King's Daughters

Men need respect & women need love. If we simply learn to meet the one main need that our spouse has then we may eliminate many other battles or problem areas. Ephesians 5:33 Nevertheless let each one of you in particular so love his own wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband . This is all that Eric needs to either make him or break him as a man. When I show him that I respect him he is stronger but when I disrespect him, especially in front of people, he is a broken man with no power at all. As women we don't realise the importance of our respect, it either releases our husband into his full potential as a man or without it we cripple our man & make him unable to be what God has called him to be. Here are some tips for wives: 1) Go to God - he already has all the answers & will very happily help you 2) Watch Your Words - communicate only words of life that will build him up, if you have any complaints just shut up & chat to God abou...

It's that time of year again! I love all the festivities, food & fun of Christmas & I am just starting to get into it by baking our Christmas cake so I thought I would share the recipe with you. The photo above is of last years half eaten cake ha ha. 800g mixed dried fruit 75g glace cherries cut in half 200ml brandy 300g plain flour I t ground cinnamon A little freshly grated nutmeg 125g ground almonds 150g softened unsalted butter 150g dark muscovado sugar 4 large eggs I t cocoa powder Pinch of bicarbonate of soda 6t apricot jam 450g marzipan 900g ready-to-roll fondant icing · Soak the glace cherries in the brandy for 24-48 hours. · Lightly grease the cake tin & line with greaseproof paper. · Sift the flour with the cinnamon, a pinch of salt & a little nutmeg. · Whisk the butter until creamy & add sugar gradually until light and fluffy. · Beat in the eggs & add the flour mixture & almonds, then the fruit and its liquid. · Add the cocoa and bicarbonate...

I can't tell you how many arguments Eric & I didn't have because I went to God first. Also I can assure you that the ones we did have was when I didn't go to God. It's quite simple really, God is so much smarter that we are & has a much better perspective on things so why not get his advice first. I have gone to God when I am angry, when I am sad, when I am hurt & even when I need some inspiration or creativity to make Eric feel more loved. For me God is definitely the source of our marriage & my love for Eric. I would have completely wrecked things by now if I didn't go to God - and I go often. Some women seem to be such perfect wives & I am happy for them, but as for me... well I just keep going to God ha ha. For me it's as Paul said in 2 Corinthians 12:9 “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” Don't you love Eric's big smile in our wedding photo above? Even Gary Clark (in the backgro...

This Sunday I had the privilege of preaching at our church. Preaching is a love hate thing for me but whether I am loving or hating it I do find it a real privilege an honour to be communication the heart of God to our Church. This message is all about the seasons of life based on Ecclesiastes 3. One thing is totally 100% guaranteed in life, and that is that things will change. God has appointed the times and seasons, the events of our lives, the happy and the sad, the easy and the difficult. God exalts and humbles the same person. He raises nations up and brings them down. The great thing is that God is in control, he has a plan & he works everything together for good so we can have a great life. The painting above is one that Lorah painted after one of our lovely summer holidays. I thought it would be nice to include it for you to see. So who wants to count how many times I said 'um'? Listen to the full message here .

It was really lovely to hear all your comments on the God Said post. As promised here is how it impacted me. I was having a rough few weeks, one thing after another has been piling on top of me & life was looking a bit stormy. You see, I asked God to make me a bigger person & remove the constraints that are holding me back in life. At the Hillsong Conference , Flip Flippen addressed this area & it totally challenged me. God has so faithfully answered my prayer by allowing me the opportunity to be a bigger person. God isn't going to "zap" me with the gift of being a bigger person, He isn't going to come down from heaven & remove my constraints. Of course not, He is going to allow a little bit of hell to break loose in my life so that I have the opportunity to respond as a bigger person. Even as I type this, I know that I really don't want to do what I know I have to do to be this bigger person. At the same time I really do want to be a bigger...

To kick off our series on marriage I thought it would be fun to start with one of my favourite books on the subject. Holly has a fantastic way of saying it as it is & hitting the nail on the head. This little book is packed with enough to keep you going for your entire marriage. Eric & I read it before we got married & highlighted the bits that were important to us. It has been fun going back & rereading it over the years & seeing how some things have changed for us & how most things are still spot on. When we were planning our life together we were excited about having a great marriage & read books like this one with great enthusiasm for how we were going to get it all right. Now several years later we run to this book & others for answers to the challenges we face. It's quite hysterical really as we both still want the same things, we still both believe the same things about marriage but somewhere along the line we realised that we are only h...

Today I received a really interesting email. Well at first glance you would think not, in fact I usually delete all chain emails or long emails right away, I don't have the time to trawl through things like that. But today was different, I had been asking God to show me the way forward through something I am struggling with. I really didn't hear His voice at all this morning when I was praying. Do you ever get those moments or even seasons? The season when it feels like all hell has broken loose in your life. Last week life was perfect & this week it has all fallen apart... do you ever get that? Well I have been having a few weeks like that & each week seems to get worse. Here is the email that I received, before I tell you how it spoke to me I want to hear what it says to you. So have a read & I will do another post about how this cute little email hugely impacted me. God Said... I asked God to take away my habit. God said, NO... It is not for me to take away...

Lately I have been looking at my priorities & have noticed that it is essential to understand the season that you are in in order to set reasonable priorities. For me it has been a bit of a struggle because I have done the whole stay at home mummy thing for years & have moved on to a career & then even moved onto starting my own company. My eldest daughters are 14 & 18 but I also have two new gorgeous additions to the family who are 10 months & 3. Lately I have been feeling the tension between the busy me that has been allowed to grow as my teenagers have gotten older & the mommy with 2 babies. It's kinda like I have to go back & do it all over again. I love my babies & my teenagers & I love my life! The thing that I have been working on though is defining & understanding this season in my life. I have to reset my priorities to God, husband & children ONLY. That is how it was when Lorah & Jordan were little & that was righ...

One of my favourite writers is Max Lucado. His children's books have changed my life as I have read them to my children at bedtime. My absolute favourite is You Are Special - this has helped me so much with understanding how little it matters what people think about me and how much what God says about me really matters. This book has helped me so much with my identity & I know it will help my children with theirs as they grow up. Sometimes it's the simplest things that are most powerful, I imagine this is partly what Jesus meant when he said in Luke 18:17; " whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will by no means enter it " Have you ever been impacted by a children's book?