Skip to main content

About Me

My photo
Janine Claire Robinson
Port Elizabeth, South Africa
Welcome to my little writing corner. I count my many blessings to be a cherished wife and an ever-learning-loving-growing mother to 3 amazing children this side of Heaven and a precious little boy in Heaven. Together as a family we pastor a precious church community called Redeeming Hope Church. I've had the privilege of loving and following Jesus Christ since my earliest memories as a child. No matter what I've gone through in life, He has always been so present. At heart, I'm an encourager ... so this is a place where I get to wear my heart on my sleeve and share my journey of learning to live a life of love in action.

Lessons from a Box of Pop Corn

My house smells like pop corn and it makes me smile. I LOVE pop corn. My mom & dad used to have a pop corn machine which my sister and I used so often in the afternoons after school. I have yet to buy one now that I am a mommy - guess I should put it on my pressie list ;0) I am a bit naughty by cheating and buying microwave pop corn. I just find it SO CONVENIENT to quickly pop up a box as a snack for the girls (ok ... especially for me - hee hee). Funny how smell is so powerful in triggering memories. Sitting in my lounge surrounded by this amazing aroma brings back so many wonderful memories ... sharing my first box of popcorn with my handsomeness on one of our early dates before we married ... sitting in the kitchen with my mom, granny and sister playing scrabble with a  HUGE bowl of salt and vinegar flavoured popcorn ... making lunch boxes for my girls and adding a packet of pop corn in, which reminds me of the many bags of pop corn my mom made for me :0) Such special memories.  
Why am I blogging about pop corn ... I am getting there I promise ;0)
I love that Jesus taught such simple yet life changing truths through parables when He walked the earth with His disciples. He drew on the everyday things around them to explain spiritual and life giving heart lessons. Popping a box of pop corn this afternoon took on a deeper meaning for me. As I heard the popping I started thinking about how I am always so delighted at how a little corn kernel seed can pop into something so remarkable within seconds when it is heated up hot enough! And then I started to remember a verse that my parents taught me growing up ... "Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks" (Matthew 12:34). It got me thinking about how often we say things or do things that we don't really mean when the pressure builds up. While most of the time we do not mean to intentionally harm, our words and actions come from somewhere. What pops out of us when we feel hurt, or misunderstood, betrayed, pressurized ... basically when the heat or pressure is on us? Whatever we have been mulling over and storing up in our heart has a way of eventually "popping out". It reveals our heart condition. Is this not why God says to us in Proverbs 4:23 "Keep and guard your heart with all vigilance and above all that you guard, for out of it flow the springs of life." His words are an encouragement to us to look at the condition of our hearts. If something "pops out" that is not pleasing, life giving or a blessing to those around us, then if we are brave and humble enough to open our heart before Him who sees and cares for our heart, He is able to restore and heal and cause life to stream out of us like a spring of fresh living water. What an encouragement this thought is to me today. God loves and cares and tends to the condition of each of our hearts when we are vulnerable enough to open it up before Him. May we learn a beautiful lesson from King David in the Bible who said "Search me (thoroughly), O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there is any wicked or hurtful way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting." (Psalm 139:23-24). David was no perfect man and yet because He made his heart vulnerable to God, God delighted in saying of David many years later in Acts 13:22 that He David as "a man after My own heart". God is no respecter of persons. When we live vulnerably open before God and allow Him to lead and guide us as David did ... He too says of us that we are His daughters or sons after His own heart!
Who knew God had something so precious to show us through a simple box of pop corn ;0)
All my love xxx
Janine 

Comments

Niqui said…
Shew!! That's so good!!!

It's so true that all the nonsense that we store up on the inside of us, does eventually 'pop' out!!

You've given me allot to think about!

I also want to be a woman after God's heart!

Thanx my precious sis!

All the world xxx
I have just seen your blog for the first time... and what a treat!!! What lovely words Janine - Isnt it amazing how some people can take everyday words and form them into sentences with so much meaning, atmosphere and emotion which together somehow makes the truth so much easier to recognise? I look forward to reading some more kernels (ahem...scuse the pun!!) of truth in the future!! ;-)

mwah, love H xxx
Anonymous said…
Hi Janine. Thats a great analogy. Now I'll never be able to watch popcorn pop again without thinking of the condition of my heart. Thats good really. Its like you said, Jesus used everyday things so we could all understand.
God bless
Tracy
Annie said…
Oh Janine, once again your words touch my soul!! I often pray for the Lord to forgive me for my sinful thoughts, whether they stem from anger or envy or whatever. They "pop" into my head sometimes and I am getting much better at immediately asking for forgiveness but sometimes it hits me later that I need to ask the Lord to watch over my thoughts and know my heart to guide me. I find myself asking Him to just search my heart and just lay it all out for me because I know that He knows my heart SO much better than I do! Thanks again sweet Janine!! Now I have a hankerinig for some popcorn!!
Onlythemanager said…
I have always loved popcorn but I admit I never got all that from it! :-)
Reformed rebel said…
Hi Janine...I have just been reading some posts that I missed. Quite a few actually!! They are all so good! This one really makes me think. I'm sure (for myself) that many things have "popped" out that shouldn't have. This is a great reminder to be more careful.

Blessings...Chelle

Popular posts from this blog

Reasons to Celebrate

I am quickly typing this in between trying to pack up for Cape, and while packing I am having this to celebrate :0) What to celebrate you may ask ... well you would be amazed at how many amazing blessings you will discover of how good God has been to you when you start looking back and remembering what He has walked you through. Today I am celebrating many wonderful things! I am celebrating how no matter how dark certain moments have appeared to be, His light has ALWAYS broken through!!! Hope & Love have ALWAYS overcome the deepest of fears.  I am celebrating the precious family He has surrounded Brett and I with and the amazing friends and loved ones who have cheered us on and been praying us through. I celebrate how He has cocooned both my daughters hearts with the same peace He has cocooned Brett and my heart with and sheltered our precious family in constant hope of abundant life! I celebrate that as an extended family He has faithfully taught us all how to walk in victory

We are Seeing the Miracles Unfold!

Precious friends and family ... we are starting to see the miracles unfold! We just KNOW that we are living in the miracle :0) Yesterday we had a scan with the specialist who discovered and diagnosed all of Zac's heart defects in August. It's been about 6 weeks since the day we heard the horrible news. As you may remember, the defects she discovered that day in "that" heart were so complex ... not only one defect, but multiple! There was the issue of only 1 chamber; only seeing one major valve from the heart to the lungs where there must be 2 and then the complication of not being able to clearly see the arch of the aorta. What she saw of it, as well as  several other specialists, it looked too narrow and underdeveloped from what we could understand. When we came back from that first scan and spoke with our friend and paediatrician ... this was one of his biggest concerns. The aortic arch is so important in the functioning of the heart!  So before we went for the

The Day of Promise has Arrived

Precious friends ... The big day has finally arrived! Come 4pm today we will be taken into theater to meet our precious miracle son! Our hearts are filled with the Promises of our Beloved Jesus. This post is our hearts response of praise and adoration to Him because He has faithfully carried us through each day with "heart peace", strength, hope, faith and incredible love. He has coached us in how to stand leaning into His Almighty power, wisdom and goodness and has taken all the fear out of this journey. Today our hearts are soooooo excited. It is the day of promise ... Zac's appointed day to shine forth His Glory. As a family we want to thank each and every person and family who has lavished their love, encouragement and prayers to stand with us in looking to Jesus, the Great Physician in knitting Zac's inward parts intricately and wholly in my womb. We will keep you posted as we rejoice in great expectation at witnessing God's amazing love in action! Our eyes