Mandy Catto

What would you write if you were invited to write a letter to yourself at the sweet age of 16? Would you go for the ‘change your life, make different choices and change history’? Or would you want to reassure and reassure the tentative teenager? Activate supporter Faye Smith was asked by her local Sheffield newspaper to write her thoughts and this is the process she went through –

: “Writing the letter was an amazingly powerful exercise.

“It provoked a lot of soul-searching.

“I thought of preventing tragedies, but as any Dr Who fan will tell you, that irrevocably alters the space time continuum and tumbles us into chaos.

“So there was no standing at the foot of the twin towers or at the gates of Hillsborough.

“In the end I tried to reassure the girl I was that the problems she thought were so monumental, like the bullying I endured at school, would go away.

“Isn’t that what we’d all like – to know that things are going to get better?

“I can now see, though, that all those hard times forged something in my character, brought people into my life and prepared me for my future.

“‘Je ne regrette rien,’ as Piaf said.”

Blessings on you 16-year-old Faye…

Great news! You were right, the last four years of your life have truly been the worst of your life. But the bully who has made your life a misery is leaving…

Everything changes for you now.

Every year after this you will feel more able, more confident, more attractive, happier in your own skin and accept and understand yourself more, gaining a sense of purpose in life.

So stop people-pleasing and comparing right now.

There will always be prettier, sportier, brighter and more popular girls around but it’s so much more attractive to be positively yourself.

Enthusiasm and happiness are contagious.

Persistence will get you further than talent – and black won’t suit you!
Your life will never look like a flat line – that’s cardiac arrest.

It has many valleys as well as peaks, but Faye, lilies grow only in the valleys and make those mountain tops all the more precious.

Faithful friends, who will love, support, celebrate the good and stand with you in the bad, pour into your life from the age of 22.

And remember to keep family close.

There’s nothing coming that you can’t handle: there will be triumphs, joys and some heartbreaking sadness but remember your name means faith and that will sustain you every day of your life, as will your belief that the Almighty turns every circumstance to his good purposes.

At 17 you will weep over your lack of vocation. Relax. You discover both yourself and business at university.

You were designed as a creative communicator, which will bring you several careers to enjoy.

Then you find the strength to step off the wheel for a while to bring up your two precious children. By 30 you finally discover you are a human being, not a human doing.

Give thanks and forgive daily, move on and embrace every opportunity.
You make it to at least 43 with no regrets.

Faye x

PS: You are right, ’80s music will always be the bes

Thursday 26 November at 8pm.
We are really thrilled to have Diane Mallon and the Sign Choir to entertain us. The music, singing and pictures will have a real Christmas flavour and it will be fascinating and captivating to see how a deaf person uses sign language to communicate. Men invited also. Tickets £5 available from 0161 485 1539 or contact Ann Green 0161 439 6629 or anngreen@totalise.co.uk for more information.

HE IS BEAUTIFUL

Psalm 27 says:
The LORD is my light and my salvation—
whom shall I fear?
The LORD is the stronghold of my life—
of whom shall I be afraid?
3 Though an army besiege me,
my heart will not fear;
though war break out against me,
even then will I be confident.
4 One thing I ask of the LORD,
this is what I seek:
that I may dwell in the house of the LORD
all the days of my life,
to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD
and to seek him in his temple.

Iworship@home DVD 1 Track 14 – God of Wonders

Not only is God beautiful, He showers down on us beautiful gifts. Sometimes He gives us beautiful people, those who are beautiful on the inside. He gives us beautiful moments in our lives and sometimes there are beautiful places that are really special to us.

Piano Music: Julia Bradley – Song for Mike
(while think of the beautiful things God has given to us)
 
YOU ARE BEAUTIFUL

And not only is God beautiful, but He has put His beauty in you too.

Ecclesiastes 3v11 says: He has made everything beautiful in its time.

The Cocoon:
Along a dusty road in India there sat a beggar who sold cocoons. A young boy weatched him day after day, and the beggar finally beckoned to him. “Do you know what beauty lies within this chrysalis? I will give you one so you might see for yourself. But you must be careful not to handle the cocoon until the butterfly comes out.” The boy was enchanted with the gift and hurried home to await the butterfly. He laid the cocoon on the floor and became aware of a curious thing. The butterfly was beating its fragile wings against the hard wall of the chrysalis until it appeared it would surely perish before it could break the unyielding prison. Wanting only to help, the boy swiftly pried the cocoon open. Out flopped a wet, brown ugly thing which quickly died. When the beggar discovered what had happened, he explained to the boy “In order for the butterfly wings to grow strong enough to support him, it is necessary that he beat them agains the walls of his cocoon. Only by this struggle can his wings become beautiful and durable. When you denied him that struggle, you took away from him his only chance of survival. May the walls of your cocoon be just thick enough to allow you to struggle just long enough to emerge the beautiful person I already know you to be.

You see God can also bring something beautiful out of whatever has happened or is happening in your life

In 2 Corinthians 4 (The Message), Paul writes,
We’ve been surrounded and battered by troubles, but we’re not demoralized; we’re not sure what to do, but we know that God knows what to do; we’ve been spiritually terrorized, but God hasn’t left our side; we’ve been thrown down, but we haven’t broken.

And I am sure many of you can identify with those feelings in some way. I know sometimes it seems impossible to say those verses and really believe them in our hearts. I know there are times when I can’t find God or see His face, there are times when it feels like I’ve used up all my faith and I can barely flutter let alone break down a the wall of my cocoon.

As you go through today, take the opportunity to allow God to speak something beautiful into your life and your circumstances.

Take the opportunity to reflect on what God wants to say into your everyday life.

DO SOMETHING BEAUTIFUL

But do you know, when we recognise God’s beauty and when we realise the beauty He has placed within us, there comes a responsibility. We are called to love our beautiful God but we are also called to love our neighbour.

Isaiah 52 v7 says
How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation, who say to Zion, Your God reigns!

If you know anything about Activate Your Life, you will know that we are deeply passionate about reaching women for Jesus in a way that is modern and relevant to their current needs. Our aims are two-fold. The first being to resource and inspire Christian women to get out into their communities. The other being to free up women to discover who they really are and what God can do through our unique identities.

If we know Jesus we have news that can’t be hidden. The life of Jesus in us needs to work through our hands and our feet.

We must go and do something beautiful.

As we work out what beautiful things God has placed within us, we need to discover what He would have us do for Him. You are unique. Whatever you’ve been through, however long you feel you’ve been flapping at that cocoon, God wants to use the beauty in you to touch other people.

Go and do something Jesus would.
Do something beautiful!

“The life that you’ve been living, the days that you’ve been given
Were made for something beautiful
Life – don’t let it pass you by
Because you were created for something beautiful”
(Natalie Grant)