My Belated Bucket List.

My husband says all the best ideas are nicked. I saw this on a few friend's blogs a while ago, thought it was a great idea and then promptly forgot about doing mine. So here is my attempt.

• Teach myself to Quilt.
• Visit a Amish Community to see their Quilting.
  
• Get over my fear of flying.
• Fly in a helicopter with my husband our county.
  
• Visit Canada, American, Italy.
• Do some mission work in Eastern Europe.
• Study for and pass a degree.
• Learn to surf.
• Learn to drive.
• Own a VW Beetle Car.
• I would love to go skiing again. The last time I tried I wasn't very good at it but it was such great fun.
  
• Get to a point in my life where I am happy being me. And not care what others think.
  
• Ride a Harley Davidson.
• Climb Ben Nevis.
• Be able to play the piano proficiently.
• Teach my girls the basics of reading music.
  
• Train my girls in the way of the Lord.
• Watch my girls become normal functioning adults who contribute to the world.
• Meet up with Pam.
• Meet up with other on-line friends.
• See my church become a beacon in our town.
• Read some CS Lewis.
• Write a poem or two.
• To become a godly woman.
• Spend some time in a really expensive hotel.
• Develop a really fun relationship with my siblings.
  
• Learn to pray in a Christ-like way.
• I would love to go on a top-quality Cookery Course with my girls, in fact my husband could come along as well if he liked.
• If I had my way (and the money!) I would make a spa/pamper day an annual feature of my life. And when my girls are old enough bring them along as well.
  

When I read a few bucket lists I thought (in my Eeyore state at the moment!) that I wouldn't have much to put on one but I have surprised myself. I am sure if I thought about it there would be more things I could add.

Lessons from Wilberforce

I listened to a great talk by John Piper the other day. It was an inspiration. He spoke on William Wilberforce (you can find it here: http://www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLibrary/Biographies/1492_Peculiar_Doctrines_Public_Morals_and_the_Political_Welfare)

What an amazing man Wilberforce was. He was driven by his love of Jesus to his life work of ridding my country of the slave trade. (The grand object of my parliamentary existence [is the abolition of the slave trade]. . . Before this great cause all others dwindle in my eyes, and I must say that the certainty that I am right here, adds greatly to the complacency with which I exert myself in asserting it. If it please God to honor me so far, may I be the instrument of stopping such a course of wickedness and cruelty as never before disgraced a Christian country.) He never seemed to become despondent by the many times the Bill failed; in fact, it seemed to strengthened him. His life was full of human disappointment: Ill-health, a wife who perhaps didn't have his passion for life, wayward children, constant personal attack, etc etc. This man rested on God and worked for Him.

This quote is just great: My grand objection to the religious system still held by many who declare themselves orthodox Churchmen. . . is, that it tends to render Christianity so much a system of prohibitions rather than of privilege and hopes, and thus the injunction to rejoice, so strongly enforced in the New Testament, is practically neglected, and Religion is made to wear a forbidding and gloomy air and not one of peace and hope and joy.

As Christians we fail so much when we forget the joy of the Lord in our daily walk. If all Christians were as focussed on God as Wilberforce was, it would be phenomenal to see what we could achieve in the 21st Century.