A beautiful city

I am so thankful for the beauty that is around me. The moment I first set foot in Cambridge, I fell in love with the beauty of it. I can be quick to take it for granted, and sometimes it takes a trip away to appreciate the prettiness again, but it is stunning! Here are some recent photos (sadly not brilliant quality) that for me begin to sum up the joy of living here.

Friends

Today I am thankful for good friends.

I was very anxious last night. I sent a few emails explaining different aspects of my anxiety to different friends, asking them for help. Not only did they give help, but the wise words they emailed were, in several cases, sent after midnight. That is the last time I can imagine people wanting to have to think and decipher what I am saying! That is when people want to be winding down or, better still, sleeping.

 My worries are rarely straightforward but, rather, involve many 'if's and 'but's. The patience these friends displayed in taking time to work out from my (in at least some cases) nearly incomprehensible ramble, what it was that was bothering me, is testimony to God's presence in them. Being my friend cannot be easy. I'm not being hard on myself there; it is definitely true. I worry too much and those close to me will inevitably get sucked into the stress. Last night certainly wasn't a one-off experience.

I am ashamed to say that I can think of a number of times where someone has confided in me and asked for reassurance over something and I have been less than helpful. I remember getting very irritable with a friend for asking me several times about an issue she was struggling with. It is so easy to send someone away, give empty words of reassurance or lose your temper with them. Almost too easy.

I pray that God would help me become more patient and willing to engage in other people's lives like they were my own, caring and loving them as myself. I also thank God for such patient, helpful, loving friends. The more I think about it, the more grateful I feel! Praise the Lord. I really am so fortunate.

Little friends

Today I am thankful for Lydia (who is just under 2). I love her so much and she tells me often that she loves me and that we are friends. Despite being so little, she has a huge vocabulary and is very chatty. Here are some of today's gems.

Before eating her lunch (which, to be fair, did consist of olives), 'Thank you God for olives. Thank you God for sandwiches and olives. Thank you God for Laura and Rara (that's what she calls herself) and olives. Thank you for Mummy. And Mummy and olives....' I think she might like olives... I like that her prayers are so full of thanks - definitely an appropriate model for me to learn from!

Then, whilst eating lunch, she turned to me, 'What's wrong with you Laura?' (I was innocently sitting there - there were definitely no problems!).

A little later we were reading a book. There was a drawing of three cats looking sad because they had lost their mittens. 'They should just cuddle each other and then they'd be happy.' What a problem solver she is!

A little further on in the book, the illustration featured some hills, one of which had been coloured pink. 'It's meant to be grassy!' So clever!

And possibly my favourite quote of all, when praying before dinner, 'Thank you God for the trees blowing in the wind near the park...'. The prayer went on for quite a long time but I don't really know what else she said. She totally has a point that the trees blowing in the wind near the park were lovely and like James 1:17 says, that beauty and goodness is from God. I should be more thankful for such things myself. But given that we hadn't even talked about the trees, I found this a particularly amusing prayer!

James 1:17

'Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.' (James 1:17)

Over the last few days, God has done some amazing things in my life.

Why did you wait till now God? Why did you not give me these signs before? These were just some of my initial reactions. Don't get me wrong, I was very pleased and happy with what God had done - I  even decided to blog about it. But a big part of me was treating this week as a sort of one off where God had decided to show me his love for me while the rest of the time he doesn't really care. But that is a load of rubbish.

I struggle to keep on top of everything going on in my life, let alone what is happening in the lives of people around me. God, however, knows every single person who ever has been and ever will be. Not only that, but he made them! And loves them. I can't even begin to describe how incredible he is.

He loves me so much that he sent his son to die for me! He has made me a place in eternity. And it's not because of anything I have done. I pushed God away as I grew up, wrote him off as ridiculous, an imaginary friend for the less intelligent even. I was a pretty horrible person. And yet, God still made himself known to me. And extended his offer of salvation to me. Amazing grace.

I could go on for a long time talking about various aspects of God's goodness, but even that wouldn't even touch the surface. My point, however, is that I couldn't be much further from the truth if I said that God is giving me a 'one week only' display of love and goodness. 

Far too often I take God for granted, take credit for the good things, focus on the negatives, concentrate on praying for things to happen and don't stop to praise God for all (or indeed anything) he has done for me. But I would like to change that. First stop, I shall pray God would help me give thanks more, but secondly, I'm going to try to regularly post here about some of the good things that bring glory to God's almighty name. And there will be many.