Be the Best You Can Be | Life Inspiration for 2014

Hi everyone

Wow, I realised I haven’t had a chance yet to post on The Good Girls Guide this year yet (slightly embarrassed)…life has just picked off straight where I left it on the 21^st of December when I went on leave.

After 2 glorious weeks of relaxing, swimming, eating and soaking up a simply incredible Cape Town summer (nice and hot), it was back to work with a bang. Throw in a body now well on the way into 30 weeks of pregnancy, a husband about to be caught up in the madness of a new school year (he’s a teacher), the realisation that I have to get all my ‘affairs’ in order before heading out on maternity leave in just a few short months…well it was rather a lot to take in!

The good thing is that I never doubted it could and CAN all be done. God is just so constant and present in my life right now and He has such control over little piece – I can walk through a day of back ache, last minute supermarket visits, and forgotten laundry knowing that despite all those very ordinary things, He is still with me.

I’m also feeling rather inspired that while 2014 is bringing the biggest change to my life in 29 years, it’s a year that is ever so slowly motivating me to be the best I can be, and the best God wants me to be. Whether that’s being the best new mom I can be, the best wife, friend, sister or daughter, I was called to never settle for just being normal. Here’s to 2014.

We Bought a House! Homeowners {to be}

So the BEST news prior to the Easter weekend was the BIG news that we bought a house! For real! What a dream experience it has been; to have been living with my parents for only 2 weeks and to have an offer accepted and signed for is really just a miracle. God has been SO IN THIS with us, it’s really remarkable.

As we set off to get our bond approved, pull together all our remaining finances and dream furiously on Pinterest, I’m just so aware of how He has orchestrated this for us. The couple who sold the house to us are in their 60s/70s and are strong Christians, who felt the Lord was going to bring people into their house who they were going to sell it to. We connected them through a wonderful hodge-podge experience of my mom’s tennis club friend who had this couple in their cell group, and then found we had SO many people in common with them – just really a fantastic experience for us!

Please keep my hubby and I in your prayers as we navigate this rather scary yet immensely exciting next phase of our lives 🙂 Homeowners!

Thursday Inspiration – Strength through the One who Strengthens Us

Days come when things don’t go right, stuff gets us down, people make us upset, we disappoint ourselves… and the food burns in the oven. Sometimes we have days like that, and its just means we need to draw just a little deeper within ourselves and find the strength to move forward and above.

The human spirit is really amazing, and I think we doubt or don’t expect to find the amazing strength we have within us. I read a book recently about a Jewish man who had escaped from Treblinka during World War 2. The daily atrocities he was faced with are something we cannot even comprehend – but somehow (somewhere) he took each day as something to overcome and his incredible strength and hope for a real future kept him going.

I was rather humbled when I read this account, and it made my little troubles seem so incredibly insignificant; how could I even complain about a bad day when terrible days happen every day around the world to so many people? Am I unable to gather the strength to get over a bad day when others are drawing incredible momentum to escape from atrocities?

The good thing in ALL of this, is that God is the beacon of strength and light in each one of us. I firmly believe that He is the one that gives us the strength to get us through tough times – even tiny insignificant bad days. Today’s post was drawn out of me having a ‘bad day’, but has grown into a realisation in myself that our strength is worth fighting for, and ALWAYS worth asking God for.

“For I can do all things through Christ who Strengthens Me” – Phillipians 4:13

“Hope In Your Word” | Scripture Inspiration

Psalm 119 vs 81-82: “My soul faints with longing for your salvation,but I have put my hope in your word”

“I am worn out waiting for your rescue, but I have put my hope in your word.”

“My soul is weak from waiting for you to save me. My hope is based on your word.”

“I’m homesick—longing for your salvation;
I’m waiting for your word of hope. “

‘Whatever is True’ | Scripture Inspiration

Happy Monday! Today I’ve been listening to Mark Driscoll’s talk on Mary and Martha from Luke – and what an insight it is to the character and personalities of people in Christ; some are doers, some are be-ers…of you know what I mean! It’s all how we are wired – and it’s learning to have grace in that, being the person God created you to be.

It’s so important to gain insight from the word like this – and applying it to our own lives in a way that increases our faith and reliance on God. Also, it was a welcome change to listening to the radio in the traffic – really filling my mind with worthy things 🙂 So, in the week leading up to Easter – I pray you would all fill your minds with the things and character of God, and remember that each of us are individuals and he has plans for each one of us 🙂

Whatever is True | source here.

And I Will Worship You… | Moodboard of Praise

I feel so so blessed at the moment, and just feel that I need to thank God for all that he’s put in my life, especially that my husband and I are celebrating one year of marriage on Sunday – wow! Time has just flown…

Today I’ve put together a Moodboard of Praise – just celebrating God’s goodness in my life and as a reminder to myself and to all of us that praise and thanks needs to be a daily part of our lives! Thanks Lord for all you’ve done in my life – I just hope that I can be a light, a rainbow, a mouthpiece of your goodness to others. WOOHOO! And I will worship you…

You Can’t Buy Happiness…| Friday Thought

So many times, we strive and strive to be happy, to be successful and to feel fulfilled…but we are often let down by people, by situations or circumstances, by our own (or others) limitations and very often just by disbelief.

I’ve found that running after things or people or expected outcomes can very often lead to disappointment and the very opposite of happiness. Not always, sometimes a situation can knock your socks off with the way it turned out and the smile on your dial lasts longer than you thought it would. But very often we lean on the wrong things for fulfilment and happiness.

Today’s Friday post from The Good Girls Guide is not a lecture on how to find happiness, but rather it’s a suggestion that sometimes deep within ourselves we have the true key to happiness, and it will never be found chasing after unatainable things. For me, it’s God – He gets me through pretty much everything, even when I’m scraping the barrel of yuck. I know that deep within me He’s given me the tools to be happy, but the key to it all is not to try too hard.

Sometimes it reallyis  just an icecream on the pier.