And in other news..

I sometimes think that this is a bit of a boring blog compared to some others I read. I don't have a theme like money-saving or make up, I'm not a pastor or a pastor's wife or anything so I can't show you that lifestyle and I'm not a particularly deep thinker so I can't really challenge you on where my brain has gone today. This means that, sometimes, I do struggle with what to write, so in the absence of any real news this is what has gone on this week.

Great excitement as we attracted our first sparrow to the bird feeder. Unfortunately there is no photo as, as soon as I saw it, I jumped up and down with excitement and it flew away. Am hoping it has gone to tell its friends. (About the abundance of seed - not the madwoman) For those of you who don't have problems getting lots of birds into your garden. This is Plymouth. Most birds round here are seagulls with huge wingspans and more interested in your fish and chips than a few pathetic seeds. My friend is having more joy with his bird feeder - he is putting meat and potato pie on it though.

Have booked tickets for daughter and myself to go to Cardiff to see Caitlin Moran, one of my daughter's favourite authors. For those of you who don't know her she is very funny and very, very potty mouthed. FOW2 is concerned that I will stand up and shout "That is too far young lady!" while pointing at the stage. I almost certainly won't.

Supporting my theory that I will always look like I have been cleaning out caravans when I run into someone I haven't seen for a while, this morning I popped to the Co-op with my hair sticking up like Billy Whizz in the Beano and I ran into someone I hadn't seen for at least five years! No really, I know I am prone to slight exaggeration but I counted and it is probably more than five years. What is that about? Why do I not "just run into"  anyone when I am fragrant and coiffed? Probably because the proportion of time when I am fragant and coiffed is much lower than the proportion of time when I am er... not.

FOW2 has been offered a place at Exeter University from September. She is doing English with Film Studies (one year in France because she is geniunely very keen on French Film) She was very excited to hear that her brother was going to see Breathless - or À bout de souffle to give it its proper name,  at York University's Film Society. Unfortunately she was a bit disappointed when I received a message from him saying "That French Film - 3 words - Emperor's New Clothes. Just Rubbish. I only went because Jack said that there would be loads of good looking girls there and he was lying" Not everyone will share our passions I suppose.

Tonight's Towards Belief meeting is about "Religious Violence" which sounds nice and cheery. Am looking forward to a lot of talk about the Crusades which I refuse to be held responsible for and Northern Ireland which I also barely understand. I do not expect to be much help tonight.

This was the news from Martha Towers. Thank you for reading.

Courage To Speak

 

This is in my kitchen - ignore it - couldn't think of a suitable photo.

God wants us to grow up, to know the whole truth and tell it in love—like Christ in everything

Ephesians 4

I think I have always sort of avoided speaking the truth in love. Mainly because, in my limited experience growing up as a Christian, it seemed to be a big excuse for some people to be quite horrible to you and then tag on the end "I'm saying this in love" I am also a bit of a coward who is bad at confrontation so that's another reason I avoid it. However, I got myself in a bit of a pickle this week by not pulling someone up on something they should have been doing (or not doing in this case). This had been going on for a quite a while and I had kept quiet about it (partly because it was a troublesome time for the person in question) and then I kind of lost it a bit resulting in me being pulled up for over-reacting. After I had got over my massive sense of the injustice of it all, I thought a bit about speaking truth in love. Not all of this is positive and scattered with Christian Fairy Dust. 

• To speak the truth takes courage. Sometimes we try and avoid doing it because it will often cause confrontation. It will need you to gird your loins or loin your girds (I can never remember which)
• To speak in love does not mean you can say what you want and then tag "I am speaking in love" at the end as if it justifies all the bile you have just dished out. You say what is true as you see it - always thinking of the other person and the effect this is having.
• It is not a bully's charter.
• It is not permission for someone to bully you.
• Sometimes it is essential even though it is unpleasant. It is like spraying spiritual Febreeze into a situation (or opening a window if you live in our house - air freshener makes me cough) It prevents build up of quiet, muttering misunderstandings. It stops silent bad feeling breeding quietly in a dark corner.
• As Ephesians says - you have to be grown up to know the whole truth. Always be awake to the possibility that your perception of the truth may not be the whole story. This is where the telling it in love comes in. Makes it more balanced and puts the tellee first. 
• Sometimes it is a very pleasant thing, it is you telling someone something good about themselves motivated by love for them rather than you getting on their good side.

Am feeling bit better about this now - just putting it into practice is the killer. Another weird Christian cliche - "I love you in the Lord" - what's that about? No  - I'm leaving it.

This Girl Can

This is really good. Don't you think this is really good? I think this is is really good.

Shop

To church on Friday to help with a clothes swap thing. The idea being to raise money to send a team to Nepal so that they can dig a well or buy text books or some other good and life affirming thing that makes me lie on my face in bed and question what I am doing with my life. All went very well I think. Plenty of money raised. Everything was a pound or you could pay more. I ended up paying more for two bags I'm not sure that I like very much. (Although the red one is not as scary as the lighting makes out and the Cath Kidtson still had its label on and is therefore "a bargain") I am now aware that retail is another thing that I cannot do as the following shows.

I am very bad at making small talk with potential customers. I really have no idea if that suits you or not. Look at me - do I show any signs of having any idea of what looks good on a person? 

I have no patience. If I think it unlikely that we have that top in a size 20 - I am unlikely to come with you to have a look. I feel that life is too short.

The clothes are there for people to look at. It is not acceptable for me to want to cry because someone has just shaken that jumper out for the umpteenth time after I have carefully folded it - again.

It is ABSOLUTELY not acceptable to snigger behind the clothes rail with someone because a generous person has brought a basque in. My trouble is I have lived too sheltered a life. I expect someone, somewhere looks really good in it. Hopefully the weather warms up a  bit for you.

Retail is quite tiring I have found. 

Believing

I took part in this on Monday. I don't know if you have heard of it. I haven't found many people that have; although I am not helping with that because I keep calling it "Beyond Belief".  It is a series of discussions after watching a DVD which is supposed to break down barriers to faith. The DVD is full of talking heads, most of whom are what I suppose you would term Christian Intellectuals (whatever one of those is) Then you all have a chat with the people in your group - some of whom are not Christians about what you have just seen. It's sort of like Alpha but without the pasta bake at the beginning. I'm not sure yet if I prefer it to Alpha. It certainly covers meaty topics - suffering, religious violence, is the Bible true? Also the coffee is better than Alpha but I liked Alpha as well so we shall see. 
It always surprises me how open people are who come to these things. I suppose you would have to be fairly interested in faith to turn out on a freezing cold Monday night in January but people seem to ask interested and interesting questions, and seemed to be quite untroubled by the fact that I didn't really feel that I could answer any of them satisfactorily. I did enjoy it though, which surprises me because, as you have probably worked out, I am scared of most people so I wouldn't expect me to enjoy this. Anyway. Wolf Hall awaits.