Tag Archives: broken

Jesus Healed my Broken Heart

Posted in Dreams, Family, Healing, Ireland, Motherhood, My thoughts, Nations, poetry, Restoration by

Good morning friends across the nations.
How are you today?

It’s Valentine weekend. Songs of love are played on the radio. Desire and hope for love are stirred in our hearts. Love is in the air. Will I get a Valentine Card? Does someone secretly admire me?

I did have those teenage dreams. I did get a Valentine Card. My heart was stirred with love. I had met my husband Brendan the previous summer. He is still very romantic, kind, giving and forgiving.

Fifty three years on my heart is stirred with love. Brendan and I were celebrating with some of our family the birth of twin grand daughters to Ruth and Stuart. It’s been a roller coaster week. Thank you Nora and Colin for the lovely meal.

My girls were looking down memory lane. One remembered with tears being bullied by the vice principal of her school. Another was caught by another school’s vice principal smoking at break time. Stresses and joys of living in a big family were recalled with more tears and laughter.

It hasn’t been easy for Brendan and I to rear a big family and still be alive. My heart was broken many times; children leaving home, difficulty in my marriage or sickness. My children asked me “Do you remember that?” as they recall some difficult incident. I was busy rearing the next child or making dinner. I wasn’t aware of things going on behind the scenes.

My husband thought if I had HRT medication it would make it more easier for him to live with me. Despite our love for each other we did have our difficulties in our twenties, thirties and fourties. So HRT was not the solution then or now. Forgiveness and love sets the captive heart free.

No I dont have dementia either because I don’t recall difficult times. I told my daughter a story recently about walking down my street. We moved here one year ago. It was dusk and I glanced through a window where the blinds had not been drawn. It looked homely. I turned back. It was my house! My daughter wanted to bring me to the optician to get my eyes seen to and was worried about my mind.

As I drove back home last night the reality hit me. My heart is not broken any more. Jesus has healed my heart. He was with me in all my troubles and he delivered me out of them all. He has restored my body soul and spirit. He had caused me to live to see my children’s children.

The scripture in Isaiah 61 is true. He healed the broken hearts and binds up their wounds. He gives a garment of praise instead of despair.

For anyone of you today who has a broken heart because of disappointment, loss or sickness don’t despair. Jesus is acquainted with your grief. Bring your troubles to His cross. He will pour in His love and heal you and bless you.

“Keep right on to the end of the road, keep right on to the end. If you are tired and weary still journey on round the bend.” Lyrics by Harry Lauder.

The Blind and the Lame

Posted in Cancer, Healing, My thoughts by

I was up late into the night getting ready for a craft fair.
This morning I awoke late and was feeling tired. I’m still recovering from a broken arm. I was going to forget about the craft fair.
My husband encouraged me to go. He helped me get ready and came with me to the event.
People were beginning to gather. There was a festive atmosphere. A choir serenaded us with Carol songs. Some words of one song caught my attention, “healing the lame and the blind”.
I sell mosaics and my book Staying Alive at the craft fair. It gives me an opportunity to talk about Jesus healing me from fourth stage cancer. If anyone is interested I offer to pray for them for healing.
A couple of young teenagers stopped at my stall to admire my seaglass necklaces. One of them had a cast covering the lower part of her leg. She walked with the aid of crutches. I asked her what happened. She had broken her foot. I asked her if she enjoyed sports. She said she was an Irish dancer. I offered to pray for her healing and she accepted. I proceeded to pray for her healing in Jesus name and declared she would dance again.
When I was packing up after the event a young mother called me over to tell me her son was off medication. I had met her in the hairdressers two years previous. Her son had deteriorating eyesight. He was getting help from medication that was injected directly into his eye. I cringed at the thought of this young boy having to endure this treatment with little hope of his eyesight being restored.
I offered to pray for her son. Next time I was talking to her she was telling me her son was off the injections and was taking medication orally. A year on I met her today and she told me he is off all medication. His eyes are better. He can see! Jesus is healing today.
I remembered the words of the Carol, the lame shall walk and the blind shall see.

A Piece of Ireland

Posted in Canada, Ireland, My thoughts, Nature, Restoration by

Would you like a little bit of Ireland to cherish.

Order now for Christmas and avoid hold up in the post.
I sent an order to Canada at Christmas last year and it arrived at Easter.

Here is a sample of necklaces I have made from Irish Seaglass and pottery.
I pick the glass up from the shore along the Irish Sea. It has been mounded by the waves crashing on the shore and then tossed about for decades.
For me it symbolises what God does in our lives. He takes that which is broken and makes us into something beautiful.

“Cast out but picked up,
Rejected but restored,
Cut off but brought back,
Worn down but built up,
Broken but renewed,
Hope for the future,
Scarred but made beautiful,
Sharp edges softened,
Cut down but living again.”

“O thou afflicted, tossed with tempest, and not comforted, behold, I will lay thy stones with fair colours, and lay thy foundations with sapphires.”
‭‭Isaiah‬ ‭54:11‬ ‭KJV‬‬

Each necklace is made form leather or cotton tie and Seaglass or Pottery.
Cost is £5 per item. Postage is £1 in UK or £3 to Europe, USA or Canada.
Order through message on Facebook.
Other items can be seen and ordered from Etsy.com.

Order now for Christmas!!!

Testimony Tuesday. Something Broken Made Into Something Beautiful

Posted in My thoughts, Nature, Restoration, Testimony Tuesday by

I have taken up a hobby of making mosaics from broken pieces of glass and pottery.

image

One sunny morning in Springtime I went for a walk along the foreshore.  It is a stony beach.  I noticed pieces of green glass glistening among the pebbles.  They were looking at me inviting me to pick them up.  I picked one up, then another, and another until my pocket was full.  I felt like I was panning for gold in the stones of the shoreline.   Brendan joined me is my treasure hunt and he collected a pocket full too.  We collected other species, shades of blue, white, and brown.

I inspected them all when I returned home.  I asked myself what can I do with these colourful but broken pieces of glass.  The edges weren’t sharp any more and their colours were cloudy from the years of being broken and worn with the sea storms.  They had lost their shine.  Circumstances in life bring troubles, disappointments, lose or rejection leaving one worn down with the storms of life or relegated to the ash heap.

When washed and grim removed, my pieces of glass were ready to be positioned into something beautiful.

As I looked at the different shapes of green pieces I was inspired to make a mosaic of my country, Ireland, which has thirty two counties. I would use a piece of glass for each county.  I found a piece of wood and a tube full of tile filler.  So started my hobby of making mosaics.  I tried out putting other colours of glass together.  I find I relax as I work.

On Saturday I discovered a new site along the shoreline to build up my supply of broken pieces. I added to my collection, pieces of pottery.  I was excited to see how these pieces would clean up.  Some had blue willow patterns, some had plain colours.  How would they fit in to a mosaic?

As I worked I reminded myself how glass is made.  It is made from the common material, sand.  The sand is heated to 1700 degrees. Through the fire sand changes to become glass.  Pottery is made from clay, a common material.  The clay is treated in high temperatures to turn it to pottery.

The Word of God tells us that we were created by God.

Then the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being. (‭Genesis‬ ‭2‬:‭7‬ NIV)

Yet you, Lord, are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand. (‭Isaiah‬ ‭64‬:‭8‬ NIV)

Sometimes when I go through difficult times I wonder what is happening to me.  This passage from Peter explains,

Dear friends, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal that has come on you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. (‭1 Peter‬ ‭4‬:‭12‬ NIV)

When I go though the fires of difficulty I am being transformed to be a useful vessel for The Lord, like the sand being transformed to glass or the clay to pottery.

The pieces of glass and pottery on the beach are all that remain of useful vessels.  Perhaps the blue glass was a beautiful perfume bottle or the piece of pottery, a treasured piece of willow patterned delph on a bride’s dresser.

But even after many years Our Creator God can reach down and touch all that remains of a broken vessel and make something new.  My mosaics speak to me of hope.  There is life after brokenness.  They can be displayed on a dresser again or adorn a bathroom wall and be a thing of beauty again.  God will restore lives again.