Saturday, February 25, 2012

The power of youth

I think it is quite easy in today's society to think that we aren't that important and our individual voice doesn't matter, particularly for children and young adults. I came across a nice story recently about a little girl here in England, aged 3 1/2 who'se voice sparked a change across all of Sainsbury's in the UK.

In May 2011 she wrote a letter to Sainsbury's asking why Tiger bread is named after a Tiger when it looks much more than a giraffe and should be called Giraffe bread. Three weeks later she got a letter back from Chris King Sainsbury's Customer Manager aged 27 1/3 saying that it was a great idea. Fast forward a year and add in a bit of social pressure via a group on facebook and petitions to change tiger bread to giraffe bread and what do we have....



 For anyone who doesn't know what tiger or giraffe bread is, it is a typical white bloomer loaf where rice paste has been spread on prior to baking resulting in the splotchy effect as seen here:


Anyway, I found it cute and encouraging - that a 3 year old could spark a change.

Throughout history and the bible there are so many examples of children and young adults having a big impact on society and playing big roles. For example David was a boy when he killed Goliath in the bible, Josiah became King of Judah when he was 8 years old. Charles Haddon Spurgeon was a pastor by the time he was 16! Sixteen!! Then, not only that, but by the time he was 20, his church was also the biggest in England at that time. Vince Havner "the boy preacher" started sending sermons to the newspaper at 9, was a licensed preacher at 12 and was ordained at 15 preaching for 80 years! Billy Graham as 19 when he spoke at his first meeting about what God has done for him, and has since spoken to over 90 million people across the world.

So, nothing is impossible if you don't at least try!
Don’t let anyone think less of you because you are young. Be an example to all believers in what you say, in the way you live, in your love, your faith, and your purity.

1 Timothy 4:12 (New Living Translation)

Sunday, February 5, 2012

Appreciation of what you do and don't have

Let me tell you, I am so so so SO grateful right now to have some heating in my flat! I started writing this post a few days ago and the transformation between the temperature two days ago and now in the flat is incredible. The change in the last month alone is incredible as well. It's been such a mild 'warm' winter this year compared to last - daffodils were coming out in the streets a couple of weeks ago!!


The boiler had been broken for ah possibly a month or so (I only moved in 3 weeks ago) and with temperatures steadily declining, it meant that the temperature outside was pretty much what the situation was like inside. FREEZING!!!!! The temperature range recently has been a minimum of -6 with a maximum of 1. Nice and chilly!
My new street - freshly snowed

Before yesterday when the boiler finally was fixed (after many many delays) at pretty much any point of the day, when you would breathe out (which I tend to do frequently) a big billowing cloud of condensation/smoke/fog whatever it is actually described out appears, causing me alot of distraction! I was going to bed with like 6 blankets and a few pairs of socks and about 3 layers of shirts and a jumper and keeping my head under the blankets so it didnt get too cold!

But I am not complaining. Not at all. I was so happy to move into this flat, the environment even though physically temperature wise has been ridiculously cold, the warmth and friendliness of my housemates has completely made up for that. And now the heating is working and we are cheering!!

Just in time too! I went down to Shoreham-by-Sea today to see my Uncle Arthur and Barbara as I haven't visited for a while and in the 12 hours or so that I was away it started to snow, and snow, and snow. It only just began to snow down south at about 7pm so there was a dusting around the place. London however, has stacks of the stuff. I was quite excited. Its packing snow so I made a nice big snowball. I really want to make a snowman too, so I might do that later!!



But everything with the weather this week has made me so appreciative. Appreciative and grateful that I have a house to go to, somewhere to keep me dry, and definitely appreciate the heating when it works! It made me think about what it would be like living in a country, in a rural area where they don't have heating and for what it would have been in the past before the invention of electricity. Tough times.

I am blessed. Happy. Grateful.