Tag: Christian living

Sweet but deadly       

I HAVE HEARD sugar called “white poison” by some health experts, who believe it should be eliminated from our diets altogether. But that is really hard to do because, of course, sugar tastes so wickedly delicious!

That idea of something we know is wrong and should avoid but are continually drawn to by our appetites, reminds me of the problem each of us have with sin.

Whether it be a little white lie here and there, gossip, jealousy, angry outbursts, illegally downloading content off the Internet, disobeying road signs, or something more sinister, we feel that a little “sugar” won’t do any harm.

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Filed under: Jody Bennett, Popular culture, Thoughts on lifeTagged with: , , , ,

Read the manual!

From early 2016

I have recently started a new job (this one!) and two weeks after I started the person I’m replacing left. Fortunately for me, she left me a giant yellow folder full of all the information I need to do her job – the people to contact, the websites to look at and the writing styles and tips that will be useful.

I couldn’t do this job without that file and the training she gave me before she left, and I am grateful for her diligent preparation before her departure.Continue reading

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Rest for weary mums

Mother’s Day article 2017

I was struck recently, when reading the children’s report cards that “good” is no longer good enough; “satisfactory” just isn’t; and “average” is almost equivalent to poor. In Australia, “ordinary” has become a slur.

No, now everything has to be “excellent” or “outstanding”, 3 out of 5 is just not acceptable. Even Uber drivers get canned if their ratings fall below 4,5, or so I’ve heard.

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That which connects us all

 

Recently I watched the movie Collateral Beauty, starring Will Smith as a man dealing with the death of his young daughter. Two years have elapsed and Smith’s character Howard Inlet is still not coping very well, his marriage is over and he is reduced to writing hate mail to Time, Death and Love.

As Howard explains right at the beginning of the movie, “Now these three things connect every single human being on earth. We long for love. We wish we had more time. And we fear death.”Continue reading

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More than a feeling

“Feelings, nothing more than feelings,” goes the 1974 classic by Morris Albert, and sometimes our actions seem to be governed by nothing else.

How many marriages have ended because “I just don’t feel like I love you anymore”? How many people have committed suicide because they feel that life is not worth living? How many people are addicted to various substances because “it makes me feel so good”?

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How dare you say that!

The other day I went to the doctor for a blood pressure script and she made me stand on the scale, worked out my BMI and told me I was fat and needed to lose weight. Needless to say my first response was “How dare she! Who does she think she is?!”

In my offence I went through a million justifications: “How could she embarrass me like that! Does she think she is telling me something I don’t already know? I’m not nearly as fat as some people! Doesn’t she know I’ve tried? Does she think I want to be like this? I was born with this body type.” etc. etc.

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Don’t become a victim of victimhood

Easter article 2021

Have you ever heard someone disparage the Easter story by saying, “Well how could God have done that to His Son – send Him to the cross. It’s child abuse!”? Besides the obvious fact that Jesus was a 33-year-old man by this stage, and not a child; He Himself refutes this argument when He says in John 10:18

No one takes [my life] from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father.

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Easter surprise

Article for Easter 2020

We know well in advance that Easter is on the way by all the Easter eggs and hot cross buns that the shops start selling around Valentine’s Day. The swiftness with which the year marches towards the holiday may take us by surprise but the long weekend certainly doesn’t.

However, nearly two thousand years ago that first Easter morning came as a complete surprise to those who had watched Jesus arrested, tried and crucified.

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Disrupting redesigns

I have been watching interior design shows on Netflix recently. I’m inspired by the creativity and cleverness of those who take nice but ordinary rooms and turn them into works of art.

What I have noticed though is that, without fail, those rooms always look worse before they look better. The day before the big reveal, you couldn’t possibly imagine how it is all going to come together.

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