Blessed are all who fear the Lord,
who walk in obedience to him.
² You will eat the fruit of your labor;
blessings and prosperity will be yours.
³ Your wife will be like a fruitful vine
within your house;
your children will be like olive shoots
around your table.
⁴ Yes, this will be the blessing
for the man who fears the Lord.

We have found a little house/flat to rent, in the Southern Suburbs! Yay, its in an oldish building, so its pretty big, and there is a GARDEN!!

Image source

That image says it all!! And as my lovely husband builds me bookshelves, I have the library, but now we’ll have the garden!

We’ll be moving in on the 1st of June! Very exciting, as we’ll be much closer to church and to Chris’s work. So less mad rushing to get places on time and the best of all… my friend Cindy lives really close!

Anyway… so I’m very excited… and will be attempting to pack with a manic toddler who will likely unpack everything… but hey, what’s life without a challenge.

God is good!

Today I really needed to read this post, because I love Pinterest, but I hate how it make me feel like I should be doing so much more than just looking after my son and husband, I forget that although I could always be better at it, they just want me. They clearly don’t care about the throw cushions or the pretty things I make, they just need my attention. As much as I love to make things, I tend to lose sight that those things do not make me loved and needed.

A new recipe I have got to try… how much yummier do you get than avo and basil with pasta?

Really want to try making these marshmallows.

For some great talks on being a godly woman today, please check out this blog.

A really great organisation, helping the needy in our city, and a great place to find out how YOU can get involved.

Pretty inspirational photos.

Click here to view the video on YouTube.

Click here to view the video on YouTube.

image source

1 What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? 2 By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? 3 Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.
5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his. 6 For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with,[a] that we should no longer be slaves to sin— 7 because anyone who has died has been set free from sin.

8 Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. 9 For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. 10 The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God.

11 In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. 12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. 13 Do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer every part of yourself to him as an instrument of righteousness. 14 For sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace.
Romans 6:1-14

last night at Common Ground Church, Chris and I were baptised.

it was really an amazing experience… but it was not about the experience, but rather about the public declaration that we have died to self and are alive in our Lord Jesus Christ. it was such a special time for us, having our families and some good friends with us, to witness this occasion.

what was just as awesome for us was the awesome family of Christ that gathered around us to pray for us and support us in the rest of our walks with God. it is so amazing to see Jesus in people, like He is really in their lives and the centre thereof. it feels like coming home for the first time ever, to be surrounded with people who’s hearts are on fire for the Lord and who will embrace fellow Christians as well as those who do not yet know Him as Lord. not to mention the amazing heart for the lost in our city. i am really amped about the work the Lord has in store for us, as individuals, as a couple and as a church. this baptism was just the beginning of this fabulously challenging journey.

i have to add that it was pretty special being baptised with my husband, and that he was baptised by one of his best friends.

I have never actually shared my testimony or story on my blog before… and I am not going to ;) You can however find it on the amazing new This Is Love blog, started by the ladies of Commonground Church! Please go and check it out, and check out the other posts on the blog and share some comment love.

This Is Love is a brilliant new blog aimed at encouraging the women of Commonground Church and then also Christian women further afield. Its really going to be a great resource for sharing Jesus’ love with the world.

home…

what does that mean to you?

do you think of a warm bed, or pretty painted walls, or maybe the people that make your house a home?

sometimes home is not necessarily the place you live, but the place you can grow, and love people. like church or even work in some cases.

in my case, church has always been a place that has to feel like home. sometimes that changes, as church leadership changes, often the beliefs or values of the church changes and then it can begin to feel less like home and less like a place you want to place your heart.

the home i had for many years until we got married was a church that was walking distance from my parents’ home, its the church we also returned to when we moved back to the area and had Elijah. its a good, pretty solid bible-teaching church. sadly things have changed and our home no longer feels like home. as i previously mentioned, we have been looking for a church that is a better fit and feels like a place we can call home.

it seems that God called us or drew us to a church, which is home… its like when you walk into a house and you just know you can live there and it will be the awesomest house ever. that’s how it was when we walked into this church. people were friendly and welcoming, the teaching is solid bible-based and yet applicable, the worship is intense, the beliefs of the church is on par with ours, and they have a heart to reach the lost, the marginalised, the vulnerable and the City of Cape Town. i have never felt so at home in a church ever. and even though i know about 4 people in the church from before going there, the people i have since met, have been so loving and caring, that it feels like i have known them for a while.

that is what church is about, showing Christ’s love to everyone who walks through the doors, and reaching out into the community to touch the lives of people who do not yet know His grace.

the first church, in Acts 2 is the ideal church, the church that really all churches should strive to be like. no church will be perfect as they are made up of sinners, but striving to be more like Christ, means working at it, daily.

this is what the first church looked like:

42 They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. 43 Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. 44 All the believers were together and had everything in common. 45 They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. 46 Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, 47 praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.

the one thing that always stands out to me here is the breaking bread in their homes part… being hospitable and opening your home to people in the church or people who have not yet come to the church but who need the love of Christ and to see His grace. i love having people over to our home, even though i am no Nigella in the kitchen, i enjoy cooking simple meals for people, and chatting and getting to know them. since having Elijah that has definitely declined and i quite miss it, the fellowship and so on.

since joining up with this new church, i have been more and more convicted that God is calling me to be more open to people, to sharing my life with them, whether it be over coffee in a cafe or just telling them my story, or having them over for a meal in our house. i feel as though He is calling me to be a servant and to share His amazing grace that He has bestowed on me, with others. its like He is telling me, “Lizanne, your house is not your house, your house is Mine, I gave it to you to serve Me and My people with.” it sounds loony i know… or corny. but i am so challenged by this, that i really want to get down and start inviting people.

the biggest barrier for me at the moment is, the community and church in which we worship is 35km from our house… and anyone who lives in Cape Town knows that the Boerewors curtain is virtually impenetrable from the Southern Suburbs, only people from the North can cross to the South, not the other way around ;) this is said in jest, but in all the years i have lived here, and been friends with people from the Southern Suburbs, this has been my experience. so i am feeling a tug, to either move closer or just rely on God that He will work and show people that its far, but its not that ridiculous (ok, maybe its a bit mad driving 60km on a Sunday and the same on a Wednesday for small groups) and that He will guide us and show how we can be part of this place we are beginning to call home without being outside the community.

i really pray that home will be wherever God places us, physically or spiritually and that His peace will surround us as we seek to serve Him in our city.

Time is running out for my friend.

We are sitting at lunch when she casually mentions that she and her husband are thinking of “starting a family.” What she means is that her
biological clock has begun its countdown and she is considering the prospect of motherhood.

“We’re taking a survey,” she says, half jokingly. “Do you think I should have a baby?”

“It will change your life,” I say carefully.

“I know,” she says. “No more sleeping in on Saturdays, no more spontaneous vacations…”

But that is not what I mean at all.

I look at my friend, trying to decide what to tell her. I want her to know what she will never learn in childbirth classes. I want to tell her that the physical wounds of childbirth heal, but that becoming a mother will leave her with an emotional wound so raw that she will be forever vulnerable.

I consider warning her that she will never read a newspaper again without asking “What if that had been my child?” That every plane crash, every fire will haunt her. That when she sees pictures of starving children, she will look at the mothers and wonder if anything could be worse than watching your child die.

I look at her carefully manicured nails and stylish suit and think she should know that no matter how sophisticated she is, becoming a mother will immediately reduce her to the primitive level. That a slightly urgent call of “Mom!” will cause her to drop her best crystal without a moment’s hesitation.

I feel I should warn her that no matter how many years she has invested in her career, she will be professionally derailed by motherhood. She might successfully arrange for child care, but one day she will be waiting to go into an important business meeting, and she will think about her baby’s sweet smell. She will have to use every ounce of discipline to keep from running home, just to make sure he is all right.

I want my friend to know that everyday routine decisions will no longer be routine. That a visit to Mc Donald’s and a five year old boy’s desire to go to the men’s room rather than the women’s room will become a major dilemma. That right there, in the midst of clattering trays and screaming children, issues of independence and gender identity will be weighed against the prospect that danger may be lurking in the rest room.

I want her to know that however decisive she may be at the office, she will second-guess herself constantly as a mother. Looking at my attractive friend, I want to assure her that eventually she will shed the pounds of pregnancy, but will never feel the same about herself. That her life, now so important, will be of less value to her once she has a child. That she would give it up in a moment to save her offspring, but will also begin to hope for more years, not so much to accomplish her own dreams, but to watch her child accomplish his.

I want her to know that a cesarean scar or stretch marks will become badges of honor.

My friend’s relationship with her husband will change, but not in the ways she thinks. I wish she could understand how much more you can love a man who is always careful to powder the baby or who never hesitates to play with his son. I think she should know that she will fall in love with her husband again for reasons she would never have imagined.

I wish my modern friend could sense the bond she will feel with other women throughout history who have tried desperately to stop war and prejudice and drunk driving.

I want to describe to my friend the exhilaration of seeing your son learn to hit a baseball. I want to capture for her the laugh of a baby who is touching the soft fur of a dog for the first time. I want her to taste the joy that is so real that it hurts.

My friend’s quizzical look makes me realize that tears have formed in my eyes.

“You’ll never regret it,” I say finally.

by Dale Hanson Bourke
Chicken Soup for the Woman’s Soul

What can I say… I have the world’s most active little boy… he wakes up and hits the ground running. The minute he wakes up in the morning he goes looking for the dogs. Then he giggles and runs around like a crazy!

Elijah is very opinionated, if he doesn’t like something he will tell you and shake his head.

He loves dancing, and if he gets somewhere new, with new floor he will do a little dance and sometimes a little turn. Its very cute. On occasion he will dance if I tell him to.

He follows some instructions now, so if I ask him to fetch something or put something away, he will (depending on how compliant he feels). He gives hugs and kisses if asked, and sometimes even spontaneously.

He has hopelessly too much energy and the little baby who used to sleep anywhere and everywhere, seems to have gone… He now insists on being awake whenever we’re somewhere new, even if its way past his bedtime – totally not cool.

Elijah is definitely going through a “mine” phase – everything is “mine” – from “mama-myne” to just “myne”… with the little outstretched hand.

Sleep is not going too well, he is actually down to one nap a day, but he only naps for about an hour, then he’s hyper and then grumpy for the rest of the day until bedtime… and then he wakes up a few times at night, but settles fairly easily, only to wake for real at around 6:45 and head straight for the dogs.

I have found that although he doesn’t really like playing WITH other kids, he loves being around them, so its nice to get out and let him have some friends occasionally.

I must admit, motherhood is exhausting and having an active toddler is intense, but I would never change him for anything! I love my little monkey-man!