Greatest Love Story

It wasn’t so long ago that you were mired in that old stagnant life of sin. You let the world, which doesn’t know the first thing about living, tell you how to live. You filled your lungs with polluted unbelief, and then exhaled disobedience. 

We all did it, all of us doing what we felt like doing, when we felt like doing it, all of us in the same boat. 

It’s a wonder God didn’t lose his temper and do away with the whole lot of us. Instead, immense in mercy and with an incredible love, he embraced us. He took our sin-dead lives and made us alive in Christ. He did all this on his own, with no help from us! Then he picked us up and set us down in highest heaven in company with Jesus, our Messiah. (Ephesians 2:1-6 MSG)

I can't thank God enough for loving me.. :)

Alter Ego.

My husband and I just watched about a testimony of a girl who just recently surrendered her life to Jesus. Her testimony is a perfect example of God's compassion and mercy. I was again in awe of God's gift of redemption and forgiveness to mankind. For her, freedom from a bottomless pit of insecurity is to let go of her "alter ego".

During her testimony, she recalled, “I felt so loved that day because I was put in hair and makeup. I was told I was beautiful. I was going to be a star. But I was drained empty...I was so robotic, I was like a rubber Barbie doll. I had no emotions...I had an alter ego.”

Today's world defines beauty by ironically showcasing themselves as "carefree individuals who doesn't mind what other people will say" but in reality, most their motive is to make themselves look cool, therefore "acceptable". 

Today's generation seems to be so willing to set aside their values and depth just to chase what they seem to see as true happiness therefore, lose their identity on "alter egos". They believe these alter egos would make them feel better. So much to get a better version of themselves by trying to re-create who they are.

Alter ego - for some, is the perfect picture of who they are.

Yes, nothing is wrong with trying to be better. However my fear is that the more we crave for perfection, the less we see ourselves dependent on God's ability to mold us into the character He wants all of us to desire. Therefore, to only God should we always have to be acceptable. 

Romans 12: 1-2 

Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, ^[a]acceptable to God, which is your ^[b]spiritual service of worship. ² And do not be conformed to this ^[c]world, but be transformed by therenewing of your mind, so that you may ^[d]prove what the will of God is, that which is good and ^[e]acceptable and perfect.

Live to Tell the Tale.

Marriage will make you appreciate God more and His ability to find the person that would perfectly fit the kind of relationship He wants us to experience. 

Living with my husband for almost nine months now gave me a detailed view of how dedicated God is to align, correct, and balance my life according to His will. From unhealthy habits, dragging worries, to impractical spending; I can say that for that 9 months of being together, God was able to use my husband as an effective avenue to help me improve as a person.

There are many things I discovered along the way about his character that surprised me and made me appreciate him all the more. Here's some to enumerate:

-He is more organized at home than I am. When I met him, I never thought that he'd be more picky with colors and has the final say with house aesthetics than me. He has more preferences than me. He's good at setting standards. Never in our entire boyfriend-girlfriend relationship did I see that coming! :)

-He is a morning person, surprisingly. He would normally wake me up with a kiss on my forehead and a pot of freshly brewed coffee to start my day.

-While most of us find our uninterrupted time to read the bible in the morning or right before we sleep, PJ would normally study it in between his work breathers. He would also share his revelations already incorporated to his daily experiences that makes me remember and practice God's word better. 

-Most people think that he always say "yes" and would just go with the flow. On the contrary, he's more opinionated than how we perceive him to be. He won't give up until you fully accept his beliefs. His solutions to some problems may seem to sound absurd sometimes but his opinions never fail to come with wisdom. He has built a reputation that makes me trust and respect him on every decisions we are about to make as a young couple. 

-He is easy to be with. He appreciates good friends like brothers. He fights for relationships worth valuing. I never hear him say bad things about anyone. Even when he is tremendously upset. 

-He always remind me to be the better person no matter how hard my situation is. I admire the purity of his heart and motives. He is never arrogant nor self righteous. He never keeps scores of his life in comparison to someone else; which makes me understand how easy for him to live a life full of contentment and humility. 

-He celebrates life a lot! To him, there's no such thing as "I woke up at wrong side of the bed". 

I am so blessed to be given this wonderful gift of friendship. I am grateful for his life. 

As I look forward to more years, I can't help but praise God for working on the miracle of putting our lives together. 

I know we will live to tell this tale! :) 

The Noble Wife.

Had my daily devotion this morning and my topical bible brought me to this particular passage about the noble wife. The passage is in Proverbs 31:10-31.

While my early stage of marriage is still pretty much working for me, some words of wisdom from the bible could help me start founded properly on what the bible says.

Reading the passage as it enumerates descriptively how a noble wife should be scared me since most of it entails a lot of effort. At least for a working wife like me. However, as I claim God's promises in my life, juggling personal and career life can be all so worth it by the grace of God.

Thus, I'm sharing you what I've picked up.

1. A noble wife is God-fearing.
-Therefore, she is trustworthy at all times. "Who you are when no one is looking" will always reflect who God is in your life.

2. A noble wife enjoys her work.
- It is always better to quote:
"She shops around for the best yarns and cottons,
and enjoys knitting and sewing.
She’s like a trading ship that sails to faraway places
and brings back exotic surprises.
She’s up before dawn, preparing breakfast
for her family and organizing her day.
She looks over a field and buys it,
then, with money she’s put aside, plants a garden.
First thing in the morning, she dresses for work,
rolls up her sleeves, eager to get started.
She senses the worth of her work,
is in no hurry to call it quits for the day.
She’s skilled in the crafts of home and hearth,
diligent in homemaking."

3. A noble wife doesn't worry. Is cheerful. Is full of faith.
-When I was single, I worry about almost everything. Now that I am in a charge of taking care of another life, or maybe more lives in the future (depending on how many children I'll have), I can expect worrisome days. The passage emphasized a cheerful character of a wife, always ready to face the day. Worry came from fear and the antidote of fear is faith. Simple logic I've learned by attending church when I was college. So I may expect worrisome days, but a life full of faith, leaps and overcomes with excitement.

More to say, but I'll perhaps just tell you to start enjoying your day! Cheers!

The Daily LLLAT.

I started to commit myself in logging my daily "Little Learnings At A Time”.

Here’s a list of today's LLAAT.

- Learn to appreciate the little things in life that makes you happy, they come in handy.

- Convert those things that disappoints/worries you into prayers.

- Seek for opportunities in the midst of chaos/uncertainty.

- Wear a smile and be cheerful at all times.

- Beauty is never measured by physical appearance.

FlashForward

Let's flash forward. :)

Coined the title from the series I am watching now "FlashForward" and yes I finished the whole series in one sitting. Did not sleep the whole night after my late shift last night and spent the whole day today watching it since we did not push through with our planned road trip.

I have a lot of updating to do. And since I decided to keep this site to remember all my so called "markers" in life, I will definitely need to update the missing dates/month.

From the last work related update, here's more:

1. I got engaged! - December 09, 2011.
We went to Hong Kong for a day. He took me in all the romantic places there and then cracked the question to me at H Restaurant in IFC Tower. We headed to Manila in the evening. It was like that in the movies. <3

2. I got married! - October 27, 2012.
We got married after 10 months. :) Our wedding was very intimate. We invited close friends and relatives in a very private farm that we rented for the whole day. It was so peaceful, for me the best day of my life. It was worth all stress we've been through planning and making it happen. It was just exactly as what I prayed for - simple yet elegant and glorious.

3. I got promoted! - October 29, 2012 and July 1, 2013
After a year of officially signing with the company I am currently working for, I got promoted as a Service Leader. It was not just a promotion, it was another level of learning, maturity and friendship with my beloved colleagues whom I embraced as my family. 

(edit: got promoted again to be the Assistant Manager last July)

Many things I am thankful for. I will always believe that the God I serve and love is capable of doing things more than I can ever ask or imagine.

I always hear from church that "we are destined for greatness". And I just know that no matter how I fight it/or may have forgotten it, God will and can always be in control to remind, guide and maneuver our course to the destiny that He has planned for us. All we have to do is SURRENDER.

So Much Intro, So Much Into.

My post last night is a bit melodramatic. I wrote it a little late and my tired eyes made me more sleepy. Reading it now made me realized that I made some grammatical errors.

Anyways, have corrected it now. I will write more from now on :)

Directions: Stubbornness vs. God's Sovereignty.

Oftentimes, my stubbornness gets in the way of putting God and His will above myself.

My decision making isn't that good as well, that I often commit mistakes...No, blunders! Sometimes, these blunders were too big I couldn't even imagine how I was able to get this far.

Getting to the bottom of my worst blunders, I found three major issues.

-One, I was stubborn and I had to learn things the hard way. There were signals that I was not able to follow, and there were warnings I ignored.
-Second, I was too proud that I thought I would be able to make it alright.
-Most of the time, it was just because I became too emotionally blinded seeing only limited options, that when I was pushed to the wall of "wrong avenues", I caved in.

I do imagine "What if the situation I've been through happened to someone else, would they make better decisions?" Could be, or could be worse. Would they even manage to crawl up and pick up themselves? Would they manage to accept they made a mistake and ask for forgiveness? Would they be able to forgive? Would they reach out? I had hoped that I was as sheltered as other people from all sorts of deceiving - self inflicted or not.

Looking back, I know my life isn't the life anyone in my position would be proud of, but what makes me grateful is that, at least somehow, I made it. I may have resisted and failed to respond to God's grace, but still I will be forever indebted to the sovereignty that He has given. It was His guidance that re-aligned my directions according to his purposes and plans for me.

"I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus." Philippians 1:6

"It's in Christ that we find out who we are and what we are living for. Long before we first heard of Christ and got our hopes up, he had his eye on us, had designs on us for glorious living, part of the overall purpose he is working out in everything and everyone. (Ephesians 1:11, 12 MSG)