Making a Stand

There's a difference between making a stand FOR what you believe and making a stand AGAINST what you disagree with. As christians we are called to make a stand for our faith. We are called to make a stand for what we believe in. As the children's hymn goes: "Stand up, stand up for Jesus...", we make a stand for what we believe.

Making a stand for what we believe involves standing up for what we know is right as has been established in the Bible. On a much more personal level it is making a stand and chosing to glorify the name of God in everything which we do.

Too many people see christianity as a set of rules. "Thou shalt not do this", "thou shalt not do that"... .... . And for some christians that is what it has become. Instead of living their whole life to the glory of God, they think of what they are not allowed to do. As Christians, we live our lives out of thankfulness to God for the wonderful gift he has given us in his death on the cross. In that way we do things out of thankfulness to God, not because of the rules. This doesn't mean that rules such as the 10 Commandments do not have their place in our life style. They are there as guidelines in order to teach us HOW to live lives of thankfulness. We want to keep those commandments. A Christian lifestye is not living according to rules which are set before us, a Christain lifestyle is living out of thankfulness to our God and doing ALL to his honour and glory.

Our life is not determined by WHAT we do, it is determined by HOW we do it.

HAPPY AUSTRALIA DAY!!!!

Happy Australia Day everyone (and yes it will still be Australia Day for another 30mins). I've just come back from viewing the fireworks in the city... they were absolutely amazing.  Isn't it just fascinating how the chemical reactions of different substances can be combined in different ways to create the different colours and patterns and then it is controlled in order to react in a particluar manner and sequence which creates a magnificent firework display (ok, I think I'll just turn off the nerd in me right now).  I had a great time - I didn't drink AT ALL so I can remember all the fun I had - and right now i am covered in tacky fake tattoos and cheap green and yellow nail polish still trying to wind down :D :D D Hopefully the nice relaxing music and just waffling on here will help and sometime I might just begin to feel sleepy.

While the fireworks were amazing it was also wonderful to see the faces of the children sitting next to us on the foreshore when I gave them some of my glow sticks. They were looking at them longingly while I was handing them out to some of the others so I gave them all one and they were so happy that they could have one. I'm not really sure why, but this small event in a very big day touched me. Maybe it was the gratitude from these children who may have felt a little left out when all those around them had nice glow sticks, or maybe it was the way which I was able to show others the love of Christ (in a small way).

i may not be able to accomplish great things but I am able to accomplish small things in a great way - Helen Keller

Days 12, 13 &14

I am still regretting rinding a bike on Day 12. Especially because it was something I hadn't done for about 5 years. Still I rode a v. v. uncomfortable bike for 45 mins while I let my cousin ride my horse on the trails around our house. All this AFTER a 30 min gym workout.
The weekend fell on Day's 13 and 14. This made it harder to get everything done and Day 14 didn't have any exercise. For some reason my weekends do not involve any relaxing or winding down but tend to involve me running from job to job and trying to fit in all sorts of socialising.

Day 8,9,10 and 11

Slowly getting there. And getting tired. BUT I can proudly declare that I am 1/3 of the way into developing a new habit :D :D

DAY 6 & 7

Ok, so on day 6 I didn't excercise for 1/2 an hour - kill me now!!! BUT my excuse is that it was a Sunday and Sundays are a day of rest. Therefore, I am still able to continue to complete the challenge.
Random act of Kindness: Making a Happy Birthday sign (which involved cutting out and colouring in about
23 cardboard letters)

Day 7 has been successful - only I am beginning to fall behind in reading the book Total Truth, although I am up to Ch 5.
Exercise: 40min swimming/in pool
Random act of Kindness: stainy for 30min after my shift had ended helping a new girl.

Maybe this will actually work - I made my bed when I had to be at work at 7 this morning!!!! :O

DAY 5

Again... I can actually say that I was sucessful (that is if you don't count donut holes as junk food - which they probably are but I'm not counting). My random act of kindness for today was trying to help one of the girls at the stables get her horse on the float - it wasn't actually sucessful.

Oh, btw, yesterday's random act of kindness was to go horseriding with the girl from down the road - I also gave her a jumping lesson.

DAY 4

Well lets say that I'm hanging in there :P - I almost didn't make my bed this morning (I started work at 7 and I am NOT a morning person so I was rushed), suprisingly I actually didn't have to pick up any clothes off the floor, I didn't eat junk food (although my atrocious food combination for dinner cannot possibly be considered healthy), I exercised by going swimming AND horseriding, read my devotional and the book Total Truth. I might actually get through this challenge - only 26 more days to go.

DAY 3

Another day successfully completed. Well at least I hope so anyway... the day isn't quite done.

This morning I successfully made my bed, cleaned up the floor, did a 30min circuit workout at the gym, actually succeeded at not eating junk food during my day off and as a random act of kindness did the ironing and cleaned the kitchen for mum. I plan to retire to my bedroom soon with my devotional and book in order to accomplish all the tasks which I had deemed essential for myself within this challenge.

DAY 2

Unfortunately I had a sleep shift last night so I was unable to update my activites of day 2 on the day. However, I can still proudly declare success to another day of my challenge.

I made my bed, picked up the clothes off the floor. Exercise was a 30min gym circuit, I didn't eat any junk food or anything uneccessary (and believe me, that was hard when walking through the shopping centre after eating a meager breakfast and exercising), I read my devotional and Total Truth and my random act of kindness was arranging to take the kid down the road horse riding (ok I admit that I had to think a bit about that one).

Only 28 days more :D

DAY 1

I suppose that I can proudly say that I have successfully completed the first day of my challenge. Only 29 more days to go :D

The cleaning was probably the hardest today... I did make my bed which wasn't too hard but picking up all the clothes off the floor was slightly challenging but there are no longer any more clothes there. My exercise was 45mins of Zumba, I didn't eat anything junky at all (although I was bored and ate a lot of crakers - I think I should change the rules to only eating 5 times a day). I read my devotional and finished a chapter of the book. My random act of kindness was taking one of the girls I care for to Zumba because she wanted to give it a try.

30 Day Challenge

They say that it takes 30 days to make or break a habit. So in the process of 'getting a new pair of shoes', I hereby establish a 30 day challenge for my self in order to make a few desirable habits (such as exercising everyday) and also breaking a few not so desirable ones (i.e. my habitual messiness).

This challenge involves:

• Making my bed every morning and picking the clothes off the floor. This way I can begin a new habit of being clean.
• Exercising for at least 30mins each day.
• Not eating any junk food. No take away, no chips, no lollies and the hardest part of all, NO CHOCOLATE.
• Reading my devotional book everyday.
• Finishing the book Total Truth by Nancey Pearcy - I have 10 more chapters left, therefore I have to read at least 1/3 a chapter each day.
• A random act of kindness. I doesn't matter what this is and who it is for but it has to be an act of kindness in reaching out for someone else.

I have 30 days to complete this challenge. If for some reason I fail to keep any of the above requirements the challenge will begin all over again and I will be required to conduct another 30 days. I will hold myself accountalbe by updating my accomplishments on this blog every night in order to see if I have been sucessful or if I am required to begin all over again.

This challenge begins on the 11th of January and will (hopefully) finish on the 10th of Febuary.

New Shoes

I have a pair of faded pink converse shoes which are the most comfortable shoes ever. I've had them for two years now and they are starting to fall apart but I still love them. They are falling apart with holes between the edge of the sole and the canvas so that I get sand and stones in my shoes, the to is worn down so that I can see my colourful socks when I look down, the inner sole has worn out and is practically nonexistent and I'm afraid of what will happen when it rains. I know I need a new pair of shoes but I love these. They're comfortable, moulded to fit the shape of my foot. I have also decorated the edge with some of my cool graphics. I don't want a new pair. That means that I have to go shopping (and yes even though I'm a girl I don't actually enjoy shopping), find another pair of shoes that I like and then I have to break them in and suffer through a period of uncomfortable shoes and blisters in order to actually like the shoes. So I think I'll just keep these a little longer.

Some times life is a bit like that pair of shoes. We're comfortable with what we have even if we know that we aren't giving the best we have. Just like I am comfortable in my scruffy, worn out shoes, we are comfortable with our everyday existence as it is. We may know that we are not putting 100% into our job or the activities we are involved in but we don't really care because we are content with what we have. Our life is moulded to fit us and we really don't want to step out of our comfort zone to make any changes. We don't want to be actively involved in improving our life because it may involve pain and discomfort before it gets better than before and we don't really want to blister.

Maybe we should. Maybe we should all go out and but a new pair of shoes. Maybe we should replace our average everyday existence with a life which glorifies God as we put in our 100%. If we step out of our comfortable shoes - our comfortable existence - into a better pair we might just be able to live to the potential which God has created us with. Instead of being comfortable with the mediocre life we may be living we have to work at stepping out of our comfort zone and challenging ourselves with new things.

I might just go out and buy a new pair of shoes after all...