King's Daughters

I am in the process of decluttering my life, starting with my home and moving onto my soul! It's a refreshing process and I am positive at the end I am going to have a prettier home and a more peaceful soul. After getting back from holiday last week and feeling tired only a few days later I realised that something had to change. Before the holiday I was totally shattered! The holiday was amazing and I came back refreshed. (the photo above is towards the end of our holiday when we were all nicely refreshed, although Daniel looks like he still needs a bit more rest he he) I quickly jumped back into real life! You guessed it, back to shattered again. This is not the way to lead a healthy balanced life hence the decluttering! I figured that less is more, if I can do a few things well I will be effective in what I do and more satisfied with my life. Doing too many things badly or even mediocre is not the way I want to do life and living with a tired and stressed me is not what is be...

I have had some fantastic feedback from some of you who are joining me in the de-cluttering process! Thanks for your emails and letters, it is really encouraging to hear how your de-cluttering is going. It would be great if you could post your feedback on the Blog comments box too as I am sure others would be encouraged too. Continuing with my "Less is More" process I am discovering what is clutter that needs to go and what is not. Here are a few thoughts: 1) Hanging out with my children doing nothing ISN'T doing nothing! This is an important part of their childhood and spending time with them is very important. Games, painting, baking, watching a butterfly pass by, catching frogs, singing songs and cuddling take up a huge part of my day. This is not part of the clutter that needs to go, this is a precious season I need to embrace. If you are a teenager I would say that hanging out with your parents is valuable! The older you get the more you realise how important y...

As you may already know, I have been on major decluttering process recently. I have had a deep look at my life, my priorities, my purpose & my loves. You can have a read about it in previous post - Less is More I , II & III . It all started in April when I found myself tired soon after getting back from a lovely holiday. It has taken quite some time to work through this process. I guess that's why it's called a process as it is not a once off event. The final part of my decluttering took place about a week ago when I closed my FaceBook account. It may seem like a silly thing to do but it is very significant to me. I realise after a week of not having it that I never needed it! I haven't missed anything but have gained so much time. So now what? I have decluttered & am confident that there is nothing left to "throw out" in both my home & my soul. I asked God what the next step is. These two verses immediately came to mind: Psalm 23:2 H...

For years I asked myself why it was so hard to say no when my dad was molesting me. It is such a simple two letter word yet I could not form it in my mouth or shout it out at him. ‘No’ might have prevented the whole thing, ‘no’ may have scared him away, and ‘no’ might have saved me from carrying that awful memory all of my teenage and adult life. ‘No’ has so much power behind it yet no is the one word that has taken me years to learn to say.  The question plagued me all through my adult years as I found myself in all sorts of situations where ‘no’ was the best answer and I ended up saying yes or simply not saying anything at all. Why? What caused me to be so weak and frail? I knew that my inability to say no would cause me more pain and heartache. Fear. My conclusion is that I feared saying no. I feared not being liked. I feared not being good enough. I feared rejection. I feared what people would think of me. Fear left me powerless to say the one word that would sav...

A little more on " Less is More " because I have found another simple key on my journey of decluttering... a little goes a long way!!! It's quite simple really, I am replacing some bad habits with some good ones by using the 10 minutes a day principle (I just made that principle up ha ha). I have been complaining (bad habit) about being out of shape for ages now so have decided just to do something about it. I have started exercising just 10 minutes a day and I can't believe how much difference it is making. My tummy is flatter already and my energy levels are on the rise. I feel so much better for taking this very small step and am inspired to find other good habits I want to develop by just taking 10 minutes a day to implement them :) Other areas I thought this could be applied to could perhaps be taking time to develop stronger friendships, marriages or for special time with children - starting with investing just 10 minutes a day to build that relations...

I'm not sure where to begin but I know that I need to start somewhere. 10 years ago on 13th April 2009 I penned my very first post on this blog. My audience was the women of our brand new baby church, D7 Church and the message was identity, knowing who we are as daughters of the King. My only intention for writing was to encourage our women on their faith journey and in their everyday ordinary life. Little did I know what the years ahead would hold and how much of a rollercoaster ride life was to become. I have written here through most of it, there have been some quiet spots with an attempt at a post in the dark seasons. Today I come back full circle as I explore my own writings, try to make sense of the journey I have been on with the hope that I will find a way forward. Most of all, with all my heart I believe that there is a purpose to the past ten years and it wasn't all for nothing! My audience from today is me.  If you happen to be reading this, then you too and I ...

Humility is probably the last thing that you think you need in business.  It is the most underrated but crucial business asset.  It’s not a weakness, it is a strength.  A weak person does not have what it takes to humble themselves, it truly requires great strength to put your pride in your pocket and make yourself appear lower.  The dictionary defines humility as modesty or meekness and the antonym is arrogance.  True humility however, isn’t lowering yourself for the sake of keeping up appearances, but it is to do so for the sake of serving others.  If you are humble it doesn’t mean that you have a low opinion of yourself but rather than you choose to lower yourself.  Humility comes from the Greek word tapeinoo which means to depress; figuratively, to humiliate in condition or heart.  Humility isn’t about thinking less of yourself, but thinking of yourself less.  - C.S. Lewis "The difference between arrogance and confidence is sel...

It is vain for you to rise up early, to sit up late, to eat the bread of sorrows; for so He gives His beloved sleep.   - Psalm 127:2 I was about to wrap the book up when I realised that we haven’t discussed the most obvious rest that we all need daily which is of course sleep.  The importance of sleep is often overlooked and I believe that if we fully understand the significance of a good night’s sleep we might make more of an effort to discipline ourselves in this area. It might sound silly that we need to make an effort to sleep well but few people actually have a healthy sleeping routine. We have been “fearfully and wonderfully made” and sleep is quite a miraculous part of God’s design indeed. "Sleep needs to be thought of in the same context as diet and exercise with regard to health," says Carl E. Hunt, M.D., director of the National Center on Sleep Disorders Research in Bethesda, Md. "There's no substitute for getting a good night's sleep on a consist...

Women have a wonderful advantage in business and that is their natural motivation to nurture relationships.  You might not be the best at what you do even though you try, you may not be the cheapest on the market or offer the most perks, but if you have a good relationship with your client you will keep them loyal to your business and oblivious to the competition. Deborah Tannen's 1990 best-seller, You Just Don't Understand: Women and Men in Conversation , explores the different conversational styles of women and men at length. Based on her research, Tannen concludes that boys' and girls' early social lives are so different that they grow up in what are essentially different cultures.  Thus, talk between women and men, is in fact cross-cultural communication, fraught with as many potential misunderstandings as communication between individuals from different countries, ethnic backgrounds, languages, or religious groups.     As a matter of basic world view,...

To everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven. - Ecclesiastes 3:1 Having a business can be draining or liberating and the difference often is found in the purpose.  Are you in business just to make money?  Money can’t satisfy, the more you have the more you want.  Yes it is good to make money and I would be puzzled if a woman were in business without the desire to make money.  However, money cannot satisfy so it can’t be the driving factor.  Are you in business because you want to freedom of having and managing your own time?  This is another great reason to work for yourself rather than an employer but again you will quickly discover that having a job is a lot less stressful that being self employed.  Too often the very reason you set out in business is the one thing you never attain – free time!  With a lot of discipline and clear boundaries it is possible to free up your time and is a worthwhile pursuit, but al...

Let me just say, right from the start, if you are in business and you don’t have fear, then you are probably not really in business but more likely have a hobby that generates a bit of income.  Seriously!  Business is risky and fear is a normal part of everyday business life.  Having fear is not a weakness but giving in to fear is.      Courage is the opposite of fear.  Why?  - Because it takes courage to go ahead even when you are afraid.  There are two trains of thought on this subject.   Some say that courage is not the opposite of fear because fear is a state and courage is an action.  Those that think this way see peace as the opposite of fear.  Other however, says that courage is the opposite of fear because you feel the fear and do it anyway.  I say it is both.  I also say that it is different in each situation.  Some situations require that you calm your fears and attain a state of peace befo...

Being a lover for the first time can be wonderful but it can also be terrible.  I have heard stories of people who have come back from honeymoon still virgins as they were unsuccessful in their love making.   I have also heard of women who called home in tears from their honeymoon as sex either hadn’t happened successfully or was too painful.  Sex for the first time can be very traumatic and the key to success is preparation.  I remember a time when I was at a friend’s wedding.  They had just exchanged their vows and rings and were about to exit the church building.  Looking at them I realised that although they had done all that was legally required to be married they were still not married. Their marriage had to be consummated.  This was the important part, the part that made them married.  It was a beautiful revelation to me at the time as I had not been a virgin bride and never had the pleasure of knowing such a precious moment....

' Less is More ' is going extremely well. I am finding the balance in my life & really enjoying life a lot more now. I have successfully decluttered many areas of my life including my schedule, my home & my soul! I have also put some good habits into place (like exercising) & got rid of some bad habits (like too much computer). My latest challenge is organising the hours in my day. For many people days run 9-5 for work then home for weekends. Leading a church is a totally different ball game. There are no working hours or weekends! It's full on & all the time - day, nights & weekends. We have decided that this is not good & can't possibly please God so we have added some structure to our daily life to allow for all sorts of things other than work. One lovely key that we have come up with is a lunch break. We have committed to stop for a proper lunch break during the day & have lunch together with Daniel & Amy. It's been such...