At our connect group this week, we were talking about what we like to have for breakfast! Small talk before diving into Isaiah and, when you’re studying Isaiah, light chat is needed, right?

It was so interesting how different we are! Some liked soggy cereal, others, crunchy, some put water and milk on their cereal, others didn’t have breakfast – one person, who shall remain nameless (haha!)  admitted to having a chocolate bar for breakfast that morning. Yummy! Shredded wheat was a hit with one or two whereas others said it tasted like cardboard!

Diverse cereal choices from a group of 8 women!

I’d already kind of decided where my blog would go this week and this chat helped me.

Cereal choices don’t matter when it comes to life in the Kingdom – when we quote the scripture – ‘Acknowledge Him in all your ways and He will direct your paths’ I don’t think God is really interested in what cereal you eat, although He would be if what we’re eating is doing our body damage, but that’s another blog!

What does matter though is what kind of character we are. This does matter, really.

When I did my BA in theology, one of the discussions we had was what was most important in the life of a leader. The lecturer put a list of qualities (all important) on the board, one of which was ‘charisma’ and another was ‘character’. There were others, but these are the two that I remember because I was the only student who put character above charisma which was quite alarming. Charisma is important, for sure, but it is possible to have charisma without character which is never a good mix!

The question I want to pose today is, are you a ‘cactus plant’ or an ‘aloe vera’ plant? No offence to the real cactus plants! I don’t think they need any explanation, but just in case! – Cacti are spikey and you can’t get close to them without getting hurt, Aloe Vera is a miracle plant that can heal many things!

We are living in a world where confusion is reigning in so many areas – Covid; vaccinations; parties; Gender; wars; government; police; church; it seems to me like confusion is shouting so loud right now especially into the younger generation. And, if ever there was a time for truth to scream the loudest, it’s now! We have the truth. We have light. We have boundaries which I think most people want and need. Confusion is blurry, there are no lines where confusion is.

I once worked in a school as the receptionist and many teachers used to check with me what the mood of another staff member was before they would go into that office! If it was a bad mood, they would avoid her!

Back in the day (think Pride and Prejudice) society knew what was what, I’m sure the ‘rules’ were broken, but by and large everyone knew, for example, the rules of courtship, there were procedures to follow – there was a waiting and a patience before the wedding day that was magical, that final kiss between Mr Darcy and Elizabeth Bennett! (If you know, you know!) was so special because for those who’ve watched it, watched their journey from their first frosty meeting to the church on their wedding day.

It would be ridiculous to think that we would ever go back to the upstairs, downstairs kind of world, but the way I see it, the more that we have moved away from the Genesis mandate, (Genesis 2:24) the more confusing this world has become. Take a moment to think about what wouldn’t be in our world if we’d stuck to it. Here’s two things to set you off – pornography and human trafficking – the absence of just those two things would be transforming for the world wouldn’t they?

Back to the plants! IF we want to change the world around us, Christians have a responsibility to be Aloe Vera not cacti. Can you change your plant species? If you want to, yes you can! Pray and ask a friend to point out any ‘cactus spikes’ that might be in you.

Until next time

D xx