Life, Love and the Everyday

This morning I went to church for the first time in about four months. It hasn't been because I haven't wanted to, there have just been big changes shaking up my world and I was waiting for the dust to settle. But I woke up this morning with a strong, clear conviction to go to Hillsong Church just down the road from me. When I think about it now it seems appropriate because back in August 2010 the same feeling arose one Thursday morning...let me tell you about that. My Mum had been going to church there for three months and back then I was strongly opposed to all churches because of the way Mum had been treated at my childhood church.  Mum had run the children's church and facilitated the youth camps and she did amazing job but didn't get the recognition and respect from other members of the church board for the long hours she did, when she would say no they would quote Bible scriptures to make her feel guilty so she would do what they asked. That's one...

LIFE I was thinking about how I ended up on this road. It's beautiful scenery with off-beaten paths, most days it's grass and some days it's gravel. I like what I do in childcare and I strive to do it well. There are moments when I think "Now why didn't I do literature straight out of high school?" but then there are those Ahhh-haaa! moments that connect the dots. But there was something else that God reminded me about today, it came out of nowhere while I was washing out paint containers. I realised that God had been preparing this destiny for me all along even as a young girl in primary school. I was a quiet kid, tucked away in the special education unit most of the time and I found it hard to relate to my peers - so I would go to the library at lunch-time and that was my haven. My primary school had a medieval castle fort in the library and I relished walking up those stairs to go to my reading nook with its little window and bond with my fictious frien...

I come from a lineage of strong women and their testimonies of courage are the reason why I'm here. Great Grandmother Joan was the eldest child of a big family in The Great Depression and when her father died, she had to step up as a provider so her mother could stay home with her siblings.  After the Second World War was over, she moved to Australia with her husband - they came with hardly anything except hope for the future in a brave new world. The eldest of her six daughters is my Grannie, she convinced a country boy to give up the sticks and move from Kin-Kin to Brisbane in the 70's, there she raised her four children and worked as a barmaid at my local pub to help my Grandad, a factory worker, make ends meet. And then her youngest daughter, my mother, spent most of her adult life staring down the Black Dog  - and winning - while putting three girls through school, keeping house and giving advice. These three women are strong, not perfect. Nobody is. But they had ...