22 January 2012

My 2012 Calendar

Had fun making this today featuring my 2011 trip to Ireland. It's a lovely country where I took loads of photos that are calendar worthy, I think. :) By putting them in print, I can relive the memories just by looking at them, month after month. Hope I can do this again in the next coming years.


21 January 2012

10 PM Reminder


There was a period of months last year when I started praying at the same time, everyday. There were days when I'd fail, but I'd try again. This habit was shared to bf and we both tried, succeeded, failed and then tried again. Originally, it wasn't 10 PM. We kept adjusting because our time difference was also adjusting from 8 hours to 7 hours (the proverbial time saving thing), until we fixed it to:10 PM Philippine timezone = 2 or 3 PM Ireland timezone. We would drop whatever we were doing and would pray. Then we would send each other YM messages that we were done praying or he would call and tell me he was done praying.

I can't remember the time or month when we stopped praying together. I just remember that back then, we prayed for the silliest, smallest desires to the grandest of dreams that only the two of us knew about. I can also remember and testify to the truth that God answers prayers, because He did, He actually did answer so many desires of our hearts. 

We prayed for a new job for me. We prayed that my visa would be granted so I could visit him to Ireland. We prayed for his job regularization. We prayed for transformation. We prayed for financial provisions, for good health. All these and more, God granted lovingly to us.

Lately, I had not been praying well and regularly. I would have slept on tonight and just forget about the stress of yet another wedding venue hunting day if not for the 10 PM alarm in my cellphone. I've been missing the presence of God in my life lately because I was too busy and too exhausted with all the big changes in my life that I felt like a twig of wood being drift away. I was too full of myself to even acknowledge that God is just nearby waiting for me to draw closer to Him, so He could draw closer to me. 

The truth is God is whispering to me tonight. When I opened John Ortberg's books, it has this message in it:
Choose Jesus. When I read that, I knew I had to drop on my knees and pray and just lay down my concerns to God. 

Dear God, thank you for reminding me to pray and to talk to You like a good old friend. I miss you so much God. Thank you for putting this vacuum hole size in my heart that only You can fill. Thank You Lord for never giving up on me, for never getting tired of whispering to me that You are just there. 

20 January 2012

Countdown to the Big Three Zero

You get it right? If not, then you'll find out soon. :) I haven't caught up with my writing backlogs, (I do have a lot of wonderful things to write about) and I've been feeling the proverbial wedding jitters more prominently as January 2012 unfolds. Top that with added responsibilities at work and the search for my urban jungle I'd be calling home for 6 months. That's what my first three weeks of January had been. BUT, I wouldn't pass this chance to countdown the Big Three Zero that's coming my way. God has been great, I often find myself mystified by His grace and love. My way in paying things forward is to write about His goodness in my life. I will never know, someone somewhere is driving in the same road that I am in. :)


07 January 2012

2012 Goals

I'll just interrupt my 30 Awesome Things challenge to give way to this traditional new year post. I know, it's been two weeks past 2012, but I've been super busy the past two weeks with fiance and I visiting possible wedding venues, sorting paper works, meeting people here and there, and some big changes at work.

I had to postpone blogging and just enjoyed the moments that we were together. :)


***

Hello 2012! I'm so excited about you and with all your infinite possibilities! Don't you just love the freshness and the second chances a new year brings? I very much do. 2011 has been the best year of my life, but 2012 could be the best of the best! Yes, with God, everything is possible and what you think as "best for your life" is nothing compared to the "best for your life in God's grand master plan." 

My goals for this year consist 
  1. Pursue Intimacy with God - this goal is aligned with our church's goal for 2012 (2011 goal was to pursue pleasing God). I know I have a lot to improve on my quiet/prayer time and attendance to Sunday service and Discipleship Group. I'll take it one baby step at a time. A Christian friend advised me to step up and show how God changes the way I handle my relationships, finances and faith. A huge and very difficult challenge for a toddler Christian like me. But I can do everything through Christ who gives me strength, right? :)
  2. Prioritize relationships - first with God, then with fiance, family, friends and co-workers. God's first commandment is the word "love", it centers on relationship, not on money, not on tasks, not on ambition. Loving someone the way Jesus did means doing inconvenient things, forgetting oneself, forgiving and asking forgiveness though every inch of me will protest in doing so. It's not being phony, it's being obedient, God will supply the right feelings afterwards. So dear God, help me on this. :)
  3. Prepare joyfully for our Wedding - "joyfully" being the operative word. To prepare, I can handle but how I do it matters big time. I confess I have the tendency to be obsessed and get worried with the tiniest of details, being the artsy crafty OC me. But really, mishaps will happen. Life, in general is like that. Enjoy the journey, not the destination, as they say. So I'll enjoy the wedding preps because I'll pass this way only once. :)
  4. Write about my life/faith journey and my wedding preparations - That goes to say I will write more and reflect more. I'll get to be a bride only once, and I'm sure, my whole wedding preps saga might be of help to some future brides out there. :)
  5. Sleep early, wake up early - Goal is to gain a healthier me on the big day. Plus of course, prevent tardiness. This is hitting two birds in one stone. :) 
  6. Work 8 hours a day - Workplace is a ministry and to set a good example is to give my best and work  the hours I'm paid for. Good thing, all social networking sites are blocked in my office, so hurray! If I'm productive at work, I'll surely have the nights for prayer and writing.
  7. Learn to drive -