July has always seemed to me a month filled with hope, as school terms draw to a close and the summer holidays are imminent — the days are filled with all sorts of possibilities. In my head I picture long hot days enjoying family time, and it seems that everyone has a lighter step and an easier smile.

Now it may not work out quite like my imagination, come September I may look back and realise that the tiny summer tops bought in anticipation of blazing sun remained in the closet under a cloudy sky, and the barbeque was not charcoaling quite as much as hoped for, and the family may get so fed up spending time together that we all fall out. But for the moment there is this glorious feeling of hope.

Clearly the World Cup is not the time for humility.

Our teams need support and encouragement, and I am sure that when the manager gives his team talk it is all about building the team up to believe in themselves and their ability to make it to the final. We do the same for our children before a special match or an exam, to give them the confidence to do their best, and there is certainly a need for self belief, when there seem to be so many people who suffer from poor self esteem.

Yet in the words that are so familiar to many of us from our parents, it is also true that “nobody likes a showoff”. So where do we draw the line?

Even though election time is here again, our politicians are not being overly optimistic with their promises but instead cautiously warning us not to expect miracles given the problems our economy has had over recent years. The warning is probably quite unnecessary, because few of us do expect miracles these days.

Way back in the dark snowy days of February, I visited Scotland to see family, only to have my return journey badly disrupted due to weather. Flights were cancelled and I tried everything I could to get back home that day. I took a train from Inverness airport to Aberdeen, only to find another cancellation, and then a taxi ride to the station only to find the last train had already left. Eventually I was forced to accept that my plans were changed, to take a room for the night and try again the next day.

In anticipation of moving house soon, I have been trying to clear out cupboards and boxes. Given that I also have a storage facility full of things I have not seen for three years, and a garage with boxes that I have not used in one year, I am appalled at how much “stuff” I have gathered. By now you may be asking the same question I am, how much do I need this if I have not touched it in three years, and the answer is I don’t. I don’t need it, some of it I like, much of it I cannot remember why I bought it in the first place, and so my “barn” is filled with stuff, unnecessary stuff.

Have you ever said the words “I did my best” to be met with the response “Well your best is just not good enough” or worse still, has this ever been your response to someone. Such discouragement lingers with us and often when we attempt something new it is the negative voices which we hear rather than the positive. I once took part in an appraisal at work where, rather than looking at strengths and weaknesses, it looked only at the strengths and built on them, a much more positive experience which left us feeling valued and encouraged.

The start of the New Year can be a real mixture of emotions, excitement at the possibilities ahead perhaps tinged with a bit of fear as to what this coming year might hold. I wonder if this is how the Israelites felt as they stood on the brink of the Promised Land?

So preparations for Christmas are now in earnest.

Preparing the food, planning menus, freezing ahead, making the cakes and pudding, bracing ourselves for that last shop in all its madness. Preparing the presents, shopping online and in stores searching for the right gift and then the right wrapping. Preparing the house for family, perhaps for guests, decorating trees, sorting out guest rooms. Preparing ourselves, on the outside anyway, something new to wear, or a trip to the hairdresser. It seems to gather its own momentum, some of it fun, much of it stressful.

Walking in the fields this week with my dog, I was enjoying watching her run happily back and forth and thinking back to the first night she came to us as a puppy.

Like most other puppies she yelped and howled her way through the night, scared of her new surroundings, unsure of us and what her life would be like. Yet I knew what she didn’t, that she would be better loved than she could possibly realise and that we would give her the best and happiest life that she could possibly imagine.

As Summer is well behind us, and work and school routines have settled down, I am conscious of how fast the months seem to pass as we drift through the seasons. Quickly I fall back into patterns and routines week after week. There is much comfort to be had in these seasons and routines, and the more comfortable I become, the more I wonder at Abram who heard a call from God and, in spite of a prosperous comfortable life and old age, was prepared to leave his routines behind. He did not know at that time why or where he was to go, but without hesitation he followed.