Written by Uilleam Mac Gafraidh
It has been a trying week at “Tigh Na Mac Gafraidh” – we have all been ill at some point during the week.
First of all me, left church a week last Sunday (Feb 28th) because I was feeling lightheaded and had trouble breathing, on Monday I sat for 2 hours in a doctors and was made to make an appointment for Wednesday as it was not an emergency (how much more of an emergency is not breathing) Now I am on steroids to help with the breathing and I think I have some sort of allergy, if you were a betting man it would most likely be a mould allergy. I also have a bubble in my ear, I think I might be getting an ear infection!
Second of all, Chelsea. I am not sure whether she has the same or not but she is having issues breathing also. She has a heavy cough that has lasted for about a week now and I think that she will need to head off to the doc’s herself soon! That and every strain of flu and every bug is knocking her for six. It is not fun to watch someone you love go through that!
And lastly, the one you all have clicked to read about, Tabi! She has had her share of infections, coughs and flu’s recently. The Doc sent her for a CT scan yesterday and she has an ECG scan later on this week. Early indications are that the CT scan showed that things were normal, but it is still a worrying time to be a parent. When she came back yesterday she was a little high maintenance! She is worth the extra attention!
So keep us in your prayers all of us in my sick wee clan Mac Gafraidh! Also feel free to comment below if you would like to give some feedback
God bless
Uilleam Mac Gafraidh
Written by Uilleam Mac Gafraidh
For those of you who have been following the American media over the past few days, you will be aware of the controversy surrounding a Senator that is local to where I live. Senator Roy Ashburn has had all manners of things supposed about his life both private and career life following his drink/drive DUI arrest last week in California’s capital, Sacramento.
Well Senator Ashburn has come out and advised to the local and national media, that the rumours of his possible behaviour may be true. He has advised that he is gay. Now this comes as a shock to many who have supported the Republican candidate, who has a constituency that covers San Bernadino, Kern and Tulare counties.
Well let us take all emotion out of this, let us forget for a second that this is a Politician who has fought to protect marriage and has voted down many Pro- same sex pieces of legislation. So much so as he was seen as an “anti-gay” legislator. Personally and this is with 20/20 vision, Senator Ashburn is guilty only of being a hypocrite, and when does that surprise you about a politician.
Of course, over the next few days you will hear a lot about this man, how he has 4 daughters, how he is divorced and how he has let people down, if this was back in the UK. The party knives would be out, a forced resignation would happen and you would see the candidate standing as an independent as “the name you know” against his old party and his old party fielding a new candidate, hopefully with less skeletons in the closet, no pun intended!
What I would say to all who are judging him is the same as Jesus said to the adulterous woman who was in danger of getting her head melted with stones from Jerusalem’s finest. “Let he who is without sin cast the first stone” (Found in the Book of John Chapter 8)
Now I have no idea whether it is just because I am immune to hearing about politicians private lives through the tabloid media in the UK that it had very little bearing on who I voted for. God allows people to be in power for a season. Personally I did not vote for Senator Ashburn, so although I cannot be blamed, I can also feel for him at this time.
Now I am not saying ignore the sin, by all means, if Senator Ashburn is in a position to hear from someone regarding it then please let him hear. What I am saying is that behind the headlines and all the muck, slander and half truths that are flying around; there is an actual person there who is going through a lot. Him, his ex wife and his kids all need your prayers!
God bless
Uilleam Mac Gafraidh
Written by Uilleam Mac Gafraidh
First of all, apologies to all the readers who have been looking for more recent updates, it’s been one thing after another here and by taking time to write this note, I am probably neglecting another area of my life that needs attention, but I have always been a juggler!
But he reason I write this is that I am actually quite bummed, you see, for the last few days wee Tabi has been ill and I personally have not been much use about the house! You see, I have been ill too!
It is times like this that I was hoping to be the hero and swoop to my wife’s rescue! Take Tabi, let my poor sleep deprived wife get a well earned nap, but no, I had a really bad cold, spinny head syndrome, a fuzzy head and my asthma kicked in and finished me off, I spent most of yesterday (Thursday) on the sofa sleeping it off and the times that my wife couldn’t look after the baby, we had to call in my mother in law Valeri to be reinforcements!
So it is a whopping fail in my first major parenting test, lots of developmental issues that I need to work on and really need to raise my game for the next time! Especially as the last time Chelsea was ill at the same time as the baby, she just got on with it, kind of makes me feel like a wee bit of a whiner!
I did managed to redeem myself somewhat last night when the baby fell asleep on me and I was the baby’s mattress, (well lets face it, there is plenty of me to go around! I have such a sizeable belly that I could quite happily share my belly with 5 others and we all would still be called “chubby”)
Having the baby sleep on me, cuddle into me and take her rest on me was just perfect, it kind of reminds me of the rest we have in Jesus (but I will try not to preach today as my head is still clearing!)
So enough of my woes! May God bless you and please pray for my daughter Tabi’s health, she seems to be picking up every wee bug that is going around.
God bless you one and all
Uilleam Mac Gafraidh
Written by Uilleam Mac Gafraidh
This is the second article on the second day of Lent, (Don’t worry, I am not planning to do one for all of the days of Lent!) but a certain issue has arisen in my heart regarding the whole procedure of Lent and what it means to certain folks and certain groups.
Yesterday, I gave an introduction to Lent and gently asked what your purpose behind it was; now I am being slightly more direct and asking, where is your heart?
The question is an easy one to answer if you open up your heart and seek your true motivation. Are you, for example, doing what you are doing because you are a Good Catholic/Episcopalian/Lutheran… whatever denomination you belong to? Or is the reason you are doing it based on a day to day relationship with the living Christ and a desire to grow closer to him by forgoing something and making a sacrifice.
One of the most obvious question you need to ask is “what is my motivation?” or “what am I hoping to achieve from this?” A bad example of this would be that if you are using Lent to lose weight by giving up chocolate and not using it as it was meant to be used.
In my opinion, and this is just my opinion; Lent should be used as a time of prayer, supplication and devotion to the LORD. It should not be all about the process of giving up something.
Should Lent be used properly, I really have no issue with it at all, if you are doing it to be a good Catholic/Piskie/Lutheran/Methodist…whoever, then you are really missing the point and to be honest, it really does you or your church a dis-service as there is no place for false piety in the kingdom of God.
God see’s our motives behind our actions and folks who do that really are not fooling anyone. These people are really no better than the Pharisee’s in Jesus time who spoke great swelling words to God, but denied him in their hearts!
You will see this is evident in epistles such as Jude, who speaks of folks who “talk the talk” but their lives are far from being Spirit-Led. Things like this grieve me as despite our differences, we are all representative of Christ’s church in the world, the unbeliever does not see denominational differences, the church as a whole (with it’s mistakes and errors) are all lumped into one parcel.
Now I am not going to diss anyone who wants to use this time to get a closer relationship with Jesus. But I would suggest that that you make the commitment longer than 40 odd days that are for Lent. Perhaps this is all about the heart, I also recognize that we are all different and some journeys require more steps than others.
My prayer is that should you use Lent to start a closer relationship with Christ, that it be a change that would be a lot longer than just a short festival, much as my opinion on Valentines Day, that you should love that “special someone” all year and not just on a designated date, in the same fashion, the relationship with Christ is not just for “40 days”.
God Bless
Uilleam Mac Gafraidh
Written by Uilleam Mac Gafraidh
In case you didn’t realize, today is Ash Wednesday, this is the day that Lent officially starts for many folks within a few Christian denominations, if you are Methodist, Roman Catholic, Anglican or Episcopalian, chances are you would have observed Ash Wednesday today.
As a lapsed Piskie/Anglican (I attended St. Silas) I am used to giving things up for Lent, I never actually participated in an Ash Wednesday service, but I have made money out of Ash Wednesday!
You see, I didn’t really do “Lent” as when I was growing up in the West of Scotland, I saw it as a “Catholic” sacrament, so I never actually grew up with the burden to do this.
When I worked at Celtic, they were really short staffed that day and I filled in whilst folks went to church to their Ash Wednesday services, I was happy that day, that’s for sure!
The whole Lent thing, I haven’t done for some time now and I certainly did not prepare for it, prayed or even given soulful consideration to what I would withdraw from, ideally it would be something that is a distraction from God, (to get the actual point of the whole thing correct!)
In case you are alien to the concept, Lent happens 40 days (not including Sundays) from Easter, the idea is that you follow the example of Jesus, who went 40 days and 40 nights in the wilderness without food to prepare himself for his mission. The idea at least is that you go without something that you love to bring you closer to God.
The LORD went to fast and pray, during this time was the time that Satan attempted to tempt him (Found in Matthew 4) I think this is a great lesson of finding strength in God, through faith, despite trials and temptations. Jesus was tempted by the chief tempter himself. We could do worse than looking to that example.
I would be interested to find out what you are giving up for Lent. Also I would be interested to find out if it was something that you actually would be sacrificing. I know many folks of many denominations who give up something that they rarely have, like coffee if they are tea drinkers and vice versa.
If I was to do that I would give up chocolate, the reason for that would be I could go happily 40 days without eating chocolate, which would not be a sacrifice as I could do that in a second and would certainly not be in the spirit of getting closer to God. There are folks who do that and I would warn you, that God sees the heart and the motives behind such actions!
So are you observers of Lent?
Uilleam Mac Gafraidh
