King's Daughters

Can you believe that in a couple of days time it will be December already? How has your year been? Are you excited and ready for 2016. I love this time of year, I love to reflect, to sort and clean my home for Christmas and to have a good break after a hard year's work. As it gets colder it seems to get more magical.  Before the autumn leaves disappeared we had a family photo shoot and we had so much fun! Daniel and Amy love to climb trees so we have several photos of them up in a tree or just hanging around like in the one below. They are such monkeys! Can you see the little bump on Lorah below?  She is PREGNANT so I am going to be a grandma in January! It is so exciting and I can't wait to meet my first granddaughter. Here is an amazing photo of Samuel, Lorah and the bump taken today.  Ooh I am so excited I could pop! 2016 has also given us two litters of kitten from our precious cats, Muffin and Poppy . It could be so easy to reflect on the str...

Today we are taking a look at a child's perspective of diabetes in an interview with my 9 year old son, Daniel, who has had diabetes for nearly 3 years. When did you first know that something was wrong? It was at my sister Amy's party. I was eating loads of sweets which was making me drink loads of water. I had six full cups of water and was still thirsty so became a bit suspicious at that time. My parents were probably suspicious as well. What happened next? We didn't think much about it but my parents thought it best to go to doctor and see why I was drinking so much water.  So we went to the doctor and they didn't give me a diagnosis or anything but sent me to the hospital.  At the hospital they gave me loads of blood test which were really painful. The used these really mean rectangle finger prickers and they discovered that my blood sugars were very high. They gave me the diagnosis and I found out I had diabetes.   So what happened after you were ...

This past Sunday we celebrated our 140th anniversary at Charlton Kings Baptist Church . Wow what an amazing history we have and what amazing people have gone before us and worked hard so we can enjoy the church that we have today. It's incredibly and so easy to take for granted what we have today without realising that many have paid the price so that we can have all that we do. The message by Revd Dr Nigel Scotland  was on thankfulness and it was a powerful reminder of a very important foundational principle of our faith and that is plain and simply to give thanks in all circumstances. What really stood out for me what that he said that we don't have to and can't always give thanks for all circumstances but we can always give thanks in every circumstance. What a powerful thing to remember. Nigel went on to remind us that to give thanks is to be in God's will and not to is to be outside of His will.  How many times do we beg God to tell us His will and spend hour...

Daniel and Amy I have four amazing children, two of whom still live at home and two who have grown up and moved out.  It was nearly three years ago when our eldest, Lorah-Kelly got married to her high school sweetheart, Samuel. It was also around this time that we noticed that something was wrong with our son, Daniel who was 7 years old. He seemed fit and well and nothing seemed out of the ordinary except that he was drinking unusual amounts of water. It got so bad that he had to get up during the night several times to have a drink and of course go to the toilet. So after about a week of this I decided it best to go see a doctor even though it seemed like a silly symptom to go to the doctor for. Everything from the doctors appointment is a bit of a surreal haze and even two years and nine months on, I can remember the shock as if it were yesterday. The doctor did a urine test and afterwards looked gravely concerned and called the hospital.  Daniel was sent over as soon...

One thing that I have been struggling with lately is to be who I know I am. It's not that I am faking it or being insincere, it's nothing like that, it's just that I haven't felt like myself for quite sometime and really want to get back to that place of being centered, aligned and at peace within. Getting free from depression has been really hard work this time around. It's not that when I wrote Hope's Journey that it wasn't a struggle, it was just a completely different struggle. Today I wanted to talk about something that I have been working on. Habits. In our life we could have habits that help and habits that hinder. I am extremely aware of the habits that I currently have that are hindering me as well as the ones I want to have to help me. This isn't new to me either, I have had these bad habits and awareness of the good ones I want for literally years! Some years I manage to overcome the bad ones with the good and other years I tend to lean tow...

Eric hit the nail on the head tonight when he told me that I have to do the hard work of rest. God has been gently and at times very firmly telling me to slow down. He told me through the gentle whisper of His Spirit, through the audible voice of my friends and even through the doctor prescribing anti-depressants for burnout! Despite the clear and obvious warning as well as my desire to rest, why is it so difficult? Rest isn't as easy as it sounds. It's not like I can just stay in bed and sleep all day. If only it were that simple! I have to make a conscious decision to rest, to slow down and to find the balance in my life. My family still need caring for, my homes still needs cleaning, my business still needs working on and my ministry still needs me to turn up. I have cut a lot out already and said no to very many things, which has been a good start. It wasn't easy, I mean I was half way through my campaign for the next local elections and had to pull out. It really h...

Last Sunday my wonderful husband, Eric , preached his sermon entitled Voices.   It was such a powerful message so I decided to share it with you, sadly we don't have a recording but I will do my best to recount it. Then Saul clothed David with his armor. He put a helmet of bronze on his head and clothed him with a coat of mail, and David strapped his sword over his armor. And he tried in vain to go, for he had not tested them. Then David said to Saul, “I cannot go with these, for I have not tested them.” So David put them off.  Then he took his staff in his hand and chose five smooth stones from the brook and put them in his shepherd's pouch. His sling was in his hand, and he approached the Philistine.       And the Philistine moved forward and came near to David, with his shield bearer in front of him. And when the Philistine looked and saw David, he disdained him, for he was but a youth, ruddy and handsome in appearance. And the Philistine said to Dav...