gratitude

MARY – HEART OF AN UNLIKELY HERO!

(December 20, 2023) Richard Winter challenges…

You can be anywhere in the world and know the essentials of the Christmas story. The basics are –

  • Mary, merely a young girl engaged to be married to Joseph, is pregnant.
  • Her explanation? It’s a miracle from God.
  • Trouble explodes! Joseph wants out and plans a quiet divorce.
  • God sends an angel to Joseph revealing it’s all OK – so go ahead with the marriage.
  • This baby is His and will be the Saviour of Israel and the world!

Thought: Aren’t you impressed with those ‘Christmas-centred’ angelic messengers? Boy, were they busy! There was Mary, visited by the archangel Gabriel (Luke 1:26-35), Joseph (Matthew 1:20), and the astounded shepherds (Luke 2:8-15).

But let’s think about Mary… though she has always been considered one of the heroes of the Christian faith, I think it’s safe to say she was an unlikely hero. She just doesn’t exactly fit a hero profile. Why unlikely? you might ask.

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‘THANK YOU’ GOES  A LONG WAY

(November 27, 2023) Maureen McQuillan shares…

Robert needs to ‘raise’ his study cabinet – a small unit in a corner behind the door that gives him additional work space beyond his desk. But… it’s not tall enough and stooping over it to work on for any length of time causes his back to ache.

So when I say raise it, I mean make it higher. Thinking that he could make a frame himself that he can put under the cabinet and give the unit some extra height, my husband bought some wood.

As he was about to search for some carpentry tools last night Robert heard neighbour Matt using an electric saw in his garage and thought, ‘I know what… I’ll rush next door and ask Matt to kindly saw this wood into the lengths I need and that’ll save me time… and fiddling around.’

And he did… with no hassles and came back a happy chappy. But… later last night he was thinking ‘Umm. Did I thank Matt? I can’t remember. Duh!’

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EATEN BREAD SOON FORGOTTEN (July 25, 2010)

Dr Robert & Maureen (2)Robert and Maureen McQuillan share on the importance and value of being thankful…

As mentioned in our earlier Encouragement (https://connectingwithyou.net/2016/07/11/time-a-wasting-seize-the-day/) on July 7 we celebrated our 55th wedding Anny. We had a great day, as mentioned on Facebook!

We thanked each other for a wonderful lifetime together built on love, openness, understanding, respect, trust, faith, believing prayer and, of course, long-term commitment.

And we especially thanked God for each other, for all that he has done of us, enabling us to achieve much in life, and also graciously assisting us to use our abilities, skills and experiences to bless others and assist in building the kingdom.

Some things we did that day included going to a local morning opera – the brilliant La Prima Opera – Encore, then down the coast to a superb celebratory luncheon in Terindah Estate where we were hosted in a special celebratory way, and later back home relaxing over the delightful 1995 romantic drama, A Walk in the Clouds.

But something else, leading to this blog
First up we had collected our ‘old’ 2001 car after its service and new tyres fitted by good mechanic friend, Andrew. Despite the day being overcast with heavy rain falling, our vehicle went like the proverbial dream and we felt so safe and secure travelling along the busy, wet roads. (more…)