Lynda's Blog

  This week I lost a friend from cancer. She was only 47 years old, with a loving husband and three great sons in their twenties. How do you comfort someone when it is such a tragedy? My friend however was strong in faith as is her husband. I was sitting beside her bed last week when she was unconscious with my hand on her shoulder. I had been talking to her and reading scripture when her husband came and settled himself on the other side of the bed and talked about his faith. I was amazed at how strong it was and he said that even in this incredibly hard time he knew that without this testing, his faith would not have developed the way it had. The Bible tells us we will have trouble in the world; it never promises that life will be easy and smooth if we believe. In fact if you look at the Bible heroes the opposite is true. But the good news is that Jesus brings us everlasting hope. He tell us, ‘take courage! I have overcome the world.’ It is only through having a relationship wi...

  As I continued to reflect on Christmas and the busyness that surrounds it, I remembered a Children’s Christmas Service where the message was ‘Too Busy for the Babe?’   There was a narrated drama where the innkeeper’s wife was frantically rushing around trying to make sure everyone in the inn was comfortable and had food to eat. When confronted with a couple having a baby in the stable she was pretty mad at her husband for squeezing them in, then basically thought that she was too busy to help them so they would just have to sort themselves out. We then had a spoken word and sermon on the same theme. It made me think again about how busy I was. Where does Jesus fit in to my schedule? Am I being disciplined about making time each day to seek the face of God and to build my relationship with Him. Challenging thoughts. I wrote the following words of a traditional Christmas carol in 2018 as even then I was grappling with this issue:   Jesus, blesséd babe, lays sleeping ...

Where does the time go? I often hear those comments. Is it true that time is going quicker the nearer we get to end times? Even my daughter as a quite young woman once said to me, ‘Mum, time seems to be going quicker every year.’ Is it just our perception or is time speeding up? I had this conversation with a friend over coffee today. How can it almost be the end of the year when we feel we just got started! We wondered if the advent of electronics is responsible for time seeming to go quicker. It possibly is—we spend large chunks of our day flicking from one electronic notification to another. It is no wonder children have such short attention spans with computers at school and home, cell phones and television. Everything in handy bite-size pieces then on to the next one. Oblivious to all that is going on around them, life passing them by. Thank goodness my grandchildren have limited screen time. It is hard though when they are given electronic devices to do their homework on! T...

  After going on a special diet for my health four or five years ago, I lost a lot of weight. Too much actually! People thought I was sick. As I gradually adjusted my eating, I put weight on until I reached a healthy weight for my height and age. I have managed to maintain this weight for these last few years but I do still have to watch what I eat as I put weight on easily. Sunday is my treat day. It is my day for rest and relaxation and to eat what I feel like. However, I find that one treat is never enough. So I have some yummy home baking (courtesy of my husband), followed usually by a chocolate bar, then a little later I am looking for something else, maybe some ice-cream and so it goes on. I manage to eat an enormous amount of ‘rubbish’ during that one afternoon a week. So just one little treat and I have lost all control. Thank goodness I manage to find the discipline the following day to get back on my healthy eating plan. Sin is like that! We just need to let one lit...

  Well I missed writing my blog last week! I felt really guilty at first but decided not to beat myself up.   It was a crazy busy week and I cannot do everything. In fact it has been a really busy month and truthfully, I am simply feeling tired.   I would like to think I can handle everything every week, but it simply isn’t true and God does not call me to do that. So at the end of my crazy busy week, we packed and went to spend a few days with our family. It was of course a real blessing. I am so proud of our grandchildren and love them dearly. They are however, very active children. ‘Grammy, come on the trampoline with me.’ ‘Grammy, come kick the ball with me.’ ‘Grammy, I need you to run really fast.” (Well that didn’t happen!) ‘Grammy, let’s go!’ Well Grammy came home simply worn out. The following day I had an early morning commitment at my local church followed by a full day. Today I had another early volunteer commitment at my church and finally arrived ...