On our Third Decade!

We’ve COME HOME!

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Na excite akong umuwi!
Na excite akong bumallik!
Umuwi sa kung saan ako nag umpisa.
Bumalik sa kung saan ko nakilala ang “ako” ngayon na dala ko saan man magpunta.
Yong naging “ako” nang “dahil sa kanila.”

Sila na matiyagang nakinig sa bawat sharing ko na may paiyak iyak pa.
Sila na nag strategize ng mga activities na hanggang ngayon ay walang kupas ang epekto sa aking pagkatao.

Si Ma’am Myra Dizon Nicolas na mae-excite ka sa mga comments sa journal ko na hanggang ngayon ay itinatago ko pa.
Si Ma’am Twila Punsalan na sa bawat tanong ay talagang mapapaisip ka ng isasagot na magpapangiti at magpapaganda ng aura nya.
Si Ma’am Wilma Reyes na ramdam mong sumisimpatya sa bawat hugot mo in effect sa mga kwento nya.
Si Ma’am Kelly Fulgencio na naniwala sa mga kaya kong gawin noong practicum days.

Iilan lang sila dati na nagtaguyod ng aming pagpapakatao
— at si Ma’am Tway ang pasimuno! … hehehh 🙂
Nagtatag ng STEP Organization … at pinilit palakasin Batch-after-batch kung saan na-challenge kaming 22 VE Majors : 3rd Batch, 1992!  Hindi dapat sa amin huminto ang paglaganap ng Samahan; kaya naman bilang President kapit lang ang naging peg ko sa suporta ng mga mga ka-Batch ko … laban sa pagtaguyod ng Samahan ng mga Tagapagpalaganap ng Edukasyon sa Pagpapahalaga! STEP!

Nakakakonsensyang hindi mo sila balikan para pasalamatan!
Kasi malaking parte sila ng kung ano ako ngayon.
At syempre, nakakapanghinayang na di mo gustuhing makasamang muli
ang mga classmate mong naging karamay mo sa hirap at sarap ng college life.
Sa bawat iyakan, tawanan, tambay sa “malaking puno ng mangga — yong katotohanan na malaking parte sila kung paano mo kinaya!

30 years na! On our Third Decade … tuloy pa din ang advocacy bilang Values Education Major kasi dito ako nagsimula! Masarap lumingon sa pinanggalingan! — an ATTITUDE OF GRATITUDE ika nga!

Masarap lumingon sa pinanggalingan! An ATTITUDE OF GRATITUDE ika nga!

At sa inyong lahat, who made this day possible, THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH!

Avoid the Temperament TRAP!

Avoid the Temperament TRAP!.

You can make your Temperament “a melody”!

Can we not Just Make Love?

I already fell asleep last night while I kept on thinking over how to “complete a package”.  Grasping my senses as I woke up, trying to recall from my dreams if God could have given me the message that He wants to come across, I ended up querying:

 Can we not just make” love” all the time?

Huh!!! Sounds exciting?  Oh my, of course, it’s not what you think!

‘Sad to note, it is a fact that “wrong MIND-SETS” has been “making headway” over challenged relationships.

Couples would have the tendencies to battle on “who is the greatest?” who is better; who is more tired;  who earns more, should get more rest; who should serve should not complain … and all the likes!  In effect, one’s story is an advantage over the other. One would tend to tell a story that would favour his self-esteem and would disregard the truth. Such esteem would pave the way for one of the couples not to see the “heart of the matter”.  Still so sadly, it would give the escape of spending more time in other things rather than look into what would make things better for the two of them.

At a far more extent, some other couples, in the desire to put oneself first, one of the couples would tend to find recourse outside of the marriage; would tend to look for something elsewhere; would give-in to self-centeredness and would justify that the committed “unfaithfulness” was due to incompatibility and dissatisfaction with the partner. What’s more unfair is that we tend to look for something which we did not give; yet, when out of nowhere somebody comes, such tempter would benefit all the complements which we were not so generous of giving to our partner, neither to our family.

It pays to have a child in us – who knows that they are the least, yet appreciates even the littlest of things that are given to them.  In gratitude, they have the initiative to kiss-away our fatigue and would hug us back our energy  which makes us more inspired to keep on,  despite our struggles. In the same way, a child would naturally feel  great being complemented with every good deed.

To hope the greatest not to add up to the number of broken vows which make innocent children suffer the consequence, may this one help us in realizing that “making love” is making sex holy, factoring in the responsibilities of each of the couple that Bro Jon has inputted to us today.

Plus, considering Jesus’ criteria in the Gospel of Mark 9:30–37: the least, the servants, the children, are the greatest!

“If anyone wants to be first, he must be last of all and servant of all.” So, instead of blinding ourself with self-centeredness, and making “away” with our partner, may our MIND-SET find “a-way” to make “LOVE” prevail all the time! — sunset

Shall we not have the “mind of Christ” when Carpentry Matters?

Have you ever heard or came across this story “Work Like You Don’t Need the Money”?

An elderly carpenter was ready to retire. He told his employer-contractor of his plans to leave the house-building business & live a more leisurely life with his wife& his extended family.

He would miss the paycheck, but he needed to retire. They could get by. The contractor was sorry to see his good worker go & asked if he could build just one more house as a personal favor.  The carpenter said yes, but in time it was easy to see that his heart was not in his work anymore. He resorted to shoddy workmanship & used inferior materials. It was an unfortunate way to end a dedicated career.

When the carpenter finished his work , the employer came to inspect the house. He handed the front-door key to the carpenter & said, “This is your house, my gift to you.”

The carpenter was shocked!! What a shame!!  If he had only known he was building his own house, he would have done it all so much differently.

Many times, life would bring us to situation/s which we do not understand as it happens. At times, we feel that situations would ask us to do things which we cannot determine “what it is for”.  Sometimes too, we would give that denying reaction: “why me”?

Sometimes, we are like this carpenter in real life. Because we feel that what we are asked to do is quite immaterial with what we want, we would resort to careless actions, putting less than our best into what we are doing; not minding much to strive to understand the things which we should value. The reactions that we give, just like Peter’s reaction in our Gospel for today, would make it more difficult for us to comprehend what we do not fully understand.

As this new series intend to tell us  that “The miracle of God requires the action of man!”, let us be pre-cautioned by the carpenter’s tendency in this story where his substandard actions brought him the shock that he will have to live in the house which he built so carelessly.

When as of yet, we do not understand what things are for, let us instead have “the mind of Christ”  while we are in the carpentry process: carry what it is that life is asking us to carry,  deny our self-intentions while DISCERNing what the Holy Spirit is urging us to do, and just keep on giving out our best while we hammer each nail to build the house that we want to enjoy living-in.

We might be carrying the cross which Jesus wants us to carry while denying ourselves of our human desires; yet, if we will set our mind to that of Christ’s, we will soon enjoy the abundance that has been reserved for us as “a gift”!  — sunset

credits to thinkexist.com & heartwarmingstories.net for the lines “Work like you don’t need the Money”

Related articles

• Building Your House (indomurah.wordpress.com)
• Keep it simple! (livingmoreabundantly4christ.com)
• Jesus the Carpenter (ariannacristina.com)

 

Let “alignments” Work!

God wants us to be a SUPERSTAR!

… and yes, kahit anong klase po ng buhay meron tayo ngayon, kahit anong karanasan ang pinagdadaanan natin sa mga nakakaraang araw, ang sabi ni God, “wag kang mag-alala, YOU’RE A WORK IN PROGRESS … with your uniqueness, you’re yet A SUPERSTAR IN THE MAKING!

Ang sarap pakinggan, LIBRE naman kung gagawin natin itong PANGARAP!

PERO mas maganda kung TUTULUNGAN NATIN SI GOD na tuparin ang pangarap na ito para sa atin dahil ito po ay hindi simpleng pangarap lang –higit sa lahat, ito po ay GOD’S PLAN for us!

But how ???

God simply wants us TO CLEAN OUR HEART ^“21 For it is from within, out of a person’s heart, that evil thoughts come…”

Ibig sabihin po, gusto ni God na pilitin natin na maging tapat tayo sa mga ginagawa natin. Hindi ang panlabas na pinipilit nating gawing maganda sa paningin ng iba — kundi ang malinis na kalooban sa bawat intensyon ang mas dapat bigyang halaga.

Maaaring may mga masasakit tayong karanasan. Minsan, pinipilit nating “kunyari wala lang” kaya kung minsan kung ano-ano na din ang ginagawa natin para lang masabing okey lang ang lahat. Pero ang di natin pansin, habang may piniplilit tayong pagandahin sa paningin ng iba, meron tayong isina-sacrifice na dapat ay mas mahalaga pa!

As I would always tell my students, “You can tell who you are by the things that you do – even when no one is watching you!”

Ang pagsikapan nating maging “tama” ang bawat gawain natin kahit na walang nakatingin sa atin ay isa pong napakalaking tulong para matupad ang plan ni God  para sa atin.

While we are a “work in progress”, habang pinapaganda natin kung ano ang pwedeng makita sa panlabas nating anyo, kasabay po nating pagandahin MAS LALO PA KUNG ANO ANG LAMAN NG ATING KALOOBAN.

Let us not allow our human frailties to delay such work of progress.

If we already be want to be a SUPERSTAR, may  THE INTENTIONS OF OUR HEART be “aligned” with God’s plan for us! — sunset 

 

Let’s also Start Crafting our OWN MASTERPIECE!

My daughter has been keeping herself busy with her ART ATTACKS lately… and she also created lots of mess in her study area…and even some portions of the house.  Even if she was trained to fix her own mess, you’ll also get tired reminding her every now and then to guide her how to keep things organized and put things back in its proper places.

Hmmmm….kind’a consuming; but then no, this doesn’t happen all the time — she will not be a kid forever. And yes, I got’ta behave corrected; i should instead just be a child with her and relate with what she’s doing.

While convincing myself not to scold her for such many mess, I was touched when she gathered & lined-up some of what she has created — only some of those which she would so thoughtfully hand me each stuff, saying “I made this for you!”. Sometimes, she would be the one to call my attention whenever she would notice that I did not keep her stuff that well, and so she would give me “that look” and would tell me that conscience-bogging comment “pinaghirapan ko yan eh!”

“My Masterpiece…beautiful, …because I’m beautiful!” … “created by RGmontero”

I suddenly realized: “mabuti pa ang bata, nakaka-create ng sarili nyang MASTERPIECE!” Yes, what a shame that a child, in all her innocence can create her own masterpiece. She’s proud of it, proud that she was created “beautiful” – and as that, she can come up with her own creation which she generously shares with others. 

Adults as we already are, can we not have this child’s creativity? As the Gospel of John in 6:41-51 conveys  when Jesus said: ⁵¹ ”I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever.”  — the “bread” is not only intended to fill our empty stomach in just one day; but to show us how Jesus lived human- like us and with us. Each time we partake of this bread, we also accept Jesus not just as part of our life; but as our life  — that we can also do what He did as a person – the bread that would sustain us! 

It hasn’t been easy to remain good and loving despite the many difficulties, but still, Jesus showed us just how it is to be human. While Jesus was then with us,  He modeled to us how to make life beautiful: where there were difficult persons;  He extended kindness, tenderness & forgiveness.  Where there were tough & trying times, He layed-bare being self-giving & self-sacrificing. 

if only we could also learn what Jesus did and how He was able to triumph over all the temptations, our doubts all the sorts of criticisms, we could live forever — because people will remember us even when we are no longer around.      

Just like a WORK-OF-ART … we may not be able to use all the colors that we wanted to use in one piece,, but if we will only learn how to mix-and-match-and-combine various colors, our work of art would surely be a Master Piece!

WE ARE GOD’S WORKMANSHIP! He brought us here for a purpose. We only need to unlock our uniqueness while combining the different colors – the various  experiences we’ve been through  which defines the person that we’ve become.

If we can only craft our Personality in the image and likeness of Jesus despite some experiences which we dont like that much, just like a pure-hearted child, we can also create  a MASTERPIECE which will make us live forever in the hearts of those, whose lives we have touched! – sunset 

‘Got to Experience that Gulliver’s Travel :)

Can we not be like Gulliver
in the vastness of this life?
He lied, put them in such a state of “make-believe”
but he did everything to “make it up” to them
not because they were small …
but because they’ve grown part of him!

Yes, relationships, when it flourish and conquered the heart, anything so small can never be disregarded … because they are already a BIG, BIG part of us 🙂

So, can you not be like Gulliver who can’t just turn his back from small people?