ENERGISE!

So what?

· God is our strength – Here’s a radical “so what?” With the Spirit of God inside, you can stop praying prayers like, “God, please give me strength.” The fact is, he is your strength. Your prayers can move toward allowing his strength to transform you. (Strength is just an example here – this also applies to wisdom, peace, joy, etc.)

· Up close and personal – God is not a distant God. His spirit is working within you. Paul suggests this is a down payment on the eternity to come, but it also shows that God values intimate relationship over rules or religion.

· Expect God to work in you – You are “God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works ….” (Ephesians 2:10a NIV) Don’t hope that he’s at work in you; expect him to work in you, transforming you into a reflection of Christ. Ask God where he’s working in you, and then expect him to show you.

From todays Purpose Driven Reading - bold is mine, seems significant?!

The Sound ....of Silence

I know that to be found blogging on a Saturday might mark me out as some sad sack, but listen..........the sound of nature( or at least domestic noises that aren't coming from my house anyway)

After an eclectic week balancing going to work with actually being at home most of the week, I have a hour of solitude, while Keith has taken our progeny to the driving range - golf, not cars.

I imagine they will have a great time, but the reality is that there might be lots of rowing and misunderstanding going on and two enranged 8 years olds swinging golf clubs in anger against a dad who is laughing and a big bro. who is cringing with embarassment could get messy.

The last words I heard my daughter say as they all trailed out of the front door were something like ' It's not a competition is it, I mean it's just to get better isn't it?' and that would not have been for her benefit, she would have been announcing it to her brothers just in case they thought someone was going to be a 'winner'. Anyway, I'm not there to see it so... tra la!



So, I have the luxury of flicking though the Daily Mail that I bought in Tescos this morning and I have to say, it's a riviting read.


Damien Hirst has unvieled his latest creation called FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, a platinum cast of some skull he bought from a taxidermists and then encrusted in 8,601 flawless, ethically sourced diamonds - so it's fair trade too. He said' I was slightly worried that we would end up with an Ali G ring. You want it to be flawless,like a diamond'

Why the title though? There is actually no mention of that in the article.

Maybe the answer lies in another quote if his, 'I hope it makes the people who see it feel good, that it's uplifting, that it takes their breath away'

Read into that what you will - rest assured I'm going to be having some very sparkley nightmares.


It seems that the RSPB are banning the use of the word cock to describe a male bird for fear of offending some of their more 'delicate subscibers' and the Scout's Forest Chapel has been torn down after 70 years because it might offend non Christians. Now that headline was carefully thought out because it is supposed to entice the reader into thinking that a bunch of thugs had gone in and desicrated it. It was actually demolished properly and in it's place - a camp fire setting. I'm not saying it's right, but to sensationalise it really isn't ( I know, buy a better paper than the MAIL for proper news)


Oh, what IS the world coming to?


And then there's Big Brother and a very intersting article by an undercover reporter who nearly made the final cut as a housemate.If what she writes is to be believed then what a twisted and abusive production team runs THAT show, like you hadn't realised already. Goodness I thought my last posting was dark and murky, but they take the biscuit ( whatever that means)


Finally, further to becoming a CRIM for doing 57 mph in a 40 mph zone ( road works on the A13, not a residential area, but it's still wrong so I am sorry!) I had to get my picture taken for a new driving licence, as the old paper one went into the washing machine ( not at the same time as my phone I hasten to add!) and actually - it's not half bad!!

The young lady in the booth before me was getting one done for her passport - I knew this because her flustered dad was saying, 'Oh come on, it's only for your passport' and she was on her final chance to get it right before having to pay another £3.50. I helpfully said,'Well she will have it for 10 years' and from behind the curtain a hand extended with a thumbs up. We all laughed hahahahahahaha!


Yep....still quiet... aahh lovely :)

Control and....forgiveness - AGAIN!

Disclaimer:
To my lovely friends who ‘read between the lines’ I’m ok, this has been helpful.
To my lovely friends, and the rest of the world who I don’t know, that this might help come to some conclusions, fill your boots!

What prompts us to hold onto things after the cause has:
just gone
moved away,
apparently been forgotten
said sorry but didn’t really mean it, in our opinion,
or even died?

My intension was to post purely about CONTROL but it occurred to me that our desire to control ourselves, situations, relationship etc.etc, is possibly/ quite probably a symptom of something else that is eating away at us, but that we just can’t begin to or just don’t want to rationalise, vocalise, visualise. Also, I don’t think that I have enough experience of it if I’m honest, and looking at my question, I can see that the conclusion of this blog is not going to be at all fulfilling unless I go somewhere dark and murky first .

I don’t put myself into the set of people known as Control Freaks and I don’t think many people who know me would say that I am controlling or even am in control for much of the time.

I am a reactive kind of person, it’s very freeing, almost a relinquishing of responsibility really, and am not proud of that either. I am intentionally training myself to have more of a plan, not just for my day to day work, but for my day to day LIFE, so I have the intention to be more in control, but the desire to be in control eludes me.

I wonder if that’s because, at the end of the day
I don’t want to be responsible when it all goes wrong!!
See…. a dark and murky place.

*1 Funny though, that I beat myself up frequently, because so often I think that it all goes wrong anyway, so there must be some other reason that control eludes me.
*1Added after 50th proof read

This post is an exercise in CONTROL. I am typing it in WORD first, rather than just rattling it off as a quick post and I have to say, that it’s quite an enlightening, if actually alarming way of exploring an issue. It will make for a long posting though.

During my NVQ course I touched minutely on Child Psychology and one of the theories is that the adult characteristics we grow into, are as a direct result of the events we experienced as a child – it’s not Brain Surgery*2, to see that, in many cases, that’s true – might not be true for everybody but it probably is and there we have it:

Isn’t that what control is about?
Modifying our behaviour to mask or deny what’s really the issue.

*2The traditional comparison here might be ‘it’s not Rocket Science’, but it has been pointed out to me that Rocket Science is actually quite easy – equal and opposite forces, thrust and fuel, whereas Brain Surgery is actually much harder. In my imaginary world where everything revolves around me, and everyone in the world reads my blog, doctors will now adore me, physicists will not – ho hum.

So, as the topic of forgiveness seems to be one that continues to pepper my thoughts, posting and comments on other people’s blogs, I’m wondering if being able to forgive, or actually being unable to forgive, is something that becomes the cement in a wall that we build around ourselves to keep control.

As a person who really doesn’t have the time to explore many complex issues (‘That’s an excuse!’ I hear all you psychologists in the world who are monitoring my blog shout), maybe that’s my externally imposed control…yeah, a posh phrase for EXCUSE. I don’t want to explore complex issues, so I’ll get married *3, have 3 children and a variety of pets, think about maintaining a long garden, have a job that’s mental at times, be active in my church and get a blog.

*3 It was our 19th wedding anniversary on the 28th May, and for Keith’s prezzie, I taught him how to create a blog – he’s ever so grateful.

So, I think that actually, forgiveness is an issue, not just for me, but for lots of people, and there are SO many ways of dealing with the consequences of needing some kind of forgiveness or being able to be forgiving, but just not being able to become vulnerable enough to ‘go there’ .

So at the end of this posting, I have discovered that the actual issue for me is it that when push comes to shove, I just don’t like confrontation, so someone says ‘sorry’, in a round about way, and I say ‘that’s ok’ when actually it isn’t, life goes on and XYZ years later…it still comes up sometimes.

( I won’t be pre - posting in word again by the way, far too scary )

Keith's Got a Blog!

It's true - check out the link on the blogs that I browse.

Go on,it is Bank Holiday!

Ok, I have been tagged - thanks Kirsty!

My tag: 'Put the mango flesh and banana into your blender and wizz for 30 seconds'

Here's is what this is about - the rules:
Grab the book closest to you
Turn to page 161
Print the 5th complete sentence on your blog
Tag 5 others.



I tag Glyn, Andy, Matt L, Becks and Bec

Just a quick one.

I had a response from Mars, as I'm guessing many of you might have who sent them the mail below, or a variation of it, and they directed me to a few websites that indicate Mars is active in WORKING TOWARDS bettering the opportunities of the cocoa farmers, helping sustain the enviroment and monitor the treatment of the people and children that work on the plantations.

www.cocoainitiative.org

www.treecrops.org

www.cocoasustainability.mars.com

They have been involved in this for nearly 10 years now, but it still happens.

It will be ok in the end and if it's not OK then it's not the end ( Unknown)

So because it's not OK , I didn't buy chocolate in the garage yesterday evening, because I couldn't be sure that I wasn't going to inadvertently undermine 'Stop The Traffik'.

It's not OK, so I'm going to really try much harder than I have up to this point.

Here's The Good Chocolate Guide for those of us that need to get up to speed with this.
http://www.stopthetraffik.org/chocolateDownloads/chocolate_guide.pdf

DO THIS!

This has been taken from Lard's Blog ( the painter at Roots!)
http://www.larddesigns.com/blog/

Spread the word and DO THIS :)

Please excuse the mass email but wanted to see if you wanted to help raise your voice on the issue of chocolate made with slave labour? You are all aware of the chocolate campaign being run by Stop the Traffik. You may also have heard about the latest scandal with MARS UK and the use of animal extracts in their chocolate that has outraged vegetarians. The response of just 6000 emails has caused MARS UK to change their production methods and use only vegetable extracts. Imagine what would happen if they responded to even more pressure about slave free chocolate.
My response was triggered by a full page ad in the METRO this morning which had a letter from Fiona Dawson who is the MD of MARS UK. In the letter she states ‘the consumer is our boss’ and ‘we made a mistake. we apologise’. She also goes onto say that ‘being sorry isn’t enough’ and that therefore they commit to changing.
I have written the email to her below and wondered if you would also join me in emailing on this issue. You can either adapt the email I sent or send one from the stop the traffik website. It’s up to you - but it would be great if you did take action.
Thanks for taking the time to respond. Speak to you soon.–
Fionadawson@mars.co.ukAttention Fiona DawsonManaging DirectorMars UK


Dear Fiona,

Following your full page letter in the METRO today I was very encouraged to see that MARS had taken customer concerns into account to such an extent as to admit that you were wrong. This is a brave step and one that you should be applauded for. Most admirable is the sincere response to customer concern whom you have termed as ‘your boss’.

It is in this vein that I wondered if you would also consider changing the source of your cocoa. You will be aware, as are the BCCCA that over 12,000 children have been trafficked into the ivory coast to work on cocoa plantations (source UN). Nearly half of the world’s chocolate is sourced from cocoa harvested in the Ivory Coast. It is these child chocolate slaves that are producing the chocolate that is no doubt included in at least some of your products.

I am hoping that MARS UK will, in stating that the consumer is ‘their boss’ also add the slave free guarantee to it’s products, responding to the expressed desire of it’s customers, who are apparently at the forefront of your production focus.

Will you guarantee that your chocolate is not only suitable for vegetarians to consume but also free of the blood, sweat and tears of trafficked children as well? I sincerely hope so.

Thanks you for your open door to dialogue and your promise of honesty and integrity. I look forward to hearing from you soon.
Sincerely

************************************************************************************

Thank you