Sparkle...Sparkle...

Philippians 2:15&16

Do everything without complaining and arguing so that no one can criticize you. 

Live clean, innocent lives as children of God, shining like bright lights in a world full of crooked and perverse people...

I love that movie 'Breakfast at Tiffany's' with the gorgeous Audrey Hepburn playing the exquisite role of Holly Golightly.  My favourite scene is the very beginning of the movie where Holly has obviously been out all night and it is still early morning... the streets are quiet and the shops are not yet opened for business... Holly is standing in front of the Tiffany's window eating a croissant while gazing admiringly at all of those gorgeous Tiffany diamonds...

the ones that I can only dream of!

I don't know about you, but I love diamonds...

there is something about their 'sparkle' that just begs for my attention...haha. 

If you have a diamond, or possibly even diamonds, that you wear all the time, which I do in my engagement ring and in my wedding band, you will soon discover that the sparkle that you were so impressed with when you first wore that ring soon begins to fade and it becomes slightly 'dull'.  All the dirt and grim of everyday life begins to build up on and around that diamond and since a diamond can only reflect what is around it... it no longer shines as bright because the light that was once allowed to penetrate through the diamond is shut out and can no longer be seen.  However, if you take that ring and clean it all up, get rid of the grim and dust and build up of life, it once again shines like a brand new one.  You walk around with that flashy diamond on your finger wanting to display it to the whole world!!

Sometimes our lives can become a bit like a dull, not so shiny, diamond ring...

God has called us to live 'clean, innocent' lives like that of a child... but often we let the 'stuff' of life crowd us in.  We let little things start to build up around our shining light... things that people might say in innocence offend us... that movie we watched last week that we should have walked out of... we argue with our spouse about the smallest thing... we yell at our kids 'because we are tired'... and the list can go on.  It all starts to build up around us and we no longer reflect the light of our God.

We need to get rid of this 'stuff' and let our light once again shine in this darkened world...  

God has called us to be SALT and LIGHT. 

We need to shine so bright that we leave a pleasant taste in people's mouths...haha.

If we fill our lives up with the Goodness of God, with His Word, with His Love, with His Peace, with His Joy... If we let the Spirit of God work in our lives... show us where we need to change and let Him clean us up... we can once again be a diamond that SPARKLES!! 

A diamond that shines so bright... illuminating the lives of others... a reflection of God!

DON'T

LET

ANYONE

(OR ANY THING)

DULL

YOUR

SPARKLE

A Glorious Life...

So I was thinking the other day that I hadn't set any goals for 2013 as I usually like to do at the beginning of each year and the longer I thought about it I realised that I honestly didn't feel like doing it and I didn't want to do it... I felt that there was no point and the reason why I was feeling that way was because a couple of years ago my husband and I stepped out of our comfortable lives into the great unknown, to achieve a 'huge' dream that we felt God had asked of us and to date we are still 'out on the water' waiting and working towards making that one dream come true. 

It has been a long and hard slog to say the least and there have been many times when I have wanted to give up and go back to where I was... living where I was comfortable... knowing what I was doing... not having to stress about certain things... etc, etc.... but on the other hand when you feel that God has called you to do something, it is difficult to let that go.  I guess I felt that this one goal had taken up so much space in my life that there wasn't any room for anything else.

So I sat down with my pen... a little reluctant to even start thinking about my dreams and goals and I suddenly remembered a scripture I had seen on Facebook earlier in the day...

James 1:12
God will bless you... IF you don't give up when your faith is being tested.  He will reward you with a GLORIOUS LIFE just as He rewards EVERYONE who loves Him!

WHEN YOUR FAITH IS BEING TESTED...  I feel like my faith has been tested big time over the last couple of years!!!

IF you don't give up... God will bless you!!

A GLORIOUS LIFE... what does that GLORIOUS LIFE look like???

This was my motivation to start to dream again...

I believe that God wants every one of us to love our lives... to be happy with where we are and what we are doing... to have our very own GLORIOUS LIFE but what do we have to do to be rewarded with that GLORIOUS LIFE?

DON'T GIVE UP!!!

Don't give up when the going gets tough... keep on believing... keep on having Faith... keep on praying and trusting... even if you are going through the most incredible testing time... God is still there... He is still in control.  Some of the toughest times of our lives can also be the most fruitful.  I have to keep reminding myself of this all the time!!  My character is being built... God is strengthening me for what is coming... Don't give up on the rest of my life just because one part of it is a little difficult at the moment!

I now have a full page of goals and dreams for 2013... all of them being part of my GLORIOUS LIFE!!

I'm not going to give up!!

And if you haven't guessed by now... getting back to the blogging is one of them.