67 Words for Mandela Day

For Mandela day, the most valuable contribution I feel I can make to humanity is to share the Gospel. So instead of 67 minutes, here is the Gospel, 'according to Sam' in 67 words...

For me, the crux of the Gospel message lies in 3 simple words - God loves YOU! When you truly believe that He does, fully understanding who God is and what Love really means, all of life's problems are solved.  If you are a struggling Christian, then perhaps the reason is not fully getting to grips with one of these three pillars - God, love and you!

Life Lessons from Candy Crush...

1) No matter how impossible a situation seems, there IS always a solution!

2)  Never give up! Victory is just one more try ahead.

3)  You only have so much time to work with, so don't waste it!

4)  Working in teams always leads to success.

5)  Always have a goal to reach for.

6)  Too much chocolate is bad for you, so you must always limit your helpings.

7)  Make sure you are focusing on the right priorities.

8)  Life is one big saga, so just play along.

9)  Life is all about reaching the next level.

10) Between levels are always challenging times that need patience and time.

11) Breaking free of stuff always leads to success.

12) Life is full of colourful, sweet gems that bring sparkles of joy when we take the time to see them.

13) It can become frustrating when trying to succeed, but every failure is one step closer to victory.

14) The longer it takes to succeed, the higher the level of satisfaction with the reward.

15) Patience is practised and increased when you maintain a hope of succeeding.

16) Dark times in our lives are conquered by going through it.

17) Always keep your treasures where they can be of more use to you and others.

18) Sometimes we can become too set in our ways like jelly, and we need to shake things up a bit.

19) Life is all about making the right moves before your time runs out.

20) Sometime to get more out of life, we have to ask our friends for help.

21) We all could use a booster or two to get us through life, but choose them wisely.

22) If you don't use your talents when you can, you will loose them.

23) The impossible challenges in life takes many tries and lots of patience.

24) Don't always struggle in life on your own - a friend can save you in times of need.

25) When you cannot go further or ahead in life, just perfect what you've already accomplished.

26) Practise always makes perfect.

27) When a level is too easy to achieve, it looses significance and makes you appreciate it less.

Memories before Money

I often tend to be quite tight-fisted when it comes to spending money on entertainment.  I would much rather buy the DVD, make my own popcorn and watch the movie in the comfort of my home, often forgetting that it is the experience of the 'bigscreen' that is more often worth paying the extra bucks for.  Not to mention all the places children like to go to that always ends up costing a fortune.  I have my sister to thank for making me realise that sometimes the good, happy memories we want our children to remember does cost money, often more than what we would like to spend.  It is at these times when we have to ask ourselves if the memory of the event will be worth it.  Money certainly cannot buy happiness, but it can and does buy very happy memories, which incidentally must be photographed, so that years from now, we can look back at the photos and realise the value we made in purchasing that memory. 

Waiting with Patience

I've come to discover that waiting for something is God's oven for growing patience in us.  For the past 6 months we have been patiently looking for a bigger home, to no avail.  We know exactly what we would like, but it just doesn't seem to be out there. Somedays I get discouraged and think that maybe we are just being too fussy, but I know that because I love the Lord, my desires are His too. There is nothing that's impossible when it comes to God, just as long as we are truly grateful for what we already have.  I don't believe that God will 'enlarge our territories' if our motives are wrong for wanting things.  There is something profound that happens when we find ourselves waiting desperately on something better to come along.  God expects us to dream big but sometimes our patience always seems to run out quicker than we had thought, not to mention our hope of the thing eventually happening keeps falling out of our grasp.  It takes a special level of maturity in our faith to keep on focusing on our dream, waiting patiently, with a good, positive attitude and not loose hope.  So often we tend to want to give up when it seems to be taking too long or when we've grown weary from waiting, or sadly, we decide to settle for second best, when we know that's not 100% what we wanted.  I'm sure if we could hear God asking us if we would just trust Him, the waiting would become easier, but it is often in these waiting times that we cannot seem to hear or feel God leading us, where we end up giving up the wait and doing our own thing.  For me, waiting patiently is my way of letting God know that I choose daily to keep on trusting Him and especially in His timing.  God knows what we need before we've even prayed for it and just because it hasn't happened yet, it doesn't mean we aren't going to get it - it just means we have to wait a little longer, with an expectant heart, knowing that it's during these times in God's waiting room, that is going to grow not only our patience, but our faith and trust as well!  And if the thing we are waiting for never does happen, then either we've been waiting wrong, or God must have a very good reason, or perhaps even something better in store for us...