The gift of pressing PAUSE

I’m a run around, get lots done, energetic sort of person, so I’ve come late to this realisation: We ALL need rest, time to pause, to reflect, to process. As we approach what is often the busiest time of year, it’s even more important to put things in place to press pause on the doing … Read more

#Thanktober

#Thanktober is a simple idea: Let’s be thankful for something every day and grow our ‘thanks muscles’. I started it a few years ago, and each year I share a thanks prompt each day on Facebook and Instagram, so do pop over and say hi, like a few and comment on a few posts to … Read more

Give Thanks!

Psalm 136 starts with this familiar phrase: “Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good.His love endures forever.” Maybe it’s familiar because it occurs in lots of places in the Bible, including 1 Chronicles 16, Psalm 33, Psalm 106 and is repeated every other verse all the way through the 26 verses of Psalm … Read more

Sweets Prayer

This is a really popular prayer activity: 1 Grab a pack of multi-coloured sweets — Skittles work well! 2 Assign each colour sweet a category, for example: Red: family Purple: friends Green: environment/ animals Yellow: the world Orange: school/work 3 Take it in turns to pick one sweet.  You could do this with your eyes … Read more

Daily Thanks

Anyone who’s been around me for long will know I love coffee, painting and my daily thanks chart. I love doing new creative things, and find developing habits hard work. This means I’m very excited about the ones I do have! I’ve found that habits are a great way of developing the life I want. … Read more

Family Thanks

I was chatting with my friend, Sarah, about being thankful, and she told me about this really cool thing they did last Advent in their family: They each wrote a thank you note to every other member of the family. The notes were short and simple, thanking them for something specific. The then folded the … Read more

Fridge Magnets Thanks

Write things you are thankful for with fridge magnets. You could use the words in a spoken time of prayer, for example before a meal once a week. I find this allows us to pray for things which we might not think are ‘important enough’ in a spoken prayer time, for example, I would thank … Read more

Be Thankful

When things are difficult, it’s good to focus on good things in our lives. This isn’t to ignore the serious situations we’re facing, but to remember that God is good, and that evil is not the only thing at work! I find thinking of three things I’m thankful for each morning really helps re-calibrate my … Read more

Thanks Jar

Thankfulness is so powerful! It really does change how we see our lives, and encourages us when things are tricky. This activity is a way of identifying, focusing on and being thankful for the good things in our lives. You could make a thanks jar at any time of year, but I especially like starting ours on January 1st and reading … Read more

Thanks Doodles

August thanks doodle picture prayer

This month I’ve been doodling my thanks to God, each day aiming to draw three little symbols or pictures of things I’m thankful for. I find it helps focus my heart in the morning, making me aware of the good things right now in my life, and connecting me with The Giver of Gifts. I … Read more

Mini Egg Prayers

This is a lot like sweets prayer but with mini eggs. The concept is simple: 1 For each colour egg, decide on one category of things to thank God for. 2 Take it in turns to take a mini egg and thank God for something in that category before eating your egg. Prayers can be … Read more

New Year with God

New Year isn’t necessarily a particularly family event especially for younger children. My youngest, currently four, has put in a request to stay up late this near year, and watch The Beegees, which is what she considers to be ‘New Year’. (Just to clarify, last year we DID watch a documentary about the Beegees with … Read more