I’m in the Lord’s Army…

…or perhaps that should be, “I’m in the wars, ah me.”

On Mother’s Day, we arrived home from our picnic at Spring Gully, and I brought the cat’s water and dry food back from the hallway, when the unthinkable happened – I dropped the dry food bowl, and it shattered on the hearth, cutting my foot. I pressed down on the cut; the bleeding slowed, and my husband disinfected the cut and taped it up for me. I went to bed and didn’t think much more about it until morning. My daughter cleaned up the hearth and the lounge room. Our lounge room is 6 metres by 4 metres, and the Whiskettes covered over half of it. They went absolutely everywhere – under the chairs, under the coffee table and were in every conceivable place that you could think of, and probably then some.

The next morning (Monday morning), I went out to water the strawberries, and the first step that I took was absolute agony. You see, inside we don’t wear shoes, but when I placed the shoe against the cut, I nearly went through the roof, quite literally. I watered the strawberries and the parsley, then asked my husband to take a look at my foot. He untaped it, and I screamed from the pain – the cotton wool had stuck to the wound, and it was nearly 50mm x 8mm. When I screamed, Moonlight, my daughter’s cat (in theory) came running and jumped onto my daughter’s lap and then onto mine – he stood there staring at me, and I suppose he was wondering what was wrong. He settled down onto my lap, and since then, he hasn’t been too far from me.

My husband made an appointment with the doctor, and he placed four stitches in it. During the procedure, while the doctor was placing the anaesthetic into my foot, my foot jumped, and the doctor ended up with an anaesthetised eye. He stitched my foot up, and we left the doctor’s surgery, but I wouldn’t have realised how difficult it is to walk with stitches in your foot. This wasn’t the worst part – I have been house-bound for the last five days, as I couldn’t even get a shoe onto my foot. Imagine walking around the goat yard with no shoes – I can’t even bear to think about it!

During the first few days, I developed an infection in my foot, with the wound site being extremely red, sore and hot,  so I have been on antibiotics to help clear that up. On Tuesday night my husband lit the fire, and it smelled like there was something cooking, but he didn’t take any notice. By bed time, however, it was starting to smell pretty good, so he found the torch and started searching. Apparently when the dry food bowl shattered and the dry food went everywhere, some of it managed to find its way onto the top of the firebox through a 10mm gap where the fan blows the heat out. There were about 10 pieces there, and they were very well toasted, so much so that the cats couldn’t even chew them up!

A friend of mine phoned, and offered to pray for my foot, as the antibiotics weren’t really working – this was on the Tuesday night, and by Wednesday morning the infection had settled, and my foot was feeling very much better. I praise God for healing and I thank my friend, Gwenda, for praying for health and healing for my foot. Our God is a God of miracles, but all too often we think of Him as a last resort, when we should be thinking of Him first!

My foot is starting to settle down now, but by night time, I really do know that I have a left foot. I have the stitches out on Thursday, and I will breather such a sigh of relief. This last week has been rather a struggle, so I hope that you’ll forgive my lack of visiting.

Happy Mother’s Day to All of the Special Mums

Today is Mother’s Day, and I would like to wish all Mothers a very special Mother’s Day.

There are those who would spurn the vocation of mothers,
And say that it’s inferior to the career of others,
I’ll have to admit that it’s not easy work,
It’s relentless and from it you cannot shirk.

It takes all your energy to be a mother and wife,
It requires daily commitment and a disciplined life,
It demands all your resources of patience and love,
Long-suffering and wisdom from God above.

It takes self-control and continual endurance,
It needs constant and faithful perseverance,
It is total sacrifice and forgetting your self,
You may sometimes think you are left on the shelf.

And what about time? It’s no longer yours,
It belongs to everyone else who comes in your doors.
Can you claim your own rights? No, they’re gone, too,
Like your right to sleep the whole night through!

It’s not so easy to crawl into bed with a book
Or go off and dream in some quiet little nook.
It seems like you’re totally losing your life
To be a good mother and a godly wife.

But oh, dear mother, please do not despair,
In God’s great vision you have a share,
You are fulfilling your destiny planned before Creation
Which is to nurture children and BUILD A NATION!

You are walking in the footsteps of Jesus your Lord
Who lived a life of sacrifice out-poured,
He didn’t cling to His rights with selfish futility,
He didn’t claim any privileges but walked in humility.

He gave up His own life to save millions of others,
This same principle is at work in the lives of mothers,
When you lose your own life you’ll find it again,
Glorious life – His life – even in toil and pain.

So lift up your head, embrace your calling so high,
You’re in God’s perfect will so you don’t have to sigh.
You may sometimes feel worthless – don’t listen to this lie,
For your influence will go higher than the clouds in the sky.

As you nurture and train your God-given seed,
As you sharpen these ‘arrows’ by word and by deed,
You shape the nation, you determine its course,
Your mothering is not wasted, but is a mighty force!

As your children leave home and go into the world
The stamp of your training will be unfurled,
Your influence will reach countries you’ve never been
And down the generations its extent will be seen.

Your work is so powerful, no wonder it’s tough,
But God is behind you, He’s the GOD WHO IS ENOUGH,
His strength and His wisdom are available to you,
He’ll stand behind His promises which are totally true.

He’ll always be with you right through to the end
As you follow His leading and deny the world’s trend,
Each morning you wake, your strength He’ll renew.
He’ll fill your home with His presence and His blessed peace, too.

Nancy Campbell

Mother’s Day – What does it mean to you?

Well, tomorrow is Mother’s Day, and it is one of the most precious days of the year to me. It means that I have achieved my lifelong ambition of having children, raising them in a Godly home and teaching them about the ways of the Lord.

The presents are really unimportant, although everyone pitched in and bought me a pair of slip on shoes in summer because that was when I needed something. Mind you, it is very rare that I actually need something. Am I that different to everybody else? No, I don’t think so, but I just feel content with what God has given us.

Do I need expensive coffee makers to make me happy? No, my husband makes THE BEST coffee in the whole world. Do I want the latest in digital technology? No, I have a son who does, though. To my way of thinking, when we buy all the latest appliances, we simply become a slave to them. They almost always need charging, cleaning or attending to in one way or another.

My husband gathers roses for me from the garden, or one of our children will write messages in the sawdust for us, saying, “I LOVE YOU”. The other one will send me tutorials for Photoshop CS4. I feel as if I’m the luckiest Mum in the whole world.

Praise God for his everlasting provision over us and His love toward us, unmerited as it is.

Happy Mother’s Day to all the Mums in Australia, and I hope that you have a wonderful day!