Honeycomb Words

"Pleasant words are like honeycomb, sweetness to the soul and health to the bones"

Proverbs 16:24

I have a sweet tooth. If I had to choose between sweet or savoury, sweet would definitely win. Although in saying that there is something about salted popcorn currently that makes me want to change my mind......mmmmm I could eat some now............*ahem* anyway...

Words, they are a powerful tool. From the same tongue that speak of love and kindness can come words of hurt and nastiness. How often do we spend our time lifting up others instead of putting them down? I know when someone says something nice to me, out of the blue, it really builds me up and sets me in great form. I did a team during the summer and the encouragement was constant from seeing God at work. However, one day during devotions, one of my team members turned randomly to me and said "I really like you Ali because you aren't afraid to say things" Another girl, that girl's sister as it happens, said to me that it was so lovely to have me on the team because I brought out the crazy, fun and chilled side to the leader of the team (and also one of my best friends) Dawn who had apparently been stressed out the year before. You think that people don't notice things about you, that you just blend in to the background. But how sweet is it to hear a random encouraging word, sweet enough to soothe a hurt or to lift a troubled heart. The gift of words are an incredible treasure. If you think about it, God gave the gift of words to Man - not to animals or plants (that would be weird wouldn't it...) but to us. He made us in His own image - God SAID "let there be light" and it happened. BOOM. We have the power of words, be careful not to use them for hurt. So often I will turn to someone and without thinking cut them down, or try to annoy them just because they have maybe annoyed me. Afterwards I feel horrible. Next time you go to slag someone off, even if it usual jest, try to say something that will linger long in that person's heart in a way that will keep them positive, upstanding and really catch them off guard!
I have a friend who honestly just used to suck the life out of me. Anytime I was near her I found it hard to be of any use - all my words, no matter how positive I tried to be, just seemed to hit against her brick wall she'd built around herself.  For everything positive, she had a negative. I seriously did not look forward to hanging out with her. I prayed about it, because in certain situations that's all I can do, pray and trust that God will sort the rest (..... to be fair I also did tell her she needed to get rid of the negativity.) God worked and through a series of eye-opening events, my friend is like a breath of fresh air! And what an encouragement to be around as a Christian, she has got rid of the negative spirit and I definitely feel uplifted around her now.

Thing is with words is that once they have been said, they can't be taken back. You can get over it and heal but you have to be careful not to let those words try to get you down. EVER. If you let the littlest doubt enter into your head about someone, and begin to recall maybe something hurtful they once said it can drag you down. If the person has apologised and things have moved on to a positive place. Live in that place. Both of you. Remember that when you leave someone, make them sorry that you have to go and look forward to seeing you again. Words of motivation, encouragement and love echo through our hearts over and over again in such a powerful healing way. If you think something nice about someone, tell them!
Think about it, phrases like "you annoy me"
"what's your problem"
"don't be so stupid"
Do those phrases emit any positive emotions within you? I wouldn't think so.
How lovely is it to hear
"You make my day brighter"
"I love spending time with you"
"Thanks for calling, I needed a good chat with you"
The list can go on.....

Here's my challenge to myself for this week. Words of encouragement. No matter how cheesey, I'll say it. I'm going to let people know that they matter to me, that I'm praying for them and that I love to spend time with them. Because if it's a lovely truth, why hide it from them?!

Soul survival

I already know that this is going to be a random, jumpy blog. Just go with it, it is my thoughts you know....

Sometimes life can get you down. It doesn't matter if you are, like me, someone who tends to see the glass as half full, you still can get a bad case of....I want to say "the dumps" but that just sounds like needing the loo...sooo a bad case of....ehh... sad times. You may say to yourself, "well Ali every girl is going to get sad at least some time in the month" (you know what i mean) but there are just those times that just can't help but get you down.

The devil is obviously the instigator of such times when things have been going great. He gets in there with fears, doubts and insecurities, and makes you think things that never would occur to you previously. I was out with three of my best friends yesterday, all christian friends and all very good at giving good spiritual advice and having good Godly discussions in between catching up on all the latest news and events. It was right after this that the devil clearly decided to put thoughts into my head, so much so that it ended up that it got taken out on Ian that night. He just had to say one thing and that was it * insecurity alert* I was upset. Poor guy. Luckily for me God blessed me with a handsome but yet forgetful boyfriend (lol) and we watched Lost and all was well.

OR WAS IT?!

No, no,  the devil was still getting at me today...making me more and more insecure about a certain situation. This is why I am thankful for people who are good at helping me to survive. I went to church tonight and out afterwards with two of my best friends. Friends that I can ask to pray for me, and also who i can sit and pray with. They talked sweet sense to me, made me see that my insecurity was so far from the truth because of how much it can be seen that God had been at work. And now? I feel restored!
So whenever you are feeling down, grab a friend/family member/other half and talk to them about the issues you see and let them open your eyes to show you how much good stuff there actually is and how God is at the centre of it all sorting it all out and planning out your life. It is so refreshing sometimes to not have to figure it out for yourself, but to have someone else come along and be like "I can see God at work, here, here and here"

I  love prayer and praying for people and with people. It's funny, because sometimes the thought still makes me feel uncomfortable, but God pushed me out of that comfort zone to a place where I can sit down and pray with someone if they ask. A year ago that would never have happened.
I'd advise that if you are a christian that you keep a prayer journal, or at least some kind of record of your prayers, because looking back can be such an encouragement. I keep a prayer journal because even though I may think that God is not at work and listening to my cry,  and I know thatwhen I go back and look over my prayers in the future I'll be able to see how God really was at work and making me into a stronger, better christian and sustaining me through the hard times, and giving me great blessings that I don't deserve.
Don't you just love the Lord? I do!

So obviously God is number one for soul survival. Here are some other people that help.....my niece and nephew. Seriously you wonder how it's possible to just instantly love somebody You'll find out when there is a baby in your family....these pair make me laugh a lot.
So yea, family, friends, love, music, laughing..........they all help. So don't let the devil get you down, get up and keep on moving and God will get you out of your trench in whatever form He chooses to help you do it.

Packing, and the like.

Woohooo! It's pretty much holiday time.

At 4pm tomorrow (....which is now technically today) I am free of work for 3.5 weeks! I have realised that my job sucks the life right out of me. I used to be this happy go-lucky kind of person....and after working in a monotonous environment for too long (too long I say) it's time to get out. So once I am chillaxed from my holiday and feeling fresh and full of the joy of God after I get home from On The Edge, the real job hunt begins....

*Note to self - working in retail is never going to be my job category again*



Anyway, back to packing.

WHY OH WHY OH WHY do I  leave it all to the last minute?  I tell myself every time that I will not do that and I always do. Still, can't wait to see Ashley again! Quite possibly my most favourite American! She is one of those friends that it just doesn't matter how long you have been apart when you are together it's like you've never been away from one another. That is a good friendship to have when you both live in different continents. Right well I merely decided to come on to my blog, and blog, because I was waiting for the new software to download onto my iphone, and it's done! Bet you I don't notice a difference...

Well fare thee well old blog, I shall see you when I return!

Perhaps I shall have a tan! And even if I do it is guaranteed that my lovely boyfriend (who has the most sickening ability to tan in even the smallest amount of sunshine) will still be more brown than me!! LOL! How rude!

Papa G

What I would like is for God's hand to
come down from the sky (in a non-scary manner) and just prod me in the right direction. I know I should be praying for discernment so as to hear and hopefully do what God wants but sometimes i'd like it in a more radical way.
Currently I am debating something; whether to say what I'd like to say to someone or whether to just leave it and see if it gets brought up first. Vague yes I know, but this is a public place, I can't just divulge all kinds of info....
So I was thinking of radical ways God could tell me the answer to my question:
1) big finger pointing from the sky and the voice with the answer
2) He could tell me in a dream
3) He could send a hot air balloon into the sky with either 'yes' 'no' or 'wait' on it
4) He could get some randomer... Or a friend to come up to me and say " God wants you to know etc" and it be meaningless to them but I would fully understand!
5) Have the answer form before my eyes in my alphabet soup...

All radical. All possible. With God there is no limits as to what He can do, we are just not smart enough or actually we are just too reluctant to pray for big things, things deemed impossible by others. But you gotta remember, through Christ all things are possible!

Now maybe I shall go and pray about this, listen for God's voice in whatever way He chooses to speak.

Teeth and Daises

Teeth.

I love my teeth.

This is why it annoys me that it is my teeth causing me pain in my life currently. Trust me, until you have a toothache you don't really know what pain is. Horrible.

So I've been commissioned to take a photograph of daisies.....I was like "hmmm maybe in my vast collection of flower photographs there will be daisies" and I was right. I found this:

This is Cleo. She is more the subject of the photo than the daisies. Although I thought that the daisies in the garden wouldnt work coz they are too small but actually from this photo there may be some potential. Therefore tomorrow since Friday's are "me days" I am going out into the back garden to enjoy it being the start to my weekend and lie in the sun and try to capture the daisies. It'll not be long though before these adorable creatures are found in the garden picking the daisies...

And now with all this loveliness I feel better and need to go to sleep before tooth pain comes creeping back!

Night :)

Black and White

If I had to chose my favourite photograph from over the past 10 months when I was taking photos for my class, this photograph probably wouldn't be it...

Why bother putting it up here then? Well because I think that even though it is not my favourite it is still an important photograph because it helped me to achieve the grade that I wanted to achieve. The background is slightly distracting, there's a strange looking object to the left of the background (Downhill house) and sheep's wool caught in barbed wire, taken as a black and white image, it created quite a creepy photograph. In fact, all my photographs when I was doing my 35mm film project turned out to be dark and creepy.....but I loved each one of them.

Funny thing is, on the same photography excursion I took a photograph that is among one of the happiest and most favourite photos that I have of my friend Dawn and I...

I liked it. I put a frame on it. I gave it to Dawn as her birthday present. She liked it too.

I love it when that happens.

Jeff Lucas is funny. FACT

Tonight by random choice my friend, Lee-Anne, and I ended up going to CFC's service and when we got there discovered it was the end of some weekend conference and the place was bunged. I'll be honest and say that I was just like "oh lee-anne it'll go on forever let's just go get a coffee!" I am glad that she wasn't listening because when we got a seat and the guy started talking he said that Jeff Lucas was speaking. Now at first I was like, that's funny coz mum and dad have books that I have read by a guy with the same name, and his books are hilarious but it won't be him. Someone who writes BOOKS doesn't come to church in Belfast, why that would be ridiculous! So much to my surprise and delight, it was the actual Jeff Lucas!

One word. Hilarious.

.....or Gifted, that could be another one. Either way I was captivated by him speaking from the very start. I even took notes! I haven't  taken notes during a talk in a long time. Just thought I'd share what I got from it.

People are often led to believe that the will of God is going to be something you don't want to do......I guess people are thinking well there was Jonah, he didn't want to go to Nineveh where God wanted him to go and look what happened. This is not true at all! We need to unlearn the bad ideas of God. His will is not necessarily going to be all the stuff we don't want to do! In fact, when we ponder and pray over things we learn about what God does want and wills for us to do. We are allowed to like God's will for us! To be fair He can give us a choice, ie free will, and He will use us whatever choice we make and providing we pray about it, we hopefully go in the direction he wants us to go. For example, He will bring people into our lives perhaps unexpectedly, answer our prayers and reveal His will for our lives. Trust me, I know that one. Prayer puts a shield of divine protection around us, so providing we pray we are less likely to be tempted in the wrong direction.

Anyway so Jeff was talking about Abraham and about how if you look in the book of Hebrews chapter 11, there is no mention of Abraham being remembered for the one who made mistakes. We should not define ourselves by our mistakes then we just get caught up on looking back instead of looking ahead. You are never going to get anywhere in life if you keep thinking to yourself  "I have fallen down, and I can't get back up." Change your motto if that's what you think!
Jeff made 5 points about God's generosity from Abraham's story:
1) God gives Himself to us  Whereever your life takes you, God is with you on the journey and He will be there regardless of the outcome
2) God wants to bless us - We need to ask him and believe that He can still do the humanly impossible because we know He is mighty and if we have the faith, all things are possible.
3) God gives us the blessing of character
4) God makes us a blessing - we should therefore go and be "fixers" and not consumers just taking everything but  instead take the blessing and share it in our community and the world
5) God gives us grace for the journey - God doesn't taunt us with our failures but celebrates the good things that have happened.

Of course, the above points were all illustrated wonderfully with hilarious stories. If you have never read any of Jeff's books I would highly recommend you do and you'll see his humour.
Afterwards Lee-Anne and I were talking and I had been telling her about some stuff I'd been thinking about and had happened in the past and still concerned me. She read this quote from Helen Keller to me "When one door of happiness closes, another opens; but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one which has been opened for us"
 "STOP LOOKING AT THE CLOSED DOOR! Focus on the open door that is giving you the happiness, this door has opened to you for a reason" said Lee-Anne. She is right and I am thankful for friends who can remind me of that and keep me accountable.

Anyway, that is all. I just wanted to write it all down from tonight because I really enjoyed it and if you are reading this, I hope you got something from it. I love talking about God stuff mainly because I love God. I should do it more often with those whom I don't talk about it often enough with.

Jeff Lucas is my friend on Facebook now. I feel quite cool to have such a funny friend. Enough from me,

Night all