A New Year's Resolution...Did You Make One?

Day 3 of 2021

 

Since I have been doing good with eating healthy and do exercise regularly, the things I want to improve on how to be more of a free-spirited soul like my sister in the picture who's always happy all the time.

I'm not bashful but I always maintain a degree of couthness. I don't know, I just don't see myself letting it all go...But if you ask me to give my input on a subject matter, then I wouldn't squirm a bit. Or if you ask me to say something to an open microphone then I can swing it and build up what's at stake.

Of course, I intend to read more not anything on social media but hardcover books, writer's magazines, and try to cook more food that I don't usually cook. Yup, another thing that I would like to do is to be better at praying for people who ask and do it right there and then and not wait for tonight or any other time to pray for someone. The same thing when you're doing a chore and all of a sudden the Spirit of the Lord just propels you to call someone and just ignored it or waited for a day or two to respond. 

I remember on one weekend of last year that God has prompted me to text or call a friend of mine. I even looked over our pictures during the 5 k's run, staff pictures, and when he had his first book signing event. For some reason, I waited for more confirmation, I guessed. Two days after that, one of our assistant principals called me and the other 4 staff members to her office. I know for sure that I wasn't in trouble. The assistant principal's face was forlorn of hope. In a muttering voice, she said that my friend that I was going to call committed suicide early morning on Tuesday. It didn't register in my brain how sad that was, the way he ended his life. Did I ever have an inkling that he was in deep depression? I'm not going to lie. I saw and felt that he wasn't himself sometimes and when he quit his teaching job and just did full-time writing without a solid income was a red flag for me.

Would my phone call make a difference at that time that he was in complete darkness? I will never know. But I do regret not doing especially when it was prompted in my gut. I do miss him. He was like my younger brother who was always listening to my impression of books we've both read. That was a bad call from me...I admit.

Well, I'm still making resolutions of which I only wish to learn how to live with hope and courage to give these resolutions many places to stay in my heart...

"Be a Prolific Writer..."

 Day 2 On My End...

That's what I want to be for 2021--a prolific writer, one whose words bring resonance or enlightenment, and most of all, one that will affect you at the deepest layer of your soul...

Call me sentimental. sensitive, and a romanticist, and I will receive that with all my heart.

As I was packing my laptop, iPhone, chargers, new journals & pens in a bag, this new-found drive to write again feels like "something life-altering wonderful." I left my house with an empty belly but I know I'm gonna be okay with just one bottled water.

Barnes and Noble has always been a very sweet home to my reading pleasure. Once there, I settle into a two-seater table by the bay window as the rays of the sun seep through it, and warm my eyes. I think I captured that in the above photo past 12 noon. It's a splendid thing to be able to sit unjaded from what is conforming to the Nation right now and just savor this moment.

So, I got a stack of writers' magazines and some home decorating magazines to neutralize and balance the weight of reading words and then truly understand what the writer is trying to invoke. When my understanding starts to dwindle I switch to reading home decorating magazines and my heart is to a flutter seeing pictures of beautiful furniture arrangement and an array of vines, shrubs, trees, and flowers blossoming in the winter.

And to help me hone my writing, I jot down the thoughts and ideas of other writers and come away with a clear understanding that to be a prolific writer, you must be always hungry for reading literature and poetry of different genres, themes. I'm learning how to appreciate now the works of other writers not known to me before. I don't just skim-read pages and pages of their work anymore. If I do that I might be missing out on the real juice of their craft and regret it later. 

Thank God's mercy that endures forever...His presence is in every detail of my work because I ask him to be in it. Otherwise, there's no essence of what I'm doing. He is the only one who can make my words scintillating and wise. Prolific.

Till tomorrow...

"Happy New Year"

 Celebrating New Year's Eve with my eldest son, Josh & two of my sisters with their families at church sets the tone of how will it be then in a few hours where we have to do the countdown & ring in the New Year...

While at Church, my eyes veered from left to right then to the back. Many people are missing in the pew...Covid, the infamous virus is sure to be blamed, for the most part. I heard that others just grew weary and perplexed and decided to go to another church. Good luck with that because a number of churches are still closed and have been struggling to reopen. Thus, I don't blame Covid for churches that remained to be closed. For that reason, they should leave their ministry and get another trade for not fighting to do the work of God.

Just like everybody else, I didn't write down my goals this year. I didn't join the Corporate Daniel Fast for 21 days. Not that I can't do it but I had a paradigm shift. It felt like I have been doing this as a religion like a tradition. I believe in cleansing your body from fasting from food that is not healthy for you. But what about what really cleanses your soul? What happens after 21 days? Of course, many will turn their backs on continuing to eat healthily. So you just joined in to be a part of a tradition because you fall back to your old ways...That's when I decided not to do any of that. However, I will do what fasting really is to me Today.

Fasting from sabotaging thoughts--we all are guilty of this for one reason or another. You think you don't deserve to be happy because of guilt, unconfessed sins, big ego, and fear to fail. These are just some of the many limiting factors that we do to sabotage ourselves from being happy.

So I did something today. I called my best friend if I can go with her to visit her mom at the nursing home. It's a 2.5 hour- ride. Usually on New Year"s Day, I stay home journalling, organizing, and just chill. This time, I want to break that cycle. I "m very glad I went out of town.

Now I saw a glimpse of a very intimate & loving relationship between a daughter and her mom. My good friend Seny drives for 2 and a half hours just to see her mom in the nursing home for 15 minutes and then leave the facility. They're still not accepting visitors to this point. I had witnessed a very sweet mother and daughter relationship. I captured it on video and in that clip, tears begin to form and their voices became faint. No Covid power can let these two succumb to restrictions but instead showed the world that the power of love prevails. And I thought how blessed I am to have my mom still living in her own home with us sisters taking turns helping her live a decent life.

I'm also fasting from rigid procrastination where making excuses is a given. Managing time is one quality I uphold but lately, I found out that managing the focus of your time is much more important.

There are things that we can fast on... Our wrong attitudes towards others and to ourselves. Don't take things too personally; neither ignore them completely. Remember to be always at peace with yourself. Ditch some of your friends that need to go and things that are pulling you down. You know what I'm talking about...

 

'It's The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year..."

 

Christmas is not actually over yet. You know why? Because one day, December 25, is not enough to celebrate God's only begotten son, Jesus, with family and loved ones. Let's not confine our minds to that way of thinking. Celebrating Jesus who has redeemed us, saved us from going to eternal damnation, and has always loved us unconditionally should be reflected in our daily lives--even with the most elaborated, sensationalized threat of Covid 19. 

Yesterday, we celebrated Christmas & my youngest son's post-college graduation at my brother and sister's -in- law's house. The uncouth reverberating and boisterous peals of laughter are indeed the very nature of a party that never runs dry. We refrain ourselves from talking politics including religion, about the Covid vaccine, and about the appropriation of the next stimulus package, then we're all good. Just imagine how terrible would it be if all the siblings and respective spouses are caught in a heated argument with fists stumping and tones of their voices unacceptable! However, I'm proud and happy to say that I'm a Christian first before my chosen party, Republican. So now you know...

As always, our tradition for almost 40 years of gift-giving has always been thoughtful and generous. I thank God that even with the precipice of the most challenging ordeal that our country has endured, we stand united in Faith that this, too, shall pass. We shouldn't be throwing in the towel so soon that our confidence and trust in the will of God is shaken recklessly. I heard a clip that some of the most famous Christian pastors and leaders have already given up in the fight of standing with our President. If that's the case then I think that if you can't stand the heat, you're an impostor of such an ideology, your very own agenda... I hope and pray that such a paradigm shift in their faith stance does not omit their names in the lamb's book of life. And in return shepherding their flocks unwittingly to lose their heart to God which I think is the most tragic of it all. Don't you think?

Today, let's anchor our faith to Jesus, the One that holds our tomorrows and the only One that can make the way when there's no other way. He is the only Way, the Truth, and the Life...

"Choose God's Indelible Word..."

 

With what has just been projected by the media that Joe Biden won the presidency, my heart doesn't break because my absolute source is in the providential hand of God. I have to contend to the Solid Rock I know and His name is Jesus... And I remain steadfast in praying, Thy will be done, Lord."

 Isaiah 55:8-9 says, " For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord

For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts...

My thoughts right now are much smaller than the mustard seed in comparison to what God is signaling us in the faith to do. I know that He wants us to be Still...; that even the result of the election doesn't translate the voice of truth, I know that God is in control. That even the physical realm of things suggests a sheer tragic loss in our minds, God's ultimate will and plan prevail. I just have to quiet my mind and continue to trust Him for in Him I truly live no matter who is in the White House.

My wishful thinking still reverberates that it would have been so right, good, and accepting if integrity and honesty, and conviction are unequivocally present in this election. Then and only then, I would be at peace and confident in the system.

I learned the hard facts of life in this election; people will tend to vote for someone who's calm and collected in the external without researching what his platform entails; people are running scared and fearful of the coronavirus without even considering that maybe and just maybe there's something about this virus that has a mind of its own given by those who will propagate their agendas-- the election. So, maybe now, the virus is relegated in the background, has taken its backseat, and will reappear when it's needed for justification. It's also disconcerting that a multitude of believers and Christians have compromised their stance on how to vote for the Kingdom and how many of them stayed home not exercising the right to vote which is a very crucial right, fought by our forefathers' sweat & blood. I'm gonna cry over this but deep inside me, I hear the wind of the Holy Spirit breathing in my gut that it is not over until the last trump of God sounds...

If you don't stand for anything that is of God and just go with the flow, how would you even say that life is worth living? For only in our personal relationship with the Lord brings groundedness and centrality--to a clear path.

Lord Jesus, let the truth, wisdom, and the power of your Word continue to delight me and color my world with the rainbow of your promise that you're coming back "and every tongue shall confess that you are the Lord of all and every head will bow to your majesty."

Life & Death Are In The Power Of Your Vote...

Blogging is a platform for me where I share my thoughts conservatively. Oftentimes, that didn't click with my readers because I wasn't quite forthcoming and not bold enough to share the real issues. As a writer in my own right, it is very important to me that I make a connection with my readers, otherwise, my writing; the words I put unto the page is just a form of discourse which is void of depth and purpose. If that's the case, I am guilty of having presumptuous pride in having such a given gift...

Where am I going with this perception? I know that I have been slacking off with writing consistently. Sometimes, I think I make a bundle of excuses for not doing so and have mastered it through the years. Having said that, not writing even when you don't feel like it, is not a mark of a writer. You call yourself a writer when you still write even when experiencing writer's block. Just write why you have to--that makes sense.

So... Today, my muse to writing is the upcoming election here in the U.S. I already cast my vote. This time, I was armed with the knowledge of which platform of the presidential candidate is Biblical based. So glad that our church has posted the platforms of both parties.

Are you aware that your vote will be judged before the Lord and be accounted for whether you voted secularly or biblically? Please don't call or profess yourself a Christian or a Godly believer if you voted for a party that advocates abortion, you know that's murder on all counts. What about redefining marriage? Are we that oblivious over what God says about a marriage between a man and a woman? Do we really hate God that much that everything that is of this world is transformed to nullifying what God says about that? Think about our first Constitutional amendment! Once you voted for the wrong presidential candidate, you can say goodbye to your right to worship, to the God that created us all...These are my three main concerns; the sanctity of marriage between a man and a woman; the rights of the unborn and our first constitutional amendment not to be curtailed and dictated. Once these three truths are securely in place, all the other issues will follow through. I have never been so intentional and purposeful in what to share till now. I believe that if we all exercise the right to vote and choose wisely, America, being the most powerful and prosperous country in the world will remain like what it is now. And I know that with steadfast prayers, obedience to the Word of God, humility not greed, a heart of gratitude for all the blessings that God has continually blessed this country, God's grace will have the final pursuit...on Tuesday! Another thing to remember that America is great because of our affinity with Israel. That's one of the caveats to our country's flourishing...Whoever shows support to Israel as a nation will be noteworthy in the eyes of God...

"God Bless America... the land of the free!

2 Chronicles 7:14 (KJV)

If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.

Hello October...!

 

October is Here...

I woke up this morning with a fervent sense of purpose--to finally see my life as not my very own life. When you live for Christ you crucify your fleshly desires; you abandon the things that are worldly and even cut your ties to people that are unequally yoked with your faith. And that you're never alone. You have the Lord fighting for your battles behind the scenes. You may not see it coming to pass at the rate or speed you want it done but God is before you and "who can be against you."

The best nugget of wisdom that really permeated my soul today is one quote I read in my mailbox (which I periodically get) which says, "some of the most powerful moments in life happen when you find the courage to let go of what can't be changed. Because when you are no longer able to change a situation, you are challenged to change yourself--to grow beyond the unchangeable. And that changes everything." 

You seek God in your solitude, in your prayer, even when your tears are the only thing left as the expression of your desperation and hopelessness. "God is our refuge and strength, our ever-present help in trouble." I hope and pray including myself that we dig and truly understand the finished work of Jesus Christ at Calvary Cross. He bore all of our iniquities, sicknesses, illnesses, infirmities, and viruses be it physical or spiritual. The only thing we need to do is believe, have faith, and " be not transformed to this world: But be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God."

"And we walk by faith and not by sight..."