Encouragement: The Key to Caring

This book was written by Dr Larry Crabb and Dr Dan Allender.

I google image searched the book and google gave me this picture...

It's completely different to the copy I have which is a bright green book that looks like this...

The difference between the two is that my version was bought at a book sale for $1! I seriously cannot help bragging about the bargains I get...

Anyway...

The book was so good. I think for me, encouragement has always been one of those things that I had a vague idea about, but that I never really knew how to define. 'Oh yeah, it's just like being nice to someone especially when they are feeling down and stuff'

But it's so much more.

Crabb and Allender help unpack what exactly encouragement is. What it is, what it isn't, why it's important, what barriers there are to it, what an encourager is like, how encouragement works, how it can change others and how to do it. There was just so much in there! I read this book quite quickly because it was really easy to read, and it gave me a thirst to want to know more. A chapter would end talking about some other topic and that would be addressed in the following chapter.

I found the concepts of surface communities especially interesting as this is something I have often observed growing up in church where people have layers that keep other people from knowing their fears. This in effect has the result that people communicate by just talking from one layer to another and never really get to address the core fears of others. They end up thinking they have encouraged someone, but anything that they thought they did was shallow and ultimately ineffective. We are to be totally committed to being instruments used by God in other people's lives.

I also found it interesting that the wrong solution to a surface community was  total openness. Crabb and Allender explain that total openness is self-serving as you are really just presenting your true self and expecting other people to accept you 'just the way you are'. We are to depend on God for acceptance - not other people. Total openness as Crabb and Allender put it is 'falesely courageous self-centredness'. Ouch! But so true.

Encouragement: The Key to Caring is a very practical book and a helpful resource which is fantastic because it is something that we all need to know how to do as Christians.

it's been a while...

...since I've cleaned the windows at home. Today we did a bit of spring cleaning and I found this two cent piece in the window tracking. We haven't used two cent pieces in like 20 years!

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birthday blessings to a big brother

Today was my bro's birthday.

Though we have our differences at times, he's still a pretty good brother most of the time. I know I can count on him to give me a stern talking to when I need it (and even when I don't) - but that's cool, he's my gor gor and that's what gor gor's do. God has used him to shape me, teach me, encourage me, and toughen me up.

For that I am pretty grateful. Here's to my gorgsie!

accidental genius-ness

Problem: lack of desk space

My solution: get lid from plastic storage box and place on my lap in a makeshift stable-table kinda way

Accidental genius-ness: got distracted, placed lid on open draw to stand up, and realised I was an accidental genius...



problem soved



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the urban orchard

Perth is a cool city. We have beautiful weather, people are friendly, work-life is relaxed, we aren't too over-crowded, and we don't care too much about what other people think of us. We could comfortably walk down to the shopping mall (well at least the smaller ones) in our ugg boots and nobody would really care.

I remember a friend from Melbourne came over once and described people in Perth as 'not pretentious' and I really think she described Perth very well.

Don't you agree?

Where else would you be able to plop a vegetable garden in the middle of the 'cultural precinct' with a man-made swamp just a stone's throw away?

I'm serious!

We have a vegetable garden outside our Art Gallery and it's called the Urban Orchard - check it out!

If you forget your lunch one day, you can always go to the vegie patch, pick a few leaves, grab a tin of tuna from woolies - and hey presto - lunch in a jiffy!

I actually don't know if you're allowed to go picking stuff from there - so don't quote me please!

But the idea is quite original. I'm sure people from other states will think it's very backwards and weird, but I think it's original and I really believe that if they say anything like that, it's just out of jealousy because they can't get free salad. :)

A few weeks ago, when I was strolling by the vegie patch, there was something else quite original that caught my eye - lotuses made of recycled plastic floating on tyres in a wading pool!

Other states, eat your heart out...

gettin' grill'd

I was first exposed to grill'd in Melbourne. I tried some of their chips and was hooked - fried to a golden crisp and then sprinkled with herbs and sea salt... They were SOO good that I took a menu back home to drool over in Perth. Grill'd became a 'must-go' in Melbourne and whenever I went to Melbourne for work or whatever, I would go back to visit my dear friend - even if I dined alone...

Then grill'd opened in Perth.

It took over the old Cino to Go in Mt Lawley and though it was sad to see Cino's go, it was great to see grill'd in it's place - I can always get my Cino's hit elsewhere. 'Twas a happy day indeed, when I went to grill'd in Perth for the first time and feasted on a delicious burger and of course those delectable fries..

Needless to say I have been back a few more times.

the wild west burger

the BEST chips with herbed mayo

Mt Lawley grill'd

Now a second shop has opened in Subiaco! Funny, they also took over the old Cino to Go...It only opened this week, and a few of us went to check it out on Tuesday night.

Honestly, it was pretty disappointing - but not terrible. I was expecting my beef to be juicy, but it was a tad dry and quite average, and I think they were a bit too heavy-handed with the tomato sauce. Oh, and the chips were pale and soggy! Given, they are still learning - but hopefully they will learn quickly :)

they don't make teabags like they used to...

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I'm reading...

Esther: A Woman of Strength and Dignity by Charles Swindoll

Disciplines of a Godly Woman by Barbara Hughes

The Book of Psalms :)

And I recently (today) acquired a few books from Koorong...

The Shadow of the Almighty by Elisabeth Elliot (a biography about Jim Elliot)

and Mornings with Tozer (a devotional by AW Tozer)

That should keep me occupied for a while.

I got mail!

I got mail yesterday. My order from Nicene Council arrived - a whole box full of DVDs! Yeeeow!

I don't often get stuff like this on the mail so it was a Kodak moment...

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God is so good!

He's so good to me....

I once was lost, but now am found...

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