The last few years...

So we’ve a trip planned to India this summer and I decided to include in my testimony which we were asked to prepare, a little bit about me and the last few years. Here is a snapshot of my testimony,and yes- it’s cheesy, ultimate cheese, French brie to be exact, or possibly even your finest stilton..my testimony is still very much being written and will continue to do so until the day I pop my clogs!

I found myself changing nappies (or “diapers”- cheeky shoutout to Katie, Anna, Ellen and Jacob, and all of you from West Thompson) for the 4^th time that day and thought..why am I here? Is this really it?  I thought about my friends whose lives seemed to have carried on without me, like their clocks had never stopped ticking but mine had drawn to a halt.

 It was 2011 and I’d applied for university, but having started and got into the swing of things in Liverpool, life had stopped for me as I’d become quite poorly. After spending time in hospital, I realized university was going to be put on hold for a year, and I found myself working two part time jobs back at home with my family. Keighley didn’t sound as glamorous as Liverpool. Nappy changing and waitressing didn’t seem as exciting as university life, and living at home certainly didn’t seem as cool as living away with friends. But this was it, and life was life, but it seemed a little mediocre and generally dull. I was searching for some other work and then…

I received an email from a really good friend asking if I was looking for work and if so, she had a job for me looking after her Gran. I pretty much said yes on the spot.This was exactly what I was looking for! God provided in such an amazing way,far beyond anything I could have hooked up for myself- he was all over it like Jaws on a group of swimming children…too graphic?! Anyway…

I met this lady, my friends Gran. She was called Kay, and she was the first old person I had come across who still had a real sparkle in her. And she was funny! Over the following weeks and months I spent time with her, listening to her,chatting, and generally having a laugh, and I grew to love her. Her Alzheimer’s meant that she struggled remembering things, but still she would continue to crack jokes with me, and her previous crazy life in the West Indies was a world away from where we’d found ourselves in Ilkley, but the twinkle in her eye was still very much present!!

Kay had enjoyed her life. She was thankful for it! She was tired, but thankful! She loved her friends and family, and she inspired me to look at my life differently. I was inspired, in each moment, to at least TRY and be thankful for what I had, to thank God for his provision, and even when it was hard, when she’d forgotten who I was, and when I was still changing nasty nappies left right and centre, to choose to be thankful. I came across this verse the other day in the Message (thankyou Eugene) Colossians 3.17…

“Whateveryou do, whenever you do it…do it for the glory of God!”

So heck yesam I going to change dirty nappies for the glory of God!

Heck yes amI going to read the “Very Hungry Caterpillar”, for the 13^th time forthe Glory of God!

Heck yes amI going to make another cheese and pickle sandwich graciously for the grumpy lady on table3 who seemed to leave her manners at home that day FOR THE GLORY OF GOD!

Or at least I’ll try to anyway.

Over andout :)