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5 Tips for Combating Loneliness

If you’re struggling with loneliness what can you do about it? Here are 5 tips for combating loneliness. Join a church if you don’t already belong to one. If you do and you’re not making good friends there, then maybe you ought to start looking for another spiritual home where people are actively trying to live out the Christian life and that means connecting with others and putting ourselves out for others. Don’t just go along to church on Sundays but become involved – join a bible study group? There you will get to know people in a more relaxed … Continue reading →

Want Joy? You’ll Find it Here.

The psalms have been a great encouragement to many over the years and it’s not hard to see why. They speak to our experience of life. In Psalm 86:1-2 David recognizes his need and prays to God. Straightaway we see that when we have a need we can pray to God. What David wants in his life, which at times seems so hard, is joy, verses 3-4. We can know joy despite hardships, if we continue to trust in God as David did throughout it and recognize that God always has a plan and a purpose in it. David knows … Continue reading →

What Stops You from Talking to Someone

What stops you from talking to someone at church, a party of some other social gathering? We’ve been looking at this question in the forum recently. I had two incidents recently, where I tried to be friendly and the other person shut the conversation effectively down by their one word or terse answer. In each case I ended up feeling foolish for even trying to be friendly and initiate conversation. One was a complete stranger I tried to talk to at a party. Her sharp reply and the look she gave me made me fee like a bug under her … Continue reading →

Never Too Old!

Some people use age as an excuse to opt out of becoming involved and helping others. Our local paper recently ran a story about an 87 year old man, Cyril Brown. Unlike some today, his main focus has never been on earning a living and looking after his own best interests. Rather, his has been a life of helping and serving others. Currently he is a volunteer who delivers for Meals on Wheels. Ironically, he is older than some of the people he is delivering meals too. When not delivering meals, he spends his time doing other odd jobs to … Continue reading →

A Day All to Yourself?

Have you ever said, ‘I just want one day to myself?’ I thought that’s what I was going to have on Friday. Then Thursday night I found out our choir had a concert on Friday at one of the local nursing homes. ‘Oh no, I thought.’ After a crazy week including along with the usual housework and writing project, two other concerts, shopping, and a book launch I was organizing for GROW- UNDER THE SOUTHERN CROSS – an anthology edited by Anne Hamilton and Lyn Hurry and containing a number of Christian writers that included me, the last thing I … Continue reading →

Are You an Onlooker?

I’ve been reading ‘Prochownik’s Dream’ by Alex Miller. One of the characters, Marina, an artist, talked about how after she and her husband moved, she felt she was not in the right place and would ‘be cast as an onlooker for the rest of my days.’ As a result they moved back for a time to Melbourne, the city they’d originally came from. Her friend, Toni, also an artist, remarks ’I would have thought being cast as an onlooker is something you allow to happen to you, isn’t it?’ It’s a fair comment. It made me think, how easy it … Continue reading →

What a Joy!

Church this morning was great, even if I did manage to muck up the bible reading by starting to read the wrong passage. I started in 1 Thessalonians instead of 2 Thessalonians. I kept thinking,‘Gee this sounds different to what I read earlier in my New American Standard Version at home’ Good reason for that! Anyway, I was gently corrected and started on take 2. I was thrilled with the songs we sang this morning. We started with By the Cross which has long been a favorite of mine. I love the jazz feel of the tune, not to mention … Continue reading →