Thought for the week

Tag: Father

  • The courage of Grace Darling

    Grace Darling was born in November 1815. Within a few weeks she was taken to live on Brownsman Island, one of the Farne Islands off the coast of Northumbria, in a small cottage attached to the lighthouse her father ran. In 1826 she and her family moved to the newly built Longstone Lighthouse. Grace was…

  • Light shines in the darkness

    The war on the people of Ukraine is appalling. The relentless bombing of cities and smaller communities wreaks mindless destruction of property and kills men, women and children. It is heart-breaking to see people leaving their homes carrying a few precious possessions with them. Little children carrying only a favourite toy. Thousands of people sheltering…

  • The Forgiveness Project

    On the morning of 14 December 2012, a young man shot his mother and then walked into Sandy Hook School in Newtown, Connecticut where he shot dead 20 children and 6 staff before turning the gun on himself. It was the deadliest mass shooting at a school in U.S. history. One of the children who…

  • The Servant Queen

    On 6 February 2022 Queen Elizabeth II celebrated 70 years since she acceded to the throne on the death of her father George VI. She has reigned longer than any other British Monarch and is also Queen of 14 Commonwealth realms. The words of the National Anthem, which are a prayer, have been fulfilled in…

  • The Plight of Afghan People

    Afghanistan is no longer in the headlines, but the plight of the Afghan people is desperate. NATO forces, who were there for 20 years, have been withdrawn. The Taliban are in power. Many people have lost their jobs, the economy collapsed after foreign aid ended overnight, the currency has lost almost half its value, the…

  • God’s promises

    The Bible is the best-selling book of all time. Around 5 billion copies have been purchased, five times more than the next best-seller. It is also the most translated book in human history. The whole Bible has been translated into more than 700 languages, the New Testament has been translated into more than 1500 languages…

  • Precious in God’s sight

    In the summer of 2019 a young family set out from their home country of El Salvador to find safety and a new life in America. After a journey of 1500 miles Óscar Ramírez, his wife Ávalos and their 23-month-old daughter Valeria were in sight of Texas. They just had to cross a relatively narrow…

  • Give us this day our daily bread

    The fine weather in September helped farmers to clear the fields of the final crops and finish harvest. The warm, late summer sunshine meant that the crops were in good condition for storage. We all benefit from the hard work of farmers throughout the year that ensures we have the food we need. There have…

  • The secret of all true success

    William Hartley was born in 1846 in Colne, Lancashire. His father, John, was a tinsmith and his mother, Margaret, ran a grocery. He was their only child to survive infancy. William left school at 14 and started work in his mother’s grocery. When he was 16, he was put in charge of the business and…

  • I am safe, I am loved

    On 18 March 2018 Kenyatta Barron made a desperate emergency call begging for her life and the life of Ronnie, her 7-year-old son. Ronnie’s father had just stabbed him and set him on fire in their home in Hillsborough County, Florida. That same night, Ronnie’s father murdered Ronnie’s mother and sister. Homicide detective Mike Blair…