Anita Mathias: Dreaming Beneath the Spires

Anita Mathias's Blog on Faith and Art

“You meant it for evil, but God meant it for good, for the saving of many lives”

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So Joseph tells his brothers who betrayed him, tried to kill him, sold him into slavery.
He let it go, left vengeance with God.
Forgiveness is easier when you can see how God truly made it work out for good.
In a situation, in which I was greatly wronged, 2 years ago, I have seen, amazingly, how God made it work out for good. The direction in which I was blocked in led to my life turning to other life-giving, nutritious directions.
And when we cannot see how God meant it for good? As Joseph did not for many, many years.
We take it on faith, that eventually, in ways we cannot yet see, God will make it work out for good.
And somehow or the other, we have to struggle not to retain a record of wrongs, to let go of our grievances against those who have wronged us. Yes, they wronged me, but I am decided to let it go, because you, Lord, can and will make it work out for good.
Grace, Lord, that is what we need!

In which Zoe gives Irene a shirt declaring “I am always right,” and Irene almost believes it

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Irene uses her beloved Ipod touch to email people, listen to countless books on tape, play scrabble and boggle, and get a word a day sent to her, which she memorizes.

She announced today that she is now officially cleverer than me because I didn’t know 5 of these obscure words! And because her birthday present from Zoe was a T-shirt which said, “I am always right.”

I am, alas, too old to make that claim.

“The Lord gives you the power to produce wealth” Deut. 8:18

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Roy has a very important deal to negotiate today.

I am not particularly good at negotiation. I either pay or agree to the price asked, or suggest another (which, to my astonishment, is often accepted.) Yet, somehow, I am usually offered good prices/deals.

I used to get stressed when I was younger, and heard people show off about their shrewd negotiating skills, given how gentle we were.

However, I am pleased with where we are today, holistically, in our lives, even compared to some of the people whose shrewdness used to stress us when we compared ourselves with them.

Abundance ultimately comes from God, and not from our own cleverness. And praise God for that!!

17 You may say to yourself, “My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me.” 18 But remember the LORD your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth, and so confirms his covenant, which he swore to your forefathers. Deuteronomy 8 17-18

And here is the whole passage
1 Be careful to follow every command I am giving you today, so that you may live and increase and may enter and possess the land that the LORD promised on oath to your forefathers. 2Remember how the LORD your God led you all the way in the desert these forty years, to humble you and to test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands. 3 He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your fathers had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD. 4 Your clothes did not wear out and your feet did not swell during these forty years. 5 Know then in your heart that as a man disciplines his son, so the LORD your God disciplines you.
6 Observe the commands of the LORD your God, walking in his ways and revering him. 7 For the LORD your God is bringing you into a good land—a land with streams and pools of water, with springs flowing in the valleys and hills; 8 a land with wheat and barley, vines and fig trees, pomegranates, olive oil and honey; 9 a land where bread will not be scarce and you will lack nothing; a land where the rocks are iron and you can dig copper out of the hills.
10 When you have eaten and are satisfied, praise the LORD your God for the good land he has given you. 11 Be careful that you do not forget the LORD your God, failing to observe his commands, his laws and his decrees that I am giving you this day. 12 Otherwise, when you eat and are satisfied, when you build fine houses and settle down, 13 and when your herds and flocks grow large and your silver and gold increase and all you have is multiplied, 14 then your heart will become proud and you will forget the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. 15 He led you through the vast and dreadful desert, that thirsty and waterless land, with its venomous snakes and scorpions. He brought you water out of hard rock. 16 He gave you manna to eat in the desert, something your fathers had never known, to humble and to test you so that in the end it might go well with you. 17 You may say to yourself, “My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me.” 18 But remember the LORD your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth, and so confirms his covenant, which he swore to your forefathers, as it is today.

In which I discover that if you hire your spouse, you cannot so easily fire them.

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Hot tip to all small business owners.

DO NOT hire your spouse.

Roy just made a really stupid, and somewhat costly, mistake, and when I told him off in no uncertain terms, just stood there, grinning happily from ear to ear, as if he had done the greatest thing in the world.

” Well then, fire me,” he said.

And double my workload?

No way! I fumed, and growled; he had won that round.

Nothing nicer than a spirit-filled church

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I have always thought that phrase was somewhat conceited.

My  church is by no means perfect, & neither am I, but it is, to use a glib, over-used phrase, definitely “spirit-filled.” I.e. one goes there, often empty, distracted, secular in one’s thinking, and yet slowly, mysteriously, one does encounter God there; get filled again with his spirit, his love, his energy, his inspiration, his will to do good & bless.

I leave smiling–from the inside out!!

When my Family say, “Mum, say Business,” when they want to smile for the Camera

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Somewhat to my surprise, I have discovered that I thoroughly enjoy running our business, a publishing company.

When our family wanted me to smile for pictures, they used to say “say cheese” (and once as she became daring a girl said,  “Say Sex,” which requires the same smiley position of the lips).

Now they say, “Mum, say business.”