King's Daughters

Dear Michelle, You were there at the start of my new found joy My friend with a purpose You were there when I cried over some silly boy My friend who cares You were there when I met the love of my life My friend who understands You were when we vowed to be husband and wife My friend who shares You were there when I moved so far away My friend over distance You're always there for every birthday My friend who remembers You were there at birth of our baby ministry My friend in destiny You were there in snow when things failed terribly My friend in Decembers My friend with purpose, who cares. My friend who understands and shares. My friend over distance who remembers. My friend in destiny and snowy Decembers. Thank you my friend, for who you are and what you do. My life is enriched all because of you. Love Angela xxx

Eric preached a fantastic message at church that really got me thinking about something that I have never thought about before!  His message was called Love & Respect.  It was a very simple message based on 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." I have so often mentioned how I need to be loved to Eric, going to great lengths to explain how it makes me feel.  When my heart is full I feel powerful, beautiful and courageous!  Nothing can stop me.  But, when my heart is empty and I don't feel loved I feel weak and feeble and quite useless.  I reach a different sort of low when my heart is empty and I don't feel Eric's love for me.  Over the years I have gone to a lot of trouble to explain this to Eric so that he knows how much I need and depend on his love.  Eric has done a great job of trying to understand the need that I have for love and he has done

14 December… Dear Jesus, Now I don’t know if it’s just people like myself who have had a rough background with men or if women with normal backgrounds go through this too, but I have realised that there is one last area I need to deal with in order to be truly free and to truly love myself! The area of course is men! This journey has been amazing, You have been so faithful and have been so gracious and I am already so much freer than I was when I started this journey. Recently though, I have realised, that there is still a big part of me that needs male attention and approval. I still need to be noticed and need to be liked by men. Although I am more mature now than when I was a teenager and don’t run around wearing the shortest possible skirts to gain male attention, I do still have exactly the same need as when I was a teenager - the need for male love and attention. I’m sure a large degree of this is normal, we were created to grow up and pair off, most of us were made with t

Classic Christianity by Bob George: This book completely blew my mind!  The simple thought that we have been preaching only half of the gospel has completely challenged me. Too often we think Jesus came to sort out our sin thought His death, and He did, but that is only half of it.  He also came to give us a new life through His resurrection. One phrase section deeply impacted me. "If you were to see a butterfly, it would never occur to you to say, 'Hey, everybody! Come look at this good looking converted worm!'  Why not? After all, it was a worm.  And it was "converted."  No, now it is a new creature, and you don't think of it in terms of what it was.  You see it as it is now - a butterfly.  In exactly the same way, God sees you as His new creature in Christ. Although you might not always act like a good butterfly - you might land on things you shouldn't, or forget you are a butterfly and crawl around with your old worm buddies - the truth of the matte

I can't tell you how many times a week I complain that I have so little time to do anything!  At the same time I can tell you how many hours a week I spend on the computer.  Everything I do seems to revolve around the computer, I can't imagine not turning it on for a day.   I tacked the whole FaceBook Addiction thing a while ago but still there are so many other things I need to do that involve this little box sitting on my lap right now.  I have noticed too that the little details that I used to manage in our marriage have slipped away.  Neither Eric or I take time to set the table beautifully for a romantic dinner.  I don't make his favourite desert much and I know there are loads of other little details that I simply don't get around to any more. May I say, that if your husband comes home from work and is greeted by the back of your head, as you are busy on the computer - he is not pleased. There is not a man alive that wouldn't love to come home to a clean ho

Wonderful Wife Challenge - Start with the Small Things I love the comment Cheryn posted and this is the perfect place to start the Wonderful Wife Challenge.  In fact I have decided to honour her in this post as she is the most wonderful wife that I know.  This is what Cheryn said; "I think we should start with the small challenges, the things we think don't make a difference but actually make all the difference. Just saying thank you and showing appreciation for stuff we often overlook and take for granted (like my daily lifts to and from the train station), make his favourite dinner/dessert.  Put a little card with some nice words in it under his pillow."  Cheryn has definitely hit the nail on the head, let's start with the small things.  Most importantly let's keep it up and not forget to always keep the small lovely details in our marriage, it's so easy not to bother. I challenge you this week to come up with lovely small things that you can do, l

My heart still flutters when I hear his voice, my knees still feel week when I see him in a photo like the one here!  After six years of marriage I am still totally and utterly in love with my wonderful husband, Eric.  We have a wonderful marriage but it has taken work.  If we are not intentionally moving forward as a couple we are moving backwards.  Life is always moving in one direction or the other, it never stands still.  So in order to keep my marriage moving forward and so as not to become familiar with my wonderful husband I have decided to challenge you to join me in becoming a wonderful wife!  Over the next while I am going to post some challenges for us that will help us intentionally be even more amazing wives.  Before I begin though I would like to hear your suggestions for challenges. What area would like to intentionally work on in your marriage?

Every year, at the end of the year, I like to make a photo album of all the highlights of that year. I sat down a while ago to catch up on this and realised that I haven't done one for two years. It seems that since we planted the Church , life got very hectic and simple things like taking photos & making memories took a back seat! Why am I sharing this with you? Because it is important, probably the most important post on my Blog yet. More often than not, great memories are intentionally made, they don't just happen. You have to take time out of your busy schedule and focus on making a memory. Even the simplest of things can be memorable if you take the time to soak them up. One of my fondest simple memories is of Daniel & Amy dancing . It was a very special moment that I could have missed if I didn't take the time to light a fire, put on some music and just sit down with them in the living room. Another moment was when Eric & I decided to take lunch breaks t

"In the effort to make things perfect, a woman can beg her man to be like the one over there. She's hoping that if he could change, she'd finally be whole. When the man feels that he is asked to be something he wasn't ever made to be, when he senses the pressure to meet expectations that seem unattainable, when he wants to fill but doesn't really understand how to pour, after years of talking and trying and talking some more the man can step back in frustration. The woman tries to counter the distance by leaning and desperately asking him for more. And he might try from miles away, but he can't. So he looks across the back yard and wonders if his neighbours woman has these needs. Maybe she doesn't. Maybe a woman like her could appreciate a man like him. And his heart wonders away. And he gives up on romance with the one he has loved and the passion dies. And the heart of the woman who has expected the man to be enough dies with it. The woman is a

Yes I know this subject seems a bit strange, but I can't tell you how many lonely people I have met who genuinely don't know how to make new friends. I am no expert on this as I am an introvert who is quite content with my own company ha ha. Never-the-less over the years I have had to step out of my comfort zone and intentionally build friendships. I will share what has worked for me but I would be very grateful if you could share what works for you too as different personalities approach things from different angles. If you are an outgoing sort of person you are probably laughing at this post as you are constantly surrounded by people, but I would like to challenge you too. How deep are your friendships? To make friends I would suggest: Get around people: It's very difficult to meet people if you don't put yourself in a position to meet people. Church of course is a great place and even better is to get involved in church life. Another idea could be to join a c

I have only three friends! This isn't because I am a sad loner, this is because I am selective and specific about who I call a friend. So many people come to me and say they want to be my friend but what they are really saying is that they want me to be their friend... if you know what I mean? What they are really saying is that they want me to be there for them, me to stay in touch with them, me to run around after all their needs. When the time comes that I have a need or when perhaps my world starts falling apart, where are all these people that said that they wanted to be my friend? Nowhere to be found - the relationship has become work and they have run off to find someone else who will make them happy! This is not a negative, have a go at people post. This is a let's get real post. How many friends do you really have? I am passionate about building a church where people really care and where real friendships are grown. Of course we serve each others needs, of co

I wrote thankful & not grateful for this tip as I realised the importance of saying thank you. Especially for the little things. Sometimes I feel grateful when I see Eric do something for me but I have to remind myself that he doesn't know I am feeling grateful. It's so important to express gratitude by saying thank you. Lately I have been making a point of noticing the small things as I have been taking them for granted and even worse - I have started to expect things that I used to be grateful for. That's not nice & that can damage our marriage! Like my nice cup of coffee in the morning. I am so grateful that Eric brings me coffee but it has become a bit of a habit now and I have started expecting it. So just to make sure I don't become ungrateful and expect this nice treat I make sure I say thank you and from time to time I get up before him and make him a nice cup of tea. A while ago Daniel & I didn't feel very well at all so Eric took car

I have the hottest, most amazing husband in the whole world!!! Best of all today is his birthday so I can make a fuss over him :) Happy Birthday Darling xxx Eric has shown me the true meaning of being loved & he has shown me how AMAZING marriage is. I love our life and I am so grateful to him for loving me the way he does, for being so patient with me as I have worked through some difficult things. I admire his teachable spirit and his integrity. Eric is a man that has pure spirit - it is so refreshing to be around someone so lovely. I don't think anyone knows him to way I do. Our church will never know how much he loves & cares for them, how much time & effort he puts into each sermon as well as all the other details of church life. How much he has sacrificed to build our Church & how much more he is willing to give in order to see more lives changed & set free. I honour you today my wonderful husband because I see all these things and I count it an honou

Sometimes we are just too proud & selfish. We think it's all about us & all about our needs & the fact that every single one of our needs are not being met. If you find yourself going there just humble yourself before God & before your husband. Say sorry for being selfish & ask what you can do to make things better. This will work every time & win you loads of points with God & with your spouse ha ha. No one can resist a humble person. Remember you are no longer your own, you belong to God as you were bought with the precious blood of Jesus & when you got married you became one with your spouse. You are not your own anymore, you are a part of something much bigger. From time to time I get into selfish mode & make things all about me. The first thing I do to humble myself is to remember that Eric & I are working on having a great marriage - it's about our marriage not about myself.

Don't forget to have fun!!! This is why you got married in the first place wasn't it? Didn't you enjoy your time together? Making time for dates is essential. Eric & I have our date night every Wednesday & it is the highlight of our week. Also we have our family day every Saturday so we can have fun with the children. These two dates really make our life special & FUN! We also love to play games either just the two of us or as a family. Playing is so important & if we neglect this we tend to just focus on work which can make us boring :( Our motto is to work hard & play hard! Perhaps do what you first did when you were dating. I say perhaps because you may not have been a Christian when you first dated & I would not recommend you go back to ungodly things ha ha. Spice things up - no one likes Mr or Mrs boring :) What do you like to do for fun together?

When things in your life seem almost too much to handle, When 24 hours in a day is not enough; remember the mayonnaise jar and 2 cups of coffee. A professor stood before his philosophy class and had some items in front of him. When the class began, wordlessly, he picked up a very large and empty mayonnaise jar and start to fill it with golf balls. He then asked the students if the jar was full. They agreed that it was. The professor then picked up a box of pebbles and poured it into the jar. He shook the jar lightly. The pebbles rolled into the open areas between the golf balls. He then asked the students again if the jar was full. They agreed it was. The professor next picked up a box of sand and poured it into the jar. Of course, the sand filled up everything else He asked once more if the jar was full.. The students responded With an unanimous 'yes.' The professor then produced two cups of coffee from under the table and poured the entire contents into the jar, effectively f

A lot easier said than done I know, but really try to get the most out of every season of your marriage. Try see the bright side & if you are lucky enough to be married, try to remember how great it is to have someone to walk with you through the season you are in. In this photo we are in the pouring rain, it was our wedding day & it was an outdoor wedding in a lovely park in London. Thankfully the rain only came towards the end as we were leaving. But take a look at our faces, we are so unbelievably happy & the fact that it was raining didn't bother us at all, in fact it made quite a nice photo for the final photo in our wedding album :) I can't really take credit on this occasion for choosing to enjoy this particular season (the rainy season) as I was too ecstatically happy to notice! There are other season though when I have chosen to ignore the "rain" & look at the brighter things in my life. Most of all when things get tough I just choose t

I have come to the conclusion that as wives we influence our husbands. No matter whether we are good, bad or ugly wives we do influence him. I have noticed in my own life & watched others & I can see clearly that when a man really loves a woman he wants to please her. I also noticed that he needs her approval & it frustrates him when the woman he loves doesn't approve so he does whatever he can to please her. As women, if we realize this we can see how we can easily use this to our advantage or to his advantage. Sadly I have also observed that woman use this to manipulate & control their husband. It's a easy trap to fall into & I am always careful of this trap! In Genesis 2:18 God said that he will make him a helper comparable to him. I believe that what we should do with our influence is use it to help our husbands. Since we have this influence in his life let's not use it for evil but we can use it for good to help him, to build him up, to hel

Take time to remember what you first loved about each other. It is so easy to get sidetracked with real life & it is so easy to forget all the good things that made you attracted to each other in the first place. Occasionally Eric & I intentionally look back & reminisce. We remember our first meal together, our special walk along the river Thames in London that lead to us dating, we remember our honeymoon. Our memories are so precious to us & we love to remember to good times. From time to time Eric & I also take out the photo albums & flip through them. We treasure our memories & once we have finished looking through the albums we manage to see things back in their proper perspective. Sometimes you forget that your life is really good but looking through the photo album can easily remind you. Take time to remember the good things - don't wait for a memory to come to you, be intentional about it, make yourself remember - it is so worth i t.

One of the nicest things Eric ever said to me is; "I don't care about your past, I care about your future". The best part is that he totally meant it, he has never brought up my "colourful" past or used the mistakes of my past against me. Sometimes I even feel like he doesn't believe the stories I have told him about all the bad things I have done in the past. It is so amazing to be loved for who I am not not based on what I did (good or bad) in the past. In the photo above are two of our most wonderful friends, it's so important to have great friends who will also leave the past in the past. One of my best friends ever, Michelle (above), has seen me at my best & at my worst, she has seen me single & married - and still she is my friend (whew!). I can't tell you how amazing it is to have a husband & great friends who all believe in my future & don't judge me on my past!