Fall? Which Fall?

A few days ago I was staring out of my bedroom window and observed my neighbour and her little girl of 2. The mom was walking to her car packed a few yards from their house, she got in and shortly afterwards I noticed her little girl running down the road to the car, the mum came out and shouted for her to stop running. (It has just stopped raining). The little girl kept on running. The mum got back in the car, her little girl was almost near the car when she fell. The mum jumped out of the car, picked her up and tried to sooth her. She kept walking up and down saying, its ok, I told you not to run, but you won’t listen, its ok. I smiled as I watched.

This got me thinking.
We sometimes ignore our God’s warning to stop running without him or not to run at all. Running could be anything, we may ignore his warning about taking that job, moving house, making that decision on our own or waiting a little bit longer before taking that next step, but because we fret and think we have a better grasp of the situation and can make a reasonably “wise” decision we continue with our plans, all the while ignoring the fathers warning not to run.

We soon make a mistake and fall.
But just like that mom picked up her little girl, he’ll pick you up, with the mud, the grass and the filth which comes as a result of the fall, he’ll pick you up with the dirt and soothe you, he won’t wait for you to be clean and repentant, he’ll come running to you just before you fall.

So have you fallen due to running? And are you berating yourself for failing to heed the father’s voice? Stop! Just let him soothe you as only he can.Lean on him and let him wipe the dirt away.

The little girl continued crying for a while before she calmed down. Some of us never forgive ourselves, we continue crying each time we remember the fall and repent all over again, and all the time the father is saying, but I picked you up, I wiped you clean, I don’t know what you are talking about, fall? Which fall?
No wonder Jesus says except we are like little children……
Little ones don’t remember. No sooner had she calm down than she started playing again.

So Straight from my heart is this piece to encourage you to get up from the place where you’ve fallen, get over your fall, you’ve been wiped clean! Hear the father saying, fall? Which fall? I picked you up.

Running towards the goal,
Pressing to achieve
I make no haste to attain
The quest my heart desires.

Running towards the mark,
Heedless of humps and bumps
I’ve prayed, my guide the Lord will be,
I run, and make no tarrying to wait.

Running as I climb, I saw the finish line
But lurking along my path, lay thorns unknown to me,
Soon I stumble and fall, unable to finish the race

Swiftly, he picked me up,
Shook me clean,
Place me on his shoulder
And ran to complete the race,
I embarked without him

On his shoulder I soar,
I did not sway or loose my grip,
He’s steps propelled me to heights never dreamt before,
Because he ran the race he has chosen for me.

Memories

What do you feel when you remember the loss/losses you've suffered? Do you feel sad and helpless? Does remembering rekindles the pain?
Losses of any kind are painful, be it the loss of a child, a parent, a sibling, a job, business or a house, whatever, losses are not pleasant.
But after a while, the pain of the loss/losses passes (I hope), and is replaced with only memories of what we suffered and how we to pulled through.

A year ago I suffered a couple of losses one of which is the loss of my dad, looking back now I remembered the pain of those losses and marvel at how I pulled through. one year on the pain has been replaced with fond memories of my loving dad. The pain was painful (if there's a phrase like that), it was horrible, but that was then. Pain are for a season, we are build to feel pain, sorrow and sadness, but we are not expected to stay in the place of pain and dwell in the land of questions like why me, what next, when Lord?

We are meant to bounce back stronger and better than we were before our losses.

So have you suffered a loss?
Does the pain become real again on the anniversary of the loss?
Do you still feel sorrowful?

Sad as your loss was or is, you are meant to bounce back and not remain in the place of pain.
Do whatever you have to do to bounce back, go for counselling, do something to move pass the place of pain into the place where you can remember not with pain, or sorrow but with a sense of gratitude that you pulled through.

We cannot erase the past, but we can look on the past and smile at our resilience and our ability to weather the storms of our past demise.

So straight from my heart is this piece to encouraging you to move on purposefully to a place were memories become spring board to hope and dream again.

Start Nurturing

It’s been a while since I updated you on my veggies. I am so amazed at the rate of growth and the produce so far. Really this whole growing thing has got me looking forward to next growing season.
The beauty of it all is the finished produce. I must say the taste of my peas and spinach is compared to nothing. My tomatoes have started sprouting and gosh! The size of it!

It was only a couple of months ago we got to work, sowing the seeds, watering and feeding. At some point I was tired of carrying on. Each evening after a hard day’s work I am out there tendering. To put it in biblical terms I sowed in tears and now am ripping in joy!

This got me thinking about a lot of the things we are involved in on a daily basis, our relationships, our jobs, our character, what are we sowing? Are we expecting to reap where we’ve not sown? To have a good harvest, be it good friends, well groomed kids, beautiful garden, not only must we sow the seeds, we must tend to it, we must modify our character, taking stock daily of areas we need to improve on. We must put the needed hours on the job to get the recognition. We must sweat it out at the beginning, through the middle and right to the end till our produce bring forth fruit worthy of harvest.

At one stage some of my plants weren’t doing well, I was sad, I didn’t know what was happening, I had to researched what the problem could be and apply the necessary treatment to restore them to healthy state.

If things are not working in some areas of your life, find out why, look within and without, are you doing enough, is there something you’ve neglected to do? Only when you’ve given your best at any task or call can you rest.
We can work it out all on our own and succeed, but sometimes with our best effort things may still go pear shape, just like the time I had to lay hands on my crop one morning when they all appeared dead, I must say God intervened whether you believe it or not! But I didn’t give up on them.

So don’t sweat it out all on your own, involved the master who gives us the power to make wealth. Equipped with his strength we can do all things!

So straight from my heart, is this encouragement to you to being to sow today, begin now, where you are, wait no more, depose the handicap call excuses and be on your way to Nurturing that dream, birth within you a reality too powerful to fail. With unwavering faith, propel your being into all you’ve been created to be and watch as you sprout and soar like a giant, conquering and winning all the way.