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.