Have you ever felt discouraged? Have you ever lost your motivation? Have you ever felt so tired that you don’t want to do anything and don’t really care about it either? I have had a few days like that recently. I felt like every day was a huge struggle. Life is just too busy at the moment!

Last week when I was putting a few things away I found a little shoe box in the bottom of my wardrobe! It was like finding a treasure! I set down on the floor like an excited little kid that had been given all the Christmas presents she had put on her list! The box was just an old brown shoe box, nothing special about it, except the word letters written on it!

I opened it and saw the envelopes there and immediately a smile was drawn on my face! Those were the letters I received from dear friends encouraging me to keep on going when I first moved to this country nearly 11 years ago. I was having a difficult time adjusting to the culture and I missed my family terribly! I picked one letter from the pile and started reading it! It brought tears to my eyes as I read the verses my friend wrote so beautifully:

⁷ ‘Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go. ⁸ Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful. ⁹ Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.’ Joshua 1:7-9

And she wrote: “don’t get distracted with things that are taking your attention away from the Cross. Be brave! God is with you always! He has a purpose for you there – trust and throw yourself in His arms!”

God is amazing! He knew I needed encouragement there and then! What an amazing thing it is to know that my God will always be with me and has commanded me to be strong and courageous! It was almost as if God himself was telling me to focus my eyes on Him!

I am also very thankful for how HE used my dear friends that so graciously have encouraged me then and how He uses His word to encourage me time and time again.

God bless!

We went on holiday to a beautiful part of England – Cumbria – during the October half term. Wow! Breath taking views and friendly people everywhere! We really enjoyed ourselves. One of the things we did, despite the weather, was walk up some hills and while we did that we saw big rainbows and small ones, double rainbows, half rainbows and full ones! It was amazing! We also saw rainbows from the boat when we were exploring lake Windermere! (Photo above)

All the time while we were admiring the arch painted beautifully in the sky we were also being reminded of God’s love and his promises!

After God told Noah to build the ark and take the animals and his family in He closed the doors and His judgement came down on his creation as a big flood. When God told Noah it was safe to leave the ark HE made a promise – a new covenant with all living creature. This is what the Bible tells us in Genesis 9:8-17:

^“8 Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him: ⁹ ‘I now establish my covenant with you and with your descendants after you ¹⁰ and with every living creature that was with you – the birds, the livestock and all the wild animals, all those that came out of the ark with you – every living creature on earth. ¹¹ I establish my covenant with you: never again will all life be destroyed by the waters of a flood; never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth.’ ¹² And God said, ‘This is the sign of the covenant I am making between me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all generations to come: ¹³ I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth. ¹⁴ Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds, ¹⁵ I will remember my covenant between me and you and all living creatures of every kind. Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life. ¹⁶ Whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and all living creatures of every kind on the earth.’ ¹⁷ So God said to Noah, ‘This is the sign of the covenant I have established between me and all life on the earth.’”

How amazing is that! In his unfailing, never stopping love God put a sign in the sky to remind Himself of the covenant He made with his creation! We had plenty of opportunities to talk about Noah, his faithfulness to God, his obedience, his faith and trust in God. We spoke about the sin in the world that made people turn away time and time again from God. We talked about how God  decided to make his world clean and He rescued/saved Noah and his family and all the animals. It was really amazing to have so many opportunities to teach our children about God’s love.

It is the season of rainbows now! Well, there is plenty of rain around and some days we might get a little glimpse of the sun, so, when you next see a rainbow, why not tell the person next to you about God’s promises and his love?

God bless.

Have you ever felt sorry for yourself? Or maybe you were just having one of those days when every little thing seems so big and nothing seems to be right?! Well, I have had many of those lately. I think perhaps I have lost my focus. Somewhere, somehow I have stopped putting my thoughts, my hopes, my entire being into Jesus’s hands and started worrying too much about everything else that is going on around me.

I was checking my Facebook and on my news feed page there was a post from a friend. It hit me right on the heart! My friend is fighting cancer at the moment and God is still using this amazing teacher/preacher to inspire me to put all my trust in HIM. God moves in mysterious ways!

So, I have copied below what I read on his post. May it be an encouragement to you!

God bless.

Today is my daughter’s birthday! I can hardly believe she is 6! God is so good! She is such a delight to us and fills our lives with fun and happiness! This week I spent a long time looking through photos we have been taking all these years because I wanted to make a selection for a collage. It took me a long time to do that but it was so nice to remember each of those moments! It was almost as if I could hear the laughter, the noise or smell the baby skin, feel the cuddles and little hands on mine! I could even remember little details of the rooms or places we were in when the photos were taken. A love so immense that one might think it wouldn’t fit inside ones heart! What a precious gift! Memories stored through those images on my computer! Every time I look at them I can only thank God for his goodness and his love.

As I set out to school to collect the kids it occurred to me that the Bible is a bit like a photo album. It contains snippets of amazing story that God wrote even before time began. It is full of details to help us understand and remember the plan designed to rescue us through Jesus and his sacrifice on the cross. I love the fact we can open this incredible book and look through its pages and get all the details we need to live to please God.

The more I look at the photos on my computer, the more my heart rejoices in the Lord for He is the One who brought all this happiness to my life. It is the same with the Bible, the more I open it and read it, the more I recognize what God has done for me and in me. I am reminded of the times when I found comfort, security, joy, thankfulness and love.

Thank you Jesus for how you use small things to remind me each day of your presence in my life. Thank you for the beautiful photo album you have left us to help us look back and be prepared for a glorious future with you.

God bless!

When my parents were here visiting over the summer holidays, they watched Snow White with the kids many times. I believe the most famous sentence in the entire movie is the question the queen would ask her magic mirror every day: “Mirror Mirror on the Wall, Who Is the Fairest of Them All?”. The queen was someone obsessed by the way she looked and she wanted to be the prittiest woman alive. When she found out Snow White was more beautiful than she was, she was consumed by hate and wanted to destroy Snow White. I think we are all familiar with the story.

Sadly we live in a world where women are pressured to look beautiful and young all the time. There is always a product claiming to be better and to make you look better. And when we look in the mirror, we might not be asking the same question, but we are often concerned with the extra wrinkle that has just appeared or the white hairs that keep insisting in growing back.

I have been reading Genesis with our kids and it was so nice to read what the Bible teaches us about creation and how special we are.

^“26 Then God said, ‘Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals,^[a] and over all the creatures that move along the ground.’ ²⁷ So God created mankind in his own image,  in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. ²⁸ God blessed them and said to them, ‘Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and  subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.’” Genesis 1:26-28

God created us in His image! He created us in His likeness! In the beginning, in God’s perfect world, before sin had entered the world, HE created man in His image! I was thinking about that and the mirror on the wall… we get so preoccupied with how we should look externally so that we can fit in with what the world dictates to us that we forget that we were made in God’s image. All the goodness, compassion, holiness, justice, perfection, the love and all the other characteristics of God are in us too. What an amazing truth! What a relief! I don’t have to look better for the world to see – I am already made perfect!

This amazing truth comes with a great responsibility, specially when we know Jesus personally and trust in Him. Do we live our lives to reflect God’s image? What do I see when I look in the mirror? Am I worried about wrinkles and hair? What do people see in me when they look at me? A fashionable hair style? The last trend in make up? Do they see a young face? Please don’t get me wrong, I think we all need to look after ourselves and look after our bodies too. Wouldn’t it be nice though that we could have people say to us that what they see in us is Jesus? They see someone different and exciting and attractive? They see someone compassionate and loving, someone that does not conform to the world? Perhaps a better question for us Christians would be something like: Mirror Mirror on the wall, can people see in me the God who loves them all?

God bless.

What a joy to know that I have nearly 6 weeks with my children at home! It will be amazing! And I am also excited to have my parents come to visit in 3 weeks time! I was thinking earlier today about what I would write and nothing. No ideas came to my mind. I carried on with my grand plan to clean the house with the children! They were brilliant and very helpful, but it is still hard work  cleaning when they pretty much want to play! I am exhausted! I am sure you mums out there know exactly what I mean.

Anyway, I have just read Psalm 51 and verse 10 is among one of my favourites:

“Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.”

Many times during my life I have prayed this prayer. I long for the day when my heart will be pure and I will only choose to live to please the One who seats on the throne of my life. I want Him to be in the centre of everything I do all the time. I want my thoughts to be filled with things that He wants me to think about.

Summer is here and yes, I am busier than ever, doing the best job in the world, but I don’t want that to be an excuse to push Him away or take a holiday from being His follower. So my prayer today is that during these next few weeks I can still desire a pure heart and a renewed steadfast spirit within me. For His glory.

God bless!

Last Friday my husband and I went out for a meal at our local pub! The food was amazing as always and I had a delicious pudding: passion fruit roulade! What a treat! For a few minutes I had a glimpse of home: the sweetness of the passion fruit, the smell and the lovely memories of drinking passion fruit juice in a hot summer’s day by the pool at my parents’ house! The laughter and the noise of the family and friends enjoying time together! Passion fruit is one of my favourite fruit and in Brazil it is called Maracuja. My mum makes a delicious passion fruit mouse!

Yesterday at church we had a little glimpse of home as well! It was so nice to be reminded of what HOME will be like! We looked at the Bible and through 9 months (every last Sunday of the month) we saw how men turned away from God and God loved men and rescued them. He sent the ultimate rescue, His Son Jesus, to die on the cross for us, so we could have a perfect relationship with Him again. Jesus bought us back to Him. His sacrifice was perfect  and it had been planned from the beginning.

We read Revelations 21:1-4

“Then I saw ‘a new heaven and a new earth,’^[a] for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. ² I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. ³ And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Look! God’s dwelling-place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. ⁴ “He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death”^[b] or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.’”

What an amazing glimpse of our perfect future in our perfect home! God will be dwelling among his people! My heart was filled with joy to be reminded that no matter what our lives are like here we are going to live in God’s presence for an eternity! All of those who have, through Jesus, trusted in God will be part of this amazing picture! What a wonderful truth to look forward to!

I really enjoyed my pudding and the passion fruit bits on Friday –  but they only lasted a few minutes. Spending an eternity with God will be FOREVER! How exciting is that?!

God bless!

It has been a while since my last post! Life is pretty busy at the moment! I Have been thinking about a verse that seemed to pop up a few times during the past week in different occasions and thought I would share it with you.

Our church organized a beautiful flower and music festival last week and many people from our village and other places were able to see flower displays that illustrated some verses from the Bible. All the people involved organising it and the effort behind the scenes were unbelievable. God is good! His Name was exalted and many people heard about His love and what He offers through Jesus this weekend.

The verses that stayed with me throughout this past week are:

One of the things that really frustrates me, and actually, makes me really uncomfortable is someone giving me advice about my driving, when I am driving. Things like: watch out, or there was a space back there, or you are miles away from the pavement, or you are going too slow, for example.

Effectively what they are implying when they are saying that is I am not a good driver.  Hearing those pieces of advice affect my pride and my ego, because I am, automatically putting my guard up and thinking: I am a good driver.

Have you ever stopped to think about the way we approach our God when we pray? Are we telling Him what to do? Suggesting, perhaps that He missed something, or is not doing what we asked Him to? How are we approaching our relationship with our Lord? Are we complaining day in and day out about our circumstances? Are pointing out to Him that we are not content with His decisions? Are we behaving like stroppy kids and saying to God: I will not play this game of being a Christian anymore and won’t go to church anymore, because we are not getting our way?

The truth is, God does not need our advice! He does not need us to tell Him how He should direct our lives. How illogical is that anyway? We mere humans, limited, sinful, mortal pretending we know better!

The Bible tells us:

Recently I have started to do some face painting on my children and even helped at their school summer fair. I have really enjoyed learning different designs and I love the way the kids smile and jump around happy with the result!

I could not stop but think of the times we paint our face with a Christian like mask and are kind happy with ourselves and with the fact that what people see on the outside is a Christian. What about our hearts? What is our life really like? Are we living and walking as a follower of Jesus? Are we making sure what we have on our faces is not a mask? Can people see Jesus in us?

I am thankful that God is forever reminding me that it is so important to truly walk with Him in a way that His love can be seen in me. My prayer is that HE would help me to be more like Him.

God bless!