ReWiggled

My flatmates didn't know who The Wiggles were until they moved in with me. Being an early childhood teacher I decided this would not do and so tried to introduce them to The Wiggles by singing Hot Potato one night when I was over tired and hyped up on caffine. Surprisingly this did not pursuade them The Wiggles was something they were missing out on :).

What I should have done is play them ReWiggled.

I believe that children should be exposed to a range of musical styles, not just the hoppy-boppy kiddie pop that is excruciatingly popular. However it can be difficult to find ‘non-kid’/popular music that has lyrics that are appropriate (Not just swearing, I’ve mentioned before about having issues with young children singing about romantic love). I feel The Wiggles do this better than most kids bands, writing songs from a range of different cultural backgrounds and also different styles of music.
When I heard that several Australian artist had done covers of Wiggles songs to celebrate The Wiggles 20th anniversary I was intrigued. I listened to a few of the songs before I bought the album, because covers can go badly and I had doubts about people treating it as a joke album rather than an actual music album.

Instead I was pleasantly surprised. While some songs I think are alot better in their original form (i.e. when The Wiggles sing them), many take on new and exciting lives when done by different artists. Sarah Blasko’s reworking of ‘I love it when it rains’ is a beautiful lullaby. Hot Potato (by The Living End) and Shaky Shaky (Sons Of Rico) are two of my favourites.



When I play this CD for kids I get different reactions, but mostly they love it. Sometimes they look confused, as if you say “I know this song, but something’s not right”, some little boys love to rock out and play air guitar, while others will happily dance along to all of them.

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An interesting side note, one of my flat mates happened to meet Anthony from The Wiggles but didn't recognise him. Once Anthony told him what he did Colin asked if they could take a photo to send to me becasue his "flatmate loves you guys" (I hope he told Anthony I was an Early Childhood teacher not just some random 20 year old who listened to kids music all day! :) ). When Colin sent me the message I screamed and did a happy dance, cos, you know, I am an early childhood teacher ;).

Suffering

Found the church bulletin from a few weeks ago with some scribbling on it.

2 Corinthians 1:3-6

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God. For just as the sufferings of Christ flow over into our lives, so also through Christ our comfort overflows. If we are distressed, it is for your comfort and salvation; if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which produces in you patient endurance of the same sufferings we suffer.

 And the notes I had written down from the sermon were;
"We will suffer and expect to suffer in this life. But we can also expect to be comforted by God in our suffering.
One of the reasons is so that we can comfort those who are also suffering."

The comfort from a friend who has walked the path I am walking is one that reminds me that God was with them through that time, so He will be with me. *

May I not be overcome by my trials, but allow God and friends to comfort me. And may I use these times to be able to reach out to others who are hurting and point them to God.

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*That's not to say that people can not comfort you if they haven't experienced what you are going through. I have had many wonderful friends who have let me cry on their shoulder and spoken amazing truths to me who are living and live a completely different set of circumstances to me. The ones who do this best point me to God, rather than try to make me believe that they understand exactly how I am feeling.

Pylon

My Canadian friends are now my new flatmates :). It's fun seeing Australia and Australian culture through their eyes.

Being out of towners they tend to do those touristy activites that you keep meaning to do, but figure cos you live here you can do them whenever but never get around to doing. Today I tagged along with them to climb the Pylon of the Harbour Bridge.

It was pretty cool, way less steps than I was anticipating, we got amazing panoramic views of the city as well as a bit of history of the bridge.

Well worth it, so much more affordable than the Bridge climb ($11 rather than $200+; yes please!) and no where near as daunting if height aren't your thing.

Decisions

I've been trying to write a post about knowing God's will and direction in your life. But at the moment it's all just a disjointed mess of thoughts and words.

Instead I'll share my exciting news - I'm going back to study! Something I had thought I would do at some point but not this soon after finishing uni :). And about a month ago I had absolutely no plans to study, hadn't even crossed my mind; but God closed the door on the direction I was sure he was leading me and this opportunity came up suddenly and I thought, "Why not?"

I've organised to work part time and study part time; the plan is that in two years I will have a Graduate Diploma of Divinity. It's all been very sudden, each decision made within days - and now I start in one week!

Friends

My run of weddings is almost over. Yesterday was the second last one of 7 within 10 months. Janice and I were so excited to be able to witness Lani marry the man of her dreams :).

I praise God constantly for bringing these two amazing girls into my life last year. So blessed by both their friendships.

For the Love of God

This year, the Bible reading plan I am following is the M'Cheyne Bible reading plan, devised by Robert Murray M'Cheyne in the early 19th Century. The idea is that you read through the Old Testament once and the New Testament and Psalms twice through the year.

I've started using my Bible app on my phone (I have YouVersion), which has it set up so you can select the reading plan you want and it will read it out. I like to listen to it on the way to work, I like that the app automatically moves onto the next reading, rather than needing me to manually search for the next chapter in the plan.

Then at night (inspired by an article about studing Gods word, not just reading it) I study one of the readings in more detail. I use my study Bible and Don Carsons book For The Love Of God (It's also posted daily on his blog) which takes one reading from the M'Chenyne plan each day and looks at it more closely (I can't remember if I've written about this book before or not, I've had both volume 1 and 2 for a few years and enjoy using them) .

So far I've found this really good. I like starting the day with the different readings, I hate to admit that I tend to skip over parts of chapters I find repeditive, but having the audio means I'm forced to actually hear all of the words. The more detailed study of one chapter is also good, because I have the ability to unpack it and think more deeply.

While the aim is to do it each day, I admit I've gotten a little behind already. But thats ok, I just pick up where I left off (ignoing the date at the top of the page) and keep going. Something like this forces me to read parts of the Bible I don't normally read, and over the year or so I will have read the whole Bible which will be a good overview.

I can trust You

Lying in the grass, outside at night. Listening to praise music trying to drown out the turmoil in my mind.


I Can Trust You

Yes, I know that You have paved a path for me
Yes, I know that You see what I do and don’t need
But when it comes to the deepest things
I have a hard time relinquishing control
Letting go

God, it hurts to give You what I must lay down
But when I let go, freedom’s found
God, it hurts to give You what I’ve held so dear
Because of Your love it’s clear
I can trust You with this
I can trust You with me
I can trust You

Lord, I know that You are worthy of my trust
For You have shown me time and time again
You’re faithful and yet
I’m so scared of letting go of this
Afraid of what You might do with it
How could I forget who You are like this

Me forsaking
Heart is breaking
I let go of what I’ve held so tight
Freedom’s mine now
For the taking
I move in faith, not by sight
Let Your will be done

by Rebecca St. James and Shaun Shankel



This song says exactly what I can't.
I want to be able to sing this with conviction. To believe that I can lay it all down at His feet. I want to do Gods will.

But His will seems to be taking such a different direction to what I thought. What I long for. And I'm so confused about what I should do. Paralysed by what letting go of the last hope I had will mean for the rest of my life.

But I don't know how much more of this emotional roller coaster I can take. And if giving this to God means I can get off long enough to stop the churning in my stomach then I'm all for it.

Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:6,7