Some links to blogs you might enjoy | Anita Mathias: Dreaming Beneath the Spires

22 Words: The little dog smiles to himself at his friend’s troubles.

1 Ann Voskamp—The Happy Mom Manifesto

The only thing that has to be written in stone is when to pray.

If one’s not praying regularly, it’s only because something else is regularly loved more than God.

5. Why be afraid of anything — when our God is using everything?

7. This is always a choice: You can erupt — or pluck. You can be an Erupter — or a Plucker. You can choose.

(Pluck a feather from your mother duck breast to warm your nest & nestlings)

10. Happiness isn’t when the house is perfect. Happiness is when His Word and your walk are in harmony.

2 Tim Challies– Don’t give me success that exceeds my holiness

I, (Anita) often pray, “Don’t let my blog grow faster than I grow spiritually. Don’t let the growth of my blog outstrip my spiritual growth.” It was lovely to see that one of the world’s most successful Christian bloggers prays this too!

3 Bohemian Bowmans—If your mouse hand causes you to sin, unsubscribe from people on Facebook

I (Anita) have been unsubscribing from people who cause me to sin (because I find them irritating or unrelentingly show-offy) but am now doing it with more rigour!! Also unsubscribing from school, college or old church friends whom I barely remember. And so my Facebook is far more interesting!!

4 Ray Hollenbach— Jumping Off the Treadmill ofImportance

(An old one I’d bookmarked)

“Our greatest need–my greatest need–is the daily presence of the Holy Spirit.”

These topics, the interior spiritual life are less popular than writing from the Church or other Christians, but so much better for our soul.

5 Rob Bell on the Sabbath

“There are so many layers to the healing of the soul. One practice that has brought incredible healing is the taking of a Sabbath. Now when we read the word Sabbath, most of us think that the real issue behind the Sabbath isn’t which day of the week it is but how we live all the time.

I decided to start taking one day a week to cease from work. And what I discovered is that I couldn’t even do it at first.

I would go into depression.

By the afternoon I would be so . . . low.

I realized that my life was all about keeping the adrenaline buzz going and that I was only really happy when I was going all the time. When I stopped to spend a day to remember that I am loved just because I exist, I found out how much of my efforts were about earning something I already have.

Sabbath is taking a day a week to remind myself that I did not make the world and that it will continue to exist without my efforts.

Sabbath is a day when my work is done, even if it isn’t.

Sabbath is a day when my job is to enjoy. Period.

Sabbath is a day when I am fully available to myself and those I love most.

Sabbath is a day when I remember that when God made the world, he saw that it was good.

Sabbath is a day when I produce nothing.

Sabbath is a day when I remind myself that I am not a machine.

Sabbath is a day when at the end I say, “I didn’t do anything today,” and I don’t add, “And I feel so guilty.”

Sabbath is a day when my phone is turned off, I don’t check my email, and you can’t get a hold of me.

Jesus wants to heal our souls, wants to give us the shalom of God. And so we have to stop. We have to slow down. We have to sit still and stare out the window and let the engine come to an idle. We have to listen to what our inner voice is saying.”