Practising Trust
Make a list of the people you most trust. Those who love you just because you are you. Make another list of the people who most trust you…those whom you love just because they are who they are. Give thanks for those who you trust and for those who trust you.
Reflect on Scripture
Read the short passage below slowly, slowly, slowly, letting the words sink in and letting the images fill you, then sit quietly for a moment or two.
Hold a wondering space within you – I wonder what Spirit might be saying to me today?
It might be that as you read, a word or phrase catches your attention, or perhaps a word returns and stays with you as you sit quietly at the end. Take this word or phrase into the day with you and listen for the ways it offers connections in your living.
‘Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life?’ Matthew 6:25-27
Musing with Music
Hey Mary!
Written by Malcolm Gordon and his young son Sam, this song explores the moment when Mary meets the angel to hear the amazing news of God’s arrival in the world through her. It also wonders how God might be arriving in each neighbourhood through each of us.
A story about Trust from Family Works
Trust – Give thanks for those who you trust and for those who trust you.
Ella was a very quiet girl, who hid a lot. She always wore a hoodie right up over her head so you could not even see her face. She isolated herself a lot, and really only engaged with her friend Sam. She barely spoke to anyone. A shadow of a person who was easy to look right past.
Sam was concerned about the ongoing sexual abuse that Ella was experiencing at the hands of her father. Sam knew she could trust the Family Works Social Worker in Schools (SWiS) who worked at her primary school to help her friend Ella.
The SWiS followed all the correct pathways to inform the authorities. She also organised for both Sam and Ella to be part of an equine therapy programme, which helped them to process trauma of the abuse. The therapy proved to be transformational for both these young girls.
Ella has come out of her shell, wearing her hoodie without the hood up and her face uncovered. She started to speak a bit more, not just with Sam but others too and engaged with the other participants on the programme and at school.
*Names in this story have been changed to protect the identities of the individuals
Praying for Children 