Week 4 – Weekend Pause & Reflect – Community

Pause and Reflect:

Take a verse from the past week – Write it out. Pray About it. Apply it.

What has God been saying to you about community and relationships this week?

1. Are there any boundaries you have been kicking against and need to step away from?
2. How can you get involved in your local community and build relationships in it?
3. How can we serve others with respect and humility?
4. Are there any people/places/things which could become idols to us and which we need to let go?
5. Are you serving, are you finishing well?

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Thank you for visiting, hope you have enjoyed this series: ‘A Month With Mother Hen’, if you would like to go back to the introduction/contents page, please click here.

“I’m participating in 31 Days of Five Minute Free Writes in October!   www.fiveminutefriday.com/31days2019“

Week 4; Day 5 – Finish Well

So you also, when you have done everything you were told to do, should say, “we are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty”.

luke 17:10

Matilda has been a fine mother, infact she has been excellent. She has patiently incubated & hatched out 7 chicks. She has nurtured, guarded and taught them. Her job is done, finished, the end? Or is it? Will she start over again next year?

We like a bit of praise and recognition for the work we have done, don’t we? We want others to recognise the time and effort we have put in to something, an act of service, showing some kindness, or some sacrifice.

Yet Jesus tell us we have only done that which was required of us as His servants. Our joy and satisfaction should be that we have served and served well, even if no-one else notices!

Lord, may we always give You the Praise and glory for anything You have enabled us to do. May our service be to You and may we finish well. Amen.

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this is the final week of the series, ‘A Month With Mother Hen’, if you would like to go back to the introduction/contents page, please click here.

“I’m participating in 31 Days of Five Minute Free Writes in October!   www.fiveminutefriday.com/31days2019“

Week Four; Day Four – No Idols

Dear children, keep yourselves from idols.

1 JOHN 5:21

At 12 weeks Matilda must let of of her chicks. She needs to go back to her own flock and must let the chicks mature and become productive members of the coop.

Sometimes we hold things too dear and need to learn to let them go. Particularly with our children, it is hard to let them go, hard to watch their little fledgling attempts into adulthood. But there are other things we can hold dear and find difficult to let go of. Perhaps it is the careers we have built up and now need to let go of. Or even our own fiercely fought for independence, our pride, our reputations, even our ‘yeses’.

What do we need to hand over to the Lord today so that it doesn’t become an idol in our lives?

Lord, may I have open hands and open heart, not holding on too tightly to the things I need to let go of.

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This is the last week of the series, ‘A Month With Mother Hen’, if you would like to go back to the introduction/contents page, please click here.

“I’m participating in 31 Days of Five Minute Free Writes in October!   www.fiveminutefriday.com/31days2019“

Week 4; Day Three – Relationships

Do not rebuke an older man harshly, but exhort him, as if he were your father. Treat younger men as brothers, older women as mothers and younger women as sisters, with absolute purity.

1 Timonthy 5:1-2

Already amongst the chicks there is a little sparring going on, but they will soon have to learn the pecking order of things – which is old hens rule! The chicks will very “peckedly” be kept in order and will have to learn to wait their turn for food and treats.

Sometimes we need to learn our place too don’t we? Not get too above ourselves, not thinking of ourselves more highly than we ought, but rather serving one another in humility and treating others with respect.

Remember Jesus, kneeling down and washing the disciples feet? Such a lowly task and we are called to go and do likewise.

Lord, help me to serve others with the same humility & thoughtfulness which You showed and to follow Your example. Amen.

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This is the last week of the series, ‘A Month With Mother Hen’, if you would like to go back to the introduction/contents page, please click here.

“I’m participating in 31 Days of Five Minute Free Writes in October!   www.fiveminutefriday.com/31days2019“

Week 4; Day Two – Community

God sets the lonely in families, He leads out the prisoners with singing …

Psalm 68:6

By 8 weeks we have moved Matilda & her chicks into the main hen pen. They still have their own wee ‘ark’ to stay in, but they are together in the larger pen with the other hens.

We too are placed in groups, in communities. Perhaps you may be an introvert like me and prefer solitude, but God has placed us in community for us to grow in relationships.

God is a relational God. He establishes relationships with us, He pours love into our hearts that we may love others and so that we can experience more of Him in this way.

Lord, Help me to love and interact in the community You have placed me in, that I may know You in relationship. Amen.

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This is the last week of the series, ‘A Month With Mother Hen’, if you would like to go back to the introduction/contents page, please click here.

“I’m participating in 31 Days of Five Minute Free Writes in October!   www.fiveminutefriday.com/31days2019“

Week 4; Day 1 – Boundaries

The Law of the Lord is perfect, refreshing the soul, the statutes of the Lord are trustworthy, making wise the simple. The precepts of the Lord are radiant giving light to the eyes by them your servant is warned; in keeping them is great reward.

Psalm 19:7,8,11

One of the very important lessons the wee chicks have to learn is fences – that they are there for their own protection; not just to keep them in and safe, but also to keep predators out.

God’s law is like that – there for our protection, there to keep us safe. So we should not kick against those laws nor resent them, but rather grow to value and respect them.

“By them is Your servant warned, in keeping them is great reward”

We should be glad when we come across one of God’s boundaries because then we know that we are being safe-guarded, and under the protection of the Lord.

Thank you Lord for Your law, Your commands & statutes, may we see that they are there for our safe-guarding and so rejoice in them. Amen.

Thank you for visiting, this is the last week of the series, ‘A Month With Mother Hen’, if you would like to go back to the introduction/contents page, please click here.

Week 3; Learning & Growing – Pause & Reflect

Take one verse from the reading from this past week –

Read it. Write it out. Pray over it.

Let us pause and reflect on the areas we are needing to learn and grow in:

1. Where do you need to hear Jesus’ voice to follow Him?
2. How can we “learn of Jesus” this week and follow His example?
3. What can we do to study deeper the Word of God?
4. In what areas do we need to slow and take a deep drink from the waters of life?
5. How can we be intentional in our growth, in becoming more like Jesus?

This is part of a series ‘A month with Mother Hen’. If you would like to go back to the introduction/contents page, please click here.

Week 3; Day 5 – Transforming

And we all, who with veiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into His image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.

2 Corinthians 3:18

By 8 weeks the wee chicks are more or less fully feathered, they have lost their soft down fluff and have their feathers which keep them dry and warm. They now just look like mini-hens!

Growing, learning, developing, changing is that us?

As we study the Word do we apply it to our lives? Do we allow it to work in our lives changing us?

Are we growing more into the image of Jesus, beginning to look like Him in attitude and love? Growing in the riches of His grace?

Lord, help us to grow in knowledge and truth of Your grace, allowing it to change us look more like You. Amen.

This is part of a series, ‘A Month With Mother Hen’, if you would like to return to the introduction/contents page, please click here.

Week 3; Day 4 – Drinking

Jesus answered, Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them, a spring of water welling up to eternal live.

John 4:13

Hens have a sweet wee way of drinking, they don’t gulp it down in one go, they take it up in their mouths and it is as if they savour it there for a moment or two before swallowing. The chicks do this too, very interesting to watch!

Another lesson for us – do we savour the Word of God? Do we let it sink in or are we always in such a rush that we just take a big gulp and then rush into our day without savouring it, without really tasting it, without being refreshed by it?

We need to slow. We need to take the time for the Word to get into us and refresh us. We need to drink long and deeply of the Word of life.

Lord, refresh my soul in You today. May I drink long and deep of You today. Amen.

This is part of a series, ‘A Month With Mother Hen’, if you would like to return to the introduction/contents page please click here.

Week 3; Day 3 – Searching

In fact by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s Word all over again. You need milk, not solid food.

hebrews 5:12

Very quickly the wee chicks learn to scratch for food, not just the hen food I feed them, but for other bugs and niceties they can find.

So too, we shouldnt just wait to be ‘taught’, but we need to learn and we need to learn for ourselves. We need to do our own scratching around in the Word to find the promises and instructions of God.

We can use Cross-References, Commentaries, Bible Studies etc, anything to get us going deeper and learning the truth for ourselves.

Lord, open Your Word to me, that I may learn and understand Yours ways. Amen.

This is part of a series, ‘A Month With Mother Hen’, if you would like to go back to the introduction/contents page, please click here.