Finding joy in the everyday

Intolerances :   " unwillingness to accept views, beliefs, or behaviour that differ from one's own." * * * A baby isn’t born with hatred, intolerance, racism, sexism, bigotry, homophobia and prejudice, sadly they are often taught these things by the ones who love them — their parents.  As a society we live in a world full of intolerances. Whilst not everyone is intolerant, we are seeing a growing number across the world thanks to politicians playing on the fears of the community and winding up the population.  Extreme nationalism has recently been seen in the United Kingdom following the referendum to leave the EU — with a 50% increase in reported hate crimes.  There are reports of schoolchildren terrified of being deported. “Polish vermin” and “send them home” seem to be becoming something that immigrants and non-whites have to once again have to endure. There are those who do not like people from countries that are different to our own,...

Hand with Reflecting Sphere , 1935 Lithograph Artist: Maurits Cornelis Escher 17 June 1898  - 27 March 1972 He is easily recognized for his frequently mathematically inspired woodcuts and lithographs. His work often contain impossible constructions, architecture and tessellations. M.C. Escher, during his lifetime, made 448 lithographs, woodcuts and wood engravings and over 2000 drawings and sketches. Like some of his famous predecessors, - Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, Dürer and Holbein, M.C. Escher was left-handed. Escher did not consider himself as an artist.  Apart from being a graphic artist, M.C. Escher illustrated books, designed tapestries, postage stamps and murals. He was born in Leeuwarden, the Netherlands, as the fourth and youngest son of a civil engineer. After 5 years the family moved to Arnhem where Escher spent most of his youth. After failing ...

Source A 2015 report (by Sensis) found that Australians now spend on average of 8.5 hours a week on Facebook alone. 24% checking social media more than five times a day. Seven in ten people used a smartphone to access their accounts.  While the U.S. did not lead global markets in terms of amount of time spent on social media networks, it was far and away the highest consumer of monthly data, spending the most time per day on their phones with a staggering 4.7 hours. Considering that the average American is awake for just over 15 hours a day (seeing as we sleep for an average of eight hours and 42 minutes), this means that we spend approximately a third of our time on our phones. ( source ) According to a CNN article from 2015, " Tweens, identified as children 8 to 12, spend about six hours, on average, consuming media. Some 13-year-olds check social media 100 times a day".  ( source ) If social media is a problem or becoming a problem—here are 5 things ...

John Sloan My thoughts for the coming month: Concerned about others How concerned are you about others? Do you think about the needs of strangers, such as the homeless, the poor, the sick, the elderly, the minority groups. Most people don't think about them very much at all, unless they are right in front of them and even then, they are willing to step over a homeless person and "not get involved". We live in a society that thinks a great deal about themselves but spends very little time concerned about others. Even Christian women will say that your priority is in the home so don't overstretch with other activities—but the Lord tells us to take care of the less fortunate in society which means you need to leave your homes and do something. You have a responsibility to help those in need.  Both the USA and Australia will be voting in a new leader (we voted on Saturday 2nd July)—for those who vote, do you think, when selecting the next party into power...

Past and Present series by Augustus Leopold Egg  Many Victorian paintings tell a story, but these three by Augustus Leopold Egg tell a very sad and tragic story that happened far too often to women in the 1800s. If you ever wanted to understand why women rose up and took charge of their situation and started the feminist movement, these paintings explain it perfectly. Women were treated like second-class citizens. They had no rights, they could loose everything, including their children and home on the whim of their husbands. The wife of Charles Dickson, English author, kicked his wife out of his home and forbad his children from seeing her, because he had taken on a mistress and didn't love her anymore. She was powerless to do a thing.  These three paintings are about the discovery of the woman's infidelity and its consequences.  In Victorian England a man could safely take a mistress without fear of recrimination, but for a woman to be unfaithful was an unforg...

How desperate are you for God? How desperate are you spiritually? How desperate are you to walk with God?  How desperate are you to know  His will for your life? How desperate are you to see your friend come to Christ?  How desperate are you for God? Funny how we become desperate for God when times are tough, but when we are sailing along without any major problems, we tend to let God slip to the back of our minds. We forget that we should be desperate for Him, at every moment, every hour of the day—not just during the difficult times in our lives.  Our lives are cosy and safe, we really don't have the struggles that many around the world have, we are not refugees on the road trying to find a new home, we don't even need to fight for our believes—sadly this has made us complacent  and we have forgotten why we need to be "desperate for God" in all aspects of our life. Perhaps we aren't as desperate (or...