Wives and Husbands

Yesterday’s sermon was on the responsibilities of wives and husbands. The pastor quoted from Ephesians 5: 22 – 33.

22Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord. 23For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. 24Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.

25Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her

Perhaps the part on how wives should submit to their husbands is a hard pill to swallow for most women, considering the independence that we enjoy nowadays. But somehow, I felt that the husband’s role would be more difficult to fulfill. After all, how many men can truly love their wives the way Christ loved the church? Christ sacrificed his life for the church. If a husband loves his wife that much, it’s no wonder that the wife would be willing to submit to him. So to all my female readers out there, if you ever find such a guy who loves you so much, don’t ever let him go…

That will be the ideal husband, but the pragmatic side of me feels that such men are few and far between, and most women will have to settle for less. I wished I would never fall into that category of settling for less but perhaps I’m being too idealistic here. I do not want to get married just for the sake of getting married and end up miserable all my life, or worst, affecting the lives of my children as well. Yet I guess this is easier said than done, as even though there is equality between men and women in today's society, single women are often still ostracized and made fun of, especially those who are of marriageable age.

Well, one of my friends blogged that her basic criteria for a boyfriend is that he has to be christian and must love God as much as, or more than, she does, and that is already not easy to find. So with my kind of expectations, I supposed I might as well remain single all my life then.

I read The Alchemist last month. In short, the story is about a shepherd boy who went in search of treasure and in the process, found his purpose in life as well. Anyway, I remembered that in the book, there was this part where the shepherd boy was thinking about why he chose to be a shepherd instead of studying at seminary. And one of the reasons was that he didn't want to get too close to the people at the seminary because he had felt that people usually like to change others to be the person that they like him to be. He went on to say that people usually have a better idea of how others should live but have no idea of how they themselves should live.

At times, I feel that this is so true. We don't practice what we preached do we? Guess people will always have certain perceptions of you no matter what you do anyway. After all, we usually tend to see others based on who we are and our own perceptions and not as who they really are.

Only He sees us as who we are inside...

Loving our neighbours

I don't know about others but for me, this has got to be one of the most difficult things to do. After all, how do you love the people who have hurt you? Just yesterday, I was so frustrated with a colleague as he was just so insensitive and rude.

Perhaps it was timely then that the day before, on Sunday, my pastor was preaching on, as you might have guessed, loving our neighbours. He had shared this verse:

Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbour as yourself.' All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.

Matthew 22: 37 - 40


And I recalled another verse related to this:

(Jesus said) But I tell you who hear me: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.

Luke 6: 27-29


One of my colleage also lent me a book called "The Root of Rejection" today. In it, the author had written on how Jesus was rejected and persecuted by the very people He had come to save. And yet He still loves them. He didn't have to face the rejection but He did it for us. If He could do it for us, why can't I do this for Him?

Wedding

Just came back from an ex-classmate's wedding. He was someone I knew back from my TPJC days. Also got to catch up with the other JC classmates there. Think I had blogged sometime ago that weddings might be the only time we could catch up with old friends when we start working in future. Didn't think that it'll happen so soon. Anyway, most of the girls were already working while most of the guys were still studying. Except for one who is already married and now pregnant..hehe...

And typical of most weddings, we started asking each other who will be next. Then another classmate inform us that hers will be in March next year.

Wonder when it'll be my turn?
Oh well...it's all in His plan...

One year older

I turned one year older last Sunday, hee...Yupz, thanks to all who send me their birthday greetings and for the pressies as well...

Saw this in Kia's blog. It's one of Corrinne May's new songs...


Five Loaves and Two Fishes
by Corrinne May

A little boy of thirteen, was on his way to school
He heard a crowd of people laughing,
and he went to take a look
Thousands were listening, to the stories of one man
He spoke with such wisdom, even the kids could understand

The hours passed by quickly, the day turn into night
Everyone was hungry, but there was no food in sight
The boy looked into his lunchbox, at the little that he had
He wasn't sure what good it'd do, there were thousands to be fed

But he saw the twinkling eyes of Jesus, the kindness in
His smileand the boy cried out with the trust of a child, he said:

"Take my five loaves and two fishes
do with it as you will, I surrender. Take my fears and my inhibitions
All my burdens, my ambitions
You can use it all, to feed them all.

"I often think about that boy, when I'm feeling small
and I worry that the work I do, means nothing at all
But every single tear I cry, is a diamond in His hands
and every door that slams in my face, I will offer up in prayer

So I'll give you every breath that I have.
Oh Lord, you can work miracles
All you need is my "Amen"

Take my five loaves and two fishes
do with it as you will, I surrender.
Take my fears and my inhibitionsAll my burdens, my ambitions
You can use it all, I hope it's not too small.

I trust in you, I trust in you

Take my five loaves and two fishes
do with it as you will, I surrender.
Take my fears and my inhibitions
All my burdens, my ambitions
You can use it all, no gift is too small.

Last class

Last Saturday was the last class for the floral arrangement course. Hence, there was a 'graduation' ceremony for all participants.

Here's a compilation of the floral arrangements that we did during the six-week course. There were actually 6 arrangements but I forgot to take the photo of one of them.

Mochi Mochi

I 'stole' this from a friend's website, who is into making Japanese mochi, or Daifuku, at the moment. That's the cross-section of one.

So if you're interested, you can visit her website, http://ichigodaifukuinnagoya.blogspot.com/

Blessing in Disguise

Sometimes change is inevitable.
With every ending comes a new beginning.

I don't really believe in coincidences. I believe that there is a reason for the things that happened in our lives, just that we might not know it when it occured. Just like what happened today. Guess it really was a blessing in disguise as it helped me to realise that it really is time to move on.

I had learnt much too during the past 13 years that I've been there. At least it had helped laid the foundation for me, which was perhaps what I needed at that time. Though there were certain unpleasant incidents, they had also helped me discover more about human nature and in the process, more about myself as well. As usual, on hindsight, there were so many things that I could have done better but I supposed there's no point harping on that now. If nothing else, at least I had accepted Christ then.

Now, it's time to move on to another level; on to establishing deeper relationships. If I remained in my comfort zone, I will never do that. A few months ago, I thought I could start anew in the same old place. But the place isn't that big, and I ended up meeting the same people again.

she asked me how it went.

i told her i don't know and that they'll get back to me

then she told me to pray about where God wants me to go

God is telling me to leave......

Commencement 2007

I attended Ting's and Jo's commencement ceremony on Thursday. It was held at NUS University Cultural Centre. I remembered the last time I went back to NUS was last year, for my own commencement ceremony. Also saw some familiar faces. People who had graduated or were graduating this year. I guess it goes without saying that I am getting older now. Anyway, we also took quite a bit of photos since we were not sure when we would go back to NUS again, if ever.

Me with Jo. My hair's longer than hers now. Hehe.

Me with Ting, and her nice sunflower =)

I think I had blogged sometime last year about how photos helped us to remember and recall events that had past. But, I'm also beginning to wonder about the validity of photos. After all, photos are rather two dimensional. As in, they only showed one side of the story most of the time; what is reflected on the photos largely depended on how the photographer took the photos in the first place. And aren't people almost always smiling when taking photos?

Perhaps at times, the best memories are the ones that we kept in our hearts.

On eagle's wings

For those in the know, these few weeks have been quite difficult for me. My grandma hasn't been feeling well and to make things worse, we were short-handed at work too. On top of that, we received some information last week that there was some problem with the auto-upload and that the data have to be updated manually. Just fantastic. Sometimes I felt like throwing in the towel and giving up altogether.

But thankfully, this week has been less hectic. And thinking back, I see God's blessings that could perhaps only be seen on hindsight. Some thanksgiving:

1. My boss managed to get an intern to help us out this week and it turned out that IT managed to solve the problem and we do not need to do the manual update after all. =)
2. The prayers of my fellow christian brothers for my grandma. Though she's still unwell, I really appreciate their concern.

Also saw this article on my company's internal magazine. It was on eagles.

Eagles enjoy the longest life expectancy among bird species. They can live up to 70 years. In order to survive, they have to make a critical decision at the age of 40.

When eagles turn 40, their claws weaken and it is hard for them to catch preys. Their beaks are growing long & curved almost touching their chest. Their wings are heavier due to thick & long feathers

They have 2 Choices:

• Die
• Or undergoing a painful transformation 50 days of perservarence & steadfastness...

They have to fly to the top.

Build their home there And REST.

They have to hit their beaks against the rock till they fall off. And wait patiently for the new beaks to grow.They will use their new beaks to pull out their nails. With their newly grown nails, they will then clean off their old feathers.

5 months later, the eagles will fly again with their new feathers. They renew their strength for another 30 years!

Sometimes we have to make difficult decisions in life. In order to embark on a new journey. Let go your old habits and traditions, And let yourself fly again. Like the Eagles. If we put down our old self, "eagerly" pick up new skills, we are able to explore the undiscovered talents in us.

ISAIAH 40:31

But those who wait on the Lord

Shall renew their strength;

They shall mount up with wings like eagles,

They shall run and not be weary,

They shall walk and not faint.

Then my colleague told me something about how eagles will stir up the nest of their chicks in order to teach them how to fly. And if the chicks fall, the mother eagle would fly down to 'scoop' them up on her wings. After some time, the chicks would learn how to fly.

After reading and hearing these 2 stories, I felt that eagles are really amazing. And more amazing still is their Creator.

Even though everything seemed to be going terribly wrong sometimes. I know that He will always be there to catch me when I fall.

Perhaps one day I'll be able to soar on eagle's wings.