A Proverbs 31 woman...

I've been following a devotional which looks at the woman described in verses 10-31 of Proverbs 31 and I wanted to summarise them here, to help me remember what I've learned.

1. The only image of womanhood that we want to be aiming for is the one presented in the Bible, not the one found in magazines or movies.
2. We are all, as Christian women, on the road to being like this woman. It's the Pantene Principle (It won't happen overnight, but it will happen). And we can't do it on our own - we need God and the Spirit to make us grow.
3. We are going to fail, but we have to keep pressing on. A godly woman is strong in charcter - she knows who she is - a child of God through Christ - and what she is living for.
4. Godly women make great wives! Seriously! What guy wouldn't want to marry a girl who is working toward being a woman who is trustworthy, faithful, encouraging and who serves and builds her husband up?
5. Women do a lot of work, whether they stay at home or not! They have a major role in ministering to the needs of their home.
6. A godly woman goes about her work with joy. Yes, even when she's vacuuming or scrubbing. Why? Becuase this is an expression of love for the others who share our life, and ultimately our love for God.
7. Watch what you say, especially to those closest to you!
8. Keep watch over your home, whether you live with family or flatmates. Look out for those in your home spiritually and emotionally, as well as looking after your home itself! (Yes, I did just write that... now my parents can officially come after me for the state of my room!)
9. Make time for the important stuff, like praying for your family and friends and serving their needs, but cutting out the not-so-important stuff, like hours on Facebook or chatting.
10. Nothing will change unless we depend of God's strength, that we can lay down our lives that we may gain them.

Always and Forever

It’s funny. Eternity is such a ridiculously long time that I think we almost try and avoid thinking about it. But a little while ago I was thinking about it. I was writing a birthday card.

I always used to sign birthday cards “with love today and always”. And then I stopped, because I started thinking, ‘It’s pretty ridiculous for me to be promising that I will love someone forever’, when I was only 15 years old. I mean, you’re not even friends with the same people from year to year, let along loving them that long.

But writing this card got me thinking about it. If my friend and I are going to see each other again in Heaven, then I can honestly say “I will love you forever”. And the best part is, the majority of those years are not going to be my human waxing and waning love, but the full and complete love found only in perfect relationship with God. It gives great confidence, that even if your paths lead you down totally separate roads, that friendships built on the foundation of the gospel will last the test of time, because it is a love that continues into eternity.

It’s a good day.

[I wrote this over a week ago now, but it's still true...]

As humans, we can be incredibly fickle. Or at least I can… I shouldn’t really speak on behalf of the entire human populace. But I’m fairly certain I’m not the only one.

I just had an amazing day. I was invited by my campus Christian group to go to another uni campus in my city to help out with their Orientation Week, as it is one of the biggest weeks for evangelism in uni ministry all year. And we saw God do amazing things! Almost one in four students we approached wanted to be followed up either to learn more about Christianity or to join a Bible study group. I even got a contact of a girl from my own uni, who was just checking out the festivities with her friends from the other uni. God was so good to us, and really used the team of students powerfully.

And then when I got home, I found my uni had made a paper work error and not given me my travel concession for the year – without which I cannot afford to travel to uni each day. All the jubilation I felt about what I had seen God do earlier went out the window, and was quickly replaced by irritation and discontent.

And that is what I wonder about? Why do I fall into unhappiness so easily? Is the God who made our outreach such a success also God over the admin at my uni? Can He not use this for good and for His renown? Not doubting God when things don’t turn out my way will be a challenge I think, but one that must be faced.

Overdoing It

Do you ever think sometimes you push yourself a little past your own limits?

I do it all the time, and I cant seem to figure out how to make myself stop.

This week has been a huge week - universities here are about to start back, which means it's Orientation Week at many campuses. For a few days, the uni takes on the carnival type atmosphere as students explore all the clubs they could join. It's an awesome time for evangelism, because everyone is really open to talking about what they believe.

But when you take an already exhausted girl, put her in the sun for two days, and then feed her junk food... you get one very sick human being. After 4 days of being a whirlwind activity, I leaped at the chance to go out for dinner with a close friend as a way to chill out. However, I made a mistake... Instead of actually thinking, "can my body handle this?", I just plunged headlong into it, and filled myself with more junk food. Predictably, my body didn't like it, and what should have been a fun night out to catch up ended with me being sick into a garbage bin outside the shopping centre. Tres elegante, n'est pas? I am very thankful for my friend for how well he looked after me, particularly when I didn't deserve it at all.

But my misadventure should be a powerful lesson to me. Not only did I end up miserable for embarrassing myself so badly in front of my friend, but I was too sick to go back to help with the outreach the next day... my last opportunity to help with O-Week mission ever, as this is my final year at uni. I need to learn to slow down, and do what I can handle. Don't push yourself beyond your limits, for your own sake or to please others. It isn't the road to happiness.

Waiting for the World to Fall

I feel like I am trapped in a period of waiting - the calm before the storm. There is so much about to happen in my life, and there's only so much I can do to prepare for it. I am waiting for:

• my best friend to come home for overseas. I miss her incredibly, and if it wasn't ridiculously expensive, I would be on the phone right now telling her that. There is a lot going on at the moment, and it will be strange not to have her there beside me.
• university classes to resume. We are all get used to patterns and rules and working within them. I have had a whole summer of freedom, and soon I will be back to the routine of classes. Part of me is glad to be returning to the familiar comfort of routine, knowing what each day will hold, while another part mourns losing the chance to do what I like, whenever I like.
• campus ministry to start up. I am planning to be very involved in the Christian movement at my campus this year and I can't wait to see how God draws new students in and uses the students currently involved to spread the gospel on campus.
• my graduation. I know this is a long way off, but I am very much aware that this is my last year of tertiary studies. I'm not sure what direction God has planned for me once I graduate, but I am excited to find out.

Waiting is such a strange feeling. It's mixture of nervousness and excitement and sometimes a touch of fear. But waiting can be difficult. A couple of weeks ago, my friends and I had a five hour wait at the airport for our flight home. But we got so caught up in distracting ourselves from the long wait, we almost missed our flight, even though we'd been sitting in the airport for 5 hours!

Waiting is hard, but there's also a purpose in it. It might be that more preparation is needed or you're just not ready. But there is a season for everything, and that includes waiting.

Sadness in the Air

It feels at the moments like there is sadness drifting through the air like mist, clouding vision and choking life and laughter.

Many people have lost their lives to fires that are ravaging parts of my country. Hundreds of properties have been destroyed. There is a great public sadness, some of which is personal to me as the homes of friends and family are threatened.

There is also more private sadness. My closest friend has lost a loved one, and I cannot help but mourn as she mourns. As with my sister, I cannot see her cry without crying myself. And her sadness is understandable, for her relative lived far away, and it has been a long time between visits, and now it seems too late.

Here on Earth, we suffer. We suffer because this world is out of kilter - it has sin. And because it has sin, it has death. But in the very heart of it all, there is hope. Hope that rolled away the stone on the third day and defeated death once and for all time.

Growing Pains

"And all too soon, the clock will strike midnight, and she'll be gone."
Cinderella, Steven Curtis Chapman

It seems strange to think that I'm growing up. It kind of crept up on me this summer as I watched one friend get married, had another friend have a baby and started jetsetting around the country having adventures of my own. I don't think there has been a consecutive 7 days where I've slept every night in my own bed. I think this saddens my parents, as they see me beginning to disappear from their daily life and form a separate life for myself.

I feel like the old me is sort of slipping away. Sure, I'm still the vaguely hysterical, giggling girl who talks for hours on the phone to her best friend when given the chance and loves mucking around in the pool/at the beach/in the river with her mates, and will spontaneously break into song and dance at moments when it's least expected. But at the same time, I am becoming someone who has a vision for a campus ministry, who makes planning decisions and who attends meetings and conferences. It's a strange dichotomy, and all tangled up with it are the changes Christ is making in me, growing me in the fruits of the Spirit and peeling away the layers of self. You occasionally catch a glimpse of the Spirit at work, like a flickering in your peripheral vision, when you face a difficult situation and react differently to how you would have in the past.

Seeing these changes in myself is strange, and in a way it frightens me, when I myself am the unfamiliar environment. It makes me want to run back to the familiar - my old life - and hide there until everything goes back to 'normal'. The constant tug of war between this and the desire to 'press on toward the goal' causes what I call "growing pains".