Retreating with DH

For just over a week now, my DH has been off work, which has been a real blessing.

Uually we take this "extra" days to go away for a few days, but this time it hasn´t been financially possible, so we have been enjoying the open fire in our chimney and taking a few trips here and there but making sure that we are back when the kids got out of school.


These are the moments when we really catch up with each other and enjoy some long talks and praying together. We took advantage to update our worship songs repetoire both in German (we have been invited to lead worsip at a marriage retreat in Germany at the end of this month) and in Spanish which has been a project left pending for way too long.

It does require time to sit down and embrace the new songs and learn them, but it has been a really blessing to allow God to minister to both of us... especially me. There are some new songs that I could really identify with and seem to be "annointed" for the moment.

Looking at the German songs has been a challenge as we have not led worship in German for over 15 years!!! You can say that fast, but boy it´s a long time and it's easy to feel a little overwhelmed and insecure getting back into it.

We made a head start but we still need some more time to really feel free and flow in these things.. God is gracious and treats us so tenderly.

God´s tenderness amazes me every time....catches me by surprize and humbles me. When you feel most vulnerable God meets you with His tenderness and not judgement, with grace and not critisism, and with love and not rejection. It´s the father meeting the prodigal son as he sees him "far off" and runs to meet him. Isn´t that so beautiful?


I am so glad he weighs the motives of the heart. He sees my feeble attempts to reach out for Him and stretch out for new things He meets me right there. He doesn't expect perfection before allowing me be used.... I feel that I am bathing in this truth more than ever before.


I am enjoying the fact that, as I mention in a previous post, I don't have the energy at present to worry about what people think or trying to impress anyone.... a weakness I will probably struggle with all of my life until I am completly free in heaven!!!!

I have been so tired from events that happen before Christmas, that it has left me without fight in me to prove myself if you know what I mean... which naturally is very good.

It´s what Paul talks about when he says... "...may He increase and I decrease" .... May God be more evident and real that any of my talents and abilities... which He gave me in the first place!!!!

A few days ago "Word for the day from UCB" they have been talking about gifts and character. Here is an excert taken from the daily devotion for Feb 1st:

Scriptural keys to success in life (1)
01 Feb 2008

" 'A man's gift makes room for him.' PROVERBS 18:16
Your giftedness will get you noticed, separate you from the rest of the pack

and give you a head start on others...................

"Mega-best-selling author Stephen King asserts that,

'Talent is cheaper than table salt. What separates the talented

individual from the successful one is a lot of hard work.' Much of

that work takes place in your character and your private world.

Haven't you known people who should have risen to the top but didn't?

They had all the talent they'd ever need, but they didn't succeed.

Their talent made them stand out but their lack of integrity made them sit down.

Their friends, families, coaches and bosses saw their giftedness

but wondered why they kept falling short of expectations.

Their talent opened the door but their wrong choices shut it. " "

God is more interested in my character than in my gifts and talents... I want my charcter to be able to hold up my talents and this requires hard work, much purifying and heaps full of humility and recognizaton that:
without Him I can do nothing that is of value but WITH Him I can do all things! Only in God can I and do I become all He has dreamt me to be!

A time for everything

To everything there is a season,

and a time to every purpose under heaven:

Ecc 3:1-8

A time to be born,

and a time to die;

a time to plant,

and a time to pluck up that which is planted;

A time to kill, and a time to heal;

a time to break down, and a time to build up;

A time to weep, and a time to laugh;

a time to mourn, and a time to dance;

A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together;

a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;

A time to get, and a time to lose;

a time to keep, and a time to cast away;

A time to rend, and a time to sow;

a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;

A time to love, and a time to hate a time of war; and a time of peace.

I was just going to put in the first verse of this very well known passage, but the more I read it the less I wanted to separate it at any point ...so you have the whole thing!!!

On the weekend we finally closed up our pool for the winter. It´s a big job because you have to make sure the pool is completely clean and then put a special chemical in it for the duration of the winter. Once that is done, you have to proceed screw in all these screws which are placed at regular intervals all around the pool, and then attach the awning to cover it as you can see.

This is a pretty straight forward and uncomplicated procedure but one that is nonetheless time consuming. It's always good then, to do it when the whole family is together and as the saying goes..., "many hands make light work!" thus making the amount of screws one has to screw in limited to about 8 or so instead of 50.

It also means that lifting the awning is also divided by 5!!! This can be a pretty fun thing to do because you have make sure you all move at once and quickly attach parts as you go so none of awning ends up in the pool! Quite some feat I can assure you. Not that having it fall in the pool is the end of the world, but if it does happen, (and you can tell at this point that I speak from experience!!) you have to pull it out and repeat the whole process again, but now with the added weight of the water....nothing to sneeze at I can assure you!

This whole procedure brings conclusion to our swimming pool activities until next year. The time to cast away our swimming togs and inflatable swimming rings and grab for our jumpers and jackets has come! It´s letting go of one to grab the other...

As I was mulling these ideas around in my head I was reminded of yet another song I had written back when I was travelling with Noah on the Ark... well...you know what I mean... a while ago . It´s a little chorus, short and sweet and the lyrics are:

Let go, let God, Let Jesus have his way with you (x2)

For He has created you

He knows what is best for you

And He wants what is best for you

So let Him have his way (x2)

Now I can just see you standing up by your computer and pointing your proverbial fingers at the screen, heads tilted to one side, saying.... "Hey Ally, you did this before... You shared a song, promised a recorded version and WE ARE STILL WAITING!!!!!"

I could almost hear you guys saying it as I wrote down the lyrics... and of course...you are right... Sadly I have not been able to fulfill my promise because of technical difficulties... I know that sounds like a classic excuse, but it is true.... The microphone is broken and until now we haven´t be able to get a new one.... So to answer you question...it is still in the pipeline and YES I will record this one too (Do I hear a "yeah right" complimented with the rolling of the eyes here???!!!) when I do the Open hands song that I promised back in July... Man is it really that long ago???

Any way, is there something that God is asking you to pack away and then reach for the new?.. Is it time for you to "cast away" and embrace a change of season? These are tough moments but we can´t enjoy the new season if we don´t allow the old season to pass.

For me it´s a time of embracing a new season... scary,new, and uncharted territory which inspires in me both fear and excitement all at the same time!

A word of encouragement!

Yesterday after I wrote my post about my struggle the Lord spoke this verse to me:

Isaiah 43:18-19
18 "Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. 19 See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland. (NIV)

18 "Forget about what's happened; don't keep going over old history. 19 Be alert, be present. I'm about to do something brand-new. It's bursting out! Don't you see it? There it is! I'm making a road through the desert, rivers in the badlands. (Msg)

I just so happens that sweetmummy and Carin and have done a post with the very same verses, so it´s interesting to see how God is saying similar things to us! My cousin Karen also has this as a special verse for her too.

God is exhorting me to forget and not dwell on what happened in the nursing home... that He is going to do a new thing. I feel hope welling up within me. Thanks for your prayers!