Bearded Envy

This weekend I had a number of conversations about the unusual topic of facial hair.






One of these conversations concluded with the unanimous feminine agreement that the yetti/lion look that is sometimes sported by men is basically just gross.

The other conversation, however, was focused on two guys trying to convince myself and the lovely Hannah that facial hair (of the bearded/moustache variety) is very very cool and we should aspire to grow some of our own. Despite valient efforts to do so, we gracefully gave up and accepted our un-bearded/beardable state... without too much convincing.

So beards are obviously God-given... he made the men-folk like that, but then he also inspired someone to invent that wonderful thing called a RAZOR.. hehe :)

Gareth (the pastor at my church) even made a joke about shaving in the morning service this week and said he'd had to shave with a knife that morning because airlines had lost their luggage... it was pretty funny and i was sufficiently amused for the morning :D

I tried to find some cool quotations about beards but alas there is an alarming scarcity of such delights and all the one's I found were ridiculously sexist... so instead I found this wonderful picture which jsut proves that when they set their minds to it, nobody can beat the Irish at doing things to the max!

Expectant

I read an incredible book in the vac called Red Moon Rising - a book which seriously changed my life and opened my eyes and my heart to the power of prayer... especially in light of the prayer movement going through church, i highly recommend it. There was one part of the journey of the movement which the author describes in a chapter entitled "Taking Jericho" which stands out HUGELY for me in my understanding of stepping into God's presence and our fundamental relationship with Him:

"I want to be different before I do anything different. So I'm waiting for God, and God is waiting for me to see if I am really waiting for Him, and not just wanting things from Him"

i'm not even going to elaborate on that, because i think it's so powerful on it's own (so is this pic of waiting which i found) just to say... God does make us desperate for His presence and we can ache to be in a deep place with Him, not because He's mean or wants to tease us, but because He knows that He's worth it, and He wants us to know that too.

Encourage, v. To inspire with courage sufficient for any undertaking; to embolden, make confident.

In the past few days I have encountered oodles of people who are feeling sad, lonely, bleak, debreaked (depressed and bleak... a word that Becs and I made up), tired (in lots of different ways), sick and discouraged. So... this post is an attempt to shine some of God's awesome hope for you and to (hopefully) remind you that how life is now is not how it's always going to be... God's strength is more than enough for us to get through the hard times :) As ever, i am putting these things in a list:

Things of hope, joy and promise:

1. It's no coincidence that Jasmine season is at this time of the year when life seems pretty tough for most people because God wants to fill the air aound us with sweet aromas that remind us of His love... NO MATTER WHAT... the Jasmine doesn't disappear just coz we having an icky day... and neither does God's love.

2. God knows how we feel... the weather's kind of been reflecting this lately with all the rain me thinks... God knows and whether we believe it or not, He feels it with us.

3. God is a God of HOPE and not despair
"Return to your fortress, O prisoners of hope; even now I announce that I will restore twice as much to you" Zech 9:12

4. The crystals in my room are still making rainbows and ANYONE is welcome to come and chill with the explosion of rainbows anytime :) (they usually last from about 8-11:30am)

5. Cadbury's, Nestle and Beacon have not stopped producing chocolate... consume!

6. There are no exams this term

7. Spring is on it's way... the Oak trees are showing the new seaon in their awesome lime green leaves... maybe your new season of hope is just one day away

8. There's is someone praying for you... even if you don't know who or where in the world they are... God's making sure of it

9. The pink fluffly joke is still funny... so is the Batman joke and the Pokemon joke:
(the pink fluffy joke has to be told live) but here are the other two:

What do you call Batman and Robin after they were driven over by a car?
Flatman and Ribbon

How do you get Picachu (sp?) on a bus?
Poke-him-on

hehehe :D

10. God PROMISES "As I was with Moses, so I will be with you; I will never leave you nor forsake you" Joshua 1:5(b)

much luv :)

I love technology

Sometimes living so far away from home (950kms) i feel like i lose touch with some of the stuff that goes on with my family... smses like the ones i have received this week, however, put me right back there in the midst of the madness that is the Berry family:

the first one i got from my dad earlier this week:

"Lindz mum has shown me how to use predictive text smart hey love dad"

(it still makes me laugh every time i read it) but it is an improvement on his smsing technique because in the past he would just leave out approximately every second vowel and then deciphering the smses would be a guessing game of the English language... now he just leaves out punctuation :p

then i got another sms from my mom this morning, part of which read:

"I am sitting here with 90 grade ones watching a pooh movie - exciting stuff"

(my mom is a grade one teacher and she usually has a class of about 30 kids... but today the other two grade one teachers were both absent)

The beauty of smses is that they can keep you in touch with the little things, which are sometimes the things which matter the most!

:D i love the madness of life and the greatness of my family :D

Today

Things i like today

1. Hope
2. Jasmine
3. Castles
4. Friends who show you these things :)