Dan & Vereen's Blog

One Day I was in a hurry to pick something up from a building not familiar to me. My mind was filled with the things I had to do that day, as I walked briskly up to the glass double doors.

I stopped in front of them and stood there waiting for them to open automatically.
As I stood there, I looked through the glass doors to see a doctor’s surgery with people waiting their turn. A lady looked at me and smiled.Then the realization struck me! the doors didn’t open, so I looked at the handle to see the word PUSH.

Oh! I looked back at the lady who had a chuckle with me, with several joining in.

Yes! I had stood too long, waiting for everything to magically happen for me.

Now…isn’t this true in life? We expect things to just ‘happen’ for God to just ‘turn up’ when at times there needs to be a bit of effort of our part. At times we need to PUSH through!

I laughed when I went through the doors, did a little bow to the lady who had a full on laugh out loud. I watched her face, as a doctor (in a mask) came out and called her name. Her face changed and I couldn’t help but wonder what she had to ‘push’ through with that day.

Sometimes pushing through means change. Change can be exciting, new but more often than not if it’s difficult there is pain associated with it. The pain of changing a habit is minimal when the results are good. Change happens every day, sometimes every hour.

When riding our motorbike Dan (hubby) and I were going around many twists and bends on the old Pacific Hwy to Brooklyn for brekkie. If I hadn’t gone with the changes I would have caused an imbalance, riding on the back. The outcome could have been dangerous.

When riding we both look out for changes on the road. One corner, there was a dead kangaroo. We were upon it so quickly, but Dan made a quick change, I saw it and readjusted my riding. Again if I didn’t look out for it, I may have been off that bike.

In Dan’s book “How I Quit Being Angry” Dan talks about the Tool Box.  In this tool box there are many new habits to replace the old ones (tools) that don’t work.
If a change is not made….and a bad habit brings bad results all the time, then that is not moving forward or growing.

We need to become familiar with good changes, pushing through with new habits and watching the good results.
I hope today, as you go through some automatic doors or one that you need to push through, that you also, are mindful that it’s worth making good changes in our lives.

1 Corinthians 13:4-7

4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.5 It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres

http://www.activeministries.com/open.html

Dan & I teach our Course at One80tc(teen challenge) on a Wednesday morning. When travelling there, we drive through a few suburbs that has open country areas.

We were going down a fairly busy main road and I said ‘look at that’. There was a sheep on one side of the fence, a sheep on the other side and one more that was going under the barbed wire fence. Someone or ‘thing’ had burrowed a hole under the fence to get out.

I said ‘oh that’s not good’ as the road is a very busy one with large trucks travelling on it. Previously we had seen a few cows struck by trucks, lying dead on the side of the road. Not a good sight, with legs in the air. Ug!

Read more…

http://www.activeministries.com/Greener.html

My Husband Dan and I ride a Yamaha FJR1300 motorcycle. We absolutely love to get away on the bike as much as possible.

 There is a ‘code’ between most motorbike riders, and that is ‘the nod’. When riding past a fellow biker this nod is exchanged. I suppose you can put your own interpretation on this nod.

My one is a ‘hey’ from the Fonz on The Happy Days TV series. I have even said the heyyyyyyyyy on occasion… it means ‘seriously cool’ (fantastic, awesome, love it)

 We have a mutual admiration of each others bikes and the people riding it. Okay yes and I do confess, at times I have even saluted a few…  all fun.

Read the rest of this article here http://www.activeministries.com/the_nod

Unforgiveness is like taking poison hoping the other person will die.

This is so true. Today is not just wednesday to me, today we tackle forgiveness with the One80TC guys. My Husband Dan and I teach our Anger Management Course at One80TC (teen challenge). We give our time and energy (and much prayer) for these guys, each week.  It is so worth every minute. Today is a hard subject, as so many have been abused and hurt. So many out of unforgiveness has run amuck in their lives. It produces bad behaviour and dysfunctional lives. Check out Dan’s post on forgiveness, it is powerful.

http://www.activeministries.com/forgiveness_pt1.html

Had such a beautiful time with my Daughter and Grand baby yesterday. Savannah is now walking, but if she needs to get somewhere quick, she gets down on her kness, head down and goes for it. That’s a bit like us, we get down on our knees wanting the result straight away. We try to fast track God’s hand, want want want…haha…we get down and say ‘common God’. 

  But really God has everything worked out…in His time. When I’m going through a hard time I just love to sick by the beach. I contemplate that the waves have strict orders to go no further. God has this world in His hands as the song goes. It has order. When our lives feel out of order, put your life in our God’s capable hands.

Pray for the boys at One80tc they need your love, acceptance and prayers.

Blessings V

Gidday (this is an Australian term which means hi, hello)

Usually do a Vereen’s Vibe and put it on this blog.  But realise that it takes more to make a blog. A blog is a constant interaction of thoughts and ditties. Am I right?

Anyway, will still do the vibes, but also you can have a bit more input from me on here. That is if you want to hear from me,  like everyone else, we all have a story to tell. Realise that  alot of things I’ve done, is somewhat more than most, a bit of a roller coaster really. So I may waffle but hey, if we were talking together …there maybe some waffle in it, its what girls do. Not that a bloke cant read this.  Saw a joke today…it said….’There were two ladies sitting together…not talking’.  Har har..

Firstly, you may have read my vibes, if not go check them out .(link below)There is a bit of me in each one. The one on, ’Who are you?’ tells alot about me. Just love to hear stories of peoples lives and on here, I will endeavour to bring you some, of mine.  http://www.activeministries.com/who_are_you.html

Am however writing a book. Many have told me over the years to do this. Didn’t think I had much to say, until the tap tap tap of the keyboard brought forth many words. Already got 15 chapters up and running. It’s not all easy reading, as my life has not always been that easy. But the joys, of which I have had many, are there also. 

So hope this, my first real blog, will wet your appetite for more. And Maybe you could leave a comment. Just a thought. Signing off for now as my daughter and her baby are turning up for the afternoon. V.

I was in the backyard lying on the grass. I spied with my little eye…an ant. They are so busy. I said “hi ant, how are you today?’ No I am not losing my mind!

The ant went about his business oblivious to my talking to it, of course. He/she was so busy, totally ingrossed in its job of the day.

Read the entire http://www.activeministries.com/ants.html

At age forty five I found myself living as a single parent with 6 year old son. I was offered a housing commission home, which is cheaper housing provided by the government.

I had to accept this at the time. It was in a suburb that was ‘rough’. It seemed to be a regular event of dysfunction happening. Domestics, violence, and generally not a safe place to live.

I entered this house ready to make it my home. I said to my Father God, “You are going to have to protect us here”. I decided that the situation I found myself in was just a stepping stone to where I really wanted to be.

Read the entire article   http://www.activeministries.com/puzzle.html

I have talked in previous vibes about the race of life and how a race parallels our lives. There is a start and a finish. We started as a winner and because of Jesus we will end as a winner. But what about all the stuff in between?

We were not born with a manual. We have not been given clear instruction on how to sort things in our lives. Yes, the bible helps us and shows us the way but we also need to go to God for healing and vision.

In Session 2 of our course we talk about new habits. It takes 700 times to choose against a certain action to break an old habit however it only takes 7 times of doing something different to create a new habit.

There may be some destructive habits in our lives pulling us off track. We can be easily distracted from what is important and our vision will become cloudy.

See the whole article > http://www.activeministries.com/mute.html