Reasons to be cheerful 1, 2, 3...

It's that time of week again! I've been really slack at joining in recently, I just keep forgetting! So I made a point to try and remember this week!

1. I had a day out with Mum

Technically this was slightly more than a week ago but oh well. We went to a garden centre (well two because the first one we arrived at was rubbish!) had lunch and a mooch around. I spent (more!) money on cupcake decorations and it was just nice to spend time with Mum =) 

2. I went shopping with the family on Saturday

I had forgotten how busy shopping centres are on a Saturday! I went in my wheelchair and was tired after about 5 minutes but I did manage to find a dress for my friend's wedding and some jeans that fit me! Success! Tried to upload a picture of the dress but it wouldn't work =(

3. I had a catch up with my friend and saw her newborn baby =D

Went to Nottingham yesterday to talk about return to uni (that parts still a big if!) and decided to drop in to see my lovely friend and meet Eli who is six weeks old (ok so not quite newborn!) and gorgeous. Got lots of cuddles and had a good catch up with my friend =) 

It's been a busy week and I'm paying for it now but was definitely worth all the pain =) 

Pop over to Michelle at Mummy from the Heart and check out everyone else's reasons to be cheerful this week =D 

Using your gifts

Imagine you are given the gift of a brand new car, and all it does is sit in the drive way under a tarpaulin. You look at it admiringly every once in a while but you've never driven it. It would totally defeat the object of being given a car!

It's the same when God gives us a gift that we don't use, maybe because we're too afraid or we don't believe our gift is of any value or even sometimes because we are too lazy! There is no point if God gives you the gift of compassion or serving if you don't help people out and use it to glorify Him.


"There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit distributes them. There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. There are different kinds of working, but in all of them and in everyone it is the same God at work... Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. For we were all baptised by one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many. Now if the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? But in fact God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. If they were all one part, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, but one body." 1 Corinthians 12:4, 12-20 


I think quite often (if you're anything like me anyway) we can hold back on our gifts because we are too afraid. We may think that someone else's gifts are better than ours but as it says in the verse above, every part is important. You're gifts are just as important as the next persons and gifts that aren't used are as useless as a car is never driven. It's time to move out of our comfort zones and use the gifts God gave us in the best way we can, for His glory :)

Praise

How often do your prayers to God look like a cosmic shopping list rather than praise and thanksgiving? Or maybe you do include a 'praise time' but it's far outweighed by the 'please time'. I know that my prayers often end up like that.


Psalm 92:1-5 says 'It is good to praise the LORD 
   and make music to your name, O Most High,
  proclaiming your love in the morning
   and your faithfulness at night, 
 to the music of the ten-stringed lyre
   and the melody of the harp.

  For you make me glad by your deeds, LORD;
   I sing for joy at what your hands have done.

 How great are your works, LORD,
   how profound your thoughts!'

I read this in my quiet time yesterday and it struck me how little I praise the God who created me, who loves me, who died for me. The Psalmist here had the right idea, they start the day by praising God and end the day by praising God (vs 2). The thing is, we haven't really got a reason why not to praise God but we have got plenty of reasons to praise Him! I made a list the other day of everything I could think of, off the top of my head, that God has done for me this year. The list was pretty long and that didn't even include the smaller things that He does for me every single day! 

'When he came near the place where the road goes down the Mount of Olives, the whole crowd of disciples began joyfully to praise God in loud voices for all the miracles they had seen:
“Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!”“Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!”

Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to Jesus, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples!”

“I tell you,” he replied, “if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out.”' Luke 19:37-40

How amazing is that? Being told that if the people stopped praising Jesus then the stones would cry out! To me that just shows me, even more so, how much Jesus deserves to be praised! Not only should we praise God because He deserves it but it also benefits us! It reminds us of how great God is, that in any situation we don't have to worry because God is greater than it!

Serving

Serving - It's a word many of us in today's society dislike. Our culture here in the UK teaches us to look out for ourselves first and others second. Yet putting ourselves first goes directly against what Jesus taught in the bible. He taught us that we should humble ourselves and that to be first we should put ourselves last.


Philippians 2:6-8 talking about Jesus says 'Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death - even death on a cross!' 


I find it incredible whenever I read this passage, Jesus chose not to use the fact that he was equal with God to his advantage but instead 'took the very nature of a servant'! Who are we then to put ourselves before others, to try and get ahead and only do what is best for number 1 when Jesus himself became a servant to others.



'Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God; so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him...
...When he had finished washing their feet, he put on his clothes and returned to his place. “Do you understand what I have done for you?” he asked them. “You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and rightly so, for that is what I am. Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. Very truly I tell you, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.' John 13:3-5 and 12-17


This is a pretty well known story in the New Testament and it shows Jesus serving his disciples. In those times they would have worn open sandals and their feet would have been pretty disgusting when they arrived at their destination. It was the job of a Gentile slave to wash the feet, which suggests it was considered beneath even the Jewish slaves. By doing this, Jesus is showing an amazing act of humility.

Jesus always taught by example, he wants us to serve and be humble so he served and showed humility. It's not easy to serve, I know I find it difficult so this is definitely a challenge for me. Maybe this week you can look for ways to serve the people around you. By making a cup of tea for someone in your house perhaps, or even doing the washing up without being asked to.  See what a difference it can make, not just to those around you but to you too.