Catrina Benham's Blog

There's nothing quite like Christians coming together to worship and pray! I've enjoyed and greatly appreciated the evenings this week - without them I know I would feel sorry for myself and my lack of food, so I find they really encourage me to keep going and not give up! It's inspiring too to pray and to hear God speak to us . If you can make it at all in the last 2 days, please come along - check out the website for the schedule but its K2 8-9.30 tonight, then K2 12-5 tomorrow; and Oakwood 6-12 tomorrow night. Girls can you come along at 8 tomorrow night? Tess will be leading the hour long session focussing on Women and Unique. It would be great to see lots of your beautiful faces there too as we come together and pray. Lots to pray for Unique too, with the conference coming up on July 3rd; plus all the Unique Community groups going strong. Have a wonderful day whatever you're doing - and whatever it is that you're fasting, try to give the "released ti

And so begins the week of Prayer and Fasting! I can't honestly say I look forward to these weeks (it's the not-eating part - I love eating!) and I got quite grumpy realsing it's a full 5 days this time without food - BUT I know from past weeks that this will be a time of answered prayer and great community. I also know that although my heart says yes, the rest of my body is dreading it - and I can't do it on my own! I need God's help and the help of others to set aside time and to prioritise prayer. It really helps me if I'm with others - so I'm going to make every effort to meet up to pray each night this week. I probably won't feel like making the effort to arrange to be there , but I'll be so glad when I get there! So why not look again at the week's schedule and see if you can make it too? I know some friends are also getting together for half hours or so to pray together. Do whatever you can do, but do something to join in this week.

Real wisdom, God's wisdom, begins with a holy life and is characterized by getting along with others. It is gentle and reasonable, overflowing with mercy and blessings, not hot one day and cold the next, not two-faced. You can develop a healthy, robust community that lives right with God and enjoy its results only if you do the hard work of getting along with each other, treating each other with dignity and honour. James 3 God is so good - and He knows just what we need to face the challenges of the day ahead. I know I coped so much better with the people, the unexpected events; and the difficult conversations that were part of my day yesterday because I spent some time reading the Bible and praying. This verse seemed to be highlighted so I spent a few minutes praying it through before the day properly began . Without the notion of God helping me to "work hard" to get along with each other; and  in my own strength I know I would have sinned and "stepped back".

"... Nobody has a perfect life - everyone else's life looks great ..but everybody has challenges. We're constantly judging our insides against everyone else's outsides " Ruthie Henshall on Woman's Hour last week So true!

I love lists! I love writing lists, ticking off items on lists; and adding things I've already done to lists! Last year I first heard the phrase "only God gets to complete His to-do list" - well I don't know about you, but one part of me agreed whilst another part strongly disagreed! Yesterday I read this on Carolyn Mahaney's brilliant Girltalk blog: "When CJ leaves for work at the end of the day, he tells Tony, his assistant, and Nora, his secretary: “We’ll try again tomorrow,” That’s short for: “Well friends, we worked hard today, but once again we failed to accomplish everything we hoped. Maybe we even made mistakes, used poor judgment, or experienced setbacks. We are frail and finite creatures. Only God gets His to-do list done. And only God does it perfectly, every day. So, let’s humbly acknowledge our weakness and insufficiency in contrast to His strength and sovereignty. But let’s not give up in despair. If God wills, let’s come back tomorrow an

Ok I'm starting blogging again - didn't really intend to stop, just seemed to stop in December - does anyone else find that from this side of Christmas it's hard to remember what was consuming all our time and energy in the run up to that big event?! So, another snowy day - all radiators dripping with wet socks and gloves; all children off school, so all have friends over to play and sleep. Simon and I spent a couple of hours in the snow digging out the cars earlier - fun actually. Unfortunately the 2CV didn't reward all our hard work by actually starting, but it was fun trying! I finally reaslised just how great those snow shovels are - we borrowed our neighbour's one - so at the next opportunity we're going to buy our own...and then it will never ever snow again in Bracknell! With the extended holiday, it's been hard getting my brain into gear for 2010 plans, but I know you'll be excited that we're getting on with planning the July 3rd Confere