A prayerful person's heart...

'[A prayerful person's] heart is ever lifted up to God at all times and in all places. In this [they are] never hindered, much less interrupted, by any person or thing... [Their] heart is ever with the Lord. Whether [they] lie down or rise up, God is in all [their] thoughts; [they walk] with God continually.'
   - John Welsey

This is such a challenge. A beautiful challenge. And it is something I've desired for such a long time.

I want to be someone who is consistently in a place of prayer. Someone who doesn't mind stopping and praying for someone crying on the train, someone who prays for those around her continually. Sometimes prayer can feel like such a burden when I know I have to pray for someone, but when I finally pray I feel like I could pray for hours. I just need to place my heart in such a place.

I want my heart to be 'ever with the Lord'. It would be so amazing. To have God in my heart and mind and soul continuously would result in me having such a close relationship with Him. A relationship I'd do anything for - however hard that may be to say... and actually do.

The repercussions of such a heart and place of prayer would be wholesome and pure. It would be harder for me to sin. When I'd sin, I'd immediately repent and ask for forgiveness. In receiving that forgiveness my heart would be so full of God's grace. This would lead to me being more gracious and patient with those around me. Which would lead to a clear pouring of God's love on those around me. Which would, I'd hope and have seen, lead people to be more loving and gracious to those around them.

This cycle would lead to a deeper understanding of God's amazing grace and love and would lead to a deeper relationship with Him.

Please pray that I will have a prayerful person's heart and that this would lead to growth in my relationship with Him.

And please challenge me to pray for you, even if you just bump into me in the street.

Christ-Centred Worship

'Has it ever occurred to you that one hundred pianos all tuned to the same fork are automatically tuned to each other? They are of one accord being tuned, not to each other, but to one standard to which each one must bow. So one hundred worshippers met together, each one looking away to Christ, are in heart nearer to each other than they could possibly be were they to become "unity" conscious and turn their eyes away from God to strive for closer fellowship' - A.W.Tozer

How beautiful is that! When we worship together, focussing on Christ, we are united and we sing and pray as one. This seems to make sense of the idea that we will all worship in one voice in Heaven - the voice of that focussed on Christ.

This notion of true Christ-centred worship is just beautiful. The worship that focusses on Christ's awesome power rather than our problems or even our "awesomeness" in pride. How amazing is it to be able to sit back and think that all that matters in life, ALL that matters, is Christ and His person; what He has done for us; His love for us. In the end of the day it doesn't matter if I leave uni with a first or a third, ALL that matter is Christ. It doesn't matter if I find a job, ALL that matters is Christ. It doesn't matter whether I ever get married or have children, ALL that matters is Christ. How freeing is that!!

I'm not at all saying its easy if stuff doesn't happen in our lives, but if we re-align our focus to Christ, all that we get is blessing and in the end of the day, we have to worship. We're drawn to worship Him because He truly is worthy of it.

'HE is the image of the invisible God, the first-born of all creation. For by HIM all things were created, in Heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities - all things were created through HIM and for HIM. And HE is before all things, and in HIM all things hold together. And HE is the head of the body, the church. HE is the beginning, the first-born from the dead, that in everything HE might be pre-eminent. For in HIM all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through HIM to reconcile to HIMself all things, whether on earth or in Heaven, making peace by the blood of HIS cross.
And you, who were once alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, HE has now reconciled in HIS body of flesh by HIS death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before HIM...'
 - Colossians 1:15-23

How amazing is it when we focus on Christ and His glory!

Please also take a look at my boyfriend, Tom's, blog :)

Injuries and drama

Well the last few days have been pretty dramatic...

On Wednesday night, walking up the stairs, I hurt my left hip. I have no idea how but it just started grinding so much that I was carried to bed. The next day attempting to walk carefully downstairs after getting all dressed up ready to meet Tom, I slipped and fell down 5/6 steps. While falling I whacked my right elbow along the banister several times then fell onto it while attempting not to land on my left hip. I screamed out and my friends came running, in the midst of tears I decided that the pain was just shock and so Chris went to get me a drink and Laura returned to her cooking. A couple of moments later I was in tears again and realised that I really probably should go to hospital. Laura drove me up - abandoning her home-made soup.

We rang Tom on our way up and he came and met us after rushing through the getting ready process - we realised just how much he rushed when we were waiting in the waiting room and I commented on the fact that he was wearing a top I had got him... at which point he looked really confused thinking that he was wearing a top that his mum had bought him. That was really quite a funny moment.

Well, I had an X-ray and they said that there aren't any breakages, but as there is so much pain coming from one part that I'm to go back to the fracture clinic on Monday... so we'll see what they say then!

In regards to my hip... I rang NHS Direct on Wednesday night and they said to take pain killers and wait a couple of days and if its not better then to go to the Doctors. So yesterday I took a trip to the Doctors... they have decided that my hip pain is due to the physiotherapy I'm receiving for my back.. GREAT! The Doctor has told me not to do any exercise which is a bum as I was hoping to do pilates which would fix my back problems. She also gave me some super-strong pain killers (which still don't really do much) and told me to see how it goes for the next 10-14 days and if its not better then they'll x-ray it... this would be fine if it didn't hurt to walk so much...

This has all meant to doing anything is really difficult so I basically have to rely on everyone else to do everything for me... which is fine if I'm with Tom, but relying on anyone else is really difficult. So, I'm not getting much work done (its my right arm) and I'm in pain and I have to rely on others to do anything... so, things are going great!

Oh, Tom, my dear boyfriend, has started writing a blog. Its mainly on sports stuff so if you/someone you know is interested in sports then send them over to Tom's Blog. I hope all is well for you :)

Walking with God

Over the last week it's been on the back of my mind that I am not as close to God as I used to be.

I don't know if this an age thing, and in growing up I have become less 'emotion based' and so I don't get the 'bubbly feelings' any more. Or maybe I'm just in a time where I don't 'need' God so obviously. Of course, I always need Him, but throughout my first year at Aber I suffered from depression and my family was going through a really tough time, in this year I felt God really closely. I guess life in general is much better than it was and I'm no longer suffering from depression, maybe then I don't need so much obvious support and closeness to keep me going.

I've just found it difficult remembering walking with Him and being close to Him, being confident of who I was in Him and in His love for me. I know things are always greener on the other side, and I'm not saying it was like this all the time, but I just miss it.

I remember walking around Aber, on the sea front or up Constitution Hill and feeling God there, right next to me. I used to feel Him in my room with me and I'd regularly worship at the top of my lungs in my room and spend hours with Him reading my Bible.

I'm currently in the process of reading three books: 1. Growing in Christ, 2. Knowing God, 3. Disciplines of a Godly Woman. They have already taught me quite a bit. I've finished the first section of Growing in Christ and it was really helpful at looking at the basics of the Christian faith, in a lot of detail. Packer goes through the Apostle's Creed bit by bit and explains it, taking each section back to Christ's faithfulness and love for us. Knowing God looks at more practical ways of getting to really know God and Disciplines of a Godly Woman (which I've only just really started) looks at spiritual discipline that will help us grow.

While all these books focus on the Gospel and God's greatness and are really very great, I've finding it hard to understand the Gospel in its fullness again, I just don't know how. I've been working my way through John's gospel which has been really helpful, but again I'm left with the same issue. - It feels awkward.

I feel really very awkward when I feel like God may be drawing closer, and so I push away. I don't want to, its just a reaction. I find the same thing when I pray with people or talk with people about God, I just feel like 'whoa this is so cheesy and cringe worthy'.

I do know that God is good, and I know He is faithful, but I want to be able to walk with Him again and not feel awkward, not feel cheesy and not feel weird. He is a good God and I know that in His time He will bring me back into His arms.

Freshers Flood

Well, last week was rather crazy - the freshers arrived!

Aber is again considerably busier than it has been for months and it is impossible to find a decent parking space! I've now gotten into the habit of when I get a parking space near the house, I don't use my car for a few days so that I can keep the spot - makes no sense really as I'm not benefiting from the parking space as I'm not using my car from it... but I guess it's there in emergencies!

I've been really good this term (so far)! I have only driven up the hills once and that was to help take things up for Fresher's Fayre! :) That makes a massive difference to last year! Oh, and it isn't just because I haven't been going up the hill because I have! :) I've walked up it loads in the last few weeks - more than I did in the whole of last year probably!

Having the freshers arriving also meant lots of CU/Church events... freshers' week was very busy! I didn't get involved as much as I would have liked though (I slept through prayer meeting and so didn't get to sign up to things - but I did ask to be on things any way :) )... We had a lot of freshers round at our house after the events though so we've definitely gotten to know people which is great :)

In fact, after CU on Friday Malcolm, Laura, Kirsty and I came home with a group of freshers (8/10 of them) and had just started playing a game when Isaac and folk came in with nearly everyone else! It was insane! We didn't even count how many there were but there were more than enough for an EPIC game of Articulate... we had 6/7 groups of 5-6 people... it was crazy! But fun :)

Sunday lunches have also been a bit crazy... Fresher's Sunday we invited back a group of people and I ended up making roast dinner for 18 people (Thank you Jesus for multiplying food! <- He's good at that!) and then last Sunday we made dinner for 20 people! 38 people in a week can't be bad! I was quite impressed if I say so myself, I've never really been amazingly skilled at the cooking front but people seemed to really like it (in fact, some were commenting to others about how good it was) :D

I was going to title this blog post 'back to routine', but I haven't really yet settled into a routine... this week is a seminar-less week and I have been given LOADS of shifts at work so it's been a bit crazy and definitely not standard routine...

Also, a quite add... thank you ever so much to Rachel from Dreaming of the Country for giving me a blog award :) And a very big welcome if you've found me through her post! :)

Summer comes to an end...

Summer is now swiftly coming to an end and things are starting to normalise again...


This summer has been really quite good. I thoroughly enjoyed my time at CARE and loved 'working' in London for those 5 weeks. It definitely tickled my taste buds for the future. I've just in fact been looking at possible posts in London for myself next year if I were to do a part-time Masters - I've decided I'm going to apply for a Masters! 


It has also been wonderful seeing friends of mine get married! The Brights and the Sweeneys both got married this summer and to have been part of such wonderful events was lovely. They are wonderful people and I am looking forward to seeing how God uses them as couples in the future! :)

While that has all been wonderful, my highlight for this summer has to be the time I've spent with my family. I haven't spent too much time at home as I was staying in London for a large chunk of the holidays, but what I have spent at home has been wonderful. Now I'm back in Aber I'm really going to miss them! In fact, I only left yesterday and I already really miss them!

It's been exceptionally wonderful spending time with my sisters getting to know them better. As siblings the tendency to fight with each other and argue when we were younger was very strong, but now that we're all growing up we can have civilised conversations! and much more of course! :) I really do love them both greatly and will really miss them!

Here are some photos of us (and my cousins) messing around a few weeks ago...

Show Off Your Shot Winner!

Last week I entered into the Show Off your Shot competition... (here's the post if you missed it Show Off your Shot)...
Well, I was a winner :) It's very exciting! :) I think I'm going to get more into this...