Tag: Love

40 Grateful Things

She turned 40. But if you would say she looks younger than me, fine, I’ll take it cause it’s her big day. But, so far no one has told me that, so I’m good. LOL

I would like to honor my sister as she reached this great milestone of her life by sharing to you what I’m grateful for, not just because she’s my sister but because she’s more than that.

Not in any importance/priority order 🙂

  1. She is a good listener. I can talk about anything for hours with her.
  2. She is patient with me. I can get too pushy sometimes but she remains calm.
  3. She would willingly pack my luggage when I travel back to YVR from PH.
  4. She takes care of family matters at home which removes my worries.
  5. She is generous in sharing & even giving her nice clothes to me.
  6. She is my co-planner for our family travels.
  7. She supports me on any event I organize.
  8. She is my prayer partner for our family.
  9. She knows how to comfort me especially when I was struggling from my last job.
  10. She reminds me to slow down when we stroll in the mall. (I feel like I’m in a hurry!)
  11. She married someone who cooks really good food!! I get the benefit!
  12. She encourages me with her own personal walk with God.
  13. She calms me when I’m getting anxious or starts panicking.
  14. She (& everyone  home) always try to satisfy all my food cravings when I go to BCD.
  15. She is someone I can always rely & depend on no matter what!
  16. She keeps me sane when I would be struggling especially with work.
  17. She reminds me to always wait on God’s best for a life partner when I get impatient.
  18. She reminds me to be grateful with my life of being single.
  19. She will always go out of her way if she can, to help me in whatever I need.
  20. She gives me a lot of pretty things, never cheap quality.
  21. She always pray for me.
  22. She shops clothes for me every time she sees something I could use for work.
  23. She always accompany me when I go and see friends every time I go home to PH.
  24. She takes care of our parents especially their health needs.
  25. She is someone I can take to any travel trips.
  26. She will always give her last piece of food if I would ask for it.
  27. She shares her vulnerabilities and allows me to encourage her.
  28. She is very gracious.
  29. She is my go-to for any health related concerns I have.
  30. She sends me the funniest & most gross viral videos.
  31. She makes me breakfast when I’m in BCD.
  32. She is one of my best friends.
  33. She is my impatient Science teacher! Haha!
  34. She loves me the same even if I could hurt or offend or annoy her.
  35. She is not a perfect big sister but she is the best sister you can have.
  36. She tolerates my craziness.
  37. She is my personal med tech for all my blood results.
  38. She encourages me with her discipleship journey with other people.
  39. She looks after me even if we are miles & mile apart.
  40. She loves the Lord and I can share that same walk with her.

Happy Birthday Ate! I know we were planning to do things this year to celebrate your birthday. Even if it didn’t turn out as we wanted it to be, I’m just grateful that you are well and everyone in our family. A blessing that matters the most.

Love ya! xoxoxoxo

 

Waiting Ends.

I don’t know how to start this blog. I just want to share how my walk with God has been since the beginning of this year. Since I became a Christian, “waiting” had been a common season in my life. Waiting for a change in career, waiting for a new direction, waiting for an answer, waiting for God’s best. Just a lot of waiting. It’s part of God’s pruning and discipline so that I become more dependent on Him and it increases my faith also.

However, just recently, God wanted me to stop waiting. Are you that kind of person who likes to plan things ahead? Who sets goals and works so hard to achieve that goal? Since I started working, I’ve mastered the skill of planning ahead being an integral part of my job. And I have brought that into my personal life. And even with God, I tried to set deadlines. On my next job… on getting married… on His answers to my prayers. Yup, that’s me. So when God asked me to stop waiting, stop planning and start learning to live one day at a time, I struggled. I realized I don’t know how to live one day at a time. I always think of what tomorrow would look like.

Right now, I’m learning on how to live in obedience to God one day at a time. I’m learning to focus on what He wants me to do for the day. It’s not like I don’t plan anymore. I just don’t set goals for my own agenda anymore. I am learning right now to surrender and make Him create the plan for His agenda.

I had so many plans since I moved here in Canada. I wanted to have my own start-up and business, I wanted to bring my parents here, I wanted to keep working as a contract (consultant) so that I can achieve the salary I wanted, I wanted to go back to school, I wanted God’s confirmation this year if He wants me to get married, I wanted to get married. All of these things I set were with good intentions – to help, to have a ministry, etc. But it was becoming tiring. I got too focused on the future that I fail to see what God has intended for me for the day. And so, I dropped everything. I have to stop waiting.

What matters now is I am learning to enjoy God’s presence each day that He allows me to live. How my future would turn out doesn’t matter anymore because I know that the ending would be with God.

Surrender is a continuous act of obedience until I finally meet the Lord someday. As the verses below say, I just want to know God more so that I can love Him more. His love is so much better than the life I live. Because apart from His love, my life is empty. Without His love, our ending will be a sad one.

You, God, are my God,
    earnestly I seek you;
I thirst for you,
    my whole being longs for you,
in a dry and parched land
    where there is no water.

I have seen you in the sanctuary
    and beheld your power and your glory.
Because your love is better than life,
    my lips will glorify you.

Proverbs 63:1-3

 

I am so grateful that I worship a God who is not about performance but who cares more about my being and my relationship with Him through His Son, Jesus.

If you are in a waiting season, I pray that you will also learn to focus on what God has in stored for you for the day and let tomorrow worry on its own. Don’t miss out on what God has for you today.

God bless!

Got Love?

It’s close to Valentine’s Day so I thought I might as well write something about…

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I am no expert in the area of romantic love. So, if you are expecting to read something like that here, then, sorry but it’s not gonna happen.  🙂

I just finished reading the story again about Jesus and the Samaritan woman. Well, it’s the lesson I’m preparing for Sunday School. This kinda triggered me to write about LOVE.

If you know the history of Jews & Samaritans during the time of Jesus, those people are not friends. They aren’t suppose to be talking to each other. But Jesus deliberately passed by Samaria where the Samaritans lived. He went there  with a great plan in mind. To meet the Samaritan woman and offer her the living water that can satisfy her thirst- Himself (if you want to know the whole story, read John 4). And as I think about it, that’s just LOVE right there. That’s how God met me and other people in their different walks of life.

I did not reach out to God. He reached out to me. He pursued me. And it probably took me a long time to respond. He reached out to me not when I was in a good state, but during my season of dryness. If you read the story, you will see the situation of the Samaritan woman during that time. She was living a life that was not pleasing to God and at the same time she was looking for true worship.

God’s love, God’s agape for us is sacrificial and unconditional. He does not require us to do anything to be able to experience His love. There is no requirement. We just need to receive it. Whatever circumstance you are in right now, God can take that. Good or bad, He will take it. What matters to Him is you.

So do you got God’s love? How do you receive it? The famous John 3:16.

“For God so loved the world that He sent His only begotten Son Jesus, that whoever believes in His Son will not perish but will have eternal life.”

Just like the Samaritan woman, when she believed in Jesus, her life was changed.  She put her faith on Jesus who despite knowing her past and present life, offered to her the gift of eternal life. She received the kind of love that the men (read the story) in her life can never offer. A LOVE that satisfies and will never make you thirst and ask for more. Because the love of Jesus is ENOUGH.

And do you know the best part? The Samaritan woman was so excited that she told her encounter with Jesus to the rest of her village. And everyone in her village believed and received the love of Jesus. That’s a LOVE that’s life changing!

Do you want to experience the love of God through Jesus Christ? No ordinary person can every satisfy you because people like you and me will always disappoint each other. Our love is very limited and sometimes selfish. But God’s love – not even worth comparing to human love is selfless, life changing, forgiving, extravagant, never ending and overflowing to other people in your life.

I hope today, if God has been knocking in your heart, may you just open your heart to Him. Jesus loves you. And that’s a pretty serious love. It will cost you eternity.  So might as well really consider it.

If you want to know more about Jesus and His love for you, click  and watch the video that will truly bless you!

Happy Valentine’s! Hope you experience God’s great love today and forever!! Best decision I made years ago! I can’t imagine life without the love of God in my daily life!

“I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with unfailing kindness.

 

 

 

One Hand At A Time

I had the privilege to volunteer in an outreach event by Gideon International last Sunday at the Main Street (Vancouver) Car Free Festival. I’ve always been wanting to join their outreaches but my time never permits. Thank God for asking me to slow down that these days, I have more free time. Such a blessing just to be a part of it.

With the goal of the outreach to share Jesus and evangelize, we used nail art to be able to bridge that. I, myself, have never done nail art. That was my first time. I was so surprised that people were happy with what I did. I really felt that my work were really not that good. But I was thinking, maybe God made them see it beautifully. 😀

My favorite part about that whole event was to be able to talk to women who are in the different walks of life – students, single women, wives/mommies. I always enjoy hearing stories of people. And to be able to do that while doing their nails, it was a humbling experience. I mean, who am I to do their nails when I’m not even equipped. Who am I that they would trust me with not just their nails but with their story? They don’t even know me. And really the best, best part of it was to allow me to pray for them and remind them that God loves and cares for them.

After that event, I went home with my heart so full. That was God’s. The people that He brought there, He appointed it.  Those people were meant to be there to be reminded and  be reconnected to their Maker. My prayer is that those hands I have held will have a personal encounter with God and will really know and receive Jesus. That I leave to God.

I’m just amazed how God can use “nail art” to be able to share His love. One hand at a time, there’s an opportunity for the gospel to be shared.

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There’s another outreach event coming on July 8th. If God is moving you to be part of it, let me know and I can connect you.

What I’ve learned is that when we make ourselves available for God, He will use that. No matter how lacking we are, how unequipped we are, no matter how prepared or unprepared we are, we just need to be available. Because that’s when we will see His glory, His power, His amazing work. When we decrease, He will increase Himself.

Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?” And I said, “Here am I. Send me!” Isaiah 6:8

AO#3: Otella

Best birthday gift I could give to my sister is to feature her here on my blog site (LOL).

Kidding aside, since it’s her birthday, I’d better take this time to really give her an appreciation which is long over due. Ate and I will always have that chasm in between us which makes our sisterhood just tighter. We dearly miss Amity. Too bad, Ate has been stuck with me cause I only have one sister to run to since Amity passed away. LOL. That didn’t really give her an option, right? 😀

There are so many things I appreciate about Ate. Not sure if she knows that. But I’m just really grateful that she’s been very patient with me. Her calmness and gentleness is contagious. There might be times that I may have offended her but she just remains calm. She just brushes it off. She doesn’t sweat it. And I needed that in our family.

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She is also my cheerleader. She encourages me. She is a good listener. I can rant about anything to her. We can just talk endlessly if we have all the time. It’s usually sometimes me who can’t make time. But she always does when she can. And I really appreciate her for that.

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I am grateful that I can lean on her. When there are times in our family that I am panicking already, she would always assure that we can find ways. For so many times that I haven’t been there for my parents, she has always been there which caused me not to worry. That’s something I will always be grateful. For just assuring us her siblings who are far that everything at home is okay. It means a lot.

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Happy Birthday Ate! I love you so much and I truly appreciate everything that you have done for me, for all of us. The previous years were tough with so many things that we went through but you remained steadfast in your faith. Your stillness in God is inspiring. I’m just glad that you are my sister and for also not allowing anything to ruin our relationship. That we owe to our Lord. He kept us tight in His love. I don’t mind being single forever as long as I will grow old with you. Haha!

How old are you already? LOL xoxoxo

ate4

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