When faith is all you have

Those were the times when I felt so low. Nothing seemed right. Those times I felt that I needed comfort but there was nobody who could comfort me enough, to ease the pain and the loneliness. I felt so drained, tired and unhappy. There were many worries, many problems and there was nothing I could do. In the deep recess of my heart I sought God. I found myself earnestly seeking Him. I want to be comforted by Him. I looked around for Him, suddenly, the urgency was overwhelming. I had to find Him. I sought Him out in everyone that I saw and in everything that I touched, until in the corner of the room, in a little table by the window- there I saw the Bible. My eyes were transfixed on that black hardbound book. That bible was a fixture in that little table, but that day, it seemed alive- as if beckoning me to pick it up. There was no hesitation, I went to it ,sat on a chair besides that little table. As I held the Bible , I did not open it at once. I brought it to my heart, embraced it tightly – clung to it as if my life depend on it. I held it until I felt warm all over, as if someone wrapped me in a warm blanket. I was comforted... I felt empowered. I opened the Bible randomly and it opened on Isaiah 41:10 “ So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand”. All at once, my spirit was revived. I closed the book- with new resolve to face my problems to overcome the challenges that come with serving Him. I feel invigorated to face life again, to take on the responsibilities that I once felt to be overwhelming. At that time I realized that when faith is all I have... it(faith) is alone that matters. Our God the Almighty father is our only refuge- the source of our strength. Yes, I feel that the resurrected Christ is always there and that He patiently waits until we realized that we cannot do anything without him.  He eagerly awaits us to come to Him with the faith that He alone can make matters right in our life. We can cling to Him, especially in the darkest hour of our life  to ask for strength, to feel love and be loved. He is always there- like that Bible waiting for us, always ready to lift us from our sorrow, always ready to fill our spirit with the strength of His life giving words. When faith is all we have- do not fear- faith is all that matters... When faith is all we have...we have it all.

Stop worrying, instead count your blessings

I have been observing every person that I encountered everyday and what I always noticed about them is that many of them are whining. Complaining about everything. Well, I understand that life is really hard these days- what with the world-wide recession, the stressful traffic, unemployment, H1N1, high prices of commodity goods and so forth. But whining will not help us. Let us stop to think awhile. Perhaps we need to change our ways, let us become more appreciative despite of life difficulties. This is the prevailing theme of one of the short note that I post Yes life is hard, but then come to think of it- there is more to life than worrying. Worrying would not help us face the challenge of our times. But looking at things differently will do. There are still many things in this life to be thankful for- - that we are still alive and can still worry; the dead could not- that we still have air to breath no matter how stale - the dead could - that we can still eat- there are others who could no longer taste food- that we can still walk in our worn out shoes, there are people who have no feet at all- we can still hear the baby's cry, even the howling of dogs, the irritating noise of screeching wheels-still for those who could not-these could be music. There are many things to be thankful than being sorry. Sometimes we are overwhelmed by our problems, yet we have a God that is bigger than our problems. Let us count our blessings and we will see that we have a hundredfold of them that our difficulties. I believe that looking at our difficulties in a bigger frame of mind will embolden us, give us the confidence to take the challenges of life. This morning I realize that worrying will get me nowhere. But a change of attitude will...

She says

I think I could say without fear of contradiction that Filipino women have come a long way. I come across a blog that caters to women, although I'm not sure if it is exclusively for women and I feel so happy with the way they handle issues. Although I observed that it is purely women talk on lighter issues- I know soon I would be privy to more serious exchange of ideas. The topics like " does size matter" no longer make the women blushed. I read about some of the posted comments and I smiled. Frankly, I have never think much about it. By the way, does size really matter? But I have to comment on that later.

I had written about the new law on women- The Magna Carta on Women. I said it could be an emancipation of Filipino women- In my opinion, the emancipation of women is more than gender equality it is more on women empowerment. It is the right of women to speak their minds, to do what they want and not be dictated upon by false sense of morality. Our society has adjusted to the women liberation where women could do as they want. However, modern Filipina are more discerning individuals- and are more assertive of their rights. They know what they want, and they certainly have a way to getting what they want. I could cite so many women who are modern icons and the list would be so long. How I admire their articulateness, and the things that they accomplished- While there are still who raised their eyebrows on single mothers; mistresses, lesbians- there are getting fewer. I see many women in compromised situations who rise above their mistakes and emerged not only strongers but winners. The double standard of morality is not as intense as thirty years ago. But I don't imply that modern women have no sense of morality- they have but they a discerning kind of morality. Before I forget - does size really matters ? Of course not, what matters is your man and how he put his whole consciousness-body and soul to put you both in blissful union.

If you care enough-spread happiness

From twitter, I read about a quote shared by literaryquote that says, " Remember that happiness is as contagious as gloom. It should be the first duty of those who are happy to let others know of their gladness". This is the essence of caring and living life. Let us spread joy, instead of woe. Let us make a difference in the life of others by caring enough to share the happiness that we have. There is no sense living if live the way we please uncaring and unmindful of others. Perhaps this is the problem why real peace eluded this earth. All we care about is ourselves. The wasteful lifestyle and the destructive way we live easily endangered the lives of everyone on this planet. But still we do not bother. What this world needs is caring people. People who care enough to share happiness. There is so much that we can do to spread joy and happiness to our fellowmen, as there is so much that we can do to bring grief and loneliness to them. God has created us with a gift of free will, we have a choice whether we spread happiness or spread loneliness. If we spread goodwill, the return would be tenfold of bliss, but if we choose to bring pain and grief to others, the return would be tenfold woes. Let us be bothered and start caring. Spread happiness and be ten times happier.

Live life or survive life

How are we existing? Do we live or do we merely survive? How's life, we may be asked: our common response is : "oh fine". But is it so? Let us reflect upon ourselves how we deal with our lives. First do we find joy in living? Do we appreciate what life has to offer? Do we crave for more of life? Do we want to live life to the fullest? If so, do we appreciate waking up every morning- seeing the rising sun in summer, or seeing the fine drops of snow during winter. Do we appreciate the gentle rustling of the wind on our face?Do we feel awe at God's creation - no matter how small and insignificant though they seemed to be? If we answer affirmatively, then we enjoy life. We are living because we never fail to notice everything that we encounter everyday. But if we do not appreciate and notice these things, then we are not living, our existence is merely surviving. We are too busy with coping, with trying to find fulfillment in life, finding satisfaction and happiness to what the world has to offer instead of what life has to offer. As a result, we lead a stressful life and a never ending quest for happiness and contentment. Most of us live in despair- and angry with the world. Many social problems including family disintegration and disharmony in society are the results of merely surviving instead of living. Let us learn to live again. Let us live again and see how we can transform our life. A change of attitude towards life is an important step in renewing our commitment to life and living.

Enjoying more free time for yourself

How many times do we complain about not having enough time for ourselves? It is a problem common to all busy people. As a result we suffer from exhaustion and stress even burnt out. And being stressed is not good to our health. Henrik Edberg posted an article that could perhaps help all workholics out there. Actually, it is his tips for enjoying free time for summer. But I believe these steps could be applied all year round and like to share these tips for those who want to enjoy more time for themselves. Please read on the following article from Henrik Edberg:
Here are three simple tips that have enabled me to find more time for myself to do so. And since I have a lot to do this summer I will apply them even more diligently than usual. I hope you will find these three tips helpful too to get more time out in the sun, to work on your book or blog, to play some Frisbee or just relax and take it easy.
1. Find out where your time is really going.
This is like when you are trying to lose fat. It’s very easy to fool yourself and think you are doing “pretty good” when you in actually are not doing really that good. Thinking that you are doing “pretty good” won’t get you’re the results you want though. Actually doing what is needed gives you the results you want.
An easy way to stop fooling yourself in both cases is to use a log. If you are trying to lose fat, use Fitday.com to keep and eye on how much you are really eating.
If you want to find out where your time in a normal day or week are going create a simple time log in a Word-document or something similar and simply type down notes about everything you are doing.
I have for example found that I have spent too much time on social networks like Facebook over the last few months. I will cut that stuff down to a minimum to be able to have more time to relax and rejuvenate. And to keep up with the writing on this blog and other important stuff.
2. Realise that you don’t have to do everything you do.
And that the sky might not fall if you do/don’t do something. One thing that’s stopping people from improving themselves or just finding time for themselves is all the things they ”have” to do. You don’t really have to do anything.
Try to look at it as you choosing what to do instead.
Of course, if you choose to do or not to do something there will be consequences. Sometimes big, sometimes small. Sometimes bad, sometimes good. Sometimes one thing disguised as the opposite.
But the point is to take control of your life and feel like you choose. Instead of having your world choosing and controlling your life. This makes it easier to find out what isn’t really that important and eliminate or reduce to free up time for more interesting things.
3. Show up and just do it.
When you have found out what you are actually doing with your time and let go of some of the things you “had to do” then show up and just do the rest.
Instead of procrastinating, instead of thinking, instead of hoping someone else will do it or take an initiative, instead of rationalizing and inventing excuses for not doing something establish the habit of just doing it.
Most of the time you need to do it anyway sometime in the future and until you are more or less forced you’ll just waste a lot of time procrastinating and thinking – and feeling bad - about having to do whatever you need to do. And if you wait for someone else to do something about it can take a lot of time before someone does so. Establishing this habit can be a bit difficult if you are used to thinking - or over thinking - a lot.
One useful way that I’ve found to develop this habit is simply to not identify so much with my thoughts and emotions and realize that I can control them instead of the other way around. I still think you should think a bit. But after that it’s most often just better to go and do whatever you want to do.

H1N1 - the Philippines' Case

Unfortunately the Philippines is no longer H1N1 free country. As a I write this blog the inflicted Filipinos are more than 400 and still counting. Everyday our Department of Health Secretary appears on television announcing new cases of H1N1 in the country. Since this appearance seemed to be going regularly- I began to dread his appearance on television. What is being done to prevent the continues and unabated spread of the this virus?. I'm inclined to think that the government has not done enough to prevent the spread. The Philippines' situation is alarming- at the rate the virus is spreading compromises the health of the Filipinos making everyone almost vulnerable. I believe that a more proactive response from the government is in order. However, we need to be just as proactive ourselves. Sanitation is very important. Let us all be responsible people, making sure that we help in abating the spread of the virus by taking all healthy precautions. Equip our body with the essential vitamins to increase its resistance capability against this virus and all disease-causing organisms. Cover our mouths when sneezing and coughing. Avoid congested and humid places. There are so many things that we can do. It will not be so difficult for us if we have made it habit and lifestyle-clean-living.