Joy

Happy Monday! Surprise!  We think we can handle this truth, until we are faced with opposition, a different opinion, a person who just couldn't stand us.   Then we start to think, "why won't he agree with me?" "What is wrong with... HIM?!"  Yup, our natural tendency is to deflect rejection and become defensive.  We justify our stance, we seek others' approval, we look for every good reason why we are right and he is wrong.   Does not sound like you? Then maybe you belong to the group who immediately thinks, "What is wrong with ME?!"  Another way to react to an opposition or dissenting opinion or rejection is to question our intention, our action or worse, our self-worth.    Whichever way you swing in this continuum can be due to a lot of different factors.  However, what I want to focus on today is not how it affects you , not why it affects you but what do you do with it?   1. Be objective.  Either one of you may be wrong or right at any given

 Prayer should come naturally to us. With all its benefit for us we should not let a moment by without praying.  How can we be more prayerful?  Please listen. 

 Happy Monday!  The effect of this pandemic continues to be too real with all of us knowing someone who is either infected or who passed away due to the virus.   Suffice it to say that illness and sufferrings abound.  What we have plenty of, we have to put to good use.  Our sufferings, illness, efforts to take care of an ill family member might just as well be an opportunity for grace.   How?  1. When we are in pain, tired and hopelessly insecure of the future, offer these feelings for another person's intentions in prayer. We submit what we are suffering from for it to be united go Christ's sufferings and therefore turn into grace.  2.  We honor our pain and sufferings or saxrifices to the many others also experiencing pain and offering their service to their loved ones.  We remember them and commune with them.  3.  Use the time of suffering to strengthen our connection to God's love, healing, providence, power. When we are weak, that is when we recognize that everything i

Its our first year anniversary and what timely topic!  #forwordfriday and Joy In Me Today has brought me a way to find hope in the most dire time.   And just like that, one post after another, we are on our first year!  Just keep swimming as they say.  Please watch this video on Hope and how not to lose it. 

Happy Monday!  In the midst of worsening pandemic, earthquakes and chaos in the Middle East, it makes me ask...what more is ahead of us? I dread the answer.   Did you just see a tendency that I let peek there? That's catastrophizing. Although in situations where we are, I may not be exaggerating, believing that things will turn for the worse is still not yet THE ONLY possible turnout.   It's just difficult to hope sometimes. Yet, if we do not have hope, what do we still have?  Hoping gives us the strength to get up, fight another day.  It helps us to search for ways because there ARE WAYS still to be considered.  It urges us to ride the wave instead of letting it wash us over.   It is therefore important to note what hope is not:  It is not passive, it moves us to action It is not foolish, it believes in looking beyond the situation and dare I say, it is not entirely of human means, for if it were then we'd ran out of hope when nothing short of a miracle can change a situat

To simplify our lives we do not only manage our physical environment but our internal environments as well, this includes managing our expectations.   Please watch. 

Happy Monday! A lot of the things that stops us from getting what we want are from the way we look at them.   When we want to have something but meets a bump on the road, real or not, we stop on our tracks and abandon the mission.  Some of these things can actually be simplified instead of abandoned.   Some of the reasons we don't persevere.  1.  We don't have time.  This comes from the belief things should happen at certains times of the day or certain length of time.   2. We do not have the resources we need.  We feel limited because some resources are not yet available to us in the amount we think we need.  3.  We are not yet in the mood.  We think that we would feel more motivated when the condition is perfect, when our mood is perfect.  4.  We are too young, too early, too late, too old.    5.  We can't because its too hard, too complicated, task is too big.  How can we simplify these roadblocks to facilitate moving forward instead of stopping?  See you on Friday! 

 Being a worry wart, I have to look for ways to deal with this tendency.   By asking myself these questions, it helps me to put things in perspective and stop me from the endless road of worry.   Please watch and share :) 

 Happy Monday!  I have heard of, read of, meditated on this verse on the Bible and yet, when presented with a task, a problem or any situation that needs problem solving or preparation, I tend to worry. A lot of pressure comes from wanting to be too prepared, or too much anticipation of what ifs.  I cannot fully take this out of my system as I was "programmed" to be this.  I stayed with my brothers for a week and I watched my niece embody everything our upbringing represents.  Double check everything Meet deadlines Follow the schedule, do not be late Produce results Anticipate problems Do not disappoint     Of these, the last puts the most pressure.  It is most of the time not a direct demand but a mentality. It is like I can not rest until its over.   Although it may not sound like it, but this also shows the lack of feeling of assurance given by the verse.  I will be taken cared of...no possible eventuality will arise that will find me lacking of God's help.  Repeat 100