God's Hidden Treasures

 God has taught me that no matter how difficult life can be, there are always hidden treasures to discover, if we will just lift our heads, and open our eyes and ears to find them!  I cannot tell you how often a singing bird will appear when I am feeling down, or I find a coin on the ground when I’m feeling concerned about the finances.  

I like to think that God uses these hidden treasures to help encourage us when He knows we need it and to remind us that He cares for us.  Some may call these convenient coincidences, but for me, God’s timing is always too perfect to be considered that.

What I have learnt is that when we are not observant enough, we so often miss these treasures that God wants to share with us.  When we become so obsessed with ourselves and our problems, we lose sight of things like sunrises, sunsets and rainbows, those very treasures designed to lift our hope and make us smile.

So no matter what struggles you are going through today, be sure to seek out God’s little treasure surprises and I promise you, you will not be disappointed!

Truth is like a Mountain

 

Having recently reunited with someone from my past and trying to make sense of a difficult chapter in my life, I’ve come to learn that the truth of what happened is sometimes relative to a person’s perspective and memory.  

I believe that very often we embrace a certain version of the truth that makes it easier for us to live with.  The thing about ‘truth’ is that it has so many different versions and in reality, only God can see it from all angles. I like to think that truth is like a mountain and depending on what part of the mountain we can see, it is what we accept to be the truth.  Maybe that’s what has happened with all the different denominations of interpreting the Bible in their own way…  It is all the same truth, just a different angle of it. 

The Bible tells us that the truth will set us free, and I believe that’s true, but I’ve also learnt that when it comes to God’s truth, it’s the condition of our heart’s soil that determines the interpretation. And when it comes to the truth told by a person, we have to accept what they tell us at face value, because no matter how difficult it is to understand sometimes, people don’t always behave the way we expect them to and sometimes the assumed stories we make up in our mind can be very far from the truth.

Instead, let us trust God to be the judge of what is the honest truth and when it’s not, then all we can do is pray that the person’s own conscious will convict them…   

Poisoned Minds

When my sister and I were both newly-weds, we used to play this so-called game about who had the worst husband story to tell. I would eagerly relate how mine did this or said that, often exaggerating the truth, and then she would try to come up with something her own husband did to try and beat mine!  I don’t know why we did it, except that we both seemed to find it rather entertaining and amusing!  It wasn’t until after my sister and my husband had a fall-out, that I realized how I had poisoned her mind against him. You see, I had failed to share any of my husband’s good points and had only highlighted his weaknesses. You could say I had altered her perspective and had poisoned her mind towards him, and it took many years to rectify that.

I have learnt that when our minds are poisoned towards someone, it creates a barrier that makes it difficult to love them. The same could be true with what I’ve previously shared about step-mums and in-laws! We need to be aware of how dangerous it is to have a poisoned mind towards someone and how it’s even more so, when we are the ones doing the poisoning when we gossip about others.  

If we are guilty of this, then we need to ask God to remove the poison in our minds and also in those we've helped to create.  I believe God's love can rid us of this poison. 

Step-Mums & Mother-In-Laws

One of my beliefs in life is based on personal experience. That is that Satan has poisoned our minds to dislike our step-parents and in-laws! I believe this is one of his many devices he uses to try and destroy families. He knows that if we don’t get along, our relationship will suffer. We are brought up with fairy-tales and films telling us that they are ‘evil’ and that we are to consider them our enemies, so we label them as such. We go through life with this pre-conceived filter that tells us to hate them, no matter what!  This was true with my own step-mum. Granted, I was also jealous that she had taken away my dad’s attention, but recently I’ve found myself battling to remember the reasons why I hated her.  After my dad died in 1993, I chose to lose contact with my step-mum and now, after nearly 20 years, I find myself re-united with her by the grace of God, and loving it!

I had the same instant dislike towards my mother-in-law. We all know the famous jokes about being enemies with them, and I guess it was true with mine! Despite the fact that we share the same birthday and are very much alike, over the years we seem to have rubbed each other the wrong way on many occasions. I remember a time when I was really battling to love her that God told me to call her ‘Mum’! I was horrified at the very thought of it. It wasn’t because I was worried about what my own mum might think, as she had passed away many years before, but the mere notion of it churned in my stomach.  However, I can share that when I chose to obey this seemingly small command, our relationship was somehow instantly healed. It was almost as if my poisoned mind had been emptied and I was able to see her with new eyes and a new filter – ‘Mum’. 

We need to realize this tactic of the Devil and see people without labels. We should love them for who they really are and ignore what society tells us how we should feel towards them.  Just love them instead and see how good it can be…