If It's God's Will, Don't Complain But Fully Obey

Good day guys!

It's been quite a while since my last post. I have been trapped with some highly important matters that's why I wasn't able to post updates. In addition, I feel sorry for my blogger friends that visiting their blog has taken a halt. I will cope-up guys!

I am not sure if all my blog followers/readers know that for the past weeks I was busy administering (together with the rest of the poge admins) FINDING MANG ROLDAN PINEDA JIMENEZ. Aside from that, I too,have been engulfed into lots of personal stuffs. In short, I just attended to important events in my life.

Last night, I was able to read a private message coming from one of the followers of the page and I want to share it with you. Pardon me guys since I can only provide little details to protect the sender. I post it here so that those who don't frequently visit the page can have access here.

And here it goes;

"It’s past 1am here now. Sleep doesn’t visit me yet. For some reason, it’s been few weeks that I hardly hit the sack before midnight. It has always been my problem that whenever I’m still up after midnight it’s difficult for me to reconcile with sleep.

Uggh! It’s killin’ me and I’m a bit in irate. But instead of waiting for my eyes to finally commune with darkness I’ll just grab t

his opportunity to write random thoughts that can inspire you all.

Just few minutes ago, I’ve read a very long private message from someone sent through this page. I won’t mention the name though for privacy. I felt honored that I was able to read it before Joemil. It was really intended for Joemz but since we are five people administering the page, all the messages filtering through can be read by anyone of us. Perhaps, she was thinking that the only admin of the page is Joemil. 

Annoying Indifference

It is perhaps true that when people don't love a person, an endeavor, an upcoming event, or sort of that they tend to just stay half-hearted, less motivated, and simply won't care much about it.

They embrace the attitude of "come what may". Just waiting for what will happen without acting on what can be done.

It is very challenging and equally frustrating when people displays annoying indifference to an endeavor or a cause. 

Like what I feel last night when I realized the lack of support of my batch mates (except for those who really care, I can count them) to our goals. It pains me thinking our being slow in executing our plans and taking actions despite constant reminders for the concerned people.

Are You A Responsible Pinoy?

Hey guys, I just want to share with you all about the word “RESPONSIBILITY” here. I may sound too preachy here but let us be reminded how we can best display being responsible.  It can help us examine our life’s check and balance status. Henceforth, we can reassess if we are still within its frame.

For all we know, at times we fall short of being responsible. Our selfish attitude sometimes befalls us to its trap and we somehow take for granted to exercise responsibility over people and things in our own life.

Responsibility is taking care of your duties. Responsibility is answering for your actions. Responsibility is accountability. Responsibility is trustworthiness.

 Why is being responsible important?

Responsibility is a core value for living honorably.

Responsibility is being accountable for your behavior.

Responsibility is being dependable when you have things to do.

10 Things I Love About "The Philippines"

When the sure-fire hit video "20 Things I Dislike About The Philippines" came out I've tried to be objective at most.  After all, the guy who authored it has all the freedom in terms of speech and expressing his opinions. But minutes away after I clicked it, I began to be defensive and a bit annoyed. I personally took it at heart. Maybe patriotism and loyalty took its action in me. 

Admittedly, most if not all of what he'd said were true. Certainly, comments made by him should be taken as constructive criticism if we really want to take positive and sustainable action for change. 

So why am I that offended? When usually I am the type of guy who would take  opinions open-minded. 

I just can't believe when at some course of my random chat conversation to a number of foreigners online and asking them if they know all about my country -The Philippines. I was ecstatically surprised when I guess 80% of them knew little about my country.

As someone who solidly support the tourism ad campaign of our country at present, I felt disrespected more than cheated with this viral video depicting dislikes about our nation. I felt that somehow it is hindering my own "It's More Fun In The Philippines" campaign. And knowing how powerful web and media are, certainly it can ruins our effort in boosting our tourism industry.

And as a solid response, I decided to bring your attention to "Ten Things I Love About The Philippines". Maybe some of you might get caught with the same things I love. And I urge you readers to randomly check fascinating things and facts that made you LOVE THE PHILIPPINES.

We Got To Rise Up

We got to rise up! We can change this generation

We can be the voice, we can be the freedom. Let us come and stand.

We read the gruesome stories, the people in need. We can do amazing works. We can bring out the change we wanna believe in.

Let us be the change, let us be the difference. We are called to arms. We are the change we longed for. Let us not be subtle with our actions. Let us not be too lax with our resolve.

Let us get moving. Let us propel our instinctive creativity. Let us inspire the people we face everyday. Let us not bicker but create ways to re-unite and re-ignite our passion.

The Well- Ordered Heart

The secret of life is pursuing one thing.

There is a pursuit that is worthy of our devotion. There is a goal that is achievable even in the most desperate of situations. It will produce good far beyond our own little sphere of influence. It is something that our souls long for; the life we've always wanted.

It is a quest for what might be called a well-ordered heart. The balanced-life paradigm assumes that our problem is external- a disorder in our schedule or our job or our season of life. But truly significant disorder is internal.

In order to have a well-ordered heart is to love the right thing, to the right degree, in the right way, with the right kind of love.

When our heart is well-ordered, we are not only increasingly free from sin, but also increasingly free from the desire of sin. If the heart were truly well-ordered, we would love people so much we would not want to deceive or manipulate or envy them. We would be transformed from the inside out.

Spiritual transformation cannot be orchestrated or controlled, but neither it is a random venture. We need a plan. We need to develop what is called a "rule of life". A rule involves a rhythm for living in which we can grow more intimately connected to God. Consider how you might arrange your day around the pursuit of a well-ordered heart.

Let me quote apostle Paul as he wrote to the church at Colossae, as the climax on instruction on transformed living. And here's what he said:

"Whatever you do in word or in deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him -- Colossians 3:17

Honestly, I am far from what I say here, but I am trying to achieve a state in myself wherein for once I'll be enjoying a well-ordered heart. And I know and firmly believe that it is achievable. I just need to simplify my life and detach from the worldly cultures that this generation popularly hooked in. It is because if the current culture doesn't work for me I don't necessarily have to buy them.

And so I say, are you living with a well-ordered heart? Are things in your life flow in accordance to the will of your heart? 

Feel free to post your thoughts in the comment portion of this post. I'll highly appreciate anyone spending time to share their insight about this post.


Have a nice read. God bless :)

P.S. -- Credit to the book of John Ortberg "Life To The Max" for some insights used in this post.

Bullies Lower Confidence

     I have confidence in people as I have it in myself. It's not lost and will never be lost.

      At times, maybe it may dies down or the indicator would hit the lows of low instead of the highs of high. In spite of it, still things should go on, move on. It's the only way that matter in today's complex world we're livin' in. It's like "don't get affected too much, just learn from those".  And never try to follow their lead if you know it would cause you defiling or crashing people even in the intention of a joke.

     But in today's world, even the very people you're near with sometimes lashes out hard-hitting jokes which get your ego off-guarded, a time when your emotion can't graciously handles. Sometimes, you'll never know how to react. Will you pretend you're happy and go with the flow?..anyway as they discloses, "don't take it seriously, it's just a joke". But the thing is, no matter how you throw-out a joke- it's no-pun-intended. It's still has the element of a "half truth" as some would believe in it.

     There is this awkward moments when people closer to you goes off beyond your personal limits. Thinking just because they are close to you and you to them, they have all the freedom to express all their "jokie-jokie" not even realizing that even if you're close to them, you still deserved to be treated in the usual norm. It's always a pretext, an excuse for them, when you started noticing their unguarded words.

     

There are times in our lives where we feel weary, where we think we can't handle unhealthy words especially from friends whom you put your trust with. There are moments where you just feel it's better to stay than goin' out with them when you know right in the middle of friendly discussion you'll be put once again in the spot and them started throwing "indirect utterance of jokes" which leads to boisterous laughs at your own expense. I, for one, experiences what I'm talking about here. No matter how hard you try to ignore them, still there's a part in you which felt violated. There's a portion in your ego that clearly echoes-out and bounced back letting you know that "you're a bit hurt or really hurt". Letting you feel that the situation is awkward for you to stay longer.

 

     But, don't get me wrong, at some points in my life, I had been one of them too. And I want to say sorry for doing such to whoever I have bullied a bit in my life. Hmmm..may be not really termed as "bully"  for me but I guess it's more of an "out-of-tune expression of a joke". I should have known it earlier that bullying is not really good, not even a fun thing to do. We never realized how big a damage we had caused to a person which literally lowered their confidence. It's a scary thing. Why? It's because we are contributing to the development of their inferiority complex which can lead them to be demotivated. It weakens their plight to try harder because they can't easily moved on to the previous encounter which really affected their lives.

      I want to go back to my early life. I had been a victim of heavy bullying. My childhood isn't a great one for those times when I've been subjected to so many criticism and bullying which I don't deserved. I don't know why. I can't even understand why I should suffer such when the truth was "I'm just a regular guy, so naive to the point of like "I can't even mess out or break a crystal  plate".  It affected me so much. There were times when I almost quit trying things because I was afraid I'll be the talk of the hours or even a day or worse even for a week or a month. 

     I am a sensitive guy. When I experience the lows of low in my life my initial tendency is to lure to it. I'll let myself feel the pain while thinking why is it done to me when I don't deserve it either. When I'm hurt, or bothered I can't hide it. My concentration is so weak that people around me would easily notice that I'm not OK. 

     My bullying experiences had positive effects to me though, at least for the later part of my life. Well, for one, it reminds me that I should be careful with my words, that I should think first before I say or do a thing. That I should always be respectful of the people around me even when things get difficult. The experience always slaps me and let me know that I should always treat people right.

     I have let go of the pain, I have come to term and understand why such things happened as they were before. I have moved on with lessons that will be with me through the rest of my lifetime. I forgive the past and the people from my past who contributed to my pain before.

     With the experience I gone through I was able to solidify my desire to strive harder and to passionately work on things I aim for. I've played in the field where tough people lingers and I have made an accomplishment should have been different if I had a path dissimilar to what I've been through.

     But, with all these things, I have only lessons to share. Never be fazed by bullies and don't let them step in your shoes. Hold your ground as long as you're in the right path. Bullies are people who are victims too, it just so happen that you were made their shock absorber about their frustrations for they lack the courage to face their fears.

     Don't count yourself as one of the bullies, but be a believer that life is brilliant for a person who suffers being bullied because it just show how strong you are to faced them. And courage will never left you as long as you stay connected to your cause and you know who you are.

     This entry was written at 2Am of Saturday, October 1, 2011. I was able to woke-up from a long and nice sleep. The motivation came from a video I saw from the net which led me to write all about this topic.

     It's 2:46AM now, I'll go back to sleep again. See you in my next entry. God bless y'all. Peace to y'all. :)))

Tame It

 

     Yesterday, I've been dying to sit down, sip a mug of coffee, and quickly write an article pertaining  to the talk, I and the rest of SFCs, attended & listened to, but it's just that my body and mind was too exhausted that I feel the immediate need to sleep. So I decided to pass on and communed with my bed (which I'm sure is missing me) at around 645PM. Initially, my plan was to just take a nap since I'm waiting for a call and/or SMS message from either bro. Zaldy or bro. Robert as we have agreed to fix the air conditioning switch-on/off outlet of bro. Satt. But the planned nap went on to be a long & unobstructed sleep. I felt blessed that I woke up from an uninterrupted sleep at exactly 552AM today feeling good and refreshed. Eyes not irritated. Rushed up to charge my mobile which is battery empty already. When I switched-on my mobile, I realized a call notification from bro. Robert and what-a-heck, I got five of them. Sorry bro, I never planned to sleep continuously but my body succumbed.

     Sometimes I feel a slight guilt when I'm rendered deep sleep because I can't even wake up answering calls and SMS messages. Pardon me guys, this is really me when I'm totally laid -sleep wise. Even the boisterous sounds of thunders won't wake me up. I remember a quote my mother had said way back then. And she quoted like this: "Halos magiba na ang langit, pero ikaw mahimbing pa rin ang tulog". There you go guys, as explained it all. So, just to give you the hint, in case I'm not answering at night even if my mobile is ringing  you already know my status. And my fiancee get used to it in the process. Thanks sweetie by the way for surpassing that test..hehehe..

     Meanwhile, going back to the topic. The talk was awesome and of course our well-loved speaker Tita Tess Lumbao is equally interesting and worth listening too. Shout out of thanks to the people (leaders and members) who've brilliantly came-up with this idea once again. Many have benefited with your efforts and I am a testament to that.

     Many a times when I've heard this talk, sat down, and soaked all that the speaker imparted, but our human capacity sometimes put us unguarded. Unguarded by the very words that comes out from our mouth. Evidently, such case usually happens when we are fuming with anger, our blood flow rushing fast, and our initial tendency is to hit back by saying some impolite even the "grossly-below-the-designer's belt" litanies of unsatisfactory words. And those unhealthy words were directed to those people we're in conflict with or in some cases have simple misunderstanding with. Our usual resolve is to be defensive. Our ego has been crashed or worst was blotted with foul words which is why our being defensive take the lead.


     During those younger years, I, for one, has been a culprit of "speaking in bad tongue" and I won't deny it because If I'd be perfect then I wouldn't be attending this kind of teaching and sat down quietly internalizing the lessons of the talk. It never matters to me how many times I've heard or will be hearing this talk because it isn't about the "how many times" but "the opportunity of being reminded" that is far more important to me. Sometimes, we can never learn a lesson from a similar mistake at once. There are few instances in our own experiences that we need to fall down several times before a similar lesson is being lived-out. 

     I can well remember Tita Tess words and it goes like this: "Our tongue can be used both as a blessing and a curse." As said those that comes out from our mouth originates from our heart. So, it is a must at all times that we should be more sensitive in conveying our speech or language. Our words can make or break an individual. 


     Moreover, as I can remember her quoting "One angry word from a leader of a nation directed to another leader of a nation can provoke war." We should be careful with the tone of our voice and the meaning behind it because words are an outward expression of what we feel inside us.

     It is of critical importance how we should communicate towards one another. Having our speech in order is one crucial aspect of righteousness and love. There are key problems presented in our unguarded communication, we have SLANDER or speaking a false or malicious words or statements against someone, GOSSIP, BUSY BODIES or people busy taking part on other's problem without direct involvement in it, and NEGATIVE HUMOR. 

     Many have said that "we are human and we are prone to commit these things". But we should also realize that being human we are given free will by God to think and exercise our mind in a manner divinely possible. That, in all instances, we should always talk with sincerity of the heart, openness of the mind, and uplifting of the spirit.


     Our words should be an expression of love, hope, support, and affection. It is wise if we'll just spread or talk about good things regarding other people and spare our time in soaking to news that defiles them. It's difficult to be engaged in the business of crashing people because in the long run it's your own persona upon which you're crashing too. Remember, we mirror each other.


     To end this, I shall leave you with these four-way test questions in passing information to another person. First, Is your story TRUE? Second, Is what you're going to tell me KIND? Third, Is the story NECESSARY? and finally the fourth, If what you're going to tell me is neither TRUE, KIND and NECESSARY, you better keep it to yourself. 


     We have the POWER to INSPIRE or DISCOURAGE as well as the POWER to HEAL or HURT. Now, which would you choose? Are you still gonna exercise your mouth reciting unguarded speech or tame the beast inside it?

Good Thoughts In Life & Commitment

     I wanna share with you some thoughts pertaining to commitment and marriage and life in general. This was series of thoughts after having a great convy with a good friend. Listen folks you might get something good from it.

A SOULFUL RELATIONSHIP

     Once you decided to commit to someone, overtime, his flaws, vulnerabilities, pet peeves and differences will become more obvious. If you love your mate and want the relationship to grow and evolve, you have to learn to close one eye and not let everything bother you. You and your mate have many different expectations, emotional needs, values, dreams, weaknesses and strengths. You are two unique individual children of God who have decided to share a life together. Neither of you are perfect, but are you perfect for each other? Do you bring out the best in each other? Do you compliment and compromise with each other, or do you compete, compare and control? What do you bring to the relationship? Do you bring past relationship, past hurt, past mistrust, past pain?

    












     Manipulation, control, jealousy, neediness and selfishness are not the ingredients of a thriving, healthy loving and lasting relationship. Seeking status, sex, wealth and security are the wrong reasons to be in a relationship. What keeps a relationship strong? Communication, intimacy, trust, a sense of humor, sharing household tasks, some getaway time without business and daily exchanges ( a meal, shared activity, a hug, a call, a touch, a note). Leave a nice message on their voicemail or send a nice mail. Sharing common goals and interests. Growth is important. Grow together, not away from each other, giving each other space to grow without feeling insecure.

     Allow your mate to have outside interests. You can’t always be together. Give each other a sense of belonging and assurances of commitment. Don’t try to control one another. Learn each other’s family situation. Respect his parents regardless. Don’t put pressure on each other for material goods. Remember for richer or for poorer. If these qualities are missing the relationship will erode as resentment, withdrawal, abuse, neglect, dishonesty and pain replace the passion.

     Remember, the difference between "united" and "untied" is where you put the "i".

     That’s all folks….those who can read it—it’s nice to know you pause your work and find time reading it. For would-be-readers—-you can learn a lot from these basic facts of life and commitment.

     Until my next blog. Goodnight!



A Special Something

     Everyone is looking for that something.  a special thing so important in their life.

     Some find it sharing after a simple wake up.  Maybe, somewhere on top of a mountain for others. Some at a look in a child's innocent eyes. Some finds it in boisterous laughter of carefree people.

     Sometimes, you'll find it in a place so strange that you never thought it could be there. Some may find it in a faraway solitude. More often to a sweet grin of a zealous lover.

     To some, they find it in their deepest thoughts. It may be impossible at first but by heart's will and constant determination -- a willful spirit finds it in it's time.

     That special something which is possible from a parent's kiss, a teacher's nod, a friend's approval, a sportsman's wish, a mother's cry, a boy's desire or maybe a young child's dream.

     And when you find that special something it's like flying wingless for joy, swimming waterless in a ocean of peace, breathing like air less coming out. It's like sleeping in a broad daylight, wishing upon a star in a prickly heat of the sun, dancing in the heavy rain and waving in a crowdless stadium.

     What is that special something that I am talking about here? Why do people always put it first in their priority list, in the locket of their hearts, in the solemnity of their stare, in the passion of their affection, and in the sweetest caress of their hands.

     A special something- an abstract thing that manifest through our actions upon which if properly conveyed produces the inner joy from us.

     Guys, I am talking about LOVE. The binder of all that there is in us. the keeper of our faith, the holder of our commitment.

      So if ever you find it, never get loose of it. Keep it so dearly and grow along with it. With LOVE in our hearts it fuels our passion for anything that surrounds us.

      I just wanna share these thoughts upon having a time with some of the dearest people in my life. I have so many dearest people in life and they are counted on my list. Thanks guys, for the bonding we have had. It's getting more frequent and it's a joy in my heart keeping you around.

     To Sababan Family-- Kudos-- I am proud getting closer and closer to you. And to my God's gift-- my love for you  is getting deeper each day. It's true to me that distance is not a factor from the heart of a willing man. I love you guys!

Me and my God's gift Wida

Bay with Jon (3rd child of Fe and Jojo)

Me and Jannea (2nd child of Fe & Jojo)

the sweet couple Jojo & Fe (my cousin)



Wida and O.R. (youngest child of Fe and Jojo)



Jon, Jannea, Wida, Me and Fe

     Allen isn't around since he's in Pinas studying college - an engineering freshman.    

     Family bonding is highly important to me. It's a source of strength. It opens communication among members. It develops formidable unity. Collectively, it is what God wants for everyone of us.

     Time to sleep guys, until my next blog. I must brag that this post makes a lot of sense. Godbless everyone! Choose a happy life. Have a nice read.