The great A that determines everything

I feel so challenged this week...

to live my life with a GREAT attitude
to be someone with a heart of servanthood
to be a person filled with purpose and vision
to be more faithful in the little things
to be more excellent in the things I do
to go ALL the way out for Jesus
to achieve God's best for my life
and to be a living testimony for Him
not so much by how I talk, but by how I walk.

I learnt that greatness is serving. I learnt that without a great attitude, we are nothing. I learnt that life is all about getting our attitudes right. Just like how when we seek first the kingdom of God, everything we need will be added unto us. When we get our attitudes right (toward God, people and every other thing in life), everything in our lives will fall into place. (for sure!) We will start to grow within in the area of our character and values; and externally, we will begin to become fruitful in the things we do!

And I also learnt that without the anointing of God, I can achieve nothing spectacular .

I want to live a supernatural life.

Thank You Jesus. =)

Giving is love

Today I understood that there's a difference between pride and a "pride problem". Everyone has pride but not everyone has a pride problem.

Pride is an attitude that stinks (big time!) and it's an abomination to God. Let's stay away from it and guard our hearts closely against it.

I watched Money No Enough 2 today! It was a pretty good movie speaking of an unconditional sacrifice of a mother for her sons from their conception till adulthood! How noble! It sometimes make me wonder if I would do the same if I'm a mum too. Is it innate in every mother to have such love for their children? The desire to protect and provide the best is amazingly compelling. I'm so in awe! Not that I'm unwilling or doubtful of such love and sacrifice, but the selflessness is deserving of all the admiration and praise! Love GIVES. The greatest act of love is seen by Jesus Christ when He GAVE His life for us on the cross! It's really true when they say how much we LOVE someone or something can be seen by how much we GIVE ourselves to them.

The movie also manages to paint out the various social issues faced by Singaporeans through very dramatic and realistic scenes! They voice out the inner cries of Singaporeans, both young and old. And the fact that Singapore is inching toward an ageing society makes the issue of caring for the elderly ever more pertinent. As mammon becomes more important in the eyes of people, I pray we will not forget to be compassionate to our elders whom some may not have as much ability to bring in the wealth brought in by the younger generation. It's so easy to harden our hearts once we climb higher and higher to the top and soon people will start to take things for granted and become ungrateful for the little things they receive in life. That's when unreasonable demands step in. That's human nature, unfortunately.

I pray we will always be so appreciative of things we have in life, especially the people who are positioned in our lives. It's always the relationship that matters above all things, like how relationship precedes ministry. And I really want to treasure relationships more as I grow, because it's something that is irreplaceable by anything else in the world. Without it, our hearts will become empty and that is when we become truly POOR. One takeaway from the movie is that we are not poor when we are financially inadequate. We are only poor when we realize that in our dire times, there's no one to be there for us. Or at the end of our lives, we realize that all the wealth that is accumulated has come to nothing when there is no one to share them with. Doesn't that sound like so many stories that we have heard? (one after being saved from the brink of death starts giving away their wealth and pursue the intangible things in life). Isn't sad that many people regret only after they lose a precious someone whom they previously fail to treasure but trample them under their selfish ambitions and pride?

Thank God for God. If not, living the life of compassion and with the right attitudes will be impossible. Thank you Jesus. :)

Pleasure in being different

I like writing; and I really yearn to write better. I think it's an extremely important and essential skill to possess. Just like communicating and having the ability to clearly articulate your thoughts and feelings. I truly desire to confidently communicate in a way that is unique to myself, both verbally and literally.

I was conversing with my sister last night and she shared with me something which someone once told her.

"This freedom that you have to express yourself and be who you are, don't lose it. As you move on, things are going to get tougher and it's not going to be easy to sustain."

How true. So many of us have become bounded by society's expectations on our lives that at times, we forgot who we are and what we originally set our hearts out to accomplish. The desire to conform has become so wielding that it has become a norm and people conform to the culture of conformism. It becomes a forgotten fact that everyone is unique and different on our own and it's OKAY to be different! In fact, something is seriously wrong if everyone ends up doing the same thing, speaking and behaving in the same way. That will be so boring and abnormal! Totally disturbing.

Everyone is called to do different things in life. Though there are categories of industries and professions that we will be called to work and serve in, we are still inherently different from each other. I realize that the issue that most causes people to conform and play down who they are is the fear of being rejected and be seen as the sore thumb sticking out. There is also an immense need in us to fiercely protect our identity. Concurrently, I believe there is a cry in the hearts of many today to also break free from the bondage that seem to envelope the hearts of people like a spider web. We are caged up in one way or another. And we need a key to unlock the cage and set us free, which ever area it is. There is a cry to be able to freely express ourselves for who we are and not be inhibited by how others think and see. There is massive potential and talents that have yet to be expounded; many have yet to gain the courage to break free and simply be who they are. And once we have broken free, life becomes more fulfilling and purposeful. The lives of others will also be impacted and transformed because we will be driven to live our lives to the fullest and exploit every opportunity that will draw us closer to our vision and purpose in life.

I realize that to be different is to simply be yourself, and to hold fast to the right values and vision. Let's ferociously guard this right that we have!

Let's be conversionists! Let's take pleasure in differences. Let's take pleasure in being different.

__________________________________

My trip to Hong Kong was fantastic! I'm deeply grateful for all that I've gained. God has been faithful and amazing! I prayed, "God, please let my trip be very fruitful." And it was.

The shopping was incredible. The food was fabulous. But above and beyond these were the awesome and intangible experiences and lessons I've learnt. I truly thank God for putting various people in my life who spoke to me in different ways throughout the trip. I feel I can classify my experiences into an itinerary. Haha :)

I realize God speaks to me a lot through people. Even through the most unexpected person doing the most random things! Haha. And it's really amazing. I love it! It really awakens my soul to many things, and reiterated things that God spoke to me in the past too.

And this week is the first week of school! ("Finally!..." says all the NTU and NUS people..haha.) School's not too bad. I like my modules this semester. Power-packed with social science modules. I like it because they are really interesting and fun. Looking forward to a great semester! :)

And dear Jac, I'm looking forward to our music classes too! :)

Faith that move mountains!

1 more hour! :)

I'm very very amazed by God throughout this week! I witnessed how faith and the act of actively speaking out the Word of God changes one's life today. I am deeply impacted! I wish to elaborate more and narrate what I saw and my reflections toward it. Unfortunately, I am extremely limited by the second-hand that is rapidly ticking by.

The title of my reflections will probably be FAITH and the Power of CONFESSION. Simple as it seems and some of us could have heard this concept a million times or more. But witnessing someone living out these principles brings forth yet another experience and revelation!

To be continued!... :)

Back to packing! HK here I come! Back next week!

:)

Faith

Mixing actions with faith.
Faith is seeing the invisible.
Do as you believe.
Doing while believing.

This is just but a sojourn to something unimaginably greater.

:)

I succumbed!! The desire to own it has been tugging insistently at my heart since yesterday when my eyes caught it resting daintily on the polished glass shelf. Haha.

Ain't it cute? I love the sea blue :)

And the most important pull factor is that it doesn't cause blisters!

Discover

I have sought you and you have spoken
day by day, a journey of faith
a walk in your grace
to trust you and to hold you tight

I'll hold fast to the decisions I make
knowing that you'll be faithful to deliver
even if the heart fails to keep pace with the mind
for the vision set before me
I'll keep running with joy :)

And you're right, I got to learn to differentiate dissatisfaction from frustrations. Dissatisfaction causes me to probe and hunger for more but frustrations is all about oneself having issues with expectations that are not met. And as what you said, I already know the solutions. I just need a lightning rod. Thanks S!! I'm so blessed by you :)

I'm back! :)

For your information Xh....i was NOT slacking....Just not feeling cyber-ly alive. :)

I finally ended my internship at Ernst & Young BAS last week! It was a great internship over a span of 12 weeks. It was a lovely experience and I really thank God for that. And thanks kel, for referring :) I must say that if not for the people there, the 12 weeks would have been vastly different. I'm truly blessed by the people and the experiences I gained. Paltry as some experiences may seem to be, consistently recognizing the significance of the little things in life ultimately adds up to a successful being.

Talking to people really broadens my perspective! I realized how narrow-minded I was after talking to various people about their lives, values, principles, priorities, loves, hates etc. It's rewarding because you actually find out more about yourself and brings you on a self-discovery process of what you really want in life! The part about realizing that there's so much more in life than what's in my shallow mind was initially fuzzy and speculative, but it was truly liberating and exhilarating once I set my eyes to look beyond!

I was actually quite sad on the last day when I had to bid farewell. I'm so gonna miss my colleagues because they are the ones who made my first internship so enjoyable and memorable! Then again, interns being interns, I foresee stepping into the workforce as a permanent staff is gonna be another rude awakening to what the corporate world is really like. That aside...to capture the nice and sweet moments....

A simple farewell video from Alan (fellow intern) and I:

Enjoy! :)