Lessons From Sunflowers

It seems my sunflower story struck a chord with a lot of people. Thank you for the lovely comments I've had about it.

I have to remind myself on a daily basis to be more like a sunflower- keeping my focus on my source of light and nourishment. The moment we begin to focus on anything other than God, is the moment we start to fall.

Friends and family, no matter how reliable will inevitably let us down. What we consider to be our own strengths and talents- will also eventually fail us- as we discover that someone else can do what we do even better.  If we focus on the troubles of life- we will bow under the pressure of them. When we fix our gaze on Jesus our troubles seem small and insignificant, we realise our true value and we can do things we never thought we could do.

Sunflowers are not rare or exotic, in fact they are pretty common. It would be useless if they tried to be an orchid or a bluebell, but they stand tall and proud, unashamedly being themselves- if they had a face, I think they'd be smiling. They are the best at being themselves. I think we can learn a lot from this. We can spend so much time wishing we were like someone else. Putting ourselves down for not being being as clever, as funny, as rich, as talented, as skinny...

Why don't we just stick to being ourselves? I really am the best at being myself and YOU are the very best person for the job of being you!

So my message to you is stand tall, know your identity as a child of God, keep your gaze on Jesus and smile!

I spot sunflower imagery everywhere these days. Here's a little selection...

I love this card from M&S

This is a sunflower 'swing card'. I applied for a design job

with the company that made this (Santoro, London).

Now that I've forgiven them for not replying

to my application- I feel I can feature some of there work.

Bizarrely, this one was on the window by the toilets in Starbucks?

A bit of Art Deco from WH Smith.

I wanted to make Ruby a sunflower top. So I made a sunflower out of felt and sewed it on

to a white baby vest. I then used puffy fabric paint to do the dots in the middle. Unfortunately, Ruby's nappy leaked when she was wearing it- the bottom half has now been dyed a lovely shade of sunflower yellow!

My friend, Inge told me I dress Ruby in the way I wish I could dress...

I think she's right :-)