To be at peace, we need to...

God's promise to us in the midst of trials and mess...

2008-04-24T23:00:00.000-07:00

Hi! I am back to blogging again! Guess what? It's already 2:00 in the morning here but I am still wide awake. Stupid coffee! Uh hah, I had coffee during dinner a couple of hours ago that's why I am still bushy-tailed until now. So, here I am, sitting on the couch, writing the blog while enjoying the bombastic "snoring" ambiance provided by my beloved hubby. sshhhh. hehehe

Anyways, what else is new to my life since the last time I updated my blog? I guess not much as far as I can remember. Ummm, lemme think of my whereabouts these past few days. O yeah, one thing I can think of was when I went to a Christian Women's Retreat facilitated by the women's ministry of Grace Chapel (church that my inlaws go to). My husband's step mom invited me to join so I said "sure, why not", you know, just to do something new and relaxing. And I was more than right, it was more than what I expected for. It was such a blast! I loved it. The testimonies were empowering and stimulating to the soul. The songs of praise and worship were so intense. The women were very accommodating and friendly to one another. I made friends too. At first, I was kinda apprehensive to mingle with them because they were all white but eventually, I blended myself in because I felt that they were really genuine and warm-hearted. Aside from meeting new friends, what I really loved most about the outcome of the activity is that it has brought good learnings and realizations to me. Lemme say that I think, I am more mature now in understanding God's grace compared before. Like for instance, basing on my attitude, I can say that I am really a worrywart, meaning, I tend to drown myself with too much worrying emotions especially when things are kinda shaky or rocky. But, through the retreat, I learned that worrying is not pleasing in the eyes of God. Yes, we will displease God when we worry. This is neither a hearsay nor a humanmade message to us. Facts about it are actually written in the Bible. Discerning the truth really overwhelmed me with feelings of guilt towards God. It made me realize that by being a worry freak, I was actually constantly doing things that were not pleasant with Him. This just showed that I am such a fool of a little faith! I really felt sorry to Him so right there and then I said to myself that it's now time to make a change. A change that will really make a difference. But, I am not a hypocrite to say that I will completely overcome the feelings of not worrying right away because I think it is really a human nature to feel this way especially when things go wrong, nonetheless, what matters is, God knows that my willingness to please Him is really true to my heart.

Now, I have come to take in that each passing day is a challenge to face, however, we need not worry, for every challenge we face is actually a blessing in disguise because through these challenges, we live and learn that God is Sovereign and Is in control of everything. This will strengthen our Faith on Him and will firm our understanding with humility that we are absolutely in total mess without Him.

I wanna end this blog with the verses that I memorized from Philipians 4:6-7

"6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with
thanskgiving, present your requests to God. 7 And the peace of God, which transcends all
understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus."

Isn't He an Awesome and Amazing God? O, I am so psyched to say that He truly is!

A great Sunday!

2008-04-06T19:47:00.000-07:00

It's been quite a while since I updated my blog site. Well, I've been swamped with much things to do lately that's why I wasn't able to open up my account and write. It's kinda weird yet funny because I had mentioned in one of my blogs that I don't like to write, but honestly, I kinda missed blogging now hehehe. Anyways, my day was great. After the busy days at my part-time work, I finally had the time to relax and unwind. Hubby, our dog and I went to the park and flew kites. And guess what? I flew a kite for the first time of my life and I did pretty well. Not to brag, huh, but I beat my hubby in making our kites glide high. Yehey! hahaha. It was really a fun activity. It was a sunny day out and mind you, it's not that hot though. It's not too cold as well. It's just a good blend of cold and warm temperature. Spring time is really such a wonderful time of the year, weather wise.

Anyways, the most important part of today's experience that I wanna emphasize here was going to church. It's an awesome Sunday service. The preacher definitely rocked! hehehe. Yeah, I meant "rocked" as in very wise and inspirational as to dissemanating the message of the Lord about Christian marriage in a very lively way. You know what I' m saying? Like he's a kind of speaker that you wanna look forward to having over and over again because you'll never get bored to death nor tired of listening to him. It was really a good thing to hear out the whole time he's speaking. Anyways, I am sharing this with all the wives in all corners of the world. The preacher really inspirited me today about the biblical explanation of wives' role in our married lives. You wanna know what role the bible speaks about? It's about submission. Yes, being submissive to our husbands as Christian wives. (please read the facts in the books of Peter, Gallatians and Ephesians). This is really not an easy task to do because of the fact that men are from mars and women are from venus. This means that we are really totally opposite when it comes to the way we think or I guess in almost everything. So, in our thinking we tend to say "How can I submit myself to him? What if he's not heading me to the right way? What if he's not a good leader for me? and blah blah blah" Yeah, we tend to be skeptical with a lot of things because as what I have said, men and women are different in the way we think and the way we handle and treat every circumstance that comes along in our lives. Well, I know I can't speak in behalf of all women out there but come on let's face it, I think we're on the same page on this matter, right? But, why do we, wives, worry a lot? Why do we like to assert our ways and make it prevail? Why are we deceived by the thought that we can be better off if we always get what we want? You know what? Hearing the message was really good for me because it revealed to me that God is expecting me to be gently submissive to my husband since God designed him to be the spiritual leader in our family. I totally understand that this is difficult but GOd is instructing us to do it so we need to obey Him. Let's accept the fact that submission really takes a lot of self-control with regards to our pride, our own ways and thoughts but the best thing we can do is to pray to God and trust in Him. A prayer to give us strength when we're weak, understanding when we're not understood, patience when we're being challenged and well-being when we're out from our comfort zone. And lastly, we should not stop praying for our husbands to lead us spiritually in accordance to what God has planned them to lead. We need to pray for them because they are only humans that have imperfections and weaknesses. We have to pray for them because they can be at anytime tempted by the devil who happily wants to destroy relationships. Remember, even if it would take a long time for change to transpire in our husbands' mind and heart on how to lead the Godly way, what matters most is that we never gave up on praying for them. By so doing, in the end, we’ll absolutely reap a good harvest. **wink**

It's indeed, a great Sunday! Wasn't it? Goodnight and God bless us...Until then :-)

Walking through life with God...

2008-03-06T16:58:00.000-08:00

When I am down and lonely about certain circumstances in my life, I really can't help myself but think of the song "Lift Up Your Hands" sang by a phenomenal Filipino artist Basil Valdez. This song is one of my favorite songs of all time. I don't know, but it just really moves my whole being everytime I hear it. Great composition, great song that makes me space out and yet meditate how wonderful the message it unfolds. It is all about life. O yeah, LIFE! Right, this is just a four-letter word yet its meaning transcends beyond how Mr. Webster defined it. It seems simple yet behind its simplicity lies a lot of intricacies. It is never easy. It is never constant. No matter who & what we are, whether we are rich or poor, young or old, we all have our fair share of its complexity and inconsistency. We all experience good and bad; sad and happy times along the way. There are moments that we feel like "wow, we're fulfilled!", but, there are instances too that we think the world is knocking us down...instances that drown and overwhelm us to negative emotions. But, you know what? Though tough times come along, life is not that bad at all. We just have to accept its reality that it is all the time a combination of pain and joy; ups and downs; success and failures. We just have to believe that we are not alone in this journey. We have families and friends whom we can always count on and most of all we have JESUS who will lift us up when we're down, take us out from darkness and will at all times walk through life with us. He is the only One True God that can give us rest in this restless world. Anyways, below is the lyrics of the song that I mentioned above. Then, tell me if it doesn't touch you.

Title: Lift Up Your Hands

Life is not at all that bad my friend, mmm….If you believe in yourself
If you believe there’s someone
Who walks through life with you.
You’ll never be alone
Just learn to reach out
And open your heart
Lift up your hands to God
And He’ll show you the way

And He said,“Cast your burdens upon me,
Those who are heavily laden
Come to me all of you who are tired
Of carrying heavy loads
For the yoke I will give you is easy
And My burden is light
Come to Me and I will give you rest.”

When you feel the world is tumbling down on you
And you have no one that you can hold on to
Just face the rising sun and you’ll see hope
And there’s no need to run
Lift up your hands to God
And He’ll make you feel alright

Have a good one my friends.....jd

Why worry?

2008-03-03T14:56:00.000-08:00

Not pursuing what you have planned for doesn't all the time mean you are a quitter nor a loser. There are times, it would mean, doing the right thing. After all, it is not your own will that must be followed, it is always God's. He has plans for each of us. We were born with a purpose in life and with a specific vocation and in that very moment or even before our birth He had already prepared the way for His plans and will for us. The reason why we fall to bad situations sometimes is that we stubbornly walk in a different direction. We often allow ourselves to be caught in a twilight zone. Most of the time, we are misled by our apprehensions of what will happen in the future instead of just putting our full trust in Jesus. Humm! Why can't we do this? Well, I understand it's easier said than done. Submission is really not an easy thing to do. I say this because honestly, I am guilty of it too. But you know what? One thing's true, great and wonderful about surrendering and delighting our hopes, dreams and concerns to God's own will and plans is that He will never harm nor destroy us. He only plans to prosper us and give us victory. So why withhold? Why worry?

who knows?

2008-03-03T12:16:00.001-08:00

Have I mentioned here that I love to sing? I am pretty sure I did. Well, I just wanna share with you guys how American Idol affects my life lately. It's quite funny, actually hehehe. I watched the try-outs the very first night they aired it on television. I had seen auditions that were horrible yet hilarious and that were very awesome as well. One of the commendable performances I had witnessed was by my Kababayan Ramielle Malubay. Proud to be, PINOY! hehe. Anyways, since Ramielle is good, she of course made it to the top 24 which on the other hand made me think of maybe auditioning next year. My wish! hahahaha. But you know what, funny it may seem but I really thought about it. In fact, I started practicing here at home but just in A Cappella since we don't have a karaoke system hehe. So, I did my practice anytime & anywhere in the house. There were times that our dog would bark because when I do my vocalization, I would tend to shout in high pitch that for some reasons would cause him to woof. hehehe. And one funny thing also is that probably my voice had reached the neighbors' domain so I assume they heard all those loudly high-pitched singing I did and I don't know if they're annoyed or disturbed by it. I would guess they're thinking of me as a frustrated singer hahaha. Americans are different. Unlike Filipinos that love to sing whether in karaoke or whatever all day long and all night long hehehe, but, they don't or shall we say they're not fond of karaoke thing. O well, who cares? I am not hurting anybody, right? Or let's put it this way, maybe I am hurting their ears? hehehe, but still I am not doing a criminal act, hear me? So, I continued practicing until today that I begin thinking skeptical about it. I have doubts whether I'll be accepted or not, given that, I'll be turning 28 this year already. Another thing also is that I am considering the fact that I am not yet a US citizen so there is no way that I will be considered an American idol if I am not an American. Friends, what do you think? Do you have any idea? On the other hand, in any case that I will not pursue my plan for which 99.99% I really won't hehe, I will just hold on to this dream of mine and someday when I already have a kid, God willing, I'm gonna pass this dream to him/her, who knows he/she will realize it for me. hehehe. Well, only Heaven knows...

where the spirit of the Lord is, there is...

2008-03-01T13:55:00.001-08:00

It is first day of the month yet I fired it up with a nasty attitude. I felt sorry for my hubby because I was so mean to him this morning. Well actually, the early hours of the day started great. We both woke up with good smiles on our faces, welcoming God's blessings & accepting His mercy for us. With a good aura, I got up from bed, went to the bathroom, mouth-washed, went downstairs, let the dog out, let the dog in, gave him biscuits and just shifted my ass up in gear. However, when I began cleaning, my face suddenly started frowning. My mood just swung around that triggered me to complain even the littlest things that I could think of. I complained about the brooms here which are hard and it hurts my hands when I am sweeping. I nitpicked Rudy's (our dog) hair scattered all around the house and I always was the one cleaning it up. I nagged my hubby and told him silly stuffs like maybe he just married me so he will have someone whom he can boss around to do the household chores. I sounded like a gong making a very dreadful sound. If only I could hear my own voice while uttering these bad words, I would really just stop and be gentle instead, but, since I was mad, I tended to just say my litany of complaints in a rapid succession. Gosh, it was so bad and shameful of me. Good enough that my husband did not entertain my irrationality and nastiness. He just said that if I don't want to clean then "stop cleaning!" He also said that what he wanted to point out was that there are only two people plus one dog living in the house yet it looks messier than a house which is dwelt by a big family. He just thought that he is working full-time so he's passing the house cleaning on my hands since I have much spare time to carry it out. He emphasized too that in fact, he was helping me do the dishes lately because he sensed that I didn't like doing it as well so what the heck I was complaining about when in fact he's always there to help me out. So, after he's done giving away his response, he said so long to me and then left for work. O boy, I got stuck with all the facts that he enumerated. He was surely right. I felt kinda ashamed and guilty of what I'd said and done. I should have not put the blame on him if the house was dirty because houses can really get dirty even if you clean it up everyday. I know, I should not feel loaded nor burdened when I do the household chores. I must face it, things are different now compared with the things I used to do when I was still single living with my parents where I just bossed around my younger sisters to do the chores. I should start acting not only a mature grown-up woman but to top it, a settled and responsible wife as well. Nonetheless, at least I was able to express what I truly felt. Sometimes, bitter feelings and emotions are better spit out than just left unspoken because if you let them be piled up inside of you, they might later on stifle you that could more likely result to a huge fight or a terrible chasm in your marriage. Right? O well, good thing is, I had great realizations on this incident. It was absolutely my bad, so, when hubby came back home, I hugged him and gave him a sweet kiss to say I was sorry.

Anyhow, I felt great that everything went well between the two of us before the day ends. We will surely both have a restful & peaceful sleep. Remember, never go to bed with a heavy heart transpired from unresolved discussion. O praises and thanks be to God most importantly for His Spirit really emancipated me from evil thoughts and freed me from false convictions.

And here's for you king of evil, BACK OFF! Stay away from us, you idiot! you will never succeed, never ever!!!! grrrrrrrrrrr

Jan here saying goodnight to everyone in Christ, leaving a beautiful thought to ponder (excerpt from the praise and worship song FREEDOM)

"Where the spirit of the Lord is...
...There is freedom, there is peace, there is joy and there is love..."

Awesome God!!!

Runs in the blood...

2008-02-15T14:35:00.000-08:00

I just got an email from my beautiful aunt in Illinois. She is just so pleasant and very appreciative. She commended me for doing a good job in writing blogs. Well, they're not that many though hehehe. But, thanks Auntie...Mwaah! Hmm, you know what? I really like it when I receive compliments like that. It boosts up my confidence and empowers my mentality to write more. Right now while writing this blog is just a manifestation that the email I got from my aunt inspired me to update my site. Whew! I really can't understand myself! When it comes to writing, I don't know why I always need others to positively shore me up before I do it. It's just so aggravating because at all times I choose to believe that it's so tiring to write overlooking the fact that it's worth it than doing nothing out of my idle time. Gee! Why can't I gear myself up? Where did this line "it runs in the blood", that my aunt proudly told me, go? Do I deserve to claim it? Ummm, am I a shame to my beloved deceased Tatay who was an excellent writer and a brilliant speaker? Well, well, well...I don't know...All I know is that each of us has different talents, interests & passions. I may not be inclined to writing nor reading but I am happy to say that I am good in singing. Not to brag, music runs in the blood of our clan as well, right folks? Love my own, huh? hahaha...Peace pipol! **wink**

No one else but HIM...

2008-01-26T10:01:00.000-08:00

I finally had the good chance to update my blogsite. I was not really caught up with much things to do these past few days (just went to my part-time work last Monday and yesterday), but, it's just that I was not in the good temperament to write. :-)

Anyways, do you hear what the world is speaking nowadays? My husband and I talked about this last night. He thought that we're now living amidst the realm of awful events & people. Murders, prostitution, drunkenness, illegal drugs, wars, terrible family feuds, greed for money, crave for fame, hunger for authority, bad speech and all other kinds of exploitation, corruption and out of control actions are already scattered every corner of the world. Media is more concerned of what a person can do evilly than acknowledging and grasping a more sensible empowering stories that will enrich people's mind and behavior. Absurd and scarry as it may sound but we cannot escape from what's going on. These are truly manifestations of 2 realities: first, disbelief & lack of love to our one true God and second of all, that Jesus is coming back very very soon as what the Holy Bible has transparently told us. Nonetheless, these ghastly things that have been happening so rampantly should not consume us to losing hope but instead, should be a heads-up that we need to repent, go back to Jesus, strongly believe in Him, surrender our lives to Him and just allow ourselves to be embraced by Him so we will walk life with faith, peace, joy, victory, honor & rejoicing as we await His coming. There is no other remedy for all
these wickedness but JESUS CHRIST, Son of our God. Let us all shout out loud that we are wired in our belief that no one else can heal our land, but HIM.

Have a serene yet enjoyable weekend to all of us! :-)

It's anybody's game...

2008-01-21T15:22:00.000-08:00

Football...Does this sport interest you? Tell you what, it actually confused & bored me when I first watched it. I really wondered why my hubby enjoys watching it when all I see in the field are just players tackling one another, running the ball and kicking or punting it off back and forth. Gee! Whatta lousy game I've ever watched in my whole life, I thought. However, when hubby explained to me its rules and mechanics, believe it or not, I started grasping the passion of watching it every Sunday. Eventually, I came to love it more than my husband does! In fact, not just I became a fan of it, but, a huge and avid fan. Funny, isn't it? hehehe

Last night was the NFC championship played between Green Bay Packers and New York Giants. Hubby made a pot of delicious chilli ,which is by the way the best chilli in the whole world, and grilled yummy Grillmaster Harty Beef hotdogs by Ball Park! It's fun because for us, it can never be a good football sunday if we don't prepare football food to eat. hehehe. So anyway, it was such a very good and great game. Both teams really played well & gave their best shot. It was actually an interesting close fight that extented to an overtime period. A mix of thrill, tension and excitement were felt by every fan of each team. Different commotions of the people in the stadium are loudly heard that I couldn't even take my eyes off of the televesion. I felt like I was personally there too. Sounds absurd, huh? hehehe. Anyhow, in the overtime, the Packers won the deciding throw of coin so they had the possession of the ball and that means they had the edge of winning the game. Nevertheless, a big twist all of the sudden happened, Packers lost the football by interception and gave Giants the chance to move it towards their goal. So, right down to the wire, least expected, Giants won by 3 points. Hurting to the Packers because they were almost there to be the champions yet Giants deserved the win because in all fairness, they really played so well that night. This phenomenal victory indeed astound the country because Green Bay was the awaited team to head to the SuperBowl but who the heck can predict & conclude when in fact, it is always anybody's game, right?

Well, you know what? I was not really rooting for the New York Giants. I just gave them credits for the job well done.

FYI, if you care, Giants face-off against the New England Patriots in the SuperBowl will be this coming February 3, 2008. Ummm, I guess, I am gonna root for the Patriots. :-) **wink**

might as well...

2008-01-19T18:36:00.000-08:00

While the cool winter wind blew strongly outside the house in the early evening of January 19, 2008, I was in the family room chatting with my friend Mae in Oregon through Yahoo Messenger. Amidst my conversation with her, another friend of mine in Ohio popped up and said "hi". Her name is Michelle. She is a sweet girl and very sagacious to talk with. She asked me if I enjoy making blogs and if I do, she invited me to register an account to this site "blogger.com". At first, I was so hesitant to create a blog account because I am not really into writing, however, I was thinking that since I am always in my computer chatting with friends; surfing the internet, might as well do something more practical...something that will enhance both my ability to think and to write.

To everyone, welcome to my blog site. Thanks for visiting and enjoy reading. God bless us all.