Why I do like Monday's...

Monday’s child is fair of face, Tuesday’s child is full of grace Wednesday’s child - bla bla, bla bla - let’s talk Monday’s! The first day of the week, the start of whatever lies ahead, the road map where details like hills and valleys are yet to be painted. Monday can be synonymous with potential life and purpose, with carpe` diem and the seizure thereof. It can be the day for self-motivation in which you kick start your own butt into action and out of the sleepy weekend wind down. Monday can be the day when you evaluate the previous week and measure how far along your hopes and dreams you have come. 

Monday’s a day for getting the stuff of life off the shelf and in play… it's pregnant with possibility and ripe with purpose. It can be the day where you put a plan to your thoughts or put action to your plans. Gen 1:4-5 tells us the days are good!!! Listen to this  ‘And God, looking on the light, saw that it was good and God made a division between the light and the dark, naming the light, Day and the dark, Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the First Day’. 

You see Monday’s remind me that we get a fresh start not only that but we have the time and space during the coming week to work out our fresh attempts at life with God’s help. Each Monday we get a brand spanking new, let's look forward, God's in our corner and on our side start. Be assured your Father who has the big picture and isn't limited inside of time like we are, well that guy the one who melts with love for you every time you think of Him, He’s the one who orders your steps and lights your path… Isn't it good to know we’re not on our own whatever the week holds? Peeps be encouraged whatever unfolds in this week we’re held in the hands of the one who keeps the moon solar systems in place. So shimmy to the shower or boogie with your breakfast and embrace the gift Monday is...

Have a fantabulous week baby!

Love Ruth x

Invest in the Best!

Flip me how things have changed... We've gone from spend spend spend - to save save save! We have learned the hard way, credit cards, buy now pay later, and get rich quick schemes were not our friends. Budgeting, planning and waiting (the dull unglamorous friends) are now very much back in favour. You see what some consider bland, things like reality, truth, wisdom, self control or responsibility these things are enduring lasting way beyond momentary pleasure. They may not be very sexy or even mildly thrilling, however if life is to work they are necessary. But let's think beyond the Ka-ching, Ka-ching for second and get skiddingly, on one wheel rubber scorching and smoke billowingly to the point. What are we investing our energy money and time in? 

Matthew 6:19-21 Message -says 'Don't hoard treasure down here where it gets eaten and corroded by rust or worse - stolen by burglars. Stockpile treasure in heaven, where where it's safe from moth rust and burglars. It's obvious,isn't it? Where your treasure is, is the place you will most want to be...'. The economy of heaven has it's greatest value in the unseen. The take away menu and money popped through the letter box of an exhausted working mother. The lifts given week in week out to an elderly person, the quality time given when time was tight and the prayers solely to another's benefit. The drawing along side the obnoxious teen and loving of the unlovely. The sacrifice of small and large unseen acts all add up! Jesus was no man's debtor, He worked hard and paid His way but the greatest investments He made where and still are - in the growth of people. Don't underestimate the impact of your investment in another person's life for believe me, that's the best investment you'll ever make.


Love Ruth x


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Be yourself everyone else is taken!

I run a self-esteem course for women called ‘Shine’ and one of the things we explore is the whole dynamic of comparisons. Comparing is a way of life in the West, even before we are born our Mums compare belly size & symptoms! Then stuff like… our first words, SATS, coordination, body shape, intelligence, social position, Spiritual maturity, wealth, skin, youth, humour and many more. They're all there in the back ground feeding the lie that we've got to measure up.  What’s more the comparisons we make are processed below our level of consciousness so we really can be manipulated and not even notice.  I feel so passionate about folks embracing who they are I wrote about it in my book (see drop 12 Cinderella Time)*. The bible tells us in Romans 13:9,says we need to love ourselves but what if you don’t like the deal you find ourselves with…? What if our nose is too big or personality wrong in some way?

I have struggled and still do from time to time with negative thinking. I get so frustrated when I find I’ve done it AGAIN! On more than one occasion I have lamented, ‘the problem is I can’t escape myself.  Have you ever wanted to scream HELP I’m trapped in me! When we dislike who we are this is how it feels but this is actually a lie. I would suggest self – loathing rooted is a false perspective and we all know who the father of lies is. Think about the recent comparisons you have made. Magazine’s airbrush yet we buy the lie and compare with what is false. Popular funny people have their lonely desperate days too, great academic minds may long to think creatively and creative thinkers might just delight in holding a brilliant train of thought.  A woman with a huge family might love to have had a career where another would have longed for motherhood. We never really know what we’re making comparisons with and when find ourselves doing this it’s good to be reminded only God has true perspective. He alone knows the outcome of each situation in our lives and what He want us to become over the course of time. It’s inspiring to see people who have had terrible sadness or suffering in their lives get to a place of rejoicing because through their awfulness they grew, they touched lives with the glory of God and made a way for others to swim in their slip stream.

Folks we all have areas we dislike, but when we accept our own particular ‘deal’ and work with God in embracing who He has made us to be, we can trust Him for the outcome. I saw a t-shirt once which had the words ‘work in progress ‘on it. I love this because the truth is when we acknowledge our imperfections and stop comparing we release others to embrace themselves warts and all too. Let’s beware of the insidious nature of comparison and stop striving to ‘be’ something or someone we’re not; rest in the knowledge that who you are, is exactly who you’re meant to be...

Hugs Ruth x

*The first five people to contact me via www.lovedropsfromheaven.com will receive a free book!

I’m assuming the best of you!

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Oh how easy it is to be misunderstood… Have you ever made a joke or done something where your motives were totally misjudged? I made a joke recently which was misunderstood and offense was taken through a wrong assumption about the intention of my heart. I was reminded to my shame, of times when I have also made wrong assumptions of others. Psychology terms phenomenon - projection, where we project how we’re feeling into what we think are the intentions of another and filter what we feel/see through that lens. So for example a mother might see her child through a lens of pure love and be unable to accept the truth of wrong behaviour in her offspring. Or a person might assume malice in the actions of a perceived nemesis where there is none at all. The problem is if we assume we can know another’s person intention we’ll come a cropper because only God can see us from the inside of who we are.  I wonder how much unnecessary upset happens because of wrong assumptions? 

We are all made in the image and likeness of God but when we make assumptions about another person to some extent we devalue them and elevate ourselves. Pride - the flaw of all humanity seeps into our thinking and encourages the idea that we have the right to challenge the position of God as Judge… not a good move eh? Mathew 7 reminds us of our potential to get what we think we know very wrong. A further risk of this thinking is found in the obscuring nature assumptions have, in that they cloud the valuable life lessons God would teach us. I’ve found more often than not when I feel the twang of offense in my Spirit God is challenging me to grow in an aspect of my character such as grace. We have the wonderful give of free will and it’s useful to remember this when we’re either tempted to take offense or make assumptions. Simply put we can choose our response – we can get upset, think the worst of the other party, have a prima ballerina moment and flounce or we can be open to the Holy Spirit’s instruction and allow whatever is going on to press us closer to our loving God and grow. 

Beloved let’s try and be mature Christians who assume the best of other’s until proven otherwise. Taking this position turns what our enemy wants to use to cause destruction into something which will helps us mature in Christ.

Have a great week – you really are wonderful..! (the bible says so Psalm 139:14)

Hugs Ruth x

Control, to be or not to be that is the question!

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The whole idea of control is an interesting one - we need to feel we're in it yet don't relish the idea of being 'controlled'. It's good to set targets, goals to get things done and for the main that's cool because goals are helpful for time management and our sense of achievement. However as I've taken some time apart recently I've become aware of the danger of being so keen to bear fruit, be on target and productive we can strategize our world to the point of overload. The devil loves us to take ANYTHING to the extreme even good things. Because it's in this place we are certain to fail! The very structures we set up to keep control (e.g. prayer lists, religious formats, being on top of the ironing, or rota's) can become a block for the Holy Spirits agenda. There is a whole philosophical debate solely on the topic of control and if this is real or imagined which opens up way too many questions to deal with here. But let's think about how control relates to us; where are we within the meshing of our free will, our planning, meeting God's Sovereignty?

Flip I really don't make things easy for myself and first thing on a Monday morning too... Well the bible clearly tells us we have free will, (Gen 1:26) we have the power to say yes or no to all sorts of stuff. However God has the overarching authority in what happens anywhere and with anything (Jude1:25). We can choose how we will respond to life and work with God or without Him, it our choice. But our choices can't detract from His Sovereignty. I believe the Lord allows us a healthy sense of agency as we plan and work out our lives in step with Him. Proverbs (16:9) sums it up nicely we walk but the Lord positions our steps.  God is eminently practical; He knows we walk with a wobble and that if left to our own devices we'll go wonky. So He places guidance to help us get the balance between our need to feel in control and His overriding control right. He tells us to Rest (Mathew 11:28) when we're tired, He tells us to work hard after that rest (Col 3:23) He tells us not to worry but to cast our cares on Him (1Peter 5:7). He tells us to take responsibility for our own sin and not to Judge others ( Math 7:3-5) He tells us to forgive (Math 6:14).I guess for me to be in a place of productive peace is what I'm aiming for this year. I love to read your comments so do let me know how you feel about the whole idea of control.

Hugs Ruth x 

Makin ma Plans...

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I'm a planner, I love lists! I love setting goals and I love ticking boxes, I love completion. I love the feeling of drawing a line under what I'd hoped to accomplish so that particular 'box' can be set back on the shelf. Do you know it actually causes me stress to leave things unfinished! To me there is no greater joy than seeing, as Hannibal from the A team used to say, 'a plan come together'. For those of us box tickers I think there a sense of productivity or perhaps a need for fine detail in this process? We work well within structure, and are often creative as we work through. For this personality type evaluating how a project went and how it could be improved upon for the future will be totally satisfying. However if we were all like this teams wouldn't work. I have a friend who finds great joy in starting a project, growing a team and handing it over long before it's completed. He has started so many visionary projects which have born great fruit but has rarely been involved in their completion. He works in big broad brush strokes leaving the (for him dull) aspects of fine detail to others. Our Father in His wisdom has designed us to negotiate each other, to experience and work out what it is to do in team as modelled by the Godhead for His glory; to bring each of our gifts, idiosyncrasies, our 'us - ness' to the table for His glory.

This is all well and good but unless we act on our plans big or small they are well, useless... 2 Cor 8:11  Message version - encourages, 'The best thing you can do right now is to finish what you started last year and not let those good intentions grow stale. You're heart has been in the right place all along. You've got what it takes to finish it up, so go to it'. You see guys; the devil loves to distract us, so that we're big on good intention but small on doing. He will throw fear, doubt, discouragement anything he can, to stop us taking that first step from plan to purpose. But hear this this sweet cheeks, our gracious God takes the pressure off by the caveat found in proverbs ~ 16:9 which tells us 'we make our plans but the Lord positions our steps'. Isn't that fab? All God requires of us is to keep a pure heart get off our butts and He will sculpt His purpose out of the clay of our lives. 

• So what do you need to do to move from plan to purpose?
• When are you gonna do it (date/time)?
• Will you let me know how you get on?

see ya next week thanks for reading 

Hugs Ruth x

AMEN...! But do you agree really?

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You probably know the word Amen means 'I heartily agree'. I find as I catch the news, other people's conversations in coffee shops, or read things, I'm evaluating what's been communicated all the time. It sort of happens automatically probably because all these dynamics of communication are quite obvious and in the external realm. But what about the internal... I wonder what are you communicating with yourself? The start of a new year often carries with it a sense of personal audit, goal setting and self reflection. With this in mind I've been very aware of some of the internal agreements I've been making and some aren't so good.

You see many of my close friends are women who've achieved great success in there various careers which is great and I genuinely admire and applaud them. I however do not earn an income for the work I do, blogging, writing, speaking, running self esteem courses. Recently a number of people in conversations have (totally unintentionally I'm sure) kinda dismissed what I do saying 'yes well, you don't work so...' I have to be real with you here guys, over the last few weeks I've been feeling like a failure. I've been working this through with my Jesus and He reminded me I am defined by how God sees me and who He says I am. So what - if the world looks at me and sees and I quote 'just a housewife' (if you're a stay at home Mum or house keeper I salute you)!

People, the power of agreement is well documented in scripture; when we agree with the wrong stuff it can seriously affect our spiritual health. Our enemy is alert, cunning and subtle in the strategies he uses to bring us down. Joyce Meyer says 'we need to agree with Heaven not Hell about who we are'. What have you been saying yes and amen to? Song of songs 2:4 speaks of God's provision and our identity found in His love - 2 Cor 5:17 reminds us we are new creations free from the past and Eph 5:8 tells us we are children of light. Deut 28:13 says we are winners not losers, the head and not the tail. Rom 8:37 tells us we are more than over comers / conquerors in Christ. Perhaps the most important area we evaluate this new year is the one between our ears.  Lets start this year agreeing with what God says - He's always right!

hugs Ruth x


p.s. If you're running an event you'd like me to speak at email me at lovedrops with your details and I'll get in touch love Ruth x