Getting hung up on the small stuff

Some of you may know that on occasions I teach, what we called in the old days, Sunday School. I teach 7 - 11 year old, year 4 - 7 in new money.
On Sunday we were looking at the bible and looking at how we used it at different times in outr lives, special occcasions, our favourite passages etc; with my washing as the analogy. It was great believe me.
We read Psalm 121, which in the last section says this

The Lord will keep you from all harm - he will watch over your life
the Lord will watch over your coming and going, both now and forevermore.

To which one of the kids asked if they could ask a question, which they, of course, can.

He said - so if that is true why do people get murdered?

You've got to love kids they get straight to the point.

I and my fellow teacher answered the question as best we could, but we were both aware that the person we had asked to sit in the lesson, not knowing what we were teaching or indeed the kids would ask at the time, had lost his own daughter to murder.

and later that day he told he more about the incident of just shy of thirty years ago.

I hope that he will tell some of his story to the kids on another day, but it puts all the small stuff into perspective.

I do hope you have a good week and don't get hung up on the small stuff

Charity Begins at Home

Almost everyday I leave the tube at Mansion House. Thise in the know will appreciate that above ground it is a very small station. The space between the barrier and the steps out could house a football team, but not many more people.

This area generally have a chugger in it. That is someone collecting for charity. Now I am not adverse to charity, but it is almost everydday that someone is after my hard-earned, and there is very little change to get around the chugger, and therefore I find myself having to say no to the collector of funds.

Now before you think me hardless these collections are almost every day. So my pocket would be well and truly dented if I gave.

Some of you will know that I give of my time hugely to my local community and this has a much better impact that a few quid in a tin.

So chuggers when someone says no, please don't dfeel downhearted, it is just that you are at charity station and we are the exhausted, who just want to get home.

Some of those that I know have been struggling with a little word, and that word is NO.

It seems, as Christians, we think that we have to say yes to always helping out, and this leads to exhausted people that dislike what they are doing and don't put effort into it as they are too tired.

A church can't be built on exhausted people.

I remember a time when I didn't go to church, and either listened to the Archers or recovered from the night before. Now I am at church almost every Sunday and currently two night most weeks, added to this is preparation.

So I'm a bit exhausted at the moment, as I do have a job, and a college course, and a life. So there's a lot of saying no going on in my little group and I do fear that this could spread to saying no to God.

How many other people have stopped going to church because they really want that extra hour in bed or to just wash their socks on a Sunday.

So I'm going to say no to lots of people in the run up to Christmas a time when Christians should be calming down and waiting for the birth of Christ. Advent is a time of waiting not rushing, a time to pause.

So I am sorry if I say no to you, but I have to at the moment or you'll be visiting me in hospital. I'm going to buy bread for a bacon sandwich now and I'm going to walk to the shop in the rain, bcause theres NO bread!

Prayer Breakfast

We have recently introduced Prayer Breakfasts at church.

This is when a number of the congregation gets together to have breakfast and pray about a church issue.

Recently an email for the next one was sent round and a notice was read out about it during the service.

I responded to the email to ask what the prayer breakfast was praying about, and it seems I'm the only person to ask that question.

Would these same people sign a petition and not know what the petition was for?

So when the person leads the prayer breakfast in a fortnight, I might slip a vodka in her orange juice and lead it myself.

Now what could I lead the prayer about? Digging up the graveyard and paving it? Knocking down the old church? Having topless collection ladies? or maybe it is already about one of those things, bet the people that have signed up and have not asked are dying to know!

Church Notices

For those of you not in the know, church notices are usually read out at the end of a service by the vicar, although recently I have seen them read at the start of the service, which I think is better. However, the person doing the reading generally apologises for the number of notices. I think this is like Camelot, the lottery company, apologising for the amount of money that you have won!

Notices are the life blood of the church, they show that the church is doing more than the usual Sunday service, that it is reaching out to the community, or to groups within the church, the youth, men, mom and toddlers etc;

So I say let's have more notices, let's celebrate what we are doing and report back on the successes and failures that happen.

And you are.....?

OK I have a confession to make. I have got away with it for years, but the time has come to reveal all. I really have a hard time remembering people's names; so for years have relied on mate, darling, sweetheart, my learned friend even, and if your name is Lucy or Alice, please note that part of my brain believes these two names are interchangeable. Therefore poor Lucy at Sunday School I have called Alice for weeks, or is it Alice I've called Lucy.

My friends two boys are called the Masters Prentice, which they seem to like, but this was because I couldn't remember Jack and Henry's names. Henry is the older one, isn't he?! and members of the clery are so helpful as you can just say vicar or rector and cover a multiple of sins!!!

However, Facebook has caused me problems. Recently many of the people I went to school with have been turning 40, which is strange as I am only 26, and this seems to have lead to more of us joining facebook and tracing our classmates down, but there are so many of them that I have no memory of at all. None, nought, nanda... even when they know the same stories as me and clearly went on the same trips.

So Jane Groom, Andrew Blower etc I apologise as my brain has washed you away, and you will never even reach the mate or darling phase. However the sound of tea from a pouring from a tea pot take me instantly back to my nan's house and Saturday afternoons and me sitting on the arm of an armchair listening to the soothing sound of the football results when my dad demanded complete silence, with the gas fire on high, even in the height of summer and wood pigeons in the trees. it's a funny old thing your brain.

Overwhelmed

I've been feeling a bit overwhelmed lately. Life, on occasions, can seem like a huge list of tasks to get through and we seem to cram it full of stuff.

This weekend I had man flu and therefore didn't go out on Saturday at all, and it was lovely, and on Sunday I got as far as church and that was me for the day.

So what I'm saying is "Hey, everybody, it is ok to stop, and certainly ok to ask for help!"

Whether you play social city, cafe whatever or farmville, we are all busy asking for help and also waiting for things to come, whether that's someone else to send you bricks for a virtual stable or getting more friends so you can expand your city into a 23 x 23 grid, but we seem to find this harder to do in real life.

I am lucky enough to have some fantastic friends, but in my mad rushing around, I often forget them and do the Irene Cara Out Here on my Own Thing - they did it on Follow the Yellow Brick Dorothy on Saturday! You tube it if you have no clue of 80s culture!

So stop in the name of you! Have a duvet day. Throw a sickie, and just be you, you'll be amazed of how nice you are. And if you are overwhelmed and saw to your friends Hey 'm drowning here, you'll be amazed at how many of them offer to help.