Letting Go - Spiritual Sunday

I release all anger because anger harms me - Brian L Weiss

a quote from a lovely book I am reading ... will tell you about it another time, it got me thinking and I made some progress with forgiveness as follows:

 

Anger consumes,

Negativity feeds off our souls.

Letting it go is very liberating.

Smiling from within radiates goodness.

Forgiveness has always been hard for me, but giving it to our Creator and asking Him to forgive answers the problem....



notsalmon.com

...Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us are words from the Lord's Prayer that I used to whisk through without thought. A prayer said so many times it had ceased to register.  A few weeks away from my familiar routine and the same prayer revisited.  I understand now that these words are an opportunity to release anything negative that is holding on to me. 





Sunday Thoughts

Well today no walk in the woods due to exceptionally heavy rain all day.  Some of you have very kindly emailed to advise I am a bit silly to go wandering about by myself like this ... so starting soon I have arranged to borrow my friends little dog as a wood companion. 

Today I didn't go to church but opted for prayerful time at home instead.  I also read my current favourite book, Simple Abundance -found this delightful Indian saying:

We are like a house with four rooms:

Physical

Mental

Emotional

Spiritual
We live in one room most of the time, go into every room to keep it aired.

Looking back over the week I have aired all those rooms:

Physical - much weeding and watering of allotment, washing rugs and spring cleaning at home
Mental - the ladies I am learning sign language came round for a practice session here this week
Emotional - I have laughed a lot - good for the soul
Spiritual - reading my Bible

I had a go at felting with the pieces Carolyn at Mess Muddle and Fun sent me Not a masterpiece obviously! it ended up a bit of shrunken woolly mess, but an interesting experiment which was fun to try - Carolyn did a far better one  here.

above - as it was before I manhandled it - below a seaside that got caught in a tornado (washing machine)

I

Some of you have noticed I have a spare blog 'Betty - the wood fairy' I am thinking of moving over to my new blog name soon so could you please follow my new blog name here so that I don't lose you when I switch.  I really appreciate your visits and comments. thankyou.

Bettyx

Still Here

World  without end - Amen!  yes, still here - the world still turns and God watches over us despite rumours that 21/5/11 could be the beginning of the end of the world.

I have woken this morning to gentle rain, so gentle I was able to go out and drink my tea in the garden with old Amber.

I was on my allotment late last night with the robin, I watered everything and enjoyed the smell of the plants - I had the place to myself. As I had the hose out I went round filling the randomly hidden watering cans of my fellow allotmenteers (is that a word?) so they will have a nice surprise. The robin likes me because when I water the spiders and beetles come out on the soil and he gets dinner.

 

My little 7ft apple tree produced only one apple last year - this year it is making up for that...

Lemons waiting for dragon flies...

my pumpkin has just begun to flower

Today I am looking forward to a walk int he woods in the rain - something I loved to do with my grandmother as a child.  If the sun shines later I am on the allotment and if it doesn't I still have this evening to look forward to - it's our praise service at church welcoming our friends with special needs - I love this gathering and have met some beautiful people, we sing with sign language so a chance for me to learn too. 

Have a blessed day. Bettyx

Spiritual Sunday - Housegroup & Friends

If one falls down,

his friend can help him up.

But pity the man who falls

and has no one to help him up!"

Ecclesiastes 4:9-10

 
This week, joining in with Spiritual Sunday,  I thought I would tell you about my Housegroup.  We are a group of mums who meet each Tuesday morning.  We are a baptist based group and start with prayer and share where we catch up on news over a cup of tea and then pray for each other's worries big or small. 

Several of us have children with special needs, one lady has Aspergers, somebody else has suffered depression, another has beaten breast cancer.   I know not everybody would feel comfortable praying aloud,that's ok and some people in our group pray silently - God hears all our prayers, loud or silent and the best thing is that we are not praying alone and have the spiritual support of each other as well as friendship.
We are working our way through the book A Year's Journey with God (it is a daybook but can be used randomly too).  Each week one lady chooses a page that has inspired her, finds Bible verse that is relevant and we all have a chat about it, maybe contribute some verses or thoughts of our own.

Recently we have included singing - yes, singing! someone might bring along a CD (or we might manage without any accompaniment!) - two songs, usually ones we have learned in Church - chosen by whoever's turn it is and they explain why that song is special. 

When I joined my group 10 years ago I was new to the Church, had just been baptised but was new in my faith, had young children and didn't have many friends - this group has helped me grow in my faith and to know God in everyday life inside and outside of church.

If you don't belong to a Housegroup you are really missing out - you could start your own up. At our group we have come to know each other well and , if one of us is ill the others make sure she has everything she needs.  We are all firm friends and have seen each other through many difficult times and happy times too.

'Never take a friend for granted
 hold every person close to your heart
because you might wake up one day and realize
that you've lost a diamond
while you were too busy collecting stones'
Anon

There is a link on the RHS sidebar if you would like to join Spiritual Sunday or see other contributions.