Category: Helping others

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Never give up!

‘Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart.’ – Colossians 3:23 .

Did you know that 96 years ago, the first ever loaf of sliced bread was sold? Otto, a young man, wanted to make a bread slicing machine, and he had just about finished when his shop burned down.

He didn’t give up. It took him 10 more years to rebuild it and then sell it to a bakery. Otto didn’t think people would catch onto the idea, but it spread around the world. Two years later, people could buy sliced bread in England as well.

Otto never became rich or famous, but he made something which made life easier… Whatever our dreams, we can give them a go. Whatever the troubles, we can press through.

(from a chaplain’s chat I wrote – photo by Lucas Guizo: https://www.pexels.com)

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Living with success and failure…

Growing up, I missed out on an important lesson – how to live with success. Instead, I became an expert at coping with failure and disappointment.

Years later, when a major Christian publisher accepted my book, “On Unclipped Wings,” I still hadn’t learned. I didn’t understand the impact it could have on others. For every success exposes someone else’s failed dream. Every joy exposes someone else’s sadness.

Well, the threat of litigation put an end to my success, but God used that small window to teach me something profound. To live well with success is to always remember others, to “Rejoice with those who who rejoice. Mourn with those who mourn.”* It is about intentionally giving dignity and worth, my time, in a world where disappointment is rife.

*Romans 12:15

Photo by Quino Al on Unsplash

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You raise me up…

Last night we took my eldest son to the airport. He has a one-way ticket to the States, to follow his dream of writing music for film. Before he left he played the piano in our house and I accompanied him on the violin. I was so rubbish, yet he played with me for quite a while, and one song in particular.

“You raise me up so I can stand on mountains.

You raise me up to walk on stormy seas.

I am strong when I am on your shoulders.

You raise me up to more than I can be.”

I have always prayed that song as a thanks to God, for taking me from being a broken young woman with no hope or future, to someone I never expected possible. Then I thought of my son. He has done the same, always pushing me to go deeper, think deeper, grow in ways I would never have grown. And yesterday he did it again just by playing with me.

Thank you, dear God. Thank you, dear son.