There’s a tree that grows in the unseen garden of your being.
Its roots go deep—down into ancient soil, into truth, into the original design that said, “You were made for something good.”
You were created for joy.
But not just fleeting happiness or distraction.
The Inner Tree: Spirit, Soul & Body
Imagine your life like a tree:
Roots (Spirit) – Anchored in truth, identity, and divine design. Your spirit knows you were created for purpose, for connection, for more. When the roots are deep and healthy, your entire being stands strong—even in storms.
Trunk & Branches (Soul) – Your thoughts, emotions, and will. The soul interprets the world, reaches outward, and determines what you feed on. A soul nourished by grace and clarity grows straight and strong; a wounded soul leans, splits, or becomes brittle.
Leaves & Fruit (Body) – Your visible life. The way you move, love, work, create, and feel. When you body is honored and supported, it carries the fragrance of wholeness.
In this tree, joy is a fruit—not forced, but formed.
It ripens in an atmosphere of peace, connection, and purpose.
What Steals Our Joy?
When the tree is out of balance, joy is hard to find.
We can survive.
But thriving requires alignment.
Root damage (spirit): Disconnection from identity, loss of hope, spiritual numbness.
Body burdens: Exhaustion, hormone imbalance, chronic stress or pain.
These experiences can steal our capacity for joy.
But healing is possible.
And joy is a faithful fruit—it returns when the tree is restored.
Joy in Psychology, Scripture & Culture
Psychology views joy as a neurochemical response to belonging, meaning, or connection—a “glimmer” of wellness. It builds resilience and connection.
Scripture calls joy a fruit—evidence of living by design, not just desire. “The joy of the Lord is your strength” (Nehemiah 8:10). Joy gives us the strength to remain rooted, and to face hard things with courage and tenacity.
Culture often chases joy through entertainment, success, or escapism.
But real joy is not something you find—it’s something that grows.
My Journey With Joy
Joy is often quiet in my life, like petals unfolding. Yet sometimes it surprises me and becomes a sudden, unexpected burst of sunshine that lights up my inner being.
I find it in:
Sunsets, sunrises, and rainbows—reminders that seasons come and go, that every hard day ends and brings a new morning, and that light always returns
The arms of my children—watching them grow like flourishing trees
Deep connection in relationships—alignment, healthy chemistry, and deep knowing
Flowers and fragrance—the elegance of creation in detail
Words—truth unveiled, beauty unearthed, expression set free. There’s a settledness that comes when I pour my swirling thoughts and tangled feelings onto a page, bringing clarity, peace, and purpose to what feels out of control or chaotic.
Aha moments—when something clicks in my spirit
Ordinary tasks with deeper purpose-finding meaning and divine messages in the simplicity of everyday life.
Family devotionals—our hearts tethered in sacred simplicity
Belly laughs around the table—the joy of being known and belonging
Tasting fruit of that which I have nurtured—literal and symbolic.
Simple, home-grown food from our vegetable garden, an abundance of fruit that simply appears year after year, the smell of soil. They remind me: joy doesn’t need to shout. It just needs to be cultivated.
Long walks that strengthen my body and refresh my inner being— Each step grounding me, aligning body, soul and spirit.
Sunshine, mountains, thunderstorms and rain, the ocean- Creation’s cathedral, where my soul breathes deeper, and joy rises again like the tide.
What are your moments of deep joy?
Pause and consider them.
They are clues to your design and purpose.
Joy by Beeloved
To support your joy journey, we created Joy—an aromatherapeutic massage balm made with lavender, neroli, and orange essential oils. These gentle yet powerful oils are known to lift the heart, calm the nervous system, and invite emotional spaciousness.
Use Joy to:
Massage over the heart, neck, or shoulders after a long day
Pair with breathwork, prayer, or journaling
Integrate into self-care rituals as a symbolic act of tending your inner tree
Let your body be a place where joy feels welcome again.
The Invitation
You were not made just to survive. You were created to be rooted, aligned, and whole.
To bear fruit—joy—in its season.
To flourish like a tree planted by living water, not striving but simply being what it was designed to be.
When I was younger, hearing people talk about or praying for world peace, I used to think (through the lens of my child’s mind) that peace primarily meant the absence of war.
As I grew, I began to wonder if peace somehow meant the absence of stress. Perhaps it was a life without exams or the pressure of being accepted by my peers, having enough money to buy whatever I needed or wanted, the ability to make hard decisions, like choosing what to study, singlemindedly and without effort.
Maybe it was freedom from sibling rivalry and family striving, or even just people giving me space to be myself.
I experienced it briefly at times… the quiet after the storm, or a fleeting moment of calm I hoped to hold onto. But over time, as I’ve grown into my journey, I’ve come to realize that peace originating from myself is not sustainable.
True peace—lasting peace—is not circumstantial. And it’s not just a state of being.
Peace is a person. A presence. And a posture of alignment with truth.
At the heart of Beeloved is a passion far deeper than skincare. The products we create are physical representations of a greater reality—and doorways that invite your body, soul, and spirit to realign and rest in the wholeness you were created for.
Wholeness that flows from Peace Himself.
Peace is Not Passive
In the Bible, peace is more than tranquility. It’s shalom—a Hebrew word that speaks of completeness, harmony, and divine order. It’s the atmosphere of the Kingdom, and the very breath of God’s presence.
Peace is active. It pushes out fear. It guards the heart. It stills the storm and speaks identity into the chaos.
This kind of peace can’t be manufactured through routines or fleeting comforts. It’s cultivated through communion with the Prince of Peace.
It’s embodied as we choose to pursue wholeness over fragmentation, truth over torment, and rest over striving.
Your Spirit Already Knows Peace
Our minds and emotions are often at war, but our spirit—when awakened and rightly aligned—knows how to rest. It remembers. It responds to peace like a seed responds to water. That’s why our bodies often exhale in response to something deeply spiritual: a beautiful landscape, a scent, a song, a scripture, a moment of sacred stillness or mutual connection.
A balm can soothe your skin, yes, by tot cannot physically fix what is broken.
Healing is intentional and purposeful.
Peace balm is a gentle reminder in the most of our fast-paced lives to slow down. To listen. To remember the Source of Peace who whispers:
“You are important. You are loved.”
Peace Balm: A Gentle Reminder
Peace Balm is not the source of peace, but a shadow of it. A way to engage your senses in alignment with your spirit—to make a spiritual reality feel more real, more tangible, and more touchable.
Just as your spirit, soul, and body were never meant to operate apart from one anither, this balm is a reminder that all of you is sacred. All of you is worthy of love, attention, and care.
As you massage it into your skin, we invite you to take a breath. Invite peace. Speak it aloud. Let it reintroduce you to the God who knew you from the beginning. Who calms storms with His mere words, and holds your heart with gentleness and deep affection.
Peace is a Journey of Wholeness
The true ministry behind Beeloved is the journey toward healing—not just physical, but emotional and spiritual.
Peace is not something you strive to achieve.
It’s someone you learn to receive.
As you do, you’ll find that healing flows naturally when peace leads.
So wherever you find yourself today—frazzled, grieving, uncertain, or simply seeking deeper rest—may you remember this:
Peace is not far. It is near. It is available.
And it is calling your whole self—spirit, soul, and body—into harmony with heaven.
My Beloved has been speaking to me so much about HONOUR.
Our words have the ability to lift someone up, make him larger, expand, bless and prosper, but at the same time also to decrease, disgrace, shame or restrict, especially when said in agreement with others.
A soothing tongue [speaking words that build up and encourage] is a tree of life, But a perversive tongue [speaking words that overwhelm and depress] crushes the spirit.
Proverbs 15:4
Death and life are in the power of the tongue, And those who love it and indulge it will eat its fruit and bear the consequences of their words.
Proverbs 18:21
We would like to take this opportunity to honour, from the heart, all of the Beeloved friends and family who share our Beeloved journey and who have stuck it out with us this far.
Thank you!
May the Lord bless you and recompense you for the time, love and effort that you have invested into Beeloved and into us as a family, or simply for being part of our journey! May He increase you, make you larger and expand your territory, and lift you up. You are more valuable to us than you will ever know.
Our prayer
Father God, we invite You to be a part of this new journey that we are venturing into. Thank you for Your faithfulness to us in every part of our lives. Thank you that you are the One who ends life and the One who gives new life. You are the One working behind the scenes in the garden of our lives. The miracle that happens to every seed that dies in the fallow ground during the long cold winter and that springs back to life again in the springtime is exactly the same miracle that happens with every seed, every dream and every disappointment that dies in the soil of our cold and hurting hearts. It is the same miracle power that raised Jesus from the dead that resurrects Your plans, Your promises and Your hope in our hearts!
We call every dead heart, every hurt and despondent seed that was planted by You and have died during the harshness of the last winter season back to life in Jesus Name!
You did not stay in the grave.
You are the resurrection and the life.
Thank you for watching over us, caring for us and loving us. Thank You for being our safe place, no matter how deurmekaar or upside-down the world around us may be. We admit freely that we cannot do this Beeloved thing, or life for that matter, without You.
We ask You to bless each and every one of our Beeloved family. Those that have been part of our family forever, those that only shared our journey for a time, the new ones that you have added on our journey, and all those that will continue on this journey with us. Every one of them has been and still are such precious treasures out of Your hand to us, their presence and lives so beautifully intertwined into our life story and enriching us in so many ways.
We pray that they will share in the beauty of the new life that You are offering in this season. We pray that You give all of us the grace to let go of things from the last season that need to die and be forgiven and be put behind us, so that You can truly set us free to embrace the new. We pray that we will drink of Your new wine. And that You make us the new wineskins so that we can carry the weight of what You want to resurrect in the season to come.
May You be glorified in and through us as we move into a new chapter.
God is faithful, that what He has said He will do, He does.
This is our story about a horse named Jedidjah, a promise from the heart of God which became our reality.
Life makes so much more sense if we see what is happening from a spiritual perspective, rather than only what we can see with our eyes and feel with our senses. Although it is much contended in the world today, the truth and solidness of the Word of God has not changed with the times.
For the word of God is alive and powerful. It is sharper than the sharpest two-edged sword, cutting between soul and spirit, between joint and marrow. It exposes our innermost thoughts and desires. Hebrews 4:13
God’s Words are still Spirit and they are still Life. His Word is still relevant today, even though the spirit of this world is constantly and purposefully intent on discrediting His existence and misrepresenting His heart. As a family we know and have experienced that true to His promises, if we truly would take the time to seek God, we will find Him. This is our daily bread and our daily reality.
You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart Jeremiah 29:13
Ten years ago, Dave and I reached a crossroads. Although we both were enthusiastic Christians and had been for quite some time, serving the Lord together and doing what we knew to be the right thing as best as we could, we arrived at a place where we had a deep discontent in our hearts, and a cry from within that somehow there had to be more.
We laid our lives before the Lord, honestly seeking Him and His will for us and our young family with all our hearts. As we were reaching out to Him, willing to respond to His call on our lives, the Holy Spirit gave me a vision of a difficult time ahead. The vision ended with a beautiful white Arab stallion running past me so closely that I could feel my hair moving in the gust of wind that was billowing up as he sped past me.
As the stallion was running off into the distance, he transformed into the horse that my parents bought for us when I was a young girl. She was named Blue. Those who know me well know that some of my most precious and treasured childhood memories are of the time I spent on horseback with Blue.
My childhood horse, Blue.
The horse in the vision was the most beautiful, purest white stallion I had ever seen. It was one of the most touching and real experiences of my entire life.
Although I was absolutely thrilled by the experience and stunned that the God of the universe would take such special care in showing me, of all people, something so very personal and touching, at the time I did not understand much about the message that He was delivering. Had I known just how difficult the next season of our lives would be, I would have better understood why it was necessary for the Holy Spirit to encourage me as clearly and specifically as He did for what was lying ahead. Had I known how difficult the journey ahead would be… I would have been much less eager to walk the path ahead of us!
I have learned that most of the stories and plans and purposes that God has for our lives have to be lived through in order to be fully understood.
The vision I received was not a once-off experience and not the only way in which God started to speak to our hearts. As we have been steadily moving closer to Jesus, being willing to walk in His light, one of the inevitable consequences was that the true states of our hearts, who we really are and our motives for doing things started to be illuminated. The Holy Spirit began challenging every perception we had about Who He was, and this is still a work in progress!
Our Father confirmed to us His desire for all people to know and experience Him personally and deeply, the way He truly is. This was the kind of unbroken fellowship that Adam and Eve had with God in the garden of Eden. Although sin has brought a great chasm between God and His creation, His original design and intent for fellowship and relationship with us has never chanced.
Spirit to spirit
God is a Spirit. We are taught from young to be realists- believing in what we can see and understand and explain. God, however, speaks to us in His own language.
For God is Spirit, so those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth.” – John 4:24
In the same way that it takes time to learn another language, and how it takes time and effort to master the finer meanings of more difficult words and concepts, it took more than just one conversation or experience with God for us to learn to listen with our hearts instead of our minds.
Someone living on an entirely human level rejects the revelations of God’s Spirit, for they make no sense to him. He can’t understand the revelations of the Spirit because they are only discovered by the illumination of the Spirit. 1 Corinthians 2:14
Learning the language of the Spirit was not about us mastering a new skill and getting the certificate afterwards. Although we certainly did have to consciously invest time in learning His language, as would be the case with learning any new language, the most important message from Jesus for our journey was simple:
Lay down your own ideas and ideals.
Follow Me!
Counting the cost
There is a cost to following Jesus. The Message version of the Bible describes this best:
“Anyone who comes to me but refuses to let of father, mother, spouse, children, brothers, sisters – yes, even one’s own self! – cant be my disciple. Anyone who won’t shoulder his own cross and follow behind me can’t be my disciple. Simply put, if you’re not willing to take what is dearest to you, whether plans or people, and kiss it goodbye, you can’t be my disciple.” – Luke 14:27,33
We soon became aware that we were required to let go of all that we held dear. We also found that we were not as wise as we thought we were, and we certainly do not have all the answers. We made some serious mistakes along the way, especially regarding our interpretation of what the Holy Spirit was saying and meaning, and our response to it. We gravely misrepresented and misinterpreted His Word and messages at times, and this in turn caused some fractures in our relationships with the people closest to us.
This for me has been one of the hardest parts of the journey. Being a doer and a fixer, I realised there are some things that I simply cannot fix.
Thankfully, we have the most patient teacher in the world, and if we are willing, He delights leading us into truth. I have learned to receive God’s grace for my imperfections, and to forgive myself for the mistakes I have made. I have chosen to allow my Father to do what He does best. He is the master of fixing, redeeming and restoring broken things.
For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. Romans 3:24
God’s heart becomes our present reality
But when He, the Spirit of Truth (the Truth-giving Spirit) comes, He will guide you into all the Truth (the whole, full Truth). For He will not speak His own message [on His own authority]; but He will tell whatever He hears [from the Father; He will give the message that has been given to Him], and He will announce and declare to you the things that are to come [that will happen in the future]. – John 16:13
When I received this peep into the future from the Holy Spirit at the beginning of our journey, I did not know that the horse I saw in the vision would become a REAL, touchable, feel-able and rideable one!
We arrived in the Cape province with nothing but blind faith and a promise from God. Jedidjah was promised to us just after we had moved to Hermanus, which was the first stop-over of our new beginning in the Western Cape- having come in obedience to the Lord’s directing and at the time still very uncertain about where the road ahead would lead us. I was perplexed – wondering where on earth we would find a place to stay for our family of seven… Let alone a horse too!
We have a beautiful testimony of the path that led to the horse being given to us, and the amazing tapestry of people that God weaved into our journey. God is into relationship building, and people always play such an important part in any story that He authors! But that is a story for another time.
A beautifully intertwined series of events unfolded (not without its own set of challenges) and over the next year, by the grace of God and the kind hearts of a number of special people along our path, we ended up in a beautiful area in the mountains of Piketberg.
Starting over from scratch again in a new rental home in an entirely different province… and still figuring out how things work around us, accommodating a horse was definitely not on our agenda!
Amazingly, although I had to firmly hold onto this promise from the Word for dear life and at times seriously wondered how it would play out amidst the chaos that was seemingly happening around us, all things DID work out for our good. Just as He promises.
“And we know (with great confidence) that God (who is deeply concerned about us) causes all things to work together (as a plan) for good for those who love God, to those who are called according to His plan and purpose.” – Romans 8:28
We have had the opportunity to taste and to see the goodness of the Lord become our reality. We were able to find a beautiful place to stay- not only for us, but for our horse too! All impossibilities at the time, but God made a way. We are so thankful for every person, and puzzle piece that God has carefully moved into place – enabling us to simply be where we are today.
O taste and see that the Lord [our God] is good; How blessed (fortunate, prosperous, and favored by God) is the man who takes refuge in Him. Psalms 34:8
Jedidjah
Amazingly, we had nothing to do with the choosing of Jedidjah’s name.
Easton’s Bible dictionary gives the following meaning for the name Jedidjah:
Beloved by God, the name which, by the mouth of Nathan, the Lord gave to Solomon at his birth as a token of divine favour.
Jedidjah. Our Beloved beauty.
Beeloved was the name that the Holy Spirit whispered to me earlier on in our journey when He started revealing our family call and bee business, which we knew was going to be operated in the Western Cape.
Having two David’s in the family (my husband Dave and my eldest son), which definitely not by any co-incidence also mean “Beloved”, and now owning a horse with the name ‘Jedidjah’, by no doing of our own, was all the confirmation we could ever need to know that God was affirming our journey and that His hand was indeed hard at work in our unfolding reality.
Saddle up your horses!
This was one of my children’s favourite songs, one we listened to over and over again upon request during our many travels between the Highveld and the Cape during the years when we were still investigating where on earth God wanted us to stay:
Saddle up your horses- Stephen Curtis Chapman
Started out this morning in the usual way Chasing thoughts inside my head of all I had to do today Another time around the circle try to make it better than the last
I opened up the Bible and I read about you and me Said we’d all been prisoners and God’s grace had set us all free Somewhere between the pages it hit me like a lightning bolt I saw a big frontier in front of me and I heard somebody say “let’s go”!
So come on get ready for the ride of your life Gonna leave long faced religion in a cloud of dust behind And discover all the new horizons waiting to be explored This is what we were created for.
We’ll travel long, over mountains so high We’ll go through valleys so low Still through it all we’ll find that This is the greatest journey that the human heart will ever see The love of God will take us far beyond our wildest dreams
Saddle up your horses, we’ve got a trail to blaze Through the wild blue yonder of God’s amazing grace Let’s follow our leader into the glorious unknown This is a life like no other, whoa whoa this is the great adventure!
As a family with a new horse-member we are learning together. We have realised through the unfolding of the process that Gods desire is not only to be a part of our stories individually, but to include a much wider circle of people.
Jedidjah’s presence has especially impacted Daniel, our eldest son, who has found a forever friend in his horse. At times I wonder which one of them is really the trainer…
Daniels relationship with Jedidjah reminds me so much of the wonderful C.S Lewis story that we read to our children when they were younger. I highly recommend the entire Narnia series for children! It impacted their young spirits tremendously and enriched all of us in a most beautiful way.
Daniel the horse whisperer
The riding part is still a work in progress. I had to overcome some serious fears when I attempted to get back on horseback! Horse-riding over the age of 40 has proven to be quite a different story than what it was in my teens! Getting back into the saddle was certainly not a pretty sight to behold and is certainly still a work in progress. But! When I am on Jedidja’s back, I feel like a young girl again. Which reminded me of the verse in the Bible where God promises to Renew us.
Praise the LORD, my soul, and forget not all his benefits–who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion, who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s. – Psalm 103:2-5
Jedidjah resembles Blue so much in the saddle that it might well have been the same horse.
May you be encouraged, Beeloveds, as you wait and trust patiently for God to fulfill every one of the personal promises He has made to you too. In its appointed season, it will come. And when it comes, it will be beautiful.
If you are someone who is interested, but uncertain if the investment in learning a new language will be worth the effort, just take the first step.
And the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness. For example, we don’t know what God wants us to pray for. But the Holy Spirit prays for us with groanings that cannot be expressed in words.- Romans 8:26
Has the journey for us been easy? Certainly not. Has it been worth it?
Absolutely!
What eye has not seen and ear has not heard and has not entered into the heart of man, [all that] God has prepared (made and keeps ready) for those who love Him [who hold Him in affectionate reverence, promptly obeying Him and gratefully recognizing the benefits He has bestowed]. 1 Corinthians 2:9
May the Holy Spirit create in you a desire and a willingness for being taught and mentored. May you develop an appetite for truth, and may your quest lead you on beyond the temporary barriers of a difficult start towards continuing and persevering on the most fulfilling and beautiful journey you will ever undertake.
The treasure of finding what the heart of every human being is yearning for, and of tasting the Lord’s goodness in your own reality.
Springtime of the year 2020 has been the most beautiful wild-flower season I have ever experienced. This, of course, due to the fact that this time around we did not have to travel half-way across the country to come down to the Cape to experience them. We are staying in the midst of them!
He sent me to give them flowers in place of their sorrow, olive oil in place of tears, and joyous praise in place of broken hearts. They will be called “Trees of Justice,” planted by the Lord to honor his name. Isaiah 61:3
After every dry season the rain does indeed come. And when it does come, it washes all things clean and transforms the landscape into something beautiful!
He will give the rain for your land in its season, the early fall rain and the late spring rain, so that you may gather in your grain and your new wine and your olive oil. Deuteronomy 11:14
Promises from our garden
Promises on the farm
Hope started welling up in my spirit again.
I started to feel a heartbeat.
So in the same way, God wanted to end all doubt and confirm it even more forcefully to those who would inherit his promises. His purpose was unchangeable, so God added his vow to the promise. So it is impossible for God to lie for we know that his promise and his vow will never change! And now we have run into his heart to hide ourselves in his faithfulness. This is where we find his strength and comfort, for he empowers us to seize what has already been established ahead of time—an unshakeable hope! We have this certain hope like a strong, unbreakable anchor holding our souls to God himself. Our anchor of hope is fastened to the mercy seat which sits in the heavenly realm beyond the sacred threshold, and where Jesus, our forerunner, has gone in before us. Hebrews 6:17-20
Mary and Martha stood crying when they met Jesus after the death of Lazarus, their brother.
Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in Me will live, even though he dies. And everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this? John 11:25
Do I really believe that God can resurrect something that is completely
DEAD?
The last years of our lives have been about dying. God certainly did not have the same idea that we had about who we thought we were, what we thought our ideals and dreams for our life together would be, the careers, choices and paths that we would have liked to have taken. Every single area was tested! And so the last season was about giving things up, surrendering and… dying.
I received this life signboard when I started truly following the Lord in my early twenties, and truly it is a reflection of what our journey through the last season season firmly established:
For [as far as this world is concerned] you have died, and your [new, real] life is hidden with Christ in God. Colossians 3:3
Contrary to what might have seemed different to someone looking from the outside, following the call of the Lord has not been all moonlight and roses, as one would imagine it should be. Instead, it has been the hardest journey we have ever undertaken. It has certainly taken its toll on us as a family and although we have tried our best to be good stewards of what the Lord has entrusted to us, we have undoubtedly made some serious mistakes along the journey.
Will we do it all over again? If I personally had known how intense the journey would be when we signed up for it, I am pretty sure we would have gladly declined the invite. BUT! Even though it has been harder than I could ever have imagined, the lessons, the wisdom and the jewels of truth that we have gathered along the way, the deepness of revelation, the solidness of God’s love and faithfulness through the good times and the bad that has been established firmly in our hearts over and over again, and how He has transformed us as a family in the process is a treasure that is more precious than gold.
I would not trade the service stripes that we have received for every blow and battle scar we have been dealt on the journey for anything.
God is able to restore everything that was lost and stolen in the last season. We can confidently lay each of the mistakes and losses before Him, trusting that just as He has been faithful in fulfilling His promises to us regardless of our mistakes, and even though we have been so undeserving, He will continue and complete the good work that He has started in us. The season may be over, but His faithfulness surely is not. He will fulfill EVERY promise He has made to us in its appointed time.
He kept every promise he had made to the Israelites. No promises failed. Each one came true. Joshua 21:45
We cannot ever imagine our lives and choices without our Father’s love and input. I often marvel how anyone can cope with life without God! The sadness of walking through life on this earth alone, choosing to do life without the protection and involvement and pure love of a loving Father, through all the pain and suffering that life throws at us without a greater hope of something transcending this life only, and the worst- living without a purpose, is difficult for me to imagine and even more so to comprehend.
I am first to admit that we are not able. Not strong enough, not gifted enough, not patient enough and definitely not enduring enough. But WITH Him, we can accomplish anything.
With the new mandate to continue with Beeloved Father has given us a new life-verse for the next phase of our journey:
[Not in your own strength] for it is God Who is all the while effectually at work in you [energizing and creating in you the power and desire], both to will and to work for His good pleasure and satisfaction and delight. Philippians 2:13
And so here we still are! Scary as it may seem, we present ourselves ready for the next season, willing servants to fulfill the mandate and calling of Beeloved.
Lockdown was a good place to do some soul searching. I am sure that this has not only been the case for us. Beeloved, as many other businesses and ministries, came to a screeching halt with the rest of the world. I needed to ask myself some uncomfortable questions that needed to be answered.
Was Beeloved simply a seasonal thing? If God has called and ordained it, why has it been such a battle? Why so much hard work and such a terribly expensive journey with such little returns? Why all the effort, time, and heart that goes into Beeloved, when there are seemingly so little fruit?
Realizing that I simply did not have the means, the strength or desire to keep going, I laid Beeloved on the altar before the Lord. All the dreams and plans, all the ideas and all the passion that I seemed to have lost, all the mistakes, all the hurts, all things that worked out so very differently than I had hoped for.
I found myself in a place of dying too. Although everything seemed (and really was!) more than fine on the outside, I found myself hurting, burnt-out and empty inside- questioning my worth, my purpose, and my destiny.
I remembered the words of a wise friend who has also received a vision from the Lord for something that is way too big for them as a family to accomplish on their own.
“Now the vision has to die first.”
This is the way that all things born of God goes. Even Jesus, who was perfect in every way, had to face death before He was resurrected to sit at the right hand of His Father.
The gentle reminder came, and I understood:
Every time you plant seed, you sow something that does not come to life [germinating, springing up, and growing] unless it dies first. 1 Corinthians 15:36
And so I allowed the seed to die.
I am well aware that all the seeds that I have planted in our garden do not necessarily germinate and go on to produce flowers or fruit. Many seeds simply…
DIE.
I allowed myself to mourn the disappointments and misunderstandings, the failures and losses and heartaches of the last season. Mourning who I was before, the beauty and the wonder of each miracle that has carried us to where we are today, the intensity of emotions and battles, the sheer enormity of the season that has passed. The very sore reality of family, heart people, connections, and physical and spiritual things so very dear to us left behind, lost and stolen in the process.
Being real is not often glamorous. Being strong is celebrated, being weak and needy is not.
The process has taught me so much about grace.
True grace is not an excuse for sin. Grace is not cheap. Grace is what equips us and stretches us enough to rise above ourselves, above our flesh, above the tests and challenges that come our way. To become able, to be enlarged in the process… but not broken by it.
But we have this precious treasure [the good news about salvation] in [unworthy] earthen vessels [of human frailty], so that the grandeur and surpassing greatness of the power will be [shown to be] from God [His sufficiency] and not from ourselves. We are pressured in every way [hedged in], but not crushed; perplexed [unsure of finding a way out], but not driven to despair; always carrying around in the body the dying of Jesus, so that the [resurrection] life of Jesus also may be shown in our body. 2 Corinthians 4:7-8, 10
The longer I have journeyed with God, the more I have become aware of my need for Him. And truly, the more I am becoming aware of His pure and perfect love for us.
I know that complete healing and restoration is a process and that we will all be works in progress as long as we still live in this imperfect world.
And even though it was time to lay down the old, my Beloved has confirmed in His gentle but very straightforward way:
We are still His Beloved. We are still worthy.
The seed will go on to bear fruit.
And He still wants us as a family to continue with the ministry of Beeloved!
Just before lockdown, I had the privilege of being invited to a pottery workshop by a very talented lady.
Ronel Bakker makes the most beautifully crafted, totally out-of-the-box ceramic pottery items. A true artist in every sense of the word! What a blessing it was to be invited and to experience some first-hand lessons from one of the country’s leading pottery artists.
You can have a peep at some of Ronel’s beautiful artworks on this link:
Aside from the wonderful experience of having a sponsored weekend away all to myself under the mountains (the first one in a long time!), I met some truly inspiring people and had a wonderful heart-to-heart connection with the ladies who attended the workshop with me.
I realised from the start that this was no ordinary weekend away, and that our Father was actively working – His Holy Spirit present with us and meeting with every one of us there in a unique way. Of course, as usual, Father was once again painting what I did not realise at the time to be a prophetic picture with the item I was creating. It was also a hint of what would happen next in Beeloved’s story…
The lovely ladies who shared the adventure with me
This was my beautiful artwork… before it went into the fire.
This was the fire…thoroughly hot
In the furnace with all the other artworks.
A prophetic picture of how each of our works will one day be tested…
…each one’s work will be clearly shown [for what it is]; for the day [of judgment] will disclose it, because it is to be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality and character and worth of each person’s work. 1 Corinthians 3:13
Sadly,…… (or gladly, maybe?), this is all that remained of my artwork afterwards. According to Ronel, this is a common occurrence for a potter. You simply never know which of your artworks will survive the fire or not!
This was the verse that I inscribed on the bottom of my artwork:
The words and promises of the Lord are pure words, like silver refined in an earthen furnace, purified seven times over. Psalm 12:6
Mmmm. Most of our close friends who are familiar with our walk and story know that the last couple of years have not been quite a walk in the park for us Joneses. Truly, every promise of God and every word He has spoken over us has been tested and tested again… in the fire! And truly, for me, it felt like all that has remained of me seemed to be a few scatters of who I am and what I believe… lying flat in the ashes.
Sometimes, the master potter chooses to start over.
O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter does? says the Lord. Behold, as the clay is in the potter’s hand, so are you in My hand, O house of Israel. Jeremiah 18:3-4, 6
It has been a wild month for the Joneses. We have made a stop-over at the place called: “In-between”, or “In Transition”, and have been here for quite some time. Keeping all the ‘normalities’ running as usual when there is little stability around us has been harder than I ever imagined it would be.
Since our move to the Cape province, and finding firstly where God wants us to be situated, we are still looking for a more permanent place to stay and don’t have a spot called ‘home’ yet. We have had our full share of traveling around, many stop-overs and visits, and more than enough pack-ups and clean-ups in the process! I know that without God’s grace we would never have been able to take on this journey and remain sane. Also, we would have been lost had it not been for the selfless support and kindness of my amazing parents and other dear friends who Our Father has placed alongside of us on our journey – for them we are very, very grateful and consider ourselves extremely blessed! They have all opened their hearts and homes to us without reservation, even though accommodating our family of 7 and all our weird ways and differences is no small sacrifice to make.
I have never considered myself someone who is tied down to places or things and am always ready for an adventure, but I must confess that the uncertainty of the last couple of weeks has been a tremendous stretch. I have been feeling that things are simply taking much longer than they should. Overwhelmed with the feeling that the workload is simply too much, that God must have forgotten us, that somehow there is more I am supposed to be doing to ‘make things happen’..
But God in His grace has reminded me, again, that our faith is in Him and not in me. It is in His good nature, His promises, His love for us, His strength, His goodness. I felt such a tremendous weight lifting from my shoulders when I received this revelation. Again. As I have needed to receive it many times before in my life. I have again lifted up a huge weight onto my shoulders and have been carrying a heavy load that is simply not from Him.
Sometimes I need to be humble enough to accept that things do not always work out the way I may have planned or hoped, that the road I am called to walk is not always glamorous, and that there can be no ‘lifting up’ if there is not a ‘laying down’ first.
And so again I have re-aligned my heart to His, submitted my feet to where He wants to lead us, and presented my hands ready to do what He is calling me to do. Even though the adventure He sends us on is may not always be glamorous or fun. It is my attitude, more than anything, that will determine how pleasurable this journey will turn out to be.
I have placed my trust back where it belongs- with the only One Who is able and trustworthy enough to have it. Trusting that He is in control of our past and of our future, and that He will never leave us or forsake us. That the right opportunities will open up for us at the right time, that He is the good Shepherd who will lead us to green pastures, to the places where we need to be and to the place where we will find our home and be in perfect alignment with His perfect will for us. That there is a reason for the delay, and that there is overflowing grace for us to navigate through this season.
Practically, God has laid on my heart to do some simple life changes- to focus less on generalities, and more on the things I know He has called me to do. I believe that sometimes, in order to be a good steward of what God has entrusted to us, we may have to let go of things that may seem good and beneficial or even necessary, in exchange for those we know He is requiring us to do.
In the same way that our life and baggage has been greatly reduced in this season (we are basically traveling around with our a weekly supply of groceries, clothes, schoolbooks and a box full of Beeloved!), I have been feeling the need to reduce on the number of things I am ‘passively’ involved in. I believe it is a season of traveling light, that my feet need to be walking where He is leading and my hands busy with the things He desires for me to be busy with. No more and no less.
“We have become His poetry- a recreated people that will fulfill the destiny he has given each of us, for we are joined to Jesus, the Anointed One. Even before we were born, God planned in advance our destiny and the good works we would do to fulfill it!”
I am praying that you too, Beeloveds, will be able to travel light in this season of transition. That we will be humble enough and able to lay ourselves and our own desires down, so that in due time, God’s perfect time, He may lift us up. Praying that God leads our feet in paths of light and righteousness, into the places He has prepared for us to walk and occupy since before the foundations of the world. May this be a focused, fruitful, and blessed season!
My Mamma has always been a talented artist. I used to watch her sketch the frames of people and faces seemingly effortlessly, wondering at her ability to draw so well, and wishing I could somehow tap into her skill and ability. I remember spending more than a few hours as a little girl trying to copy what she did and feeling that no matter how hard I tried, I could not measure up. Although I have always loved being creative and have received more than enough encouragement (and unfortunately, unsuccessful training in the fine arts department!) from my mother, I never felt that what I had to offer was quite good enough.
It was only after I met and truly fell in love with the Lord that I could begin the long journey of letting go of the idea of being perfect before attempting to do something meaningful. My Father took great care in teaching me that He gives more than enough space for us not only to create, but to become an authentic original, and that learning to simply be who He made us to be delights Him more than we could ever completely comprehend in this lifetime.
I remember vividly one night, in a season where I was seeking God with a truly hungry heart, receiving a precious download from the Lord through the Holy Spirit. For a moment, I was allowed to feel and understand the Fathers heart for me. I can explain what I felt in that brief encounter no better than to voice the first thought that came to me:
“I have found what I have been looking for all my life!”
In that moment I felt pure and complete love and acceptance, a feeling of belonging, satisfaction and contentment that is not easy to explain in an earthly language. Finding purpose and contentment in Who He made me to be, rather than striving towards something that for so long illusively remained out of my reach brought me to an unexpected place of complete and blissful rest, and a deep sense of peace. This state of being and belonging is so uncommon in our society today, but it is the essence of that which so many people are scurrying aimlessly for, sadly searching in all the wrong places.
I was freed from my continual striving- to be more, do more, have more.
I had been spending my entire life with a deep nagging feeling that somehow something or someone important was missing. Now, I could start the journey of finding my true fulfilment in the heart of my Father.
A journey of symbols
From time immemorial, long before the symbolism arts movement started in the late 19th century in France, Father God was habitually using symbolisms in His Word. The Bible is arguably one of, and probably the richest book of symbolisms available to us today. Starting in the very first book of Genesis, with a story about light and darkness, mythical talking snakes and trees with fruit which had the ability to give life or cause death, to the last book of Revelation, where there is a culmination of dramatic symbolisms about coloured horses, rulers and followers, a catastrophic war in the heavenlies and a Saviour King making His appearance on the clouds, the Bible could compete with the most bizarre and eccentric Hollywood films of our day. If we allow ourselves to become free of our religious mindsets, which has reduced the Bible to a boring book containing a mere list of rules, it is truly one of the most fascinating and incredible books of our time.
We have become accustomed to many of the amazing symbolisms which had its origin in the Bible, and they have become so familiar to us that we rarely consider the true intent and beauty of the Word.
Consider the rainbow. A larger-than-life portrait painted on the Master Artist’s sky-canvas, declaring boldly His goodness and an amazing promise of grace made to mankind, we seldom even pause for a moment in our busy lives to stop and contemplate the true wonder and beauty of what our Father is painting in full view of us. A celestial love letter to His creation- a reminder of new beginnings, and a sign that an infinitely powerful God would take the time to consider us, reach out to us, and commune with us.
Symbolism is a familiar concept in the world we live in, where every brand name seeks to have a recognizable symbol often portraying a hidden meaning in its name or trademark.
Receiving and listening to the signs and impressions that the Holy Spirits gives us today, however, is sadly a much less familiar topic to most.
God is not a distant entity who made a world full of random objects with no particular purpose, waiting to see how these things would co-exist and perform in each other’s company. Neither is the world we live in a random collection of events and interactions, as evolution would like us to believe.
Isaiah 45:18-19
For the Lord is God, and He created the heavens and the earth and put everything in place. He made the world to be lived in, not to be a place of empty chaos. “I am the Lord,” He says, “and there is no other. 19 I publicly proclaim bold promises. I do not whisper obscurities in some dark corner. I would not have told the people of Israel to seek me if I could not be found.”
God created the world and everything in it for our enjoyment. He also intended for His creation to be a means of connecting and having fellowship with us, His Beloved. Creation is a means of revealing His heart, and sometimes His pleasure or displeasure, with the events that are transpiring on the earth.
God’s world was carefully designed to work in a complete harmony. The rhythm that we see in an ecosystem, untouched by human interference, is His blueprint for us as humanity too. But it starts with having the right foundation. Trying to disprove that God is the Master hand behind His creation is the wrong place to start- in fact, it causes all other relations within His perfect design to be continually frustrated.
If we could truly understand and work in harmony with our Creator, listening and submitting to His wisdom and direction, our world would not be in its current state of disharmony and chaos. But our hearts need to be open to trust, our ears to hear and our eyes to see!
Jesus frequently spoke in parables, or symbolisms, in the New Testament-stating that the ability to interpret the messages He commonly used to convey important lessons to His followers was an attribute which was not given to all people, but only those with an open heart to understand.
Luke 8: 10 AMP
He said to them, To you it has been given to (come progressively to) know (to recognise and understand more strongly and clearly) the mysteries and secrets of the kingdom of God, but for others they are in parables, so that, (though) looking, they may not see, and hearing, they may not comprehend.]
I am not a perfectionist and have far less natural talent than my mother or sister for fine arts, but I have come to appreciate my own expressions of originality. I am content knowing that I am able to create something beautiful and of value to my Father. God does not look at our attempts at creativity with a critical eye, like many of our earthly Fathers do. He delights in what truly comes from the heart. The human race has become very skilful at hiding the true motives and feelings of the heart, but nothing is hidden from the one who created it. When we allow ourselves to be creative, the hidden messages of our heart often become visible. We are all made in the image of our Father. He was the very first artist when He skilfully spoke over the earth and created all in it in its magnificent glory. He delights in beauty, in the sounds, feels and smells of His creation. And so should we!
I consider Beeloved to be an artwork expressive of the treasure chest that the Holy Spirit has laid up in our hearts through the many winding paths of our life journey. I experience the same level of elation when constructing a new balm or combination of products that a skilful artist would when creating a masterpiece. It gives me immense pleasure.
The symbols I have used in the Beeloved range are personally special to me and have meanings that are very dear to my heart. As I expand more about the products I have made, I will be sharing about some of the precious spiritual symbolisms that the Holy Spirit has revealed to me along the way.
I would like to honour my Sister, Nadja, for being a vessel, allowing the Holy Spirit to use her to fashion the artworks for our Beeloved products with a skilled hand. There is a connection with family that runs very deep- as the Afrikaans saying goes- “Bloed is dikker as water.” She understands me and the heart behind Beeloved like no other friend can.
My earthly family, who I love and treasure boundlessly, has now grown to a network of remarkable hand-picked spiritual family members that has made Beeloved something truly precious, and cherished, from the Fathers’ hand.
We love and appreciate every one of these special people and the unique contributions that they have made to Beeloved more than words can say.
But how their stories are entwined in our story is a story for another time…
Every building, plan or purpose of man has a foundation. In my personal walk with the Lord, He has spent many hours very purposefully undoing the man-made foundations and buildings which I have built my life and purposes on. This has not been a painless process, but fortunately He is not only into breaking down, but He is also the master builder, and He knows what He is doing!
Since we as a Beeloved family desire for Him to be the first, the foremost and the only foundation of what we attempt to build, I named the first of the balms I ever made “Pure and Gentle balm.” This is the nature of my Father and His dealings with us, although we may not always understand His ways.
His motives are pure, and His nature is gentle.
Every Beeloved balm is based upon specific symbolisms and has been assigned a prophetic scripture reference.
1 Corinthians 3:9-16
For we are both God’s workers. And you are God’s field. You are God’s building. 10 Because of God’s grace to me, I have laid the foundation like and expert builder. Now others are building on it. But whoever is building on this foundation must be very careful.
11 For no one can lay any other foundation than the one we already have- Jesus Christ.
12 Anyone who builds on that foundation may use a variety of materials- gold, silver, jewels, wood, hay or straw. 13 But on the judgment day, fire will reveal what kind of work each builder has done. The fire will show if a person’s work has any value. 14 If the work survives, that builder will receive a reward. 15 But if the work is burned up, the builder will suffer great loss. The builder will be saved, but like someone barely escaping through a wall of flames. 16 Don’t you realize that all of you together are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God lives in you?
It is our desire at Beeloved to build a hive pleasing to Him, one of which He is the only foundation and corner stone.
Pure and Gentle balm was born several years ago, and it was the first balm that I experimented with when the Holy Spirit laid on my heart the need to start investigating a more natural and simple lifestyle. I was pleasantly surprised to find that a simple blend of beeswax and olive oil had amazing benefits for our skins, especially through our harsh and dry Highveld winters, where we were staying when I first started experimenting with Beeloved balms.
Because of its versatility, and being so safe that it could literally be eaten without any harmful effects, we have been steadily steering away from using store-bought creams and lotions which are laden with harmful chemicals and additives.
Since then our balm-journey has taken us to exploring many more of the wonderful and bountiful gifts in Gods creation. And we never seize to be amazed by the simple wonder of the Fathers heart, so beautifully expressed by nature!
We are privileged to have you join us on our Beeloved journey.
For those of you who have not met me in person, I am Denise, Christ-loving wife of my strong and constant right-hand, Dave, and mother of five beautiful home-schooled children. Beyond the love and satisfaction I have found in the simple normality of everyday family life, I have a deep love for all things natural and an insatiable desire for all things new! Having a bee-keeper as my father growing up and by no small co-incidence now one as my husband, I have always been familiar with the sweet and familiar presence and smell of honey and beeswax in our home.
I have long known about the amazing benefits of honey, but only more recently had a desire to research and experiment with other amazing products produced by my familiar friends, the bees. A bee-hive is a treasure-chest of goodness, delight and perfection, and the produce of the bees certainly a gift from God to mankind.
As any bee-keeper knows, beekeeping means that there are always an ample supply of honey and beeswax, and bees for that matter, around the house. This has meant that I have had plenty of opportunity to experiment with different formulations and recipes which have become most useful to us as a family. I hope to share more of those treasures along the Beeloved journey, also some of the amazing parallels and wisdom that my heavenly Father has shared with me along the way.
My Father is not only the master gardener, but also the keeper of us, the bees. He intends for us as His own unique people to produce a sweet, most useful and fragrant honey to a lost and dying world as we understand our place and purpose and work together in harmony accomplishing His will and purposes on earth.
One of the most amazing things I have noted about a beehive is that, in spite of having the queen bee at the steer- (a woman who evidently spends most of her time having babies!), every bee knows his place and purpose in the hive. Only the wisdom of man, which God calls foolishness in His eyes, would doubt that there is a master orchestrator behind all the buzz and purposeful activity in the hive!
My heart is that as I, an insignificant queen-bee who spends most of my time tending my babies in just one of the many hives that my Father is carefully keeping watch over, submit Beeloved to the master orchestrator- Jesus Christ- He may take it and make something useful of it. Something that will be a sweet fragrance to Him and all those who use and enjoy our joint creations!
May He guide us as the Beeloved family to become whatever He wills with us, may He work with us to produce and accomplish whatever is on His heart and will bring Him pleasure.
