Secret keeping...

There are some secrets that are meant to be kept...
No matter how difficult it is to keep...

Only God and I know it...
We don't split...
Unless it is necessary to manoeuvre things around...
If not,
It is just between He and I....

Mouth zip...

Be an example....

Words mean nothing...
If your action shows otherwise...

If you want followers....
Be a model example...
Model doesn't require words...
But their actions tell it all...

Serving God...

Believe it or not...
We are living in the world full of selfishness...
Everything is all about 'ME-first'...

It's true that we should take care of ourselves before we can even extend our hospitality towards others....
But most of us has taken it way further than what is necessary to equip ourselves...

Serving God, on the other hand, is a kind of a reverse to what the world is doing today...

If you ever wonder how is it like to serve God then read on...

Have you ever pick up someone's garbage and throw into the bin for them even when they continuously litter at the pavement?
Have you ever take the time to give someone a hand when things got out of control even though you are actually in a hurry?

You see,
We live in the world whereby we jam-packed our schedule...
We run from place to place.
We hardly ever stop for a minute to actually enjoy the journey...
Nor even take the time out to greet strangers along the way...
We are so walled up that we don't even know who our neighbours are...

Today, we are looking to become a leader...
We expect people to vote for us so that we can reign above everyone else....
But the truth is....
We don't even know how to lead in the first place...
We don't even know how to connect with people at all...
But we all want the upper role...
We want to be the front liner yet don't even know what is what to begin with...
Yet expecting people to follow our leadership?
What sort of leadership are we trying to display then?

That's why God has told us times and times to serve...

Serving is NOT about telling people that you are the King and you ought to be served!
Serving is about coming down to the very bottom of your personal expectation and to be a servant to others...

Serving is about...
Rolling up your sleeves and help to wash dishes whether or not anybody is doing it...

Serving is about...
Picking up garbage as you walk home and then throw it all into the appropriate bin regardless to who litter the place...

Serving is about...
Helping an old lady carry her heavy books to the car while on a walk to your destination.

All of these are done unnoticed by others...
But really only our Heavenly Father knows it all...

Serving is not about questioning who should do this and that....
It's about - let's us ALL help out as much as we can...

Serving doesn't even need us to be a maid/ janitor/ slave...
It is about the heart...
YOUR heart for God...

Don't be a spoil-brat/ suck-up goat saying...
"I am a doctor/ lawyer/ engineer therefore I deserve to do higher stuff than picking rubbish/ washing dishes..."

If everyone were to say the same thing,
Then you will be living in the world full of rubbishes and dirty dishes...
You will be living in the world full of insects and sickness...
And trust me...
You will be filled with loads of sickness and disease before you even enjoy your career in fullness...

Therefore be humble and learn to serve...

God didn't ask you to be a doctor to put others down...
He told you to serve others even when it's a minor task...

Jesus is the leader...
Yet he came to serve...

He did not recognised Himself as the leader even when His disciple said He is one...
Yet He humbly washed His disciples feet when none of them ever think of doing it for one another until He told them to do as that...
He talked to the poorest of the poor and the wealthiest man ever...
To Him,
All are the same...
Just like you and me...
When He doesn't even need to do as that...

He feed the hungry ones...
And comfort the depressed ones...
Even when he does come across hunger and sadness Himself...
Yet, He pushed all His personal anguish aside to serve others with all his heart and soul...

So what are we compare to Him?
Yes, He is God's son...
But aren't we God's children as well?

Why become the leader when we refuse to humble ourselves?
Why

The word 'HUMBLE' means being submissive or meek....
Submissive to things that are way below our personal category...
Meek on things that are way beneath our personal expectation...

The word GENTLE means kind and sweet or tender...
Kind to someone who is not of your type...
Sweet to people who are of totally different character/ personality of you...
Tender to those need more love than you could ever bargain yourselves...

Fight the good fight!

God's plan doesn't change...
It's the circumstances that change...

When trouble comes....
We often wonder if God is ever with us...

We feel like we have been battling with ourselves and our surrounding for life...
Even if it is just a short time...

I remember God used to tell me that I was supposed to be at some place doing something for him...
But here I am,
Struggling from thousands of miles away from the place that I am supposed to be...
And being unlike someone that God wanted me to be...

Crazy, isn't it?
It's like God suddenly change His tune without informing us...

But the truth is:
God didn't change His plan!
It is the circumstances that takes us round the bush!
In a brutal statement: Satan is at work!

Satan knows our plan just as much as God does...
He knows that we wanted to fulfill God's work...
And so he is stirring up trouble and making it difficult for us to move forward...
Most people would have given up by now....
But only the strong ones know that Satan will soon give up before them...
because God is TRUE... He will keep His Words!

As 1 Timothy 6:12 said:

Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses.

Stand strong... Stay strong...
While everyone is being fearful,
We steadfast in prayer being faithful....

There is hope...

As the saying goes: "Every clouds has a sliver lining." 

Do not be despair... If God is for US - so who can come against us? 

Home….

…is where the heart is…

It is a place where hospitality never wears out…

There is always smile at the door when you step into the house…

And even if anger roars within the room,

You know you still belong to such a place…

Nobody can kick you out regardless to circumstances…

It is a place whereby you can leave your hat on the table and remove your mask…

You can stop playing pretend…

You don’t have to win favouritism…

You don’t have to be someone else…

You just be you…

It is the place for you to grow…

You learn to develop your character behind closed door…

All your mocking and scolding are hidden from public eyes…

While you are being trained to be a better person…

Before you reveal the end result to the society…

It is a place where you can do whatever you want...

Without fearing of naysayers…

Your home is the first place that see your million mistakes…

Before you dare to show your special ability to the world,

It is a place where you can be who you are…

You can hug your soft toys even at old age,

You can talk to the walls without fearing of being laughed at…

You can waltz across the room without having anybody calling you 'insane'…

You can hold the hairbrush and sing in your cocky voice and nobody will judge you…

It’s a place whereby it is more than just the roof, four walls, doors and windows…

It is a place of love and comfort…

It is a place that you can come home to when there is nowhere else to go to…

It is the place where you feel belong…

It is the place whereby you know you can never do without…

It is the place whereby your soul find peace…

It is the place whereby… you don’t feel like leaving anymore…

And that’s permanent…

That’s home…

Self-improvement jar

Similar version of a 'swear' jar. Except that you are the one paying for it instead of someone else.

Remember when you were a child and someone swear in front of you and you tell them to drop 10p into the swear jar as a reminder never to swear again?

Well, self-improvement jar works the same way except that you use it as a mean to improve yourself.

I remember when I was in my first year of university, My conversation was filled with Malaysian slangs and it got a wee bit annoyed because my friends had difficulty understanding me. I tried to improve but with lots of difficulty due to my upbringing. I seriously wanted to be better so I decided to implement the 'broken English' jar. Every time I caught myself speaking with Malaysian slang, I will have to drop 10p into the jar. The money in the jar will then goes to charity. By mid-2nd year, my jar was completely empty all throughout and I even surprised myself with proper British English.

My motto is this: "If I can do it, anybody can do it!" and the same vice versa

We just need the determination, honesty, integrity, and willingness to make it works wonders.

That's why I thought I might want to come up with variety of self-improvement jar to keep improving myself.

I know most people won't be bothered by it. In fact, they might laugh over how naive the idea is... That's fine. I am changing and improving myself - not them. I am making myself a better person - not them. They can stay behind if that's what they want - I'll just keep moving forward. After all, it is my life and my race. Nobody can run my race for me except myself. So it's best I focus on improving myself and keep running my own race. But if anybody wants to join me, I'll be happy to share my tips and tricks with you.

As a Christian, there are so many fruits of the Spirit that we need to attempt in order to be like Jesus.

Galatians 5:22-23

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 
gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.

I possessed some of them but lack of so many others. I know it's hard to change and I really do want to change for goodness-sake.There are some part of me that, if not careful, can ruin my entire life and my relationship with people.

There are also many other characters and personality that the bible verse did not mentioned and I should head up as well; so that every single moment of my life, I can and I WILL become a better person. I do not want to wait for people to tell me things because 1) I am an adult and I should be expected to know the do's and don't's and 2) it will be extremely embarrassing if I constantly required telling off every single time.

So I came up with the idea of implementing a 'self-improvement/ Fruit of the Spirit' jar with all the characteristic of the fruit of the spirit. Every time I catch myself hating someone for whatever the reason, I will have to put in 10p into the jar. Every time I kick a fuss because I cannot get things my way, another 10p into the jar. Every time I get impatient over things, another 10p into the jar... Eventually the jar will be full and the money will go straight to charity.

By the time the amount of money in the jar dropped significantly, we know that I am improving.

To me, this is the perfect way to train oneself; because I believe that all of us have the desire to improve in every aspect possible. But self-improvement is so subjective that we cannot really see the changes in us that's why most of us gave up midway. We have nobody to tell us things/ we don't want people to know that we need to change and etc. So in order to help ourselves to get an idea of our personal development, the 'self-improvement' jar will serve as a perfect visual cue to our overall refinement.

Negative thoughts counted too. So please cease out the fear, anxiety and former negative thoughts. They should be 10p apiece too. And I am glad to say that I haven't put in a single pence yet although I will soon find myself filling it up in no time - because negative thought is my worst enemy.

Well, hopefully in a year or two, I will be a complete changed person and the jar will be empty for the rest of my life. (And yes, this is obviously going to be my lifetime jar.) I can change the jar anytime I want, but the purpose has to remain the same forever. That way I can lead a purposeful life that is completely filled with the Fruits of the Spirit.

Note: Feel free to create your own rules to live by. If you think you lie more than your liking because it has become a habit, then include that. if you think you are rude to someone because it just happened spontaneously and has become part of your natural reaction, then include it as well. Honestly, it is your choice of how and what you want to change in yourself.

As for myself: It is to completely case-out all my weaknesses and seriously develop a stringent positive traits that is to the Fruit of the Spirit because I find it rather disturbing when people avoid me without telling me why; and then later I learn that it is due to my negative traits that ruin my relationship with others. It hurts because I didn't expect to lose my friendship just like that; but there is no blaming others for my own fault. So in order to keep all my current and future relationships, it's best I do something with myself rather than expecting other people to be patient with me. Honestly speaking, even the most patient person will one day reach their wit-end. So best is NOT to get there at all! And in order not to get to their nerves, the best thing is to do something to change myself completely so that I can easily avoid unwanted trouble again; because let's say: 90% of the time, the problem did come from my side after all. So why not admit it and change it for the better?

Self-control

In all we do...
There is one fruit that represent us...
The 'doing'...
Our self-control....

Anger is dominating the world day by day...
We face angry people almost everyday in life...

People get angry for some reasons...
We may or may not know why...
But rather than allowing it to rule us...
We can do a lot better than raging in return...

We can just be in control of ourselves...

As what a good saying goes

"Self-control is the only way to survive in the world full of idiots."

Don't let anger control you, my friend...
Control anger and be nice to others...

We shouldn't let other people's foolish get into our nerves...
If we did,
We are in trouble...
Because then, we are the one out of control...

So be in control of yourself...
Tighten your self-control...

If someone accused you for something that you didn't do,
Just gently tell them the truth and walked away...
But do not even shout/ scream in defence...
Your voice/ tone/ word doesn't help you...
But rather,
Be positive and say it positively with a gentle tone...
They may not perceive you but at least, you have clear your part of...

But if you have done something wrong and someone screamed at you,
Just meekly apologised and correct it.
People who have conscious knew that you have repented will automatically stop nagging at you.
But if those nagging doesn't stop,
Remember,
It is NOT your fault...
It is the nagger's fault...
Because she was desperately looking for something to unleash her tongue...
Therefore do not worry...
One day she will get a slap on the face by someone who is much worst than herself...
Then she will learn to have self-control in all aspect...
But you do not have to respond rudely as revenge...
Just walk away and let nature take care of it for you...

Self-control....
You can do so much better just by smiling politely and swiftly walked off without much word.
You can also do a lot better with just a sense of gentleness...
So much so,
People who have sudden outburst will repent on their own shameful behaviour...
You don't have to tell them anything nor say the word...
Your action will do the job...

Be in self-control...
It worth so much the trouble...
And gain all the peace that your heart desires of a lifetime...
In fact,
It saves your life till the very end...