Personal Words

Last Saturday I went into London to see Barbara Dickson in concert and on the drive in as I was chatting with my friend I suddenly interrupted myself to exclaim with delight, "Cherry blossom!" My attention had been momentarily captured by the vivid pink beauty of an ornamental cherry tree in full bloom. It stood out in marked contrast to the subdued tones of suburban houses made grimy by the fumes from the busy road, and all the more surprising for being so early in the season. It was the first cherry blossom I had seen this year. At Sunday evening's prayer meeting we broke into small groups and prayed together, and Christina asked me tentatively, "Have you passed some cherry blossom today?" Whilst praying, she had had a mental picture of a mass of cherry blossom and wondered what the significance was.

Then at tonight's Cell group meeting again we broke into small groups to pray and prophesy over each other, and this time Christina's word for me was 'parenting'. Recently I have been thanking God for having re-parented me to repair deficiencies in the parenting I had received through childhood (don't get me wrong, I think my parents were great and loved me very much, but I also recognise that I didn't get much socialising experience as an infant and through childhood and that this and my shyness meant I had a lot of ground to make up as an adult especially in respect of interpersonal and social skills). I've also been praying that He will in the same way re-parent my own (grown up) children to overcome any deficiencies in their upbringing.