Lauren Harry's Essential Blog
Saturday 3 January 2015
I AM new?
I don't think so, it hardly ever sticks. you promise yourself to do more exercise, or to eat more healthily, give something up... the list goes on.
last year I decided to give up noodles, I gave them up because I was eating noodles everyday and it was probably not that good for me. It did last the whole year, it was difficult to begin with but it got easier as the year went on.
but in all honesty it is the first year I've completed a whole year of giving something up. It hasn't changed me as a person and neither did I expect it to, even though I convinced myself it would, but also at the beginning of 2014 I promised myself that id be a "new me". that didn't happen either. I don't know what I expected to happen but nothing did, last year I had a new boyfriend, a new job, and that's about it.
I think the "new me" has started, but only since I started the new job, Essential. I have learnt a lot about myself, and my journey is still ongoing.
What I'm trying to say is that just because a new year starts, doesn't mean the new you starts then, it can take time and can sometimes happen over time not over night.
Don't give your self unrealistic goals or time lines or 'start dates' Pray to God, put all your cares in His hands and let your life go on it's own path led by God.
I want this year to take up something rather than giving something up, so this year I'd like to be accountable for all of you who read my blog. if you would like me to pray for you you can comment on the bottom of this post, or email me on: lauren.harry@salvationarmy.org.uk
Wednesday 22 October 2014
I AM fake
Saturday 18 October 2014
I AM fasting
get rid of exploitation in the workplace,
free the oppressed,
cancel debts.
What I’m interested in seeing you do is:
sharing your food with the hungry,
inviting the homeless poor into your homes,
putting clothes on the shivering ill-clad,
being available to your own families.
Do this and the lights will turn on,
and your lives will turn around at once.
Your righteousness will pave your way.
The God of glory will secure your passage.
Then when you pray, God will answer.
You’ll call out for help and I’ll say, ‘Here I am.’
quit blaming victims,
quit gossiping about other people’s sins,
If you are generous with the hungry
and start giving yourselves to the down-and-out,
Your lives will begin to glow in the darkness,
your shadowed lives will be bathed in sunlight.
I will always show you where to go.
I’ll give you a full life in the emptiest of places—
firm muscles, strong bones.
You’ll be like a well-watered garden,
a gurgling spring that never runs dry.
You’ll use the old rubble of past lives to build anew,
rebuild the foundations from out of your past.
You’ll be known as those who can fix anything,
restore old ruins, rebuild and renovate,
make the community liveable again.
and don’t use my holy day for personal advantage,
If you treat the Sabbath as a day of joy,
God’s holy day as a celebration,
If you honour it by refusing ‘business as usual,’
making money, running here and there—
Then you’ll be free to enjoy God!
Monday 6 October 2014
I AM a disciple
Saturday 27 September 2014
I AM beginning.
Dear Essential.
I am so new to this. We are only just in the early stages of this relationship. You scare me at the moment because of the things I have to face this year. The relationships I am building with the other Essential students, leaders and the people I am going to meet are in such an early stage that I feel very overwhelmed, but I know if I trust in God and give my all to him He will guide me.
I want to thank you for everything you stand for. You’re view on how to live this year as a disciple of Christ is something I already knew but didn’t fully put into practice. I am going to remember you in everything I do, and I’m going to tell people all about what I stand for and show it through how I live it out every day.
I am sorry in advance if I don’t get things quite spot on, I really hope that this year, any wrongs that occur, I can ask God to help me though. I’m sorry that so far in this relationship, I haven’t given the time to get to know the people I’m around, but this is something I’m hoping to quickly rectify.
Please help me this year to be the person God wants me to be, please help to mould me into the best of the best that I can be.
From Lauren.