A psychologist friend frequently advises us to ‘try something new’, to expand our view of the world and help build up self-confidence. Yesterday I experienced something new and it has given me a few things to meditate on. At the invitation of my friend Lee I accompanied her to an Anglican Ultreya.
It was quite a pleasant afternoon – a lot of singing, a lot of listening, a bit of sharing. The first thing that struck me was the spirit of fellowship in the crowd. There were about 70 or 80 people there I suppose, and they came from many places. They didn’t all know each other, but acted like they did – there was no guardedness or aloofness so common amongst strangers.
There was a dedication of one of the hymns to a local parishioner who had died recently, and it was touching to see his widow surrounded by friends with their hands resting on her to give comfort as they sang.
There were a couple of witness testimonials – the one I enjoyed most was by Mary Anne from Thallon. She described her weekly meal and bible meeting at “Granny’s Cottage” as the highlight of everyone’s week. It made me realise how important it is for people to gather together.
Nearly everyone who spoke mentioned times when they struggled with their faith, and how it is something they must constantly work on to maintain. I realised that faith isn’t a ‘club membership’ where you either have it or you don’t.
Hi Liss, I agree with you there that doing different things helps us to get and stay motivated as well as improving our self confidence. As when I was doing water aerobics, I was talking to a lady at dog training and I told her that I was doing water aerobics so that I can get back into training a dog.
This lady then told me that I was very motivated. I now have physio as you know and mum commented on this as well. I also read in a book that doing things that we are afraid of has a simular effect.