We may be single, married, widowed, mothers, non-mothers, grandmothers, working, at home, divorced, but we are all WOMEN. So instead of looking at what we didn't have in common, we started to look at what we did have in common.

Little did I know that I was not alone in my quest, or that I was not the only one crying out for this connection. That it was in fact the time on earth for this message of connection to start being heard.
I love seeing women of all ages gathering together, just to celebrate that they are loved women. Many different pasts and experiences, but one common cause. I beleive it is the season right now for women to grasp the beauty of who they are. I see so much more of this being unveiled in a greater measure across the globe.

How do we repair the breach? What does that look like on an everyday basis? Maybe its calling a girlfriend and just letting her know you are thinking of her. Maybe if you are older, its looking for those young mums that are just frazzled and need a little help at home. It could just be a coffe with someone you want to get to know. If you are a mum amongst the busy-ness of running the house, you could just extend your hand to a younger single woman and open your home in the midst of chaos to allow to pour into her life while she watches you 'do life' on an everyday basis. Talk amongst the noise!
Maybe if you are a young single girl, you could be a 'big sister' to a teen girl looking for some direction. All it takes is a stepping forward.
Women connected are so powerful.
The more women 'fill the gaps' the more we grow into a fullness of who we are created to be.

We can't do it alone. Every generation needs each other !

Breastmilk and Grace

2010-09-29T23:20:00.007+10:00

The last three days I have been weaning my 13month old from my breast. My breasts were hurting so much that I had to 'release ' them and express some milk out. While doing this my 6 year old was very curious and said , "Mum how does the milk get in there?"

I replied, " When you have a baby, your body just knows and it starts making milk for the baby to feed it and keep it alive. I don't have to do anything at all, my body just makes it. Isn't that amazing how God has made the body to do that?"

Then I just started pondering that very thought and had a wow moment! Its the same with receiving His Grace for me. I don't have to do anything to earn it, or conjure it up or a special routine or anything! Its just mine! His Grace comes upon me and its mine.

Breastmilk is also on a supply and demand basis. The more the baby drinks the more milk that is made. The milk will start to slow down if it is not 'demanded' from the baby. Yet as soon as the baby starts to require more, it is READILY AVAILABLE IMMEDIATELY. Similarly with His Grace, the more I 'suck' nourish myself from it, the more it is supplied to me.

I can place a heavy demand on His Grace, and it WILL BE SUPPLIED! It does not run out. Even if I do not feed regularly from it, it may appear to have become less, yet it is READY AND AT MY DEMAND IF I NEED IT!

Breastmilk is comforting, soothes and helps the new born baby grow. So I need His Grace to comfort me, soothe me and to grow. It is nourishment to me. I will hinder my growth if I don't receive and believe that His Grace is sufficient for me. I love that!!

Just some random thoughts I had while weaning and pondering my sore breasts :)

HANDMADE

2010-08-28T08:20:00.014+10:00

I found this beautiful ribbon at the craft store the other day. Because I have been getting into creating my own things, I thought it would be cute to put on the things that I had made with my own hands.
There is something truly amazing about something that has been HANDMADE. When things are HANDMADE they take time. When creating with your hands, it simply cannot be rushed. Fine details need to be attended to, little intricate touches need to be put on. You become very intimately acquainted with the item that you are creating. You almost become both obsessive and possessive of it. You don't want anyone to harm it, or add to it or take away from it.

It's yours and you take great pride of the form that it has taken. Because you birthed it in your heart you become attached to it and deeply fond of it.
You were there for every step of the process, from its inception to seeing it become, before your very eyes, the finished , final product. That's why anything HANDMADE cannot easily be parted with. You have put your very heart and soul into it.

Just as I have been so intimately attached to all my HANDMADE things, so is our Creator with us. He could of 'mass produced' us and just quickly put us together on an assembly line, or delegated to the angels the job of putting humans together. But, not so. He wanted to HAND CRAFT you Himself. He wanted to be the ONE from start to finish 'weaving' you together. He wanted to be so intimately involved in every detail and part of your delicate form. With HIS VERY HANDS, He crafted you. No machinery, no tools, just HIS HANDS. Awesome to ponder.

He was intimately involved in the whole process. He became obsessive and possessive of you and wanted to be the One intricately placing every minute detail into you. You were birthed in His Heart and Mind first. He is so attached to you and deeply fond of you! Dare I say, He is jealous for you! You are His, because HE HANDMADE YOU!

He places such VALUE on you, because He knitted you together Himself. He didn't rush. He took His time. Because You were worth it!

I think if you took a peek inside your heart you might see a little ribbon around it that says 'handmade'. Placed there by the Master Creator as a seal of His handy work!

Psalm 139:13

You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother's womb. Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous - how well I know it.

TRUE BEAUTY

2010-08-20T14:32:00.012+10:00

"Andrew found a book with all girls in it!", they yelled as they all came out from the old abandoned shed my children and the neighbourhood children frequented, in the bush behind our house. It was in full view of my kitchen window where I often watched them as I washed up the afternoon dishes. When I heard this announcement, my heart froze! All sorts of things went through my head! Were they naked ladies? How much did they see? But something inside spoke, " Stop! Listen to Wisdom first." OK. I calmed myself and prayed, "Lord, I need your Wisdom right now." My usual reaction would of been to pull my children inside, remove them, shelter them, wrap them up in cotton wool and close the door so none of that big bad world could come in. A response birthed out of FEAR! But Wisdom calmed me, gave me time to respond well, and with purpose. I wanted to turn this into something I could use, not just something I could find a quick remedy for and then wipe my hands of it.
Because my husband and I have been working towards creating a home where we provide an environment of open discussion, Wisdom started to speak to me.
Turns out it was a sports calendar with bikini girls so I was slightly relieved there. Then Wisdom showed me that instead of telling them what was right and wrong and having a BIG lecture about righteousness, I was prompted to ask them, " What do YOU think about that?"
So I was reminded that when Jesus was teaching the people, He would often not directly tell them what to do, but wisely ask them a question. He did this to perceive or gauge where their heart was at.
So I started to slowly ask each one. They gave me various answers and I started to get a feel for where their thinking was at, and where their heart was at. I asked them another question, "Do YOU think that those girls are beautiful?" Again various answers come out of my little ones mouths. In all this I had not given my opinion, stated whether they were right or wrong, but just listened. Wisdom is a great teacher!
By now my husband had come home and I relayed the whole story to him. Again his first reaction was to react in fear , but I (or rather Wisdom) gently reminded that we can use this as a teachable moment. My husband felt prompted to speak to his daughters and ask, " What do YOU think is BEAUTIFUL?" This was such a vast, deep wide question that they really dug deep before they answered. I could feel........... we are onto something here that could plant such an awesome seed that will grow to a full harvest of True Beauty.
That was not the end... The next day Wisdom was still outworking itself in our home. I was loving what I was seeing....
The next morning, it continued into a conversation about, "What does God say is beautiful?" We opened up the book of Proverbs - straight to the famous Proverbs 31 - and started to open up what this beautiful women was like.

( Just a little side note: Do you know that Proverbs 31 is a mother teaching her son about what a beautiful women is. I believe that mothers can use this as an awesome guideline, for teaching their sons what to look for in a wife. Often we teach the girls all about it, but neglect to tell the guys! They need to know too!)

Not once in Proverbs 31 does it make mention of her outward appearance or physical beauty! It speaks about her hands: creating, forming, giving, extending. So we spoke about this. We have only got through the first few verses because there is just so much in there!
In the last week I have also started doing a small bible study with my girls before bedtime about True Beauty. I am just taking it one night at a time as Wisdom continues to show herself.
All this from one incident that could of been squashed, neatly dealt with or just ignored. I am so glad I listened to Wisdom. It has literally changed our household. We are learning to deal with everything that comes our way, with an ear to hear Wisdom in every given situation.
I feel so strongly about Beauty. That is True Beauty. Even though my daughters are only 9 and 7 years old, I truly believe we have to grab them young and speak truth. I know there are a lot of teachings out there for teenage girls about beauty etc, and how to combat false images and self-esteem building, but I personally think by then it is too late. By the time they are teenagers they have already formed their mindset about Beauty. We need to plant these seeds young and not be afraid to tackle them head on with honesty, transparency and the Truth of the Word of God.

DOES NOT WISDOM CRY OUT,

AND UNDERSTANDING PUT FORTH HER VOICE?

SHE TAKES HER STANDS ON THE HIGH PLACES

BESIDE THE WAY WHERE THE

PATHS MEET.

Proverbs 8: 1-2

Be Loved

2010-07-29T21:58:00.010+10:00

He whispers to me: "Beloved, BE Loved by me!"

"Who Me God? Why would you want to love me? There are so many more prettier girls than me, girls that don't lose their temper and are so much more compassionate and kinder." I look up, shyly. Then I look away.

How dare I think that God finds me so beautiful and is enraptured with me. He fixes His gaze on me. I try to hide.

Gently He whispers again: "Come out from there, I want to gaze into your eyes, I want to look at you."

"Me, God? Don't you think you have the wrong girl? Didn't you see me yesterday when I spoke words that wounded others?"

He waits. He is patient. He is gentle. He is persistent. He whispers: "Just allow me to love you. That is who you are my beloved, when you BE LOVED by me."

I start to dare to believe. This Lover that loves so unabandonedly, so unconditionally. Could it be true?

He writes love letters to me: Wooing me to come away with Him. Be adventurous, be wild, be free.

"Isn't that irresponsible God? I mean what about my duties as a wife and mother?"

He smiles and hugs me tight. He just gazes into my eyes, so deep, so knowing. "BE ing LOVED by me will enhance all that, " He whispers as He dances around the room with me.

"Your Love doesn't look like I thought it would. It's a bit 'out there'. It's kind of colourful and It's not restrained or contained in any way. It's just out there in the open on display. It's kind of different."

He whispers again, so patient, so lovingly, " BE LOVED by me My beloved."

I think I am starting to understand. I dare to take off my shoes, and wade deep in the river. I've never been this far before, its so unknown.

I like it, no I LOVE it! I want to stay here forever. " You can, " He whispers as He twirls me around, "just BE LOVED by me. Allow yourself to BE continually LOVED by Me."

Now my eyes are opened, I see that I am His BELOVED if I allow myself to BE LOVED xx

Creating A Home (Part 3)

2010-07-09T14:36:00.009+10:00

Within each of us,
Just waiting to blossom,

is the wonderful promise

of all we can be

In my home I have the privilege and the responsibility to provide an environment where every single member can blossom and spread their wings to soar. I didn't do this very well in the former years. I had a controlling way about me. I wanted to not only control the running of my household, but also the people that lived in that house! Really I was operating out of fear. I tried to tell my children {and my husband :( }, what the rules were and how to live the right way, do the right things. I did not create an atmosphere of grace. My biggest turning point in my life came when my second born son left home. I didn't realise I had kept the boundaries so tight that he felt so restricted, he couldn't breathe. Thus started my journey of truly creating a home. Not only is a home a place to create and be creative ( as I touched on in my last post) , but it is a place where they are free to communicate openly about their feelings and thoughts. We had not provided that in the past. As I started on my journey upward from my pit of despair, I wondered what a well- put- together family looks like. I came across this quote a while ago, and it intrigued me:

"FEELINGS OF WORTH CAN ONLY FLOURISH IN AN ATMOSPHERE WHERE INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES ARE APPRECIATED, MISTAKES ARE TOLERATED, COMMUNICATION IS OPEN, AND RULES ARE FLEXIBLE - THE KIND OF ATMOSPHERE THAT IS FOUND IN A NURTURING FAMILY." Virginia Satir

I never knew what a nurturing family looked like. This description gave me so much insight. I wanted a nurturing family! To fast forward to now..............

After much crying, tantrum throwing (mine, not my children) and falling on my face, God started to show my husband and I some great things that are leading us towards that goal.

We now have 'family meetings' where we talk about general house stuff and then we give every member an opportunity to share, without criticism, rebuke or judgment. They can share what's on their heart. We saw the power of this when after a few weeks, my 5 year old with trembling lip and eyes very brave said " I don't like it when you yell at me, Mum." My heart was broken, yet amazingly alive to receive it and say how I was so proud of him to say that and could he please forgive Mummy? Our relationship went to a new level. There was no longer hidden hurt between him and I. Confession is great for the soul.

Everyone is now starting to feel that their opinion does matter, and their voice will be heard. Talk about great self-esteem building! COMMUNICATION is such a vital key in building a family. I am only just realizing that.

Also, I used to be such a stickler for rules. Now I am learning through the Holy Spirit, to ask for wisdom in every situation. Creating the freedom in our home for justice and mercy to rule and reign and not just the law, and punishment. Even God in Isaiah says: ' Come let us reason together...' Changing my heart to have this attitude in every situation. To reason it out and not just be quick to make a decision and that's it.

Col 4:6: Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person.

The other thing that I am still working on is laughter. I don't know when or how it happened, but I just stopped being funny with my kids. I realized the other night when I had a family birthday dinner, and my husband asked the children to tell a funny story that they can remember about Mum and them. Silence. No-one could come up with anything!! Oh dear! Talk about a reality check. So my next project is laughing more with my family. That's another story....

I'm still on my journey of learning how to create a home. I certainly don't have all the answers, but I am willing ( and absolutely determined) to find out.

Proverbs 9:1 -

Wisdom has built her house.

She has carved out her seven pillars.

Creating A Home ( part 2)

2010-06-23T19:50:00.022+10:00

I shared in my last post ( creating a home part 1), about the expectations that I had placed on myself by comparing my home to every media image that had been thrown at me.
Reality is: that the housework is always going to be there, and I had to learn to look past the mess, and look long-term to what I was trying to create in my environment. One thing that I want to speak about in this post is the physical surroundings. As women our home reflects our heart. So often our home being neat is way of 'proving' to people we are being a good homemaker and we want to present our home to the general public as one in order. But our true hearts hold such a vast depth of creativity that we need to release in our homes.

I believe in every woman is a desire to create. After all, we have been made by an awesome Creator who is full of creativity. Then why would we make our goal as a home maker, keeper of the home, to simply keep it clean and tidy!!! There is so much more............

I am not advocating an outright boycott on housework! Our houses still need to run with rhythym and routine, but I am daring to take a peep beyond that.

I recently heard the analogy given of the Dead Sea. The Dead Sea actually has many sources of rivers and seas that flow into it, bringing with them many rich mineral deposits and water from mountain sources. Unfortunately there is no outlet for it. So everything that flows in, stays in. This makes the sea extremely salty. Therefore no plant life or no animal life flourishes or survives there. The only way the water gets out is through evaporation.

I speak to so many women on a weekly basis that are stressed, frustrated and drained. I believe it is this Dead Sea syndrome. They have so many sources and good things coming in, but no outlet for it. The only way it is getting out is through evaporation! Everything gets drained and sucked out of us by our daily tasks and to-do-lists.

A women has a desire for her home to reflect her heart. It's like a snippet into a bit of the beauty that she contains within. A small window to show who she truly is. Sometimes there is the gap between knowing what you like, but not being able to reflect that. Herein lies the frustration. For me, personally, I don't have the ability to purchase household decor items whenever I please, due to our budget. But this has been a blessing in disguise as it has forced me to be creative and resourceful with what I already have. But for many years it frustrated me and put me in a state of perpetual waiting until I had enough money, to make my house like I wanted it. Not realising I already had the ability and have in fact been designed to be creative.

Right at my fingertips ( literally) I could start to create the home I desired. If I needed to feed my family, I could make a meal from scratch to fill their empty tummies. If I needed to make a blanket to keep them warm, I could. ( I haven't yet but!) If I needed to get them a new set of drawers I could use ones I already had, strip it back, paint it and make it like new. Money was not my problem, it was only the boundaries I placed on my creativity.

I must tell you that I never considered myself very creative, and often told people (regularly) 'I'm not very creative you know.' But since I have been walking into more and more freedom and coming into more of an understanding of who I am as a woman, and who I am as Fiona, God has started to release so much in me. What I consider to be creative may be childlike to others, but I am enjoying unfolding and unveiling it.

I think the women from the older generation knew so much about creativity. They were not stressed if something broke or if an extra traveller dropped in for dinner, because they were creative in making their home a centre for the impossible! I know there has been a breakdown in the last two generations of these skills, but I see a shift happening and the ship is slowly turning. And it is exciting!

The great thing is it brings authenticity to your home, memories and unity. You are not trying to create a replica from a magazine page, but your families own unique flavour and style. As you create things together they might not look as perfect as something from the store but it is authentic. One of a kind. And not only does it create something beautiful to look at, the object actually holds memories of being together, the love and laughs shared as it was created. Whether it be food, decor, wooden shelves, anything that is unique to your family!

Create: to bring something into existence.

When we create in our own homes we are bringing something into being that never existed before!! After all we are made by a CREATOR, THEREFORE WE SHOULD BE CREATIVE!

Do you remember my ugly porch chair in the last post?? Well we revived it this week, by a bit of paint ( I found in the garage), an old doona cover and some ribbon. I used the foam out of an old baby cot bumper.

My fabric board that I created to help with my inspiration! It proudly hangs above my computer table!I have an obsession with ribbons! So I have a ribbon jar that sits in my lounge room. It comes in very handy when I am wrapping gifts or anything I want to make pretty!
We have planted a banana sucker in our tiny backyard, so we can enjoy the fruits of our labour!This is my current computer table that is a work in progress! My husband and I started stripping it back and then we couldn't finish it so we brought it back inside. That will be another project for another day!

When I look at my home, I get great pleasure and satisfaction out of these small things, more than anything that I have bought at a store, because NO PRICE can be placed on what I have gained through using my skills, enjoying the flourishing buds of skills and creating precious memories with my children. They are not going to remember how clean the house was, but they will remember Mum creating, teaching, imparting with them.

Another thing I have recently come to realize is, that when we create, we AWAKEN OUR SENSES! This is part of me becoming fully alive and fully awakened. I don't believe God would design our physical bodies with the five senses and then have them just lay dormant. They are there to be used to their fullest potential, ( as is everything in our body I believe).
God has placed on this earth an endless amount of resources for us to create. We can grow our own flowers and soak in the fragrances as they are placed in a vase in our house. We can behold their beauty with our eyes. Playing beautiful music can awaken out sense of hearing. I am not musical, but my husband is, and when he plays the guitar it awaken our senses, soothes us. Textures such as wools and fabrics that awaken the sense of touch. Picking fresh produce from your garden, or crushing spices and herbs that you have grown yourself, heightens out taste buds. (I just want to say that I am NOT doing all these things in my home, I am just on a learning journey to improve these skills). And I am only just tapping into them now. Basically it is bringing your household alive so that is is a hive of activity. Full of fragrances, aromas, tastes, touch so that they are awake to this colourful, full world.

I only just started knitting about a month ago! That has been a whole world of possibilities that has been awakened to me. Ha! And I'm not even a grandma yet!

When I read the scripture:
Proverbs 24: 3-4 - Through Wisdom a house is built, and by understanding it is established, by knowledge the rooms are filled with all pleasant and precious riches.

I truly believe that the rooms that are filled with the pleasant and precious riches are the memories we are creating. These may be items that have been created in the room and they recollect the time we spent making it, the fun we had in doing it, the relationship building. When a child enters any room in the house, they should be building up a bank of pleasant and precious memories that happened in that room. And we need to gain the knowledge to create that.

But not only is creating a home limited to our physical surroundings, it is also about the relationships, spiritual, loving surroundings we create. More in part 3....

Creating a Home (Part 1)

2010-06-22T21:21:00.018+10:00

For so many years I have fought the allusive giant of housework and keeping my house tidy. Thinking I would one day conquer it with: just the right cleaning product, or being more organised, getting up earlier, going to bed later, getting all my children to do chores, getting my husband to do chores, giving lectures about being tidy etc, etc.

No, the photo above is not my house; this is my house:

This is my attempt to do folding with two toddlers around! They don't put that in the house magazines do they? I am a bit slow, but after 20 years of running a household, I finally realised I had been fed alot of false images! Where was I getting the idea that my house was going to be immaculate, without a cushion out of place and a book nicley placed on a coffee table? I was chasing a false finish line. I would think I had got there only to find the finish line was not in fact a finish line, it was just a new starting line ( because housework is so daily!).

Isn't my folding supposed to look like this? Neatly folded (and ironed) in the basket, while waiting to be put away. Also I had obviously being doing the folding while swinging on my swing chair on my lovely verandah. This is my real front porch, with my real chair! No folding going on out here!

So I have finally surrendered to the fact that my house is never going to be perfect because I actually have real live people living in my house! Yes I do! People that move stuff! Like carefully placed cushions and coffee table books. One day recently after cleaning and putting every thing away, having a moment of satisfaction, I saw the absolute falsehood of the sterile house images that I have been trying to live up to! Sure the houses look nice, but is there real living going on in there? No -one would be able to drop crumbs, read books, dump clothes on the floor or God forbid leave toys lying around! What kind of people live like this?? Not breathing, active, full of energy people that's for sure.

Another paradigm shift for me was a book I recently read called The gentle art of domesticity by Jane Brockett. It was the cutest title so I was intrigued and I could not believe what she was writing was freedom to my soul. She talks about cooking, knitting, sewing etc as gentle arts and I had never heard them referred to as that before. She lifted my thinking on running a house, to building and creating a home. To no longer just being endless consumers, but create our own flavour of creativity in our house to bring it alive. There is heaps more I could say about it, but you can borrow it from the local library.
I fought the cleaning giant for too long, feeling guilty because I was never able to meet the standards of the images thrown at me.

Because I am becoming tired of falsehood and hiding behind our performance, or an image we are trying to project, I just wanted to share images of my reality. I want you to know that many women out there are struggling to keep their house tidy, get folding done, do endless loads of washing. But beyond the rhythms of a running a household there are real lives that we have opportunity to build into. There is so much more..... which I will continue with in the next post.

Through wisdom a house is built ( a home, a family, a life)

and by understanding it is established;

and by knowledge the rooms are filled

with all precious and pleasant riches Prov 24 3-4

BE TRUE TO YOURSELF!

2010-06-17T20:38:00.009+10:00

Be true to yourself! Be true to yourself! I kept hearing these words in my head the last few weeks. I started to stop. Pause. Selah( meditate, consider the words).

BE TRUE TO YOURSELF! I had become good at knowing what pleased others. What kept others happy. What was the correct answer for the given scenario. But I felt like I had a million sticky post-it notes all over me! Telling me, reminding me of what was acceptable, what wasn't. Now the Lord was whispering to me, "What do you really like? What really makes your heart beat faster and delights you?"

Who has God truly made me to be? How am I wired? When He was intricately weaving me in my mother's womb what did He place in me that made me individual, unique and an original, never to be repeated design?

I have to be true to who I really am. Not what anyone else expects of me or tries to tell me who I am. Deep down I know who I am. But it has been hidden under layers of rules, should and should-nots. I am not speaking of indulging myself and doing whatever my flesh wants and using it as a licence to say '"That's just who I am!" I'm speaking of the things that are continually arising in my Spirit, drawing me, deep calling unto deep.

The Fiona that was intended to be here fully alive, fully awakened, fully aware of who she is, prepared especially for this season and time on the earth as part of the eternal plan!

I started to ponder on the things that I had always loved, even since childhood. I saw I had pushed them aside, due to ridicule, social acceptance, trying to project an image that others would like or not really understanding why I loved those things.

Ok..... so ...ummm. Are you ready for a snippet?

I really really am drawn to anything that needs restoring. Furniture, people. I just cannot help it. It compels me to see beyond the surface and see the beauty that is under the scratched paint, the dents and the wounds.

I really really love new life. I still cry when I see a new baby born on t.v. Everytime, it never fails. I have done since I was a young girl. I love the thought of a new clean slate, a fresh new book waiting to be written by the author.

I really really love feeding people. I was in the kitchen from the time I was 10 yrs old. I am constanly thinking about the next meal, who needs food, inside and outside my home and feeding the five thousand ( yet to be done by me!)

I really really love floral material. The beauty of the flowers soothes me. I love creating stuff out of it like aprons and cushions!

I really really love mothering. I love the imparting, the cuddling, the instructing, the loving.

I really really love being a wife. The stretching and sharpening as the two becomes one is such a dance of beauty, passion and most of all grace.

I really really love dancing. I have never ever been to an official dance school or academy, but I love to dance before the Lord in an intimate time just me and Him.

These are just a few that I am revealing. What about you? What are some of the things that are deep within you, just yearning to be unveiled?

God hath given you one face, and you make yourselves another. William Shakespeare

The Love Cycle

2010-05-21T05:09:00.025+10:00

I have just come into a true revelation of The Love Cycle. I knew I was loved by my Heavenly Father, and I knew that I am supposed to love myself as I love others, but in the last year, I have only just understood the fullness of that. The Love Cycle is this: God Loves Me, I Love Me, I Love others. For a while I thought I was loving myself, but I was not treating myself very nice. I was putting myself down with negative talk, speaking bad about myself (in my head) and basically being not very loving to myself!

You're not very loving, Fiona. That was not very nice what you just did, Fiona. Why can't you be like other women, Fiona. BLAH! BLAH! BLAH! Now, I would have liked to blame the devil, that he was the one filling my head with all these thoughts and being so unloving towards me. :(

But you know what? It was Me not loving myself enough, Me talking in an unloving way to myself! Be nice to yourself. Start speaking well to yourself in your thoughts, and start speaking well of yourself when you are around others. That is loving yourself! Loving yourself is a crucial key in the LOVE CYCLE! We cannot just know God loves us then, go and love others. There is a small significant step squeezed right in between loving God and loving others, that is loving yourself. Because if you leave this out, you will be trying to be so loving to everyone but angry and frustrated at yourself. How can you love others effectively when you put yourself down all the time? It is totally scriptural. In fact, it is vital!

Matthew 22: 39 " You shall love your neighbour as yourself." This is one of the two commandments that Jesus states: " On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets." If the whole law and everything the prophets ever spoke hang on these two commandments we need to take note! We can understand the love your neighbour part, but we gloss over the 'love yourself' part. You cannot love your neighbour if your don't love yourself! It is impossible. The value you receive from your Heavenly Father, needs to be transferred first to yourself, then to others.

A few weeks after I had baby number 7, I just looked down at my body in awe, and said " Thank you body for helping me bring 7 children into this world, you are truly amazing!" I started to get a revelation of how awesome the human body is and love what it had helped me do for the kingdom of God! Now don't worry I am not starting to worship my body or anything, I just saw the scripture in Psalm 139, "You are fearfully and wonderfully", made in a whole new light.' I just had a smal glimpse into speaking well to myself.

I then sarted to notice my speech patterns that were negative towards myself. You know all the negative self talk ( that we like to blame the devil with) and I thought, "you know I really wouldn't speak that way to anyone else, I should not speak that way to myself either."
I started loving myself. I first drew on His love, then I drew on the love of God (that has been shed abroad in my heart) towards me, and guess what? I love my Husband so much better ( just ask him) and I love my children so much better ( I know because they tell me). Now, I love my neighbours so much better.

A year ago I wrote in my journal the words the Lord spoke to me as I had been crying out to Him to be more loving:

You keep asking me to release the love in your heart. You are full and pregnant with it, My daughter, but love has to be released before it can flow freely. I want you to start releasing it by faith, then as you start to release love freely, it will well up and continually flow. Do not hold back as like a woman in labour but does not deliver (Isaiah 66:9). Push through when you feel awkward, when it feels painful because this will birth the TRUE LOVE that you have been wanting to release. Start small and it will increase.

Looking back over the last year it was certainly my most challenging in learning how to love and what love truly is, but by faith I continued to not hold back in love but press through and I am amazed at where He has brought me. The Love cycle keeps the love flowing!

Romans 5:5 And hope makes us not ashamed; because the love of God has been shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which is given unto us.

Sisterhood rising upon the earth!

2010-05-07T21:50:00.011+10:00

I just want to honour Ps Bobbie Houston from Hillsong church and her whole vision of gathering daughters across the globe to bring a message of empowerment! She is doing a great work and it is really impactingwomen in every nation. The sound of the trumpet is being heard! I have included a message here from one of her Sisterhood gatherings. It is quite long but well worth it to grasp the heartbeat of ColourSisterhood.

http://thecoloursisterhood.com/blog/bobbie/bobbies-sisterhood-message

Also I have added the link about Sisterhood. Enjoy! http://thecoloursisterhood.com/

This is a photo of me at Colour Women's Conference 2009 with

Lisa Bevere!

http://colourconference.com/

Girlfriends and Sisters

2010-04-30T14:22:00.009+10:00

I so appreciate the way God has wired us as women! To have a strong desire for connection and a sense of belonging with our female counterparts. But there was a time when I did not understand women nor even cared to like them! How funny! I myself am a women (no surprises there!) yet I could not navigate these confusing ways and wiles that were like deciphering some cryptic code in understanding
the female underworld.

From a young age I was struggling to break the code in how to make friends. One day I would go to school and be with the 'chosen' few, then the next day they had decided I was not really their type ( or something) and announce that I was out. I always had a heart for the outcasts and the underdog and so I was drawn to the 'reject' friends. You know the ones that no one else wanted. I have a wonderful playground memory of me in year 5, sitting there with my two friends. One was a twin and had slight palsy so she would sway her head side to side and was called a 'retard' by others. My other friend was a beautiful girl with long brown hair , Julie. Her mother had died in year 2 and she had never spoken since. So here we three would be! I don't remember even what we would talk about (well we talked Julie listened), but we just felt comfortable with each other. I remember sitting there one day and surveying myself and my 2 friends, and I had a mini God moment (I didn't know it was a revelation back then!) It was this: All women/girls are beautiful they just don't know it. Little did I know this was a quest that has been ongoing in my own life, and continues to be a privilege to encourage others with this message still today.

I look back now on those schooldays and see how the enemy in fact starts on women/girls so young. His strategy? To divide and conquer! If he can get us divided and in contention towards each other we lose our power! I know, I see it in my own daughters. Only 7 and 9 years old, yet they too are starting to have to navigate that same road. Being savvy to the enemies plans now, I am able to put it into perspective for them and tell them how wonderful it is to have beautiful girlfriends around you and sisters to enjoy! I also tell them of the enemies plans to divide them and keep them separate from each other. He does this because he knows that women connected together and in unity are powerful.

I love my girlfriends now and my sisters, but for many years that was just a distant dream. I survey my life now and see the richness of friendships, sister relationships and I am in awe of how the beautiful Mighty Counsellor, the Holy Spirit layer by layer has literally unveiled me and showed me my true female image. I was only fighting a losing battle trying to hide my femininity and reject the sisterhood who were there to do life alongside with me. I have found I am much more effective in my Kingdom purpose now I have I stepped into my true female image and joined with other women doing the same. We are the ones that bring the beauty to this earth, not physical beauty only, but the reflection of a heart full of love that gently draws and unveils!

Some are there to sharpen you and make your more wiser and better.

Some are there to be the cheerleader,

Some are there to be an ever listening one.

Some are there to bring out your wacky side!

Who has God placed in your world as a girlfriend or a sister to join with ,and move forward in His Kingdom?

Being a TRUE Princess

2010-04-26T21:10:00.014+10:00

The Real Princess (The Princess and the Pea)
by Hans Christian Andersen Illustrated by Edmund Dulac
There was once a prince, and he wanted a princess, but then she must be a real Princess. He travelled right around the world to find one, but there was always something wrong. There were plenty of princesses, but whether they were real princesses he had great difficulty in discovering; there was always something which was not quite right about them. So at last he had come home again, and he was very sad because he wanted a real princess so badly.
One evening there was a terrible storm; it thundered and lightninged and the rain poured down in torrents; indeed it was a fearful night.
In the middle of the storm somebody knocked at the town gate, and the old King himself sent to open it.
It was a princess who stood outside, but she was in a terrible state from the rain and the storm. The water streamed out of her hair and her clothes; it ran in at the top of her shoes and out at the heel, but she said that she was a real princess.
'Well we shall soon see if that is true,' thought the old Queen, but she said nothing. She went into the bedroom, took all the bed clothes off and laid a pea on the bedstead: then she took twenty mattresses and piled them on top of the pea, and then twenty feather beds on top of the mattresses. This was where the princess was to sleep that night. In the morning they asked her how she slept.
'Oh terribly bad!' said the princess. 'I have hardly closed my eyes the whole night! Heaven knows what was in the bed. I seemed to be lying upon some hard thing, and my whole body is black and blue this morning. It is terrible!'
They saw at once that she must be a real princess when she had felt the pea through twenty mattresses and twenty feather beds. Nobody but a real princess could have such a delicate skin.
So the prince took her to be his wife, for now he was sure that he had found a real princess, and the pea was put into the Museum, where it may still be seen if no one has stolen it.

When I was growing up this fairytale always baffled me. How could she feel the pea through all those matresses? Would I have passed the test if I had been put in that situation?
Recently my daughter was reading the Princess and the Pea story out loud to me and all of a sudden I started seeing it through Kingdom eyes.

I started to see that only true princesses, though given a Kingdom and comforts to go with it, will still feel the smallest object that is embedded within her environment. She is so awake and alive with sense and feeling that the smallest discomfort will cause her to not settle for or ignore it.

Her heart is truly alive! As issues arise she does not ignore them! She in fact feels them through her enthroned state!

I LOVED THAT!! We are certainly daughters that have been given entrance into a great Kingdom with many blessings and privileges, but having the love of God shed abroad in our hearts, will forever keep our hearts wide and expansive and allow others to see that we are not fake princesses but TRUE! Why? Because we are never satisfied to just sweep things under the mat nor hope they will go away. We feel with our hearts and are ever longing to be ones who do not shy away from the battle at hand.

Ps 45:13The princess is in the palace - how beautiful she is! Her gown is made of gold thread.

FREE TO BE LOVED

2010-04-22T19:42:00.005+10:00

When I came into the Kingdom of God I was finally free. This is what I had been searching for all my life. Or so I thought........ then subtly I started to 'take on ' more burdens when I had already become Free. What a paradox???

I was exhilarated by the thought that Jesus loved me just the way I was. But then I would hear things such as: Are you spending enough time with God? Are you praying in the early hours of the morning? You know your relationship with God is only as good as the devotion and quiet time you have with Him.

So these people who were more 'mature' in their walk with God must know what they are talking about. So as a baby christian I set about my daily tasks of keeping God pleased with me, and trying to keep sin out of my life. This worked beautifully.... for a while. I was coping quite well with this as I only had two children, and no husband ( I was widowed when I was pregnant with the second one). Wow! This is great, if I could just keep this up maybe I could do something great for His Kingdom too! Then I heard that you could have a ministry and serve in the church! Wow! That sounds just what I would like to do. So I set about doing that in various ways. By now I was married (to a wonderful christian man who was not all taking on these extra things that I felt so necessary). This lead me to think that I was probably more spiritual than him. :( You can see what a downward spiral I was on! Then add a few more children into that, let's say 5. Now I had to try and get up early to read my bible and pray, serve in the church, and somewhere be a mother and wife!

The apostle Paul kept warning me against this as I occasionally stumbled across this verse in Galatians 3 vs 1: O foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you, that you should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was clearly set forth, crucified among you? Vs 3Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit are you now being made perfect by the flesh?

Yes I was so foolish! I had placed myself again under the law!

So what started out as my new freedom, 18 years in became my bondage. If I just do this one more thing, If I just get better at this, If I could just stop that bad habit, If I could just discipline myself. If I could....

God never asked me to do any of these things I yoked myself again to a yoke of bondage!

Colossians 2:21 -23 : Why if you are dead in Christ, from the basic principles of this world, why as though living in the world are you making yourself subject to these rules, (touch not; taste not; handle not; which all just perish with the using;) according to the commandments and doctrines of men? Which things have an appearance of wisdom in self-imposed religion and humility, and severe treatment of the body; but are of NO VALUE against the indulgence of the flesh.

I finally crushed under the weight of my own burdens, came to the end of myself. I dared to ask: Could God really love me without anything attached to that? Am I really loved by Him because He just loves me?

I dared to back away from the things I had held so tightly to. I become naked before Him holding nothing. Just bringing myself. It was scary, but I was stepping into the true freedom that He intended for me all along. He loves me whether I read my bible or not. He loves me whether I pray or not. He loves me whether I yell at my kids or not. I am now starting to get a glimpse of true love. And it is so freeing.....

Who is this that comes up from the wilderness, leaning upon her Beloved? Song of Songs 8:5

Make the vision plain!

2010-04-16T22:56:00.010+10:00

Now that I have been been getting into writing, I am always looking for ideas and inspiration to bring out or represent who I really am. Do you sometimes feel like there is a gap between who you are now, and the 'real' you, who is in this chrysalis stage trying to emerge into who you are truly going to become??? Well, I do feel like that.

I think it is just a process of us in our mortal flesh crying out to become who we truly are to become in the Spirit, in Him.
2 Corinthians 3:18 But we all with unveiled faces beholding as in a mirror, the Glory of God, are changed into the same image from Glory to Glory, as by the Spirit of the Lord.

While in that process we need practical ways to express ourselves and allow us to move towards that.

Habbukuk 2:2 Asks us to ...'Write the vision, and make it plain on tablets, that he may run who reads it.' I think an inspiration board is a fantastic way to do that!
You can place pieces of your heart, your dreams, your goals, your beliefs and hang it up in front of you! It gives you something to move towards, a vision to outwork as the Spirit of God speaks to you and you receive His words to share.

When Tonia and my other beautiful friend Francesica were making them today I was amazed at how all of our boards emerged out of these blank canvases and the form that started to take shape. All three boards were so different, expressing each individuals tastes and creativity and ways of 'displaying' our inner man (or should I say woman)!
I was loving watching the creativity literally emerging before my eyes! The inspiration board is going to be my 'tablet' that I write on that I may run with what I see before me, and the very next verse of Habbukuk 2:3 promises....
This vision is for a future time. It describes the end, and it will be fulfilled. If it seems slow in coming, wait patiently, for it will surely take place. It will not be delayed.

Hold fast to the dreams God has spoken to your heart, if you need to find a way to keep it in front of you ....maybe try an inspiration board!! ( I think I'm going to call mine a Vision Board)!!

Every generation needs each other

2010-04-14T09:58:00.016+10:00

My beautiful friend Tonia is coming over on Friday to help me do an inspiration board. I will post it on Friday when its done. But I just wanted to spotlight Tonia for this post. She is a fantastic young lady that I met many years ago in her early teens as she had just come to the Lord. I have watched her flourish into a mature lovely lady who is so in love with Jesus and wiser than I ever was at 21.
I just wanted to say that there are many young girls in the house of God looking for the older woman that she can glean from. Remember our Titus 2 mandate: to teach the younger women to love our husbands and children. I've seen this in a very practical way in both Tonia and my relationship. She often drops over for dinner and comes at 'rush hour' when babies are needing baths, dinner is cooking and basically lots of noise! She gets to see me in the midst of life! And for a young single girl, they want to know what loving your husband and children looks like on a normal everyday basis. I don't always hit the mark in this area, but more is 'Caught than Taught.' I believe strongly in this mandate and if we can show younger women that it is great to be married, that its a full life when children are around, I think we would have more young women opting for it. Sometimes its not in the sitting down and teaching, its just what they 'catch' by making your life available. But it is also two-fold. I receive the benefits of having a younger women in my life. Tonia is my hairdresser, which keeps me looking ok ( if I straighened my hair more regularly), she gives me fashion tips ( because sometimes I have no idea) and she is also a great role model for my two young girls. Its all about connecting, because that is what women are made for - connecting.

I see more women are awakening to this call. We will see the harvest in the next generation of women coming up behind us if we don't grow weary in well-doing. Find a 'Tonia' that you can build a relationship with, or if you are the younger woman find an older woman that you can build a relationship with. That is what I love the house of God: Its all there: Grandmothers, Mothers, Daughters. Its exciting to see what the next generation will bring forth.

I'm reminded of a verse in Psalm 68:11:

Kings of armies they flee swiftly

And she who remained at home divided the plunder

If we remain with a heart that is about building great families and showing others how great it is can you imagine the treasure we will have!!

AWAKE MY PRINCESS!

2010-04-08T05:08:00.016+10:00

These photos always awaken something in me. The abandonded princess longing for a fairytale to live out, all arrayed in gowns and splendour, yet no-one has come to rescue her.
The longing in every one of us as women is to be found in the midst of a fairytale. When we were young we dreamed of being princesses and walked around in oversize gowns that twirled, that could of been gowns of sparkling jewels. Maybe you never experienced any of this and turned your back on ever being beautiful or thought of as royalty. It is so deeply seeded in us that though if we try to ignore it, it will remain within us asking to be released. Maybe just like this Princess below you have your bags all packed and waiting, hoping one day that you will be taken away to the kingdom you were born for. Looking out to the far horizon.....

I remember driving past a girl walking up our street and she was wearing clothes that were too short and small in all the wrong places, yet she was wearing a tiara on her head. My heart ached for her. It was almost like I could hear her heart saying, " You can have my body, you can do what you want, but just remember I am a princess." She knew deep down in the inner part of her that her ultimate desire was to be treated like a princess, that she wanted more than what this world could offer, but to navigate that and obtain that she didn't know how to get there. This is not just her heart cry but a cry that resonates across the earth to daughters of every nation, background and people.

I stumbled across an old journal the other day and I found a written prophetic word. It was dated a year ago, and I honestly can't remember writing it. But it is in my writing so I must of! It was a word to me from the Lord,but as I read it I felt it was not just for me but many of His daughters out there. This is a time on the earth where He is awakening His daughters to see their royal position and to position ourselves. Because not only is being a princess about a desire to be loved and esteemed, it is also taking responsibility to arise for the battle at hand.

WORD OF THE LORD SUNDAY 15TH MARCH 2009:

Behold I send you as a woman amongst the battle. You will have My sword, but you will not use it to cut, maim or drive through. You will use My sword to bring forth truth, life and love. Though you may feel you are out on the front lines, I will surely be there with you. Be bold, be strong and know I have given you a task to perform which none other can fulfill.

My daughter I have placed in you a tender heart to show the world My tender heart. You have keys and the authority to take dominion in kingdoms that have long been abandoned. Kingdoms where battles have been lost for lack of wisdom or unbelief. Kingdoms where thorns and briers have overtaken and many have dared not to enter for fear and intimidation.

Faith will win over these kingdoms, coupled with love. For surely you have cried out to me and asked for love to be flowing from you.

This very season you will start to walk in this supernatural love of God the Father like never before. Many will come seeking your 'secret' and you will simply say, "It is the Father,not I." Love will be your kingdom. Where love has seemed a far away land which you could not possess, I tell you My daughter, behold you are on the very threshold of that land. Even now you are about to step your foot into that land and know a richness and fullness which you have admired from afar. Where you watched other families grow in love and unity, you my child will be one of these families that have learnt to walk in a closeness with me and with each other.

Trust Me. Trust My Word like never before. When I speak, obey, because these will be defining moments in what I am refining in you. Do not hold back, I have given you My love and in contrast I require that same measure to flow out of you.

Go forth now with my weapons. I love you and am with you to the end of the age.

ACRES OF DIAMONDS

2010-03-30T22:51:00.007+10:00

ACRES OF DIAMONDS
The story — a true one — is told of an African farmer who heard tales about other farmers who had made millions by discovering diamond mines. These tales so excited the farmer that he could hardly wait to sell his farm and go prospecting for diamonds himself. He sold the farm and spent the rest of his life wandering the African continent searching unsuccessfully for the gleaming gems that brought such high prices on the markets of the world. Finally, worn out and in a fit of despondency, he threw himself into a river and drowned.
Meanwhile, the man who had bought his farm happened to be crossing the small stream on the property one day, when suddenly there was a bright flash of blue and red light from the stream bottom. He bent down and picked up a stone. It was a good-sized stone, and admiring it, he brought it home and put it on his fireplace mantel as an interesting curiosity.
Several weeks later a visitor picked up the stone, looked closely at it, hefted it in his hand, and nearly fainted. He asked the farmer if he knew what he'd found. When the farmer said, no, that he thought it was a piece of crystal, the visitor told him he had found one of the largest diamonds ever discovered. The farmer had trouble believing that. He told the man that his creek was full of such stones, not all as large as the one on the mantel, but sprinkled generously throughout the creek bottom.
The farm the first farmer had sold, so that he might find a diamond mine, turned out to be one of the most productive diamond mines on the entire African continent.The first farmer had owned, free and clear ... acres of diamonds. But he had sold them for practically nothing, in order to look for them elsewhere. The moral is clear: If the first farmer had only taken the time to study and prepare himself to learn what diamonds looked like in their rough state, and to thoroughly explore the property he had before looking elsewhere, all of his wildest dreams would have come true.
The thing about this story that has so profoundly affected millions of people is the idea that each of us is, at this very moment, standing in the middle of our own acres of diamonds. If we had only had the wisdom and patience to intelligently and effectively explore the work in which we're now engaged, to explore ourselves, we would most likely find the riches we seek, whether they be financial or intangible or both.

This story always inspires me and I have had an "Acres of Diamonds" moment just today.

You see I live in a 3 bedroom townhouse in a noisy (not the best of) neighbourhoods. We bought this townhouse 3 yrs ago with the hope of moving onto bigger and better things. Or so we thought. But everytime we attempt to make grand plans to move, no doors open and we find ourself still here. But over this time we have seen God use us in this very patch of seemingly 'diamondless field.' We have had neighbours who party all night, fight, curse and swear right under my babies bedroom window, domestic fights and all sorts. Don't get me wrong, we are safe, its just a very interesting place. And yet amongst all this I don't know what has been my favourite part. Maybe the way we were able to minister to the man who used to live next door who drank everyday, but he would come to church with us ocassionally and who came to Christmas lunch one year at our house because he had no where else to go. Or my Indian friend down the road who was Hindu and told me one day while we were waxing our legs at her house ( she said its so expensive to wax here as back in India its only $10) she asked me " My religion says there are many ways to God, but I am so confused, I am so depressed." And I was able to tell her that Jesus is the way, the truth and the life and led her to the Lord. Or our own children who shared bible scriptures with the neighbourhood kids and led them to the Lord in the backyard. Or the little girl next door who's father died and her Mum is struggling to make a living so she is over here often, loving being around a family. Our new next door neighbours started asking us about God and now go to church and are growing wonderfully.

So I felt like maybe now I could move on and get the nice house with the white picket fence in the nice neighbourhood Lord, what do you think?

Then the Lord spoke gently as only He can into my heart, "What if I asked you to stay here forever? Would you do it for me. Would you stay here and love the people? I need someone right here to love the ones I am sending here." I cried. Not because I was sad to stay, but because I had forgotten why I was here.

What we see is temporary, but what we don't see is ETERNAL. I want to stay in my Acres of rough diamonds here in Reedy Creek, because to the Lord they are treasures!

WHERE YOUR TREASURE IS...THAT IS WHERE YOUR HEART WILL BE ALSO (MATT 6:21)

LOVE NEVER FAILS

2010-03-25T22:36:00.004+10:00

As I look at my blog I realize it has been 18 months since I have written a post. I truly wanted to make a difference, but My beautiful Daddy God knew I was not at all ready. I poetically proclaimed in my last post about 'loving when you don't receive love back,' and 'loving when it places you in a vulnerable place.' Now 18 months later, I have walked that very road. I have journeyed down a path of learning what true love is. It is NOT loving when everything is fine and everyone loves you. It is NOT having it all together either.

I cannot even begin to tell you of the brokeness my heart experienced when my second born son declared that he no longer valued what we valued, and no longer wanted to even live with us. I had poured my life into him and my other children, only to be rejected?? This did not make sense to me.

Now I was the one having to LEARN to love when someone does not want to be with you. I was the one having to see my own words screaming back at me as they came alive. That now I was the one that had to risk staying tight as a bud, or painfully grow out and blossom.

For many months my heart was shut down. Now I was SCARED to love. What if I was rejected again by all my other children? My heart was raw and did not want to journey into this part of love that I had not known before. I thought love was about happiness and joy. But as we read the first line of the 'Love' Chapter in 1Cor 13 it states: 'Love suffers long......'

I think if we can get that part understood, we can journey on to the rest of the quest of being loving. Knowing we have to be patient is a great task in loving. You see we don't see the immediate effects of love. We don't always see the results straight away. So we think its not working. But it is because LOVE NEVER FAILS.

I now was faced with a choice: TO LOVE or NOT TO LOVE. I could look what was immediately in front of me, or I could choose to love beyond what I can see. I CHOOSE LOVE!

My situation has not changed yet, but I have. The Lord spoke to me many years ago from the book of Joel where it reads, " Rend your heart, NOT your garments." He said Fiona I don't just want your outer garment, your displays of great works and service, I want your WHOLE HEART! I looked up the word rend: to rend means- totally dismember or tear apart. My heart is only able to fully love when it has been totally torn apart! The Lord continued to speak to me and said," I love people everyday that don't love me back, THAT is what real love is."

Well now I am discovering that.

Let me encourage you beautiful lady, though your heart may feel like it can never be restored, that it is totally broken, didn't a loving King once say, "I have come to HEAL the BROKEN HEARTED and bind up their wounds." Your King and My King has the healing balm. Only by taking it to Him have I been able to love again, but I love so differently now. With a depth that I could not have known had I not known hurt.

It is because Jesus our King knows love to this degree. It is a fierce love. A love that takes my breath away just to think about it. Does he really love me that much? Yes! He does!

'MANY WATERS CANNOT QUENCH LOVE, NEITHER CAN FLOODS DROWN IT: IF A MAN WOULD GIVE ALL THE WEALTH FOR LOVE IT WOULD BE UTTERLY DESPISED.' Song of Song 8:7

Unveiling the true you!

2008-11-23T20:18:00.008+10:00

Then the time came when the risk it took

To remain tight in a bud was more painful

Than the risk it took to blossom.

-ANAIS NIN

What is holding you back from bringing forth life today? It takes a risk to step out and boldly be who God has formed you to be. There is a true feminine heart crying to be released from within you. It is scary to risk and be vulnerable! It truly is, but what is the alternative?

That's why I love the above quote. We either remain a tight bud or we take a painful step forward and start to blossom. If a rose remains a bud and never fully blossoms, we would never enjoy the beauty, the fragrance and the wonder of its display. Sure the rose would be lovely, but never fully enjoyed!!

Do you want to be fully enjoyed by everyone? The beautiful woman who was spoken of in the last post - Sarah - was refererred to again in the new testament in 1 Peter3:6. ....'you are all Sarah's daughters if you do good and do not give way to fear.' There is avulnerability when you have to step out and love - because you know what? There is no guarantee that you will receive love back. But that's OK because thats's what love is! Love is: loving the unlovely, loving with no conditions, loving without fear of rejection, loving and expecting NOTHING in return! Love without restraint. I had a beautiful encounter with My Lord at church where I was up the front worshipping and all of a sudden I saw Jesus come and grab my face with both hands and kiss me with a big quick smack on the lips. Like He was so excited. Then He took me by the hand and started running and said 'Come on Fiona, I have soooo much to show you' and we ran together into this big enormous waiting world!

Run into this world, hand in hand empowered with the weapon of love, given to you by the Author of love. Take a risk! Then you will start to unveil the true you!

SHE WOKE UP ONE MORNING AND THREW AWAY ALL HER EXCUSES XX

2008-10-29T20:56:00.005+10:00

"I don't know how to be a woman.." I would cry out to my husband in my first few years of marriage. It seemed to be to be something out of my reach. Something that came easily to other women, but not me. I cried out to God year after year in desperation to show me how to be the woman that is created in His very image. But its almost like I could see where I had to be, in some sort of vague form or shadow, I could see what it would look like, yet not knowing how to get there. I threw myself into His word and searched every scripture about women, wives, mothers and with the power of the Holy Spirit was able to start on a path of healing, unveiling and connecting to the true purpose and person as a daughter of the Most High God.

My greatest revelation came as the Lord blessed me with with two beautiful daughters. I watched them in awe as they delighted in twirly fairy dresses, princess crowns and dancing. Something awakened in me that had been present in me when I was created but they had been quenched by life, pushed down. As I saw the innate beauty and feminine qualities arising in my daughters a fire was kindled inside me. I knew that I had not taught them to love princesses, butterflies, skirts that twirl, but that they brought these things freely out of their hearts because that was their design . Do you know deep down that you are free to enjoy the beauty of a being a woman? We need not be ashamed. There is such a freedom when we discover that.

When the Lord spoke to Abraham about his wife, He said " no longer will you call your wife Sarai, but you shall call her Sarah. And I will bless her, and give you a son by her: Yes I will bless her and she shall be a mother of nations; kings shall come through her." (Gen 17: 15-16).

God had to change the way Sarah saw herself. At this stage of her life she had already felt so worthless as she could not bless her husband with a heir. She had worked out a very bad plan and got her husband to sleep with another woman (mmm?) Then she got mad because this woman falls pregnant to her husband! So this is her lot so far. Do you think she may have had some issues? Well regardless of all this, Her wonderful heavenly Father looks down upon her and calls he Princess. That's what Sarah means. A princess. Not forgetting she would of been about 80 years old. But God knew she needed to start seeing herself differently. Wow! He wanted to start a royal bloodline of girls, daughters, women who knew they were princesses and had a King for a Father. You my beautiful one are part of that heritage. That stirring in your heart for a call to greatness and beauty comes from within.... because you know deep down there is more..

S.weet H.eart of the E.arth xxx

Arise to the call

2008-10-21T21:54:00.004+10:00

There is a call penetrating deep to our feminine hearts. Can you hear it? You can hear it can't you? You know there is more but... how..where... ?

This generation of women are like no other that has ever walked upon the earth. We have everything at the touch of a button, we have benefited from the battles of our past matriarchs who cried out for equal rights and yet why are we still not walking in the fullness of the God breathed female image?

The Lord is calling : "Rise up, all you women who are at ease; hear my voice all you daughters who are complacent; give ear unto my speech" (Isaiah 32:9). If we listen carefully we will hear the voice of the One who formed us, created us, breathed life into us, speaking to our hearts.

Thus started my journey a few years ago into the very heart of the female image.

There has been a whole generation born and raised under a lie. The lie was this: You can do anything! But do you know what? There are consequences for that. it gave us no boundaries so innocent,beautiful women did not know where the female finished and we'd slipped into male territory in our attitudes and our traits.

We stepped on toes and not only diminished his value as a man - but we devalued ourselves on the journey.

So that's why we need to say to the feminist movement - (Graciously) "Thank You , you have done quite enough now, so can we have back that banner that your waving in the air that says 'women', because you are actually embarrasing us now.

This generation of women now - an army of ordinary women like you and me have got to take that banner and run a new race. We cast aside the important things such as home, family and love for our neighbour. Please beautiful ones of the earth, hear the call and answer it.

I love Deborah in the book of judges where she sings her victory song: (Judges 5:7) " Village life ceased, until I Deborah arose a mother in Israel." Do you hear the heart of this women! She just led a band of men into war, was a known prophetess and judge, yet she said that she arose as a 'mother' because her heart was moved when she saw that village life had ceased. No-one cared about their community anymore and it took the heart of a mother to rise up and fight for that. Not her career as a prophetess or wisdom as a judge - it was the God-ordained heart in her as a woman to see connection, to see life flourishing around her. A whole nation was saved because of her feminine heart. You also are capable of such great things...

She brings life and nourishment to those around her -SHE MATTERS!