Click here to view the embedded video.

Just saw this on Nick Page’s blog and thought it was a brilliant reminder of how much the beauty we are forced to compare ourselves with is not reality. I know that they have stylists and lighting and airbrushing…but seeing it in action like this is very heartening and encouraging to know that we just can’t be expected to look that good in real life every day!

At 33 and (and two thirds) I have finally reached a stage where most of the time I look in the mirror and like what I see…but I expect that as I get older, a whole new set of challenges lie ahead in what the mirror will show.  I want to rejoice in the person God has made me to be – both on the inside and the outside.

I remember a dressmaker friend of mine who told me she had overheard someone in one of her wedding dress creations looking in the mirror making ‘urgh’ noises and how she’d realised at that moment how God felt when we made similar noises when looking at something He’d created in the mirror.  We are all so unique and God has put beauty in all of us….let’s help each other to see that beauty and celebrate it.

So – girlfriends – I pray this video helps break the pressure you feel when you look at a billboard or watch too much MTV … and may you look in a miror today and rejoice in the beauty God has given you…

Had a great Easter weekend this year.

I was working on the above monologue in Holy Week – Mary Magdalene reflecting on the first Easter Sunday. Spending time thinking about her life and what she might have thought and felt about Jesus really got me in the Easter Zone this year. Plus the journey of Passover on the Thursday – Walk of Witness on Friday built to a fantastic celebration of God’s goodness on Sunday. I think it was the best Easter Service I’ve ever been to.

How brilliant of God to time the completion of buying Oak Tree’s new building so that the announcement was made on Sunday! Of course the resurrection is the most important thing to celebrate – but finally getting 216 after three years of waiting certainly helped everyone get into the right mood!

I think the theme of ‘Transformation’ worked brilliantly because  it reminds us all how we have been transformed through the resurrection power and love of Jesus. Each song we sang in worship could have been sung by Mary Magdalene of her life as well as by me of mine. Our version of cardboard testimonies went down really well too. There were tears all round as God’s goodness in the lives of people we see every week was displayed proudly at the front.

The enemy is really trying to drag me down with worries at the mo – I hate him for stealing joy from me about money and the future. God is my joy – even if/when troubles do come. Last night at branch we talked about the two builders – I KNOW my house is on the rock – so why do I fear the wind and the lashing rain?

I am praying for a renewed peace and stronger faith….

I pray the joy and transforming power of the resurrection is deep in your life this week and always!!

So Mark and I have been married for a year!! (and one day now….)

Having spent AGES trying to decide what to do – we ended up on a trip to Oxford for the day. We had a little wander round shops and found the most delicious milkshake in the world EVER – oreo cookie and marshmallow… heaven in a cup.

Then we went to Oxford Castle and did their tour which was nice and touristy – and then a lovely tea/hot choc break – a little more shopping and back to London for yummy dinner in the evening….

Then on Sunday we celebrated the day proper with bucks fizz and crumpets for breakfast – the boy got me a lovely bunch of flowers and we opened our cards and read all the things that people wrote on the wedding day and put in the box for reading today. Was SO lovely to read all these anniversary wishes written on the wedding day…. quite a few predicting baby Robinson would have put in an appearance by now….erm……nope!

Then the in-laws came round with chocolate and we had a nice cup of tea with them before church and pub later on.

The day finished with me falling asleep to the latest 24 episode we got from the Wells’ which we stuck on a little late…and so I had the wierdest dreams about being chased by the FBI and a whole bunch of monsters they had let loose to catch us. Like a wierd Lost, 24, Cloverfield mix – loads of people were being killed and the world had gone to hell in a handbasket and we were hiding from these monsters in rooms underground just off tube tunnels.

My subconscious – always wierd….

Just got back from branch group tonight which was on purity after mine and Carolyn’s sermon on lust on Sunday!

We broke into girls and guys for prayer and deeper discussion and in the girlies there were two of us in our first year of marriage, a 70 yr old single lady, a 30 yr old single woman and three early twenties girls dating young Christian guys.

The three dating girls were all sharing their struggles to stay pure and I found it so hard to stop gushing and talking and giving all my top tips and encouragement and just wanting to pour into them all the wisdom (?) , grace and experience God has given me. Honestly! Why can’t I hold my tongue sometines?! I just texted the girls and apologised for going on….

I know I am an external processor and I have a tendency to talk too much in a setting I feel at home in – but tonight was particularly bad – I guess it’s something I’m really passionate about.

When I first started going to church back in June 1999 (wow almost ten years ago!) I was living with a guy and our relationship was pretty worldly. I’d never really been a huge hit with guys in my teenage years and my relationship with this guy was in its second year and I felt like I had really arrived! So as I went through Alpha and got to know Jesus and listened to our church going through the sermon on the mount, I realised that if I was going to commit to Christ – thre were serious lifestyle issues that would have to change. By God’s grace, the decision to stop sleeping with my boyfriend was taken out of my hands as he broke off the relationship in the winter of ‘99. I had spent a long time of my teenage years feeling like the freak who wasn’t having any of the sexual escapades my friends were having, so the prospect of going back to that was scary and daunting…. but I wanted a relationship with Jesus – so I gave my life to him – with my sex life very much a huge part of what I felt I was honouring him with and giving to him. I prayed a ‘I give you my life but please find me a Christian guy quickly or keep me away from boys who’ll take the mick’ kind of prayer.

I think that is why I get so passionate about purity in this area. It was a HUGE deal to me to give it up for Jesus and to stay pure till my wedding night – which came a little over 8 years later. When Mark and I started dating – and with him only recently having come back to faith, I was almost militant in my laying out of boundaries early on (’don’t touch what you don’t have’)…and worried that I might mess up and how crushed I would be – especially as in my mind – it was the first big promise I’d made to Jesus. Yes – I KNOW his grace would have forgiven me and I know the theology – but I wanted every moment with Mark to be blessed – not something the enemy could use to bring shame.

Thankfully, my husband showed a strength, self-control and an honouring maturity in Christ way beyond his time back in relationship with Him. I never once had to stop him, or say ‘no’  or put the brakes on. He always took the lead and never tried it on more than the boundaries we had agreed.  Yes there were times it was frustrating and like this stage would never end – but it was a precious time too.

I recognise that Mark and I were in our thirties (actually – I was in my thirties…Mark was 28) and therefore didn’t hang about to get married – four months as friends then from first date to wedding day  – about 13 months – so it’s prob easy for me to gush about how it’s totally possible to stay pure. And I also think that 7 years of singleness did much for me to prepare and ponder my boundaries before they had a chance to be put into practise.

I also recognise, reading some sites on the internet – that some Christians would think I wasn’t as pure as I could’ve been (the ‘I’m not kissing till my wedding day’ brigade). I can see why people might make that decision – but it wasn’t something I felt convicted of – though sometimes, having a kissing ‘fast’ is a good idea if you’re struggling in this area!

Just realising that it was possible and ok to save sex until marriage in this day and age was so freeing for me. Deep in my heart I’d always wanted that I think……even though I had been afraid of giving it up. I long for the single and dating people I know to grasp hold of God’s goodness in this area and to stand firm. I long for it so much – I feel like I could explode with trying to articulate why….

And that – I think is why I talked so much tonight……..

hmmmmm…..

ps the pic is a sneaky pic of the still-in-progress-a -year-after-the -wedding- photoshopped-wedding-album!

My eyes couldn’t believe what they were reading this morning on a BBC news article on the latest in the Jade Goody publicity whirl.

She got married yesterday after being told by doctors that her cancer has spread and that there’s nothing more they can do. She wants her sons Christened before she dies and gave the above reason.

Something about the profound insight that knowing Jesus is the key to them having an eternal relationship gave me hope. Jade has a very chavvy reputation. She came to fame on Big Brother and has always been portrayed as shallow and a bit thick. Yet here she is wanting her children to be Christened as a way to know Jesus – not just a ’something to be done’ or a nice religious ceremony. She may not be a poster girl for us evangelicals in her lifestyle choices or theology – but at the very least she has an awareness that Jesus is the one who holds to keys to eternal life.  “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” Romans 10:13

Jade I hope you do  know Jesus. I hope that in your suffering – you have called out to him and known his comfort, strength and grace. I hope that some around you have faith enough to pray for your total healing even now. It’s not His will that a 27 year old mum die this way. I pray in Jesus’ name that the power of all the media declaring negative words over you about how sick you are – would be destroyed.

And I pray that whenever you do leave this earth as it is now – that you would see Jesus – smiling at you – calling you his child – knowing that you called on Him and He saved you.

Mark was amazing though and looked after me with such patience and grace. He is much better than me at this whole self-sacrificial thing.

ok – back to work – those notes won’t type themselves up will they?!

So here’s a little ‘things whizzing round my head’ of recent times….
– today – Mark’s eldest sister is going into hospital after the new baby she was carrying died at 10 weeks. Even though she already has five healthy wonderful children, they are all terribly sad to lose this little one (they have named the baby Francis). Thank God that when life is crap – he’s right there in the crap with us. All prayer for Sandra and Peter extremely welcome.
- I feel stupid even typing this after that last one – but I had a BAD haircut recently which has made my layers all blunt and unmanageable. Has got me down – and that annoys me because I thought my self-esteem was so much more securely rooted in God these days and all it takes is one bad haircut to drag me down. Grrr….am hoping Jo (my regular hairdresser who was away in Australia) can rescue it.
- I went to get waxed yesterday at a new place and it was great. The girl was really friendly and I got to share my testimony with her. It’s about the third time I have done that with someone over a waxing session!!! It’s amazing how easy it is to get to Jesus…..’yeah I haven’t had this done much as I’ve only just got married…..yeah we didn’t sleep together before we were married…..I know – yes, very difficult – wouldn’t do it for anyone but Jesus…’ hehe…
- had a nightmare last night that I had a screaming row with a friend – I hate those – you wake up all wierd. It’s a friend I’m walking a ‘truth and grace’ line with at the mo and it’s hard to know how to be a Godly friend.
- it’s date night tonight – hurrah! I love date night. Mark is always on top form on date night and we have such fun being silly together and hanging out.

In the run up to Christmas, this had given me food for tought about what I buy for people. Well worth a watch.

What is with this dream?! Why do I subconsciously want to have another wedding day? What is it about my hair?

Sigh…I have no idea. But I always wake up feeling a little drained after all the dream-stress…

But at least I did have good hair on the actual day….see?!

http://www.wearewhatwedo.org  a bunch of little actions that can make a difference….very interesting reading!

http://www.ibreathe.org.uk  website on living more simple lives…

ooh and this was from the other day….

http://christianfeminism.wordpress.com  which is not as militant and anti-men as it sounds!!!