Monthly Archives: June 2012

For your guests

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The Auberge MacDonald Guest Inn in Iroquois Falls, ON, displays these thoughts prominently on their wall.

To Our Guests

In ancient times there was a prayer for ‘The Stranger within Our Gates.”

Because this hotel is a human institution to serve people, and not solely a for profit organization, we strive to ensure you will experience peace and rest while you are here.

May this room and this hotel be your “second” home. May those you love be near you in thoughts and dreams. Even though we may not get to know you, we hope that you will be as comfortable and happy as if you were in your own house.

May the business that brought you our way prosper. May every call you make and every message you receive add to your joy. When you leave, may your journey be safe.

We are all travelers. From “birth till death” we travel between the eternities. May these days be pleasant for you, profitable for society, helpful for those you meet, and a joy to those who know and love you best.

Having stayed there, I can tell you that is exactly what they did. Now wouldn’t it be grand if we could add a version of this to our front hall wall? It might go something like this.

Dear Friends

We pray you experience peace and rest while you are here. We hope that you will be as comfortable and happy as if you were in your own house. May you experience the presence of Jesus here and when you leave, may your journey be safe.

After all, there is Biblical precedent for entertaining.

Romans 12:13-Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality (ESV).

Hebrews 13:2-Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unaware (ESV).

1 Peter 4:9– Show hospitality to one another without grumbling (ESV).

Prayer: Lord, when our house isn’t the tidy, expensive or fancy version we’d like to present to the world, help us remember that isn’t what you are aiming for at all. In Christ’s name. Amen.

Worn and Ragged

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Before you get anxious about me, I am only speaking about some of my clothes. God blessed me with lots of new ones so now I have to toss the ‘what is not so good’ away. After all the closet is only so big, right?

But I love those tattered old bits. They’ve accompanied me through thick and thin, hardship and joy.

They are like old habits. Some of them have to go. What old habits are hanging around your body? I won’t even begin to discuss that. Take it up with God.

Hugs. Brenda

 

Still in Shock over this Review!! WOW

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Book Review

Reviewed by Alice D. for Readers Favorite
“Meeting Myself” is a well-written 98 page book that will appeal to anyone fighting off inner demons by eating and to all those who may have done so since an early age. Author Brenda Wood has issues with food since an early age. She even recalls herself starting to eat her younger brother Larry’s chocolate Easter Bunny as well as her own as a four year old. Brenda Wood admits to having great inner anger at having been abused as a child. She doesn’t say what the abuse was or when, but the reader will surmise it wasn’t nice. Brenda Wood went from satisfying her fear of things and need for comfort by eating on to eating and then throwing up in the toilet which is bulimia. Even a happy, satisfying marriage did not cure Brenda’s demons until she took her Christian faith seriously and learned that God is with us in good times and bad times and proved it in her daily life.
“Meeting Myself” is a book that should be in everyone’s hands everywhere. Brenda Wood honestly tells the reader about her not always smooth path to controlling her eating binges, her bulimia. Brenda Wood is forthright in telling the reader how she would decide to walk with God and then lose her resolve and go on an eating binge. What she shares with the Christian reader is priceless in its honesty. On page 93 she writes: “Expose both abuse and eating disorder to the light. ..Keep telling until someone believes you.” She admits that she had great anger against her abuser, anger against the people who should have protected her from that abuse, and anger against herself. “Meeting Myself” is a book that will guide, inspire and keep the reader going when the dark clouds of life are overwhelming.

Grace in the midst of Grief

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Mondays are difficult. I notice the emptiness more for some reason and my heart is especially heavy today. So instead of eating, I write. The TV blares behind me but I don’t really hear America’s Got Talent blaring in the background.

That is, I don’t listen until I hear the words to this song.

…If tomorrow never comes, will she know how much I love her? Will she know how much I care……

And the grace of God pours over me again as I listen to the words of the song Ron chose for his funeral service.

Glad Tidings-by Jennifer Flanders

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This is an unusual book in that it is so personal and yet I expect, written for everyone to enjoy. That makes it a little awkward to review. I don’t know these people, lovely as they seem to be. If you knew the family personally it would be much more interesting. It does how ever set a person to thinking about writing their own letters like this or at least keeping a diary of some sort for their family. The stories are wonderful for following generations to remember and enjoy. It’s a collection of the Flanders family Christmas letters over twenty five years. Because of that there are several family pictures (I must say the quality is not so great) and we basically get to watch the family grow up. While the book also does include some  Christmas hints, a few baking ideas and some wisdom bits throughout its pages, I would have enjoyed more hints and recipes for sure, something that would transcend the fact that I don’t know the family at all. I would describe it as a cosy book, one full of family and love but mostly full of Christ and how his love transforms and changes us. “I received this book free from the publisher through the BookCrash.com book review program, which requires an honest, though not necessarily positive, review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.”

Brenda J Wood, author of Meeting Myself, Snippets from a Binging and Bulging Mind.