When you least expect it!!!!!

Something that I have been being reminded of recently is that God speaks to us through our everyday routine and activities.

I was first reminded of this about 3 weeks ago when my Word 4u 2day was looking at Moses and the burning bush (Exodus 3). It points out that Moses was just doing his job when he saw the bush that was on fire with God's presence. It goes on to say that

"in that moment, everything
depended on his willingness to interrupt his daily routine and make time for
God."

Moses turned aside and his life changed.

Then, a couple of weeks ago, I was reminded of this again as we were looking at Luke 1:1-45 in the Midweek Meeting at church. It was verse 45 that got me as it says

"blessed is she who has believed
that what the Lord has said to her will be
accomplished."

Mary was just going about her everyday life when the angel of the Lord came and spoke to her and told her that she was going to give birth to a son and whilst she was shocked, she was willing to believe and interrupt her daily routine. Mary turned aside and her life changed.

Yesterday, I was again reminded of this as we were looking at Luke 2:1-12 at the Midweek Meeting. In verses 8-12, an angel of the Lord appears to the shepherds to tell them of the birth of Jesus. Verse 8 says

"and there were shepherd living out in the fields near by,
keeping watch over their flocks at night."

The shepherds were just doing their job when God spoke to them. The shepherds turned aside and their lives changed.

These are just 3 examples of lives being changed by people being willing to put aside what they were doing to listen to God. How willing are we to put aside our routine to spend time listening to God? How often do we say to God, not now, I'm too busy?

This has got me thinking again that I need to be looking for what God is saying to me through my everyday and being willing to put aside my agenda.

I encourage you to look for God in your everyday too.

Operation

Just quick post to update you regarding the operation that was planned for this month. It has now been rescheduled to January 2010.

This is probably just as well as although I wondered what God was playing at by letting my op be postponed by a month, I now think I know why!

I spoke to the consultant's secretary last week as I was getting quite stressed as I didn't know what the op was (i.e. purely investigatory or work being done). She advised me that the consultant will be looking at my knee and seeing if the grafting is possible and if it is, then they will remove some cartilage from my good knee. This potentially means having both knees operated on at the same time!!!!

The cartilage that is removed from my good knee will then be grown in a lab for a few weeks before being implanted in to my bad knee. So the op in January will be the first of at least 2 ops and the start of a new recovery journey.

Yes, No, Maybe!!!!!

I've been thinking about writing this post for the last week but I was lacking inspiration for a title for it and this is what has been stopping me. I have decided to post anyway and see where it takes me.

Last Tuesday, I was reading about meaning what we say and only saying yes to people if we mean it. If you're anything like me, I find it easier to say yes to someone than no when they ask me to do something and often end up overcommitting myself and not being able to do everything I said yes to.

Something I am learning is that I need to be aware of my limitations as with my knee as it is at the moment, there are things I just can't do and there are lots of things that now take me more time and/or energy than they used to.

I have heard it said the 'no' is an answer in and of itself, therefore we do not need to justify why we are saying no to something. I have found this so freeing as I always felt that when I said no to something I had to justify myself with some really good reason for saying no...but now...I can just say no, sorry in the nicest way possible.

If we learn to say no more, then we can begin to let our yes mean yes as we will no longer be overcommitting ourselves to things just to please others.