Category: 366 days of novice motherhood

Every good story needs a high level of suspense and the little vignette of surprise is accounted in the story of Zechariah.

Zechariah was a solid, good man.

He wanted to do the right thing for his wife. He wanted to do the right thing for his God.

He was a hard worker in his local community, but year after year, the older he got the more shameful he became that he could not gather a child.

His wife got older and sadder, holding onto her promise, yet you read behind the lines he was getting pretty desperate.

I’ll do anything he’d tell God. Please answer my prayer.

How desperate are you to hear from God?

How desperate are you for an answer?

Zechariah was more.

Then one crazy day he was made mute in a twist in the Christmas story that Hollywood has never explored.

‘It so happened that as Zachariah was carrying out his priestly duties before God, working the shift assigned to his regiment, it came his one turn in life to enter the sanctuary of God and burn incense. The congregation was gathered and praying outside the Temple at the hour of the incense offering. Unannounced, an angel of God appeared just to the right of the altar of incense. Zachariah was paralyzed in fear. But the angel reassured him, “Don’t fear, Zachariah. Your prayer has been heard. Elizabeth, your wife, will bear a son by you. You are to name him John. You’re going to leap like a gazelle for joy, and not only you—many will delight in his birth. He’ll achieve great stature with God. (Luke 1:8-15 MSG)

He was so amazed at what had happened in the temple, other parts of scripture tell us he lost his voice and could not speak.

Have you ever wanted to tell everyone the news you have received so much you could burst?

I know when Charl and I found out we were pregnant with Max, with the context that we had thought it would be super difficult, we were less than 5 weeks and had told our family already.

Unwise.

Yes.

But we couldn’t contain our excitement.

So here is Zechariah an old man, and he cannot speak. He was paralysed with so much fear that he didn’t speak until the baby was born.

Christmas perspectives, the birth of John preceded the conception of Jesus.

John and Jesus are famous, but without Zechariah and his faithfulness, the Christmas story would never have begun.

There are silent characters in every story.

No leader suddenly arrives and changes the world, they always stand on other peoples shoulders.

And so do you.

There are silent characters in every one of our lives that enable us towards the miraculous.

Who do you need to acknowledge today, who has significantly impacted your life.

Find your silent partners.

Christmas perspectives.

Every character has a story.

A

The Christmas story begins with another woman falling pregnant after years upon years of hoping.

Her name is Elizabeth, she was Mary’s cousin. A woman who desperately desired to be a mother, one who waited patiently.

The Christmas story has many perspectives. It takes us on a journey of perspective and that is my hope this Advent. To journey towards perspective.

Elizabeth had a promise from God. Elizabeth held onto the promise for a longed for child for so long.

And God was faithful.

After this his wife Elizabeth became pregnant and for five months remained in seclusion. “The Lord has done this for me,” she said. “In these days he has shown his favor and taken away my disgrace among the people.” (Luke 1:24, 25 NIV)

Elizabeth felt disgrace because she so longed to become a mother.

I remember Christmases past sitting beside my tree, dreaming up traditions for my future family, watching the carols in the domain, hoping one year I could celebrate with my own family.

For many years I struggled to believe this dream would come to pass. A lot of years I struggled with this deeply, others I felt really hopeful but most of them I believed in the promise.

God promised that he would give us the desires of our heart and this was one I held deeply.

What promises are you holding onto?

Are you just like Elizabeth in the Christmas story.

Christmas perspectives

Day 1: the promise

God always stands by his promise.

This year is my first Christmas with my little man. A dream realised. A promise fulfilled.

A

My son has a new habit of collecting things.

He finds his new favorite toy and crawls away down the corridor and takes them with him to the shower.

His apparent hiding place.

He screams with laughter at this hilarious game he’s made up.

If we even move slightly and he thinks we’re following him, he speeds up and screams in delight.

His collection of random toys is not what makes this special, it’s the memories of his development and awareness of new and exciting adventures within our house.

He is collecting memories.

He is collecting words.

He is collecting experiences to add to his emotional memory bank.

He is collecting.

An adventurer from birth my son scratches everything and licks even more in an anthropological search for discovering new sensations.

When did we stop collecting?

When we were told by our teacher that we were cheeky rather than curious?

When we were told we weren’t good enough for the school production?

When we were told our grammar was poor and we would never write?

When?

Humans were designed to collect.

Not things but memories.

You were designed as an adventurer from day one. It’s just the world who has worn you down and told you to stay inside the lines.

Collect memories anyway you can;
Photos
Stories
Journals
Videos

One day you will be glad you documented your everyday beigeness.

Sometimes our boring 5am moments with our children discovering a new land,(the bathroom) can be things dreams are made of.

A

Somedays we just need to be brave.

I love the cartoon that was released this year called brave. It featured the first heroine in a cartoon feature.

I wonder why it took so long to make a woman the main character.

So many women live such brave lives.

What do you need to be brave for today?

We are releasing something new at the moment and I am girding myself with bravery.

My friends little boy had surgery yesterday and they are needing to be brave in the face of adversity.

Sometimes just putting this blog up takes a deep breath and some bravery.

We all need to brave at some point.

We bought a zoo quotes ‘sometimes only 20 seconds of courage will always result in something good.’

Be brave.

Today.

A

I am pretty sure we are not aware of how big our capacity is until it is stretched.

It feels nice to be comfortable, it feels good to have everything under control but is your world expanding?

There is a scripture that says ‘enlarge the space of your tent’

Back when it was written people dwelled in tents and to make the tent larger they had to widen where the pegged in their stakes.

Widen your stakes.

Be stretched.

It is not comfortable but you would be surprised by your souls elasticity.

Increase your capacity.

Do something for the first time.

Increase your capacity.

Challenges are not easy but they expand us.

Expand.

Stretch.

You will find yourself doing things you never thought you could.

A