I love Jesus more than coffee.

But don’t get me wrong, I’d eat a bucket filled with feathers and marbles if it means I get coffee.

I am 8 and a half pages in-

and I am in love with this book. It’s amazing how inanimate items reveal to me the things I hope my future partner will appreciate for herself.

My vocabulary is widening wonderfully with the most fantastical words!

:D

I just saw the Hobbit.

I can’t even.

Your film is invalid.

…can you marry a movie?

Pitch-black productivity.

Sitting in the darkness,
guitar in hand
hitting record,
and just playing what you feel.

It produces songs that no team of writers in an office with donuts & coffee could ever replicate.

It honestly has to be experienced to be truly appreciated.
I can say this because i’ve just done that -

four and a half minutes,
minimal,
pure and wordless.

I love it.
:)

Do you know what I love?

I love the feeling of being in a relationship - actively setting out with each passing day on a pursuit to impress upon your partner that they are dearly treasured. Holding their hand and sifting their hair through the ample space between the skin of your fingers. Savouring cuddles and kisses in close moments like the last morsels of meal before a fast. Writing them a note with no motive greater than to give them lasting evidence of the words that pass your lips in their favour - words they so humbly refuse because they know not how they have come to obtain such affection from another.
Adventures and laughs,
honesty and photographs.

But -

what I love MORE is knowing that all of that will culminate at the right time under God. A whispered assurance from on High that can be so delicately torn in the deeds of man.

I will one day find a heart with which to share the love I am nurturing so cosily in my veins. When He blesses it to be, the right season will come into bloom in shades so colourful they will melt my heart.

I don’t want to rush that season.
Or allow the wait for its arrival to consume me - I would rather my focus rest on God.
Father, let me continue to be fully content in You until and beyond such a time as I am ready to be a vessel fused in harmony with another of the precious hearts You created on this Earth.

:)

Dear Affectionate Anons: Honestly, I am totally humbled by your messages - it’s all very flattering; however I can’t help but feel that your love could be put to much more effective (and needed) use than frittered on some random guy…

There’s a world out there that needs you to show them the love of Christ, because you may be the only glimpse of ‘Jesus’ they see in their earthly days -

Surely that’s a more deserving cause than I?

Don’t let my beard or ‘cool accent’ blind you to the desperate need for love elsewhere in this world.

:)

He gives and takes away.

Sometimes we either forget that second part completely, or ignore its benefit to us in His grand plan and use it as a poor excuse to get mad at Him.

Let’s remember Jeremiah 29:11, folks…plans to prosper, NOT bring to harm.

Thank You Lord, for the things You remove from my life for very good reason, even when I struggle to see it at first.

:)

No more by works, no less by failure - God’s love is complete.

(A Point of) Personal P(reference)

Full post here

The ones that catch our attention and set our pulses racing are no more superior than the ones we wouldn’t choose to give the time of day to - eye colour, hair, taste in music, clothing, size of physical features or their build can all impact the motivation to simply interact with another human being. The Bible calls us to love EVERYONE, not just the girl with a pretty smile who makes you laugh or the tall, athletic guy who sends you cutesy texts. When did the thread of kindness and courtesy slip so subtly out of the needle that weaves the fabric of society?

Personal preference gets in the way of loving for the sake of just loving; let’s do something about that.

:)

Sometimes, the ones we profess to be different, and ‘not like all the others’ turn out to be very much like all the others, as do we ourselves. The guys and girls that catch our attention and set our pulses racing are no more superior than the ones we wouldn’t choose to give the time of day to, just because they’re not ‘our type’ - eye colour, hair, taste in music, clothing, size of physical features or their build can all impact the motivation to simply interact with another human being. The Bible calls us to love everyone, not just the tall, athletic guy who sends cutesy texts or the girl with a pretty smile who makes you laugh. When did the thread of kindness and courtesy slip so subtly out of the needle that weaves the fabric of society?

Personal preference gets in the way of loving for the sake of just loving, as we seek the ones who keep us up at night with attempts at mind-reading, decoding ‘signals’ and thoughts of the future, vague to extraordinary; fantastical even. When we find that individual, so much energy is poured into pursuing that ideal and obtaining the sought-after prize of ‘the one’ that we go to silly lengths, make rash decisions, and allow our thinking to become clouded.

There are occasions when our efforts can pay off; a date here, a slow memorable kiss under a tree there. It may even lead to Coupledom, where Facebook friends suddenly become nosier and food rations at home are stretched to cater for a regular +1; if that is the case in your own life then congratulations, you are mightily blessed and I wish you every happiness as a resident of Relationshipville. However for those of us currently without companion, the search goes on, and as it does, more often than not, our imperfect hearts combine with our fragile minds resulting in, well, an imperfect and fragile outcome. So great is the fear of rejection and lifelong solitude, our human nature and instinct for self-sustain winds up grabbing out at any attempt to cast someone of altogether equal standing into a spotlight illuminated by nothing more than the hopes and dreams past that we once pinned on another and ultimately had wash back ashore at our feet in failure.

The question is; with a Saviour who is blameless to cast our love upon;

why chase the ‘true love’ that mankind has so poorly interpreted?

I am very much looking forward to being a parent:

All in good time I know, and believe me, I am in no hurry - I am far from being even close to the sort of man who would make a good dad; but when I am ready, and if God so wills it, I am beyond excited about the prospect of being a father, especially:

• holding my child for the first time, staring into their eyes and just being so loved up that I will no doubt cry with joy.

• praying with them by their bedside before tucking them in and telling them Bible stories, maybe from a book but most likely by roping in my wife and the two of us acting it out or putting on funny voices.

• teaching them skills they need in life, pheraps by letting them help prepare meals, decorate, or by taking them to the shop and letting them count out coins rather than paying by card.

• going on more adventures than you can shake a stick at. Woods, beaches, mountains, caves, fields, cities, oceans…you name it, we’re going there, and we’ll collect souvenirs, explore, and learn to love and appreciate every part of this captivating world we inhabit. My children will be active; they won’t grumble about walking anywhere; they will run their legs and lungs silly, and i’ll run with them, before stopping to make it all better with juice, an apple or banana and a few sneaky biscuits.

• taking HEAPS of photographs. On my camera, or their own. Then we’ll make family albums with everybody’s pictures in. Silly ones, cute ones, important day-in-the-life ones. Got another stick you can shake?

• listening to, performing and making music in our home. Whether guitar, piano, drums, recorder, banging pots and pans or all of us singing unaccompanied, my children will know the power and value of music, and my wife and I will play and sing to them, before and after birth, they to us (even the ‘dreadful’ violin practice they do as part of school music tuition), and all of us together. This I am particularly excited about.

• telling, but more importantly showing my child how much I love them every single day; even in times when they may need discipline, it will be underlined and highlighted in love, for that is one of the essential foundations of a happy household.

• trips to Church on a Sunday and watching with elation as they start moving to the music, learning more and more of the words as they grow older.

• reminding them that every step of the way there is a God who loves them just how they are, and cares for them oh so much. Jesus won’t be a curse word in our house, but the name of our closest family friend.

That’s just a tiny handful, believe me - I could go on forever.

Man, I’m so stoked. :D

Writing Challenge Post#4

Set by: withwindinherwords

Words: Euphoria, esoteric, eccedentesiast, endless, effervescence

Word Limit: None

“Have you ever seen a more beautiful sight?” cooed Simon, showing a smile that promised sincerity and encouraged belief while meeting the path of Rebecca’s eyes in the mirror.

Ever the eccedentesiast, she let loose the pearly whites that had won his heart so many moons ago at the library. It seemed cliché now looking back, but at the time it couldn’t have felt more contrary. Rebecca maintained to this day that she had no idea what Simon was doing in the crafts section, let alone why he had wanted the book on crocheting that they had simultaneously reached for, their hands meeting from either side of the shelf. This was, of course, a lie, as she knew all too well that Simon had been admiring her from afar for over an hour that April afternoon; but she would never let on. It had remained, and forever would, just another snippet of their esoteric little existence together.

But inside knowledge or not, it wasn’t important, because what really mattered was here and now; getting ready to go for dinner with their parents, where they would announce their plans to marry. There was a sense of euphoria amidst the flecks of dust that navigated the warm air of their house that could not be denied; they had both been awaiting this moment for some time.

Unlike so many couples around them who had rushed for the grand prize of matrimony, or simply grown tired of one another en-route, Simon and Rebecca had persisted through the years. By no means had their journey been an easy one; dealing with the loss of Simon’s father 5 years earlier while the relationship was still in its infancy brought them to the brink as Rebecca had struggled to keep him from complete isolation. At times the silence between them had seemed endless, brushing the matter aside as both of them wanted to tackle the matter and move on, but neither knew how.

Despite this, she knew from countless conversations with her mother as a girl that if you have something worth keeping, you hold onto it, and that is exactly what Rebecca did; she allowed Simon his space and silence, while trusting that when he did eventually re-emerge from that sea of grief, he would swim back to her island shores rather than choosing to remain adrift in a solitary state of solace, indulging in alcohol and poor decisions like so many they had known.

All of that seemed a million galaxies away now, as they found themselves sharing an embrace; his arms secured around her waist, chin planted gently upon the back muscles of her left shoulder as he studied her choice of dress. They gazed at their reflection, beaming faces of two people that would one day come to be identified as a harmonious one. With that knowledge in the forefront of their minds, Simon laid a kiss on Rebecca’s cheek, knowing that an initially polite smile at his courteous remark had quickly transformed into an effervescence that was coursing through her entire being.