Month: August 2013

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Friends Are Family You Choose

It has been two years since I came to visit my very best friend in Boston, MA.  I miss her and am excited to see her again.  As soon as my daughter and I landed at Boston airport., we felt like we were home.  I have gone to many places to travel and visit friends.  I am blessed to say I have friends in many states and countries that I could visit and connect.  Friends that I met at the grocery store, restaurants, church, neighbors, colleagues,  or through a friend.  Friends that have become part of my life for many years and distance will not matter because as soon as we see each other again, we connect just like yesterday.

As I lay my head on the pillow in the same bedroom I was two years ago.  I realized wherever I go, I have a place to lay my head down.  Some of the places I lay my head down is like going home to my mother’s house.  I thank God for friends He has put in my paths who become my family and a big part of my life.  We have gone through stages of our lives and yet we are still here, supporting one another, helping in any which way we can, we don’t count the cost.   We laugh together till our stomach hurt, we cry with tears of compassion, we cheer on the good things happening in our lives, not to count all the holidays, birthdays and our girls night out where we eat, enjoy the food and company and yes…we close the restaurants 🙂

Mieke and I went to the same church which we just joined..  She saw me dropping my son at the nursery as she dropped her daughter too. The following Tuesday, I was shopping at Walmart and she spotted me and came to me and told me that she saw me on Sunday at church and she just moved from Nebraska.  She gave me her number and I told her I would call and invite her for dinner at my house with another friend.  Well.. the rest is history 🙂  she is a little sister that I never had.  It was hard to see her move to Boston but I know it’s also God’s plan for their family.  Our children grew up together and they call each other “cousins”.

I believe God put people in our paths and connect us with friends because that is what is in His heart.. a relationship.  I never know when the friendship ends and we start being a family… it just happened naturally.  I guess what we experience in friendship is a mirror of what God longs to have with us.. a relationship. I don’t believe in coincidence anymore.  I believe God put people in our paths for friendship and relationships that will last a season,  lifetime and goes to eternity.  Friends are family that God chooses for us 🙂  because He knows what we need .. a family 🙂 So, take time to visit with your friends, pick up the phone and just say hi. meet for a cup of coffee and catch up.   A relationship is not on auto pilot, we need to be a friend before we have friends.  We have to extend the invitation 🙂

 

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The Day At The Beach

Hampton Beach… 🙂 here we come!

It was a perfect morning to go to the beach today.. blue sky, white clouds and the sun was smiling at us.  I felt like God was blessing us with a perfect weather to go to the beach.  It has been 4 years since I went to the beach.. I mean a real ocean 🙂  It was a perfect day spent with my beautiful daughter and niece.  The drive was great,  We rolled down the windows, cranked up the music and sang along.  As we got closer to the ocean, I could feel the gentle breeze and ahhh… the smell of the ocean was like none other.  I was just taken by the beautiful sight of piers, fishing boats and yes.. the water.  I wish we could stop by the fish market and bought some fish and just grilled it by the beach.. as it would have been a perfect lunch too 🙂

Since it was a perfect day, we knew parking would be a challenge and we had to haul all our beach stuff but God amazed us with the little things He would do for us.  We found a perfect parking spot right at the beach house.  Thank you, God!   We set up our blankets and dug the sands for our umbrella and made sure it didn’t get blown away by the wind. Of course, we couldn’t forget about the goodies we brought to munch.  The water was cold but didn’t scare us to jump in and having a good time.  We walked along the beach for a mile and we just enjoyed having the waves touched our feet as we walked along.

I was thanking God for the day and His creation.  It’s amazing to look at the ocean, you think where the horizon meets the water is the end but yet if you get closer, the water still goes and where it goes, we only have an idea but not for sure.  The same with our life and dreams.  When we think we have reached the end, somehow if we look deeper into our life and dreams.. we realize we haven’t truly reached the end yet.  There are still things in life that we have not explored and dreams that we still have to pursue because we never know when the end truly is an end.  Most of the time, the end of something is the new beginning.  So, look at the horizon and don’t limit yourself to your potential and pursue your dream.  You never know what the new beginning will bring you. And most of all, don’t limit God… He will amaze you 🙂

 

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Be Still

Summer 2013 - 1

The water is like glass with reflection of God’s beautiful creation,  the trees are silent and not even a single leaf moves.  The birds are singing with joy and the the sun is shining its light.  The trees are solemn in their way of worshipping Him, while the birds are singing beautiful songs to praise Him. What a beautiful summer morning!  I wish we can have this beautiful perfect summer all year long.  This must be what Adam wakes up every morning in the garden of Eden.  What a privilege to wake up to a beautiful day full of promises and blessings. I am absorbing the beauty of the day and wish I could just be lost in time and nature.

As the time goes, I start seeing the leaves dancing in the gentle breeze as God’s way of saying “I love you”.  The wind blows gently and I can hear the wind chimes making the most beautiful melody of the day.   Here am I! sitting on my deck overlooks the beautiful lake spending time with lover of my soul with a cup of fresh Java.  I am so full of His presence that my heart is jumping with joy and full of anticipation of what  the day will bring to me 🙂

I realize we take a lot of things for granted in our lives, even as simple as enjoying a beautiful summer morning that we so look forward in the winter.  We tend to rush to all our commitments of the day and pushing things  for later when we have a bit more time such as taking time for ourselves to enjoy a cup of fresh brewed coffee or tea and the beautiful morning which is good for our soul. A question pops up in my mind 🙂  if we can’t enjoy His beautiful creation that is set before our eyes, how can we appreciate the person that He created in His own image? just because we have the promise that the sun will rise in the east and sets in the west everyday so we think that the person we love will always be there and we take them for granted 🙂

So today, please enjoy God’s beautiful creation 🙂  He created it with you in His mind because He loves you so much. Take a break from your work and walk outside, breathe in the fresh air, take a few seconds and smell the roses, Don’t forget to say “I love you” to the person who means so much in your life.   HAVE A BLESSED DAY 🙂

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Let Yes Be Yes

A rose

There are lessons to be learned daily that we might not realize that our integrity and character are tested.  When we pass the test, we go to the next level in our walk with God. It happened to me last weekend which God wouldn’t let me off because I promise my friend I would go to his 4th baby dedication.

I have been working very hard last month and decided to take a break and went to Chicago to visit a friend and decided also not to go to the baby dedication.  I thought I could just skip it.  Well, I got a text from Charles reminded me about the baby dedication.  I replied and told him I wasn’t coming and I would visit with him on Tuesday.  He didn’t reply and I knew he was disappointed.  As the day went,  there was a war between my mind and my heart about my promise. My mind said you could skip, my heart said but you promise.  You see, God was testing and watching what I would do.  I decided to follow my heart, so I drove from Chicago at 3:15 am to go home and made it in time for the baby dedication.  I texted Charles and told him that I would be coming to his baby dedication and he waited to start till I came.

I passed the test with God 🙂  I learned that we have to stay true to the words we say and let our yes be yes, our no be no because  if God can’t trust us with our little yes, how can He trust us with big yes..? There are a lot of broken promises everyday that we say.  Sometimes we say yes, just to be nice with no intention of fulfilling that “yes” but the person who hears that “yes” is disappointed and might be broken hearted.

I learned not to promise or easily say yes, if I don’t have it in my power to fulfill the promise because what we say and do, is impacting another person.  If we say too many yes and break too many promises, then our yes means nothing.  I’d rather say less “yes” but I can fulfill those promises 🙂

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I Believe…

Sunflowers

“I believe in the sun even if it doesn’t shine, I believe in love even if I don’t feel it, I believe in God even if He is silent” – Anonymous

In the silence and stillness when nothing is there, it is where we find peace and knowing that we can trust and know that He is God and He is working hard on your behalf because He loves you and He cares about you. The promise is always there just like the sun on a cloudy day…even though we can’t see the sunshine but we know that behind the cloud, the sun is still shining…we just can’t see it yet till the clouds are blown away… 

When we are going through hard times, we might not see where we are going or when we can see the light at the end of the tunnel, yet somehow He always helps us make it through the day and when we look back a few months down the road, we could see His purpose and His helping us that guide us through the rough waters.

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Birthday is a Celebration

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Whew… what a day!! 

The day was beautiful and perfect with blue skies and a gentle breeze, it was a day that I would call the perfect summer day 🙂  We took advantage of the day by sitting outdoors and celebrated a best friend’s birthday.  What started as lunch without any agenda, ended up being a progressive day full of celebration with food and good company. We had lunch at a lakeside restaurant, then we migrated to another restaurant for coffee and dessert. We walked off what we ate 🙂  at the farmer’s market by the lake until our stomach growled and sushi satisfied the growling.  We topped the night with some yogurt lab.

As I drove home, I had time to think about the day.  I thank God for giving me the chance to celebrate her life today.  Our friendship has evolved from being friends to being a family.  We have been there for each other through life’s events.  We support and care and don’t count the cost.  That’s friendship at its best.  Friendship that most people might experience once or twice in a lifetime if they are lucky.  I am blessed to say I am one of the lucky ones because I have friend and family that have come to mean the same.   

Birthday is a celebration of life and a milestone of a life’s accomplishments.  Even if you think, you don’t accomplish anything, but take time and look back and you will see you have accomplished the tasks given to you and you can start counting your blessings.  Knowing that you are still on earth, breathing without machine, able to clothe yourself, feed yourself, bathe yourself and walk without help are blessings from God above and worth celebrating life everyday 🙂

Have a blessed week and remember SMILE… it’s free and can brighten one’s day 🙂