Forgive and Forget (an article from Activated)

My heart aches for you. I feel your pain, the anger, the regret, the remorse, the feelings of being hurt and angered by the faults and mistakes and sins of others.  I also know that it's human nature to want to retaliate, to want revenge, and to resist that inner voice that tells you to forgive and bury your differences. To truly forgive and forget is difficult.

Only through love and forgiveness can you be freed from these roots of bitterness that entangle your heart, and you get that love and forgiveness from Me. I am love, I am forgiveness, and I am here for you, waiting to lift this load that you've been carrying around. Take it off and give it to Me. Just say, "Jesus, take this. I don't want it anymore." Together we will bury it in My love. Then you will feel light as a feather and the future will look bright once again, for you will experience the joy of My Spirit and know that I have made you whole again.

FROM JESUS WITH LOVE.ü

Teacher to the last.- Morrie S.

"Teacher to the last." is a quote i borrowed from the book Tuesdays with Morrie. This label/ section of my blog will be about anecdotes and ""teacher, teacher stuff". ;) I will be posting more in this section, soon.

princess diaries

If a picture paints a thousand words, let these speak for themselves.;)

His princess.

Smile, you never know who's falling inlove with your smile.

Sweet, sassy lass.

Nature and music lover.

The princess in me.

Friends are forever.

When vanity strikes.

Ten Things

Life is about waking up each day and discovering new things. Each waking hour of our lives brings new lessons – life’s little lessons that allow us get through day by day. The things I learn everyday inspire me all the time and it makes me look forward to more learning-filled days.

So, here are the ten things I learned lately:

1. Even trash can be put to good use.
2. Listening to the sound of rain at night is a soothing exercise.
3. Teachers can sometimes be like students.
4. More than enough is too much.
5. You really spend a lot of time sleeping.
6. I have an imperfect view of what reality is.
7. Mistakes we try to cover have a way of coming back up.
8. People can hurt you only as much as you allow them to.
9. Silence can also be deafening.
10. The first sip is always the best.

These are few of the things I’ve come to terms with lately and these realizations, I believe have made me a better person. Seeing things from a new perspective from time to time makes life a little less complicated and  a lot more beautiful.

Chocolate Cakes are Sweet

Chocolate cakes are sweet…

This is a story about how forgiveness can be as sweet as a chocolate cake.

I used to be an emotional-self-pity-galore type of person. But as the years went by I matured and learned that I wasn’t the center of the universe, so I might as well accept the fact that things won’t always go my way.

So, about that chocolate cake:

Funny how God’s messages have a way of catching up with us and reminding us that it’s applicable at all times, in all situations. Oh yeah, the chocolate cake.

At one time, I bought a chocolate cake for somebody and he didn’t like to eat chocolate cake at that time. So he didn’t eat it and I felt somewhat insulted. Sounds like I over reacted, indeed I did. Suddenly, there I was, all issues on rejection being dug up, over a “rejected” slice of chocolate cake; not wanting to accept that he did not eat it. It ruined my night a bit but I slept through it. The following morning, he was there, waiting for me across my place. I didn’t even ask what time he arrived (I didn’t really want to know). So, there I was, hurrying past the gate and what I saw across the streets stopped me in my tracks. What can I do? I can’t ignore him of course. I smiled and thought, “oh well, it’s a new and beautiful day, why ruin it?”  He said he was sorry and I just answered him with “Apologies don’t change anything. And forget about it, it’s another day. That was still from last night.”

That same day, I had another encounter with a different person. I have a friend whom I haven’t talked to in more than three months because I thought he did something “unforgivable”. There I was judging somebody by his actions and myself by my ideals. I couldn’t find it in my heart to forgive him and forget what he did. But on that night God moved in a mysterious way and allowed an offer of a chocolate cake to somehow restore my broken relationship with that person.

Sure, apologies can’t bring you back in time and let you undo your mistakes but it surely refreshes a wounded relationship. That day, I was pondering on how we should forgive as God had forgiven us and still forgives us – mistake after mistake.

August 18, 2010 is a day I’ll never forget – it was the day I learned that chocolate cakes are sweet only if you eat them and forgiveness brings a wonderful feeling only if you mean it.

The Gift of Today

There are times when I get so preoccupied with a lot of things inside my head that I fail to notice I’m missing out on a lot of important things. There are also days when I worry so much about what the future holds that I fail to be glad about the present – it’s right there in front of me. Waiting for me to live it and just appreciate it. Worst of all, I have moments when I dwell in the past so much that I fail to remember that life is actually meant to be lived forward and not backwards.

There’s a quote from Kung Fu Panda that really stuck in my head and I’m striving to live by it – “Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, today is a gift – that’s why it’s called present”. What do you do when somebody gives you a present? You should be thankful and appreciative of that gift, right? That’s the least you can do for the one who gave you the present. Human as I am, I have a tendency to make a big deal out of inconsequential things that I fail to appreciate the beauty of the gift that’s right before me.

Yesterday is history. I used to make such a big issue out of things that have gone wrong – thinking and rethinking about how I could have done it some other way just to change the outcome. Sadly, no matter what I do, something tells me that nobody could have fared better than I did. It was meant to happen that way. So instead of wallowing in regret, I should just look at it as a learning experience instead of a big mistake.

Tomorrow is a mystery. The near future seems to be so daunting to me, simply because I don’t have any idea of what it brings. I used to believe that I make my own destiny – well, in a way, I do. With all the choices I make, how my life turns out is a product of my own decisions, definitely not somebody else’s. I realized lately that tomorrow is not just a big mystery or a question mark. It’s also a bonus – a blessing from God that allows us to fulfill our dreams and aspirations. I don’t have an assurance that I will wake up tomorrow but I still plan about what I’m going to do in the next days and even years to come. Somehow, there is this innate feeling in me that tomorrow will be great for as long as I trust in God’s plans for me, for He alone knows what is truly best for me.

Today is a gift, that’s why it’s called present. To really live in the present without regrets over the past and anxieties for the future sometimes seem to be an overwhelming task. But God’s grace and His love is enough to make me see that indeed today is a present and the least I can do for Him is to share the gift with other people by living my life as beautifully as I can.

Life is beautiful. Live it well.

Cornstarch Monster

Stepping out of your comfort zone and being away from an environment so familiar to you is actually scarier than it sounds. May 29, 2011 was the day when it finally dawned on me that I cannot delay my trip any longer. Since June last year, I knew I was going to be re-assigned by the time the next school year comes rolling in but I tried to pretend that it was still years away instead of just exactly one year. My first school year with AOS taught me a lot of things and it also prepared me for the next step I had to take -- going to AOS Davao.

May 2011 came before I knew it. Time really flies so fast. I was delaying my trip – I went to Camiguin, and then to Cebu during the summer. When the last week of May finally arrived, I knew I had no choice but to accept the fact that a new environment is waiting for me at Davao and I had to leave the comfort zone I’ve known all my life.

So there, on May 29, I packed all my stuff and made it to the bus terminal, alone. I went to AOSD with another teacher but during the trip my mind was elsewhere. I was thinking about how seemingly crazy my life had been during the previous year and how the world in my comfort zone was getting smaller.  I thought then that I needed a breath of fresh air and trudging in an unknown territory might do me good. How right I was. It’s been 50 days since the day I first accepted the fact that I’ll be in Davao for maybe 2 or 3 years, and so far, there is another place that feels like home.

p.s. cornstarch monster is what we know as disturbance.;)