Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Have a beautiful, memorable and meaningful holiday with your loved ones.

Christmas for me is a reminder of God's faithfulness, goodness and forgiveness.

It is a day for restoration, reconciliation and faith

It is a celebration of victory, let earth receive her King.

Christmas is a holiday of love, hope, renewal and faith in Christ Jesus, 

who came to this earth for you and I,

to live abundantly in His purposes,

to live in freedom by His grace.

It is also a day to cherish with your friends and family!

Pray together as a family (my favorite),
Read Some verses about Christmas, whether you agree-like it or not, it is Christ's day :)

Isaiah 7:14 Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel. 

Isaiah 9:6 For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. 

Matthew 1:21 She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins. 

Luke 2:10 And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.

Luke 2:11 For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.

Luke 2:14 “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!” 

John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Romans 15:13 May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope. 

Make a memory that will last forever,
not just focusing on what presents you will get or to get others for Christmas.
It is fun and all, but it is NOT the purpose of this day.

We tend to commercialized everything,
selling-buying-profit,
then make it all about Santa Claus,
corny Christmas movies that has NOTHING to do with Christ,
mostly about how desperate a woman is to bring a husband to a family dinner,
a workaholic man/woman,
Santa saves Christmas,
 finding a husband for mommy, etc.
LOL
We ruined the meaning of Christmas!

Be a blessing to someone,
especially those who has nobody to celebrate the holiday with,
even strangers.
If you see someone in a supermarket, street, etc,
wished them a Merry Christmas, a smile, a helping hand, share something!

Spend time with your loved ones,
I miss all of my family and my memories with them on this holiday,
those memories makes me smile and I will pass it on to my children someday.
Take a lot of pictures,

Eat a lot of foods,

Laugh,

Love,

Hug!

Hope your day be MERRY and BRIGHT!

;)

xo,

Lindsay

My Christmas Tradition

Christmas is my favorite holiday of all time! I love the tradition my family used to do when I was a kid, I love the decorations, I love the Christmas songs, I love the weather, the cookies, hot chocolate, seasonal coffees, sales on stores and people seemed to be happier during this holiday season.

My Family's Tradition 

I grew up in Manado, Indonesia, where the majority of its people are Christian, even though we are located in Indonesia, the largest Muslim population in the world. But, in Manado, people with different religions lives with peace, love and harmony. 

Anyway, starting December fifth, the children are getting ready to meet a very special person on Christmas season: Santa Claus and Zwarte Piet  (click on it to find out more about them). Zwarte Piet is from the Dutch language, they are Santa's helpers. Manado has a lot of Dutch, Portuguese, Spanish, British and Japanese's influences due to our history. Therefore, our names, languages, foods and cultures are influenced a lot by those countries. The Zwarte Piet was known as a black person, so in Manado, because our skin is not as dark, those who "played" the role as the Zwarte Piet must put on some body paint all over their bodies to make it very dark. 

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But, unlike Santa's helpers in America, in Manado, the Zwarte Piet are very scary and they make all the children afraid of them (you will not get your gifts if you are naughty lol). So, the parents usually enrolled their kids to some churches or organizations who did the annual Santa Claus season and write the list of what to tell their kids (their best and bad behavior). The goal is to make the children understand that they will get gifts when they do good and when they are bad, they will not get what they wanted. We must earned our gifts, so December is the month where all the kids are behaved and afraid to see the Zwarte Piet (over there, their role is to scared the kids so they will not be naughty for the whole year lol). The parents will choose to either invite Santa and the helpers to their house or to go to the place where it is being held (mall, church, school, etc). 

I remember, I used to be afraid when I heard the Santa's car coming to my neighborhood and have this loud microphone to tell you which houses they will visit. I, personally, think that the idea to make the kids behaved well is good, but the way they presented it, is not healthy for the children. But, the presents are always a huge reward for us back then lol.

When I was older, my mom decided not to invite Santa anymore, instead she was being very creative created Santa into our own house. So, on the night before Santa "supposed" to come, my mom will tell me to go to sleep and when I woke up in the morning, she created the house has a grass trail and a little mud here and there on the floor (because Santa's reindeer were there lol) and I will followed the grass trail and found my gifts wrapped beautifully under the tree along with a note from "Santa". And yes people, because of that, I was a believer of Santa Claus when I was a kid, my mom is the best! :)

In Manado (at least when I grew up), people started to bake the cookies since early December, so the smell of fresh homemade cookies are everywhere. People are starting to decorate their houses with Christmas trees, lights, ornaments, fake snow lol, it really feels like North Pole, even though we live in a hot, sunny Asian country (usually on December, it rains a lot so it is not as hot as summer time).

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You will find jars of cookies like that picture in almost every house in Manado. Let's eat!

On Christmas Eve, we usually gathered in a family member's house to pray and eat some Christmas foods, my mom and grandma made some special dishes only for Christmas, so we waited the whole year for those dishes LOL. Sometimes we went to church on Christmas eve, which is one of my favorite holy moment. It was just so beautiful, peaceful and amazing. At 12 A.M on Christmas Eve, we will pray together as a family to start the Christmas day. Then we will eat tons of foods and go around the city where they held a lot of fireworks, music, and yes you can visit ANY house started December 24th all the way to January 3rd. HA! Yes, people, my hometown is the real deal when it comes to Christmas! There really is NO other place like Manado when it comes to celebrate Christmas. Where else can you visit any house to eat, even stranger's house, from Christmas eve to January? Only in Manado!! ;)

These are just a glimpse of Christmas in Manado:

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December 25th and 26th are church time! So, since AM to PM, you will see people are wearing beautiful dresses going to churches together and then after church, we will eat again, either at our own houses or visiting families and friends all over the city. We also like to visit graveyard, bring flowers to our families/friends who are in heaven by now. It was a sweet time, not that we worship dead people, it is more likely to remember their lives and gathered together with our family to remember the good ole time we had with those people who are no longer with us. Flowers always look nice on a graveyard anyway :)

Manadonese LOVES to cook, eat, party and very family oriented. We know everyone in the city and we love to invite everyone to have a party. It is in our culture to help each other, eat, dress up and party! So, we have a lot of varieties of foods, from Asian dishes to western dishes and of course local dishes. We have a lot of homemade cookies as well, from cheese, chocolates, caramel, peanut butter, strawberries-pineapple-any berry on earth, etc. In almost every house you will eat appetizers, main menu and desserts (cookies, puddings, salad, fruit cocktails, cakes, pies, etc).

We also love to dress up and look nice everyday, especially on Christmas time, so sometimes it could be stressful for those who do not have money to keep up with the latest trend. I was NOT one of those people, I thank God that my parents taught me to live well, loving God, others and not worry of having new things on Christmas day. My mom used to literally pushed me to go to stores and buy something new for myself, because I am one of those kid who do not wanna put burden on my parents shoulder to buy me new gifts, even though we are not poor. I am a believer of contentment and my mom always tell me that she is forever grateful to have me as a child..LOL..!

So, Christmas in Manado is all about JESUS, family, feast, friendship and celebration of love, faith and  hope. So, what is your favorite holiday? What is your family's tradition? Tell me..tell me :)

Matthew 1:21 

She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins. 

Matthew 1:23 

“Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel” (which means, God with us). 

My husband and I at Union Square, San Francisco, last Christmas Eve (2011).

Ho..Ho...Ho...

xoxo,

Lindsay

Test Your Limit

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One of the many excuses I have heard is: "I can not do it!"

Can not and will not are two of our very own enemies inside us that limited our abilities to grow and to move forward. We will never know our own strength unless we give it a try and so many times, the first try, second and third might not get us right to the top. Everything has its own process and purposes, including strength, whether it is physically, mentally or spiritually strength. Strength is trained and gained, it is not given or received overnight. It is a journey and process in life, sometimes it is a short ones and many times it is a long one. But one thing for sure is that you will get stronger when you try one day at a time, one foot ahead of the other, one step at a time. A step further is better than a step backward!

What might seemed to be impossible will not be impossible unless you try it, right? Everything seems impossible for those who never try to seek the possibility. A baby will think that walking is impossible, then he tried to walk and succeeded. What seemed to be hard, might not be as hard once you trained yourself to face it.

You are stronger than you think! I used to not being able to do a perfect push up or pull up, now I am able to do any form of push ups and pull up (with some help lol). I used to think that lifting weight is for men who wants huge muscles, but I was so wrong and I am in love with lifting weight now and I could lift heavier weight with squats or on a balance ball, name it! lol!!.

So picture what you want for yourself, set a goal in your mind, get moving and make it happen! A stronger, leaner, healthier, happier, better you is just one step ahead (for starter). I used to see a fitness model and thought, wow she must be crazy to do that. Today, I look at them and I was like "I could do it too with one leg or one arm" ;)

Test yourself and see how far you passed your so called "limitation".

xoxo,

Lindsay

Fortune Cookies

 HA!

Last night, after I ate my delicious Chinese Food for dinner, I decided to have two fortune cookies because they were so yummy! In my opinion, some fortune cookies are just better than others. Anyway, these are the result of my fortune cookies! The statements compliment each other and finished each other sentences LOL.

Sometimes it is nice to hear or read encouraging words from other people, may it be someone you know, a stranger or even some fortune cookies lol. This is why I love collecting words of wisdom, write it down on my journal or take picture of them as a reminder of what I could be if I am willing to do it. I also love to write them down to encourage myself and others. 

When something captured your eyes, your heart and soul, your brain tends to remember it and stored it for future references. That is why we need to stored wisdom and encouraging words into our brain so that we live by those words instead of negative, self pity, discourage words that will pull your spirit down along with the people that you meet in your life. You know, misery loves company kinda person, you don't wanna be that person. Nobody deserves to live a miserable lives and nobody have any right to bring other people down with them, dives into their unhappy life.

Say something nice to other people today, do something good for others, try to encourage other people without being fake. What do I mean by that? we do not have to compliment others and lie as well. Every person has their own uniqueness, whether they realize it or not. Bring that out of them, point it out to them so that they could see it as a gift, talent, useful and special instead of weirdness, bad and useless. 

Don't compliment others based on something that is not in them, for example do not encourage someone to pursue a singing career when everyone think they could not sing, including that person himself lol. Encourage them to pursue something that you know they could do and would be good at it plus it will satisfied them as well. Sometimes people just need a little push, a word of encouragement to step into their "dream comes true" world.

Go after your passion, your dreams, use your talents for something good and be happy with what you have accomplished now. Life is not over until we are dead, so as long as we are still breathing, we could still reach our goals! Good Luck and Best Wishes!

xoxo,

Lindsay

soMEbody loves you

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Nothing is better than to love and be loved by other people.

This is for all of you who read my blog. 

I hope that you all know that I love you and appreciate your time to read, comment,
pray and share my thoughts.

Have a great week and wonderful journey everyone!

Be Strong and Courageous,

Be Happy and Joyful,

Be Wise and Honorable.

Enjoy Life Without Losing Yourself In The Making!

xoxo,

Lindsay

Happiness Is A Journey

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Because we are living in the era of "Express", we wanted everything in our life to be express as well. We would love to have a date stamped on a specific event in our life, we wanted to control everything, including how fast a certain thing should be fulfilled.

Happiness is a journey!

I love those words! It does not mean that along the way you should be unhappy, miserable and cranky LOL. But, for some people, everything takes time to reached a certain degree of happiness. Forgiveness takes time, forgiveness is also a journey in life. 

There are steps that we must going through before we arrived at our "destination" or should I say degree of forgiveness. First, we must feel the hurt, then we got mad, confused, angry, sad and all of the emotions mixed together in our soul. Then we acted our emotions out, may it be crying, blaming someone (or yourself), regret, planning a revenge, hurting someone, being alone, partying, etc. After that, we have some options, we could either forgive the abuser and move on with our life or we could plan a revenge that might not just hurt him/her but yourself and others along the way. We could confront the person and tell them that we are hurt in a mature way or not so mature way, we could live miserable our whole life playing the blaming game, never ending regret or the "what if" mentality, or we could just cry, pick up our own life, move on toward a more positive renewed uplifting and better life. 

Everything takes time and that is why it calls a journey instead of a destination, because I think that life is a journey. We continue to walk and filled our life with surprises that we found along the way and we continue to walk our journey. We have options to stop and enjoy a certain moment in that journey, take some pictures, laughed or cried, remember or forget. We also have some options to unpacked some baggage that we have been carrying along the way (baggage: unnecessary burden). 

Aren't you tired carrying those emotional baggage that is hurting you, emotional, physical and mentally?. Why carrying those people who hurt you, abused you, did not appreciate you with you on your journey/life? Let them go, unpacked them, leave them behind and never look back. You have learned your lesson, now it is time to let go and live your lighter life. Filled your bag with new experiences, good people, moments and lessons to cherished and worth remembering or carrying along the way. Create beautiful moments not miserable moments. Remember the great times not the bad times. 

If you still find it hard to let go, then make a promise to yourself that you deserve better and make a goal to help yourself out to move on with your life, so that you could reached your next destination in your journey.

When or if you have arrived at your next destination, may it be the next city, next boyfriend you have, next job, next ministry, etc, unpacked those unnecessary baggage. You do know that those losers do not even think of you anymore, remember you or even know what they did wrong to you, right? So stop the pity party and expecting him/her to come to you and admitted that they were wrong and they were sorry. Some of them did regret and apologized but MANY of them did not even know what they did wrong. So, stop wasting your time analyzing why bad things happened to you and create your own happiness without destroying yourself and others. Happiness does not mean you could do whatever makes you happy, there are rules and limitation to everything on earth. Drinking, food, shopping and partying makes you happy, but if you do it way too much, you will ended up hurting yourself. 

Live in the present!

We could not change the past and we do not know what tomorrow holds, so why bother and worry way too much about it? We should just cherish the present moment, make it worth our time to remember, to smile when we think about it in the future. There are two things in the past, one that is worth to remember and one that is worth to forget. Only carrying/taking with you what is important and worthy of your soul and time, leave the emptiness, bitterness, sadness, unhealthy lifestyle and unhappiness behind so that they will not contaminated or dictate your future.

Remember that happiness is a journey which means every single step that you take should create happiness until the day God calls you home to His everlasting arms. We all going to die someday, the when-how and where is unknown, that is why we should just enjoy our life before it ends because life is short. 

The journey of happy life does not mean we are always happy, because there is nobody on this earth, past-present and future people, who will never experience fail-hurt-death-sickness-drama in life. Everyone has its turn to experienced pain and gain, because it is part of life and living with other people with different background and characters. 

Sometimes we must experience the bitterness to understand and appreciate the sweetness of life, that is of course if we are wise enough not to do the same mistake twice or picked up/chose the same people twice (could be different people with the same attitude/character than the first mistake we made).

Chose, create, live your happiness and enjoy your journey!

xoxo,

Lindsay

For Better or For Worse

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I truly LOVE that quote!

By the way, you should check out her website: http://tolovehonorandvacuum.com/

Anyway..

I love that quote because marriage life is not always about the fun, love, holding hands and great sex. There are times when none of that happened for various reasons. However, even when things gets harder or even worse than before, we must keep in mind why we got married on the first place and fighting (work together) to make it work, to fix it, to make it better.

I will not write a lot about this issue because that quote already speaks EVERYTHING about marriage life; problems, conquer it and be a victorious lovebirds for the rest of your life. 

Sometimes things must get worse before it becomes better. Sometimes it must be broken so that you could have a better, renewal life. Sometimes life must tasted the bitterness so that we could appreciate the sweetness out of it and be thankful. 

Those who survives the storms comes out stronger, better and wiser. Facing the problems, solving it with the one you love, not running away from it. Problems will always be there even in a perfect situation, there will always be problems. So, giving up on your marriage and thinking that the next one will be "problem free" will not solve your misery, because the next one might be crazier than this one LOL.

PS. Of course it depends on your "problems" as well, like I always said, if it becomes an abusive relationship and your life (and kids) are in danger, then be wise to seek help and save yourself!

xoxo,

Lindsay

Who's Your Daddy?

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Those are just a little samples of what our Father in heaven is all about. He is ALL that, more and beyond our languages, understanding, wisdom, and words could ever describe. 

The idea of having a heavenly Father might be new, foreign or sounds ridiculous to you. Maybe you don't believe in God and the concept of trinity (Father, Son and Holy Spirit) is silly according to you. But, if you want to know more or just curious about it, please click on these websites just to get an idea of what this"Father in heaven"  is all about:

-Trinity: http://www.desiringgod.org/resource-library/articles/what-is-the-doctrine-of-the-trinity 

-Fatherhood: http://www.desiringgod.org/resource-library/sermons/honor-thy-majestic-father

-Father in heaven: http://www.desiringgod.org/resource-library/sermons/ask-your-father-in-heaven

-Anything about Christianity in general, you could check out this website: http://www.desiringgod.org/

(PS. Of course there are a lot of Christians websites, but just be careful before you read them, check out their credibility and doctrines. "Desiring God" is a great website that I, personally, find helpful.)  

Some of us when we heard the word "Father, Daddy, Papa, Pops, Ayah, Bapak, Abba", etc. We immediately  think of our own father or I may say it our "earthly/biological/caregiver/step/adopt parent", etc. The father figure that we grew up with since we were a kid is not necessarily describe or represent our Father in heaven. Our "earthly" father might be a great man, wise, provider, etc, but he is not perfect, he is after all just a human, just like you and I, we made mistake. 

There are also fathers who are far from perfect; they are abusive, lazy, run away from their responsibilities as a father (or husband), etc. But, whether we like it or not, that man is your father and as much as we hate them, it will not eliminate the fact that he is your father. 

It is NOT your fault if you have a father who is just a "sperm donor" and does not do anything as a good father suppose to do, for example: teaching your kids discipline and shows love at the same time, provide for the family, work with their own hands not begging from other people, protect the family, loves your mother, your friend but also your mentor/leader that teach your right and wrong, etc. 

Sadly, there are so many children grows up these days without knowing their own father (or mother). Some people chose to love themselves more than to be a responsible person, too selfish to sacrifice for someone who desperately wanting and needing their love and affection. 

There are fathers who are having problems with the "baby momma" and neglects their children, even though the children is caught in the middle. Adults make love, get pregnant, have a baby, problem comes, fight, and get a divorce, but you will never get divorce from your own flesh and blood. You are the father and will always be one, even if the court limit your time with your kids, it does not mean you are not responsible for their lives. 

Mothers, even if you have problems with the daddy, he is still your children's father, respect his right to be with the children (unless he is not a "fit" parent, then protect your kids from the evil one-vice versa for the daddy with the evil "baby momma" lol).

The good news is even though our "earthly" daddy is a jerk, horrible person, far from perfect, neglecting you, forsaken you, disowned and abuse you in so many ways, WE have a heavenly FATHER who will never forsaken, forgotten, neglect and abuse you in any way. We could always come to Him in prayers, believing by faith that He is Lord, our Father in heaven, who will provide for us, guide us and gives us eternal life.

"For my father and my mother have forsaken me, but the LORD will take me in."

Psalm 27:10

“Can a woman forget her nursing child, that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you."

Isaiah 49:15

"I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you."

John 14:18

“I will never leave you nor forsake you.”

Hebrew 13:5

Read/Click: Matthew 6:1-34 and Luke 11:5-13 

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xoxo,

Lindsay

POW/MIA

Today is National POW/MIA Recognition Day. The DoD has more than 600 people dedicated to the worldwide mission of accounting for the more than 83,000 missing service members from conflicts as far back as World War II. To learn more about the Defense Department's mission to account for missing Americans, visit the DPMO website at http://www.dtic.mil/dpmo.

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Please keep them and their families in your prayers, hearts and thoughts, not just for today but everyday, until they ALL come home, it will give closure and hopefully peace of mind to the families who are still waiting and hoping.

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Please visit these websites to bring Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl home:

http://bringbowehomewod.com/

https://www.facebook.com/BringBoweHomeWOD

There are ways to help him come home:

1. Praying

2. Call Your Congress: 

Contact your Elected Officials today and tell them to Bring Bowe Home! 

Ways to Contact your Elected Officials:

(1) Call (202) 224-3121. This is a switch board in Washington D.C, when you connect with this number ask to be transferred to your elected official’s office. To find out who your elected official is use http://www.contactingthecongress.org/ Once connected to your elected officials office you may have to leave a message. This message should contain you name, a way to contact you, and you message to Bring Bowe Home.

(2) Tweet elected officials. For lists to tweet our elected officials check out https://twitter.com/POWMIAvoice/lists use hash tags #BoweBergdahl #POW #BringBoweHome

(3) Write your elected officials. To find the address of your elected official use http://www.contactingthecongress.org/ this will connect you with their specific website which will include a mailing address.

UNTIL THEY ALL COME HOME!

May God be with all of you and your families, gives you comfort, hope and peace of mind. 

We REMEMBER you and praying for your return.

xoxo,

Lindsay

Pray More- Worry Less

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Sometimes, even when we pray, the worry, fear and problems are still there, but there is power in prayer that makes you stronger to face them all. There is a huge comfort in knowing that God is doing something for your own good. It does not mean that you will get your prayer answered the way you wanted it, but it means that God answered it according to what He thought is the best for you.

"Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer."

(Romans 12:12)

So many times when God showed us what He thought is the best answer to our prayers, we do not like it. In fact, it could be the most painful thing in your life. We may never understand why God would allow such thing to happened in our lives, especially because we prayed. But then one day, we woke up and we get what God was trying to do through that painful time in our lives. He wanted to save us from a future disaster, He wanted us to experience His love and  miracles. He gives us hope and strength that nobody else could provide, etc.

"Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing."

(James 1:2–4)

But, there are also moments and specific events that we might never understand why God allowed to exist in our lives. But, by faith, we just have to believe that God knows what He is doing, it is above our own understanding to know everything in this world. We just have to pressing through our problems, move forward with our lives and knowing that God is good, even when painful things happened to us, He is still a good God. Why? because that is faith; Pain, suffering, death, persecution, famine, and war will never separate us from God's love. 

Our destination and home is heaven with Him, where there is no suffering, war, pain, sickness and death. This world filled with evil thoughts and acts, but this is not our forever home. Our hope and faith is in God, who is preparing our forever home in heaven. 

"And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose."

(Romans 8:28)

Some gives up hope and faith when painful events took place in there lives and hating God for not helping them, for allowing those things to existed, for leaving them when they needed God the most (or at least that's what we thought, while God is thinking and act differently). God will NEVER leave you, forsake you or laughed at you when you are in pain. He cry with you, laugh with you and died for you so that you could experience eternal life, not death (Read/click: 1 Thessalonians 5:10 and 1Peter 2:24)

"Be strong and courageous. 

Do not fear or be in dread of them, for it is the Lord your God who goes with you. 

He will not leave you or forsake you.” 

(Deuteronomy 31:6 )

Some gained hope and faith when those things happened in their lives and experience God's love like never before, because they knew that only God could take away that pain from their lives and replace that with unspeakable joy, healing, peace of mind that surpasses their own understanding and fear. 

It is OUR choice to see and experience life differently!

We may chose to be happy and moved on or we chose to be miserable and walk backward to our past. We could chose to give it all to God or to carry all of our heavy burdens to ourselves and let it consumed our lives. We may chose to let God do what He think is best for us or we may chose to do it ourselves and screwed it up because we have no idea what we are doing. We could chose to be free or a slave to our own misery, sickness, pain and troubled life.

My prayer today for you who read this post is that God will gives you peace of mind, strength and comfort, hope for a better tomorrow and love that will filled your heart with gladness.

May God be with you and bless you,

May God takes away your pain and heals you,

May God comfort you and hug you with His arms,

May God wipe away those tears from your face and gives you peace,

May God take away the pain that enslaved your soul and gives you hope as your new anchor for the soul.

Be free in Jesus name! Amen

"do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus."

(Philippians 4:6–7 )

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"Still" by Hillsong

xoxo,

Lindsay

From Trial To Triumph

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James 1:2-3 ESV

When we are facing struggles, problems, trials and all of those not so fun circumstances, the last words that will come to our mind would be "pure joy". What is so joyful when we are on trial? if anything, that would be unpleasant, uncomfortable, painful and not fun. But yet, the Bible teaches us to consider those moments as pure joy. Consider does not mean it is what it is, but to think outside the box, to fix your mind on a different approach, to see things on a different perspective/angle.

 "We also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance" 

(Romans 5:3).

And then there is another verse who basically says the same thing; to rejoice in the suffering moments! What?? How could I rejoice when my child is very ill? How could I consider it pure joy when my husband just left me for another woman? How could I rejoice when I just get fired from my job? How could God asked me to do such things and if He is a good God, then He would never let anything bad happen to me (or the world). The list of questions, doubts, denials, anger and unanswered questions will always occur and will never end, until we fully understand the power of rejoicing in the midst of our problems, the power of laughing in the midst of an unhappy moments, the power of letting go and let God, the power of faith because there is nothing that you could do as a human being to change it. 

It is easier to say it than done it and I am still struggling with that everyday of my life. I am a Christian who loves and believes in God, but when someone treat me unjustly, when I am facing problems, death, sickness, unfairness, etc, I have my "Why God?" moment and I also have my denial moment as well as my complaining and self pity's moments. But, the denial, complaining and self pity's moments do not get me anywhere and those stuff never solved my problems, sheesh, if anything, they make my problems even bigger, complicated and not to mention I am more depressed when I let those thoughts and attitude enter my heart and mind.

This world will never be perfect because of everything and everyone in it are not perfect and therefore the sickness, poverty, famine, war, fight, unjust, etc, will exists simply because we are human with our own pride, strength and weakness and we used it without wisdom, love or compassion for others. 

We, human, tend to keep everything for ourselves, our selfishness defeats our own humility or compassion toward others, may it be for other human, animals, plants. We killed animals so that we could have tasty foods, even though we would be fine without eating animals. We destroyed our own environment in the name of comfort and survival. We declared war against other nations in the name of power, politic, religion and wealth. We neglect our own body to live a healthier lifestyle and then we got sick. We failed as a parent to be the role model for our kids, we failed as a child to obey our parents. We failed on a lot of things...yet we blamed God for everything that went wrong in our lives.

However, there are times when we did our best to prevent bad things from happening and they still exists. There are things that is beyond our control and there are things that God allowed us to experience so that we could help other people who are facing the same situation. 

There are also things that God allowed us to experience because He wants us to experience His love, power, grace, miracle and blessing. When the doctor told us a long time ago that my dad only had a couple of months to live due to his liver failure/damage, we were devastated, but God allowed it to happen because He then showed us that He healed my dad completely and He is still alive until today. 

When my uncle fell deep into the drug addiction's world, we thought he would die. Then, God took my grandpa to heaven and at that moment, my uncle turned his life around to Jesus and he is living the best life today. It takes a death of my grandpa to save my uncle's life. But, we are rejoicing for his life and yes, we mourned when my grandpa died, but we all going to die anyway. Grieve, cry and feel the pain, then get back up and live the rest of your life with gladness. Just because someone die, it does not mean that you must die either. Their job on this earth is finished, they are resting now. Our jobs are not finished yet, so we better live our lives and cherish the moments of being alive.

Consider it a joy or rejoice when we face trials speak about faith, hope, and love. Life happens, whether we like it or not. Surprises comes and go, whether it is a good or bad ones. We could not control everything and we could not control what other people will do to us, we could try to prevent certain things from happening, but everyone of us has a free will to do whatever we want. Some made wise choices, some made bad choices and it caused pain to themselves and other people. 

Faith does not mean everything will always be O.K., faith means possibility, faith means ability, faith means chance, faith means you are not alone. God promised to be with us until the end of time (Matthew 28:20) which simply means, we will never going through it all alone. He was there before you were born, He is still here with you and will always be there for you until well..forever. He comes, he stays and will never leaves..HA!

TRIAL => TESTING => PERSEVERANCE => MATURITY => TRIUMPH

The power of training to become a champion!

Suffering produces endurance, perseverance and patient. Every athlete or successful people do not just get it, they were going through a LOT of pain, gain, learning, defeating, winning moments. They were going through a hardcore training that requires strength and suffering along the way, for their own good. The stronger you are, the better chance you have to become a champion.

Trial exists to produce endurance, we persevere so that we could be stronger to face life, growing and mature in our faith in order for us to survive the life until the end. Strength is NOT an overnight process! It takes a lifetime of continuous process of training, endurance, perseverance, getting knock down and get back up, determination to become a winner not a loser, focus on the goal ahead instead of the circumstances, which is temporary. 

If you want to have a strong healthy body, then trained your body everyday to become stronger. If you want to have a strong mentality, trained yourself to not giving up when life is hard. If you want to have a strong faith, pray and understand God by reading His word and obey Him, trusting Him and train yourself to rejoice even when things go south. Yes, to rejoice takes training! We have the ability to chose how to react when trouble comes. We could trained our soul, mind and body to accept certain things the way it is, to endure, to be happy even when life sucks, to switch our mind from useless thoughts to useful ones, to rejoice when we are pushed down. Do you know that it is very painful for our enemy to see us rejoicing even when they meant evil toward us? Haters hates happy people, their goal is to make your life as miserable as possible just like theirs!! LOL.

Push through your problems, stop complaining and comparing, stop the pity party and the blame game. Push through your pain, reach for that strength, reach for wisdom, be still and know that God is in control.

Hardship builds a strong characters and attitude toward life, which helps a lot when we are under pressure :)

"Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him."

(James 1:12)

xoxo,

Lindsay

Encourage

via

One of the most powerful thing to do whether you are sad or happy is to encourage someone and be encouraged by other people. It works magic both ways!

In fact, you should try it now

:)

Sometimes we just need to encourage one another to create a perfect peaceful life. When we stop caring for other people, when we think that we are more important than others or when we think that our problems are bigger than others, that is when we lost the power of  "magic words" (read: encouragement).

Little did we know that many times when we are at our lowest point of life, that is when we should encourage each other because there is power in togetherness, there is comfort in knowing that you are not alone with problems, there is love and hope when we started open our mouths and speaking the word of kindness, hope, strength, comfort, the words of encouragement. 

Sometimes we do not know what it means, what to do or how it should makes us feel until someone actually say those words to our ears and speak into our hearts and those words are the fuel for our empty "tank" (life).

Have you ever have that "wow moment" in your life, when you do not know what to do, and then someone else is giving you the idea and you go "hmm..that is so true, how come I did not think of it?", the truth is that human needs other human to remind each other.

Nobody will get hurt with encouragement, but somebody will get stronger, happier and better with encouragement and you will feel better as well during and after you encourage someone. 

It takes courage and love to encourage someone, so be brave and be blessed!

"You are valuable because you exist. 

Not because of what you do or what you have done, 

but simply because you are."

Max Lucado

“Life doesn’t get easier or more forgiving, we get stronger and more resilient.” 

Steve Maraboli

xoxo,

Lindsay

My Getaway

My Getaway..

Sometimes when I need to find peace,

I run into nature,

I hide on its beauty.

My Getaway..

Sometimes when life feels overwhelming,

I seek wisdom,

I listen to her.

My Getaway..

Sometimes when the uncertain scared me,

I surrender to the all powerful one,

I let my fear go.

My Getaway..

I found you everywhere,

I rest my case,

No more worry because life is beautiful,

 My Getaway..

The ONE who knows my secret,

my deepest fear,

my glorious moment,

my best and worst thoughts,

my insecurity,

my pain and my gain.

My Getaway,

I am saved with you,
perfectly covered with grace,
overwhelmed with love,
living with hope anchored on my soul.

My Perfect Getaway!

xoxo,

Lindsay

Pain and Gain

God is faithful, true and good for generations. 

He never leaves us alone.

We are not forsaken nor forgotten.

He hears our prayers and understands our pain. 

He is our strong tower, our rock, salvation and hope. 

There are things that are just beyond our control and understanding, 

all we could do is trusting God to do the best in our lives. 

Whatever happened, will happened in His time and permission.

Nothing will occur in my life without God knowing it, fighting for me 

and shielding me with His mighty power. 

I am weak, He is strong. 

I am limited, He is unlimited. 

I am not perfect, He is perfect. 

I face storms, He calms them down. 

I am forever grateful for every pain and gain in my life,

for my God is with me 

until the end

♥

Jeremiah 29:11-13

"For I know the plans I have for you,

 declares the Lord, 

plans for welfare and not for evil,

 to give you a future and a hope. 

Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, 

and I will hear you. 

You will seek me and find me, 

when you seek me with all your heart."

xoxo,
Lindsay

True Happiness

"Because there is no true happiness apart from holiness, and there is no true holiness apart from knowing what it means to suffer unhappiness. And there is no knowing how to suffer unhappiness apart from God."

-Ann Voskamp-

via

Have hope, stay strong and discover your true happiness in life.

We only have ONE life,

it is not worth to live our one life wasted, unhappy and lost.

Sadness is a part of life,

it does not have to be your everyday life.

Happiness, 

on the other hand,

 suppose to be a part of our everyday life.

ONE life to live,

ONE life to fulfilled,

ONE life to offer,

ONE life that could changed many lives!

When I feel like God is far away from me,

When I feel like I am lost,

When I feel like God is silent..too silent..,

Then I know I am way too far away from His path

and

I am suffering
..dying..

I am suffering when I live a life without God,

I am suffering when I live a lack of passionate life,

I am suffering when I lost compassion toward others,

I am suffering when I do things that brings me temporary happiness,

I am suffering when I stop praying, stop hoping, unfaithful

to the ONE and ONLY,

my creator,

my everything.

I once was lost, but now i'm found

I was blind, but now i see..

I see that I cannot live without Love, Hope and Faith,

I see that I am worthy,

I see that I found my true happiness in Him..

overflowing peace,

unspeakable joy,

contentment,

kindness and mercy

compassion..an everlasting compassion..

{inhale}

..hmmm..

 {exhale}

..life is good..

That is my true happiness 

I don't wanna live any other way.

:)

What is Your True Happiness?

xoxo,

Lindsay

Life Feels Overwhelming!

"Do you ever feel like a plastic bag,

Drifting through the wind, wanting to start again?

Do you ever feel, feel so paper thin

Like a house of cards, one blow from caving in?

Do you ever feel already buried deep?

Six feet under screams but no one seems to hear a thing"

-Katy Perry, Firework-

Katy Perry has her own way to describe the meaning of her songs and I think all of us could relate to a song with many translations into our own life.

There are times in my life when I feel like the words on that song!

My "translation" of that song is that I feel alone, lonely, under appreciated, lost, cannot breath and nobody cares to help out or to at least understand my situation.

Have you ever feel like that in your life?

You feel like life is sometimes required too much out of you and you are drained;

physically, mentally and spiritually.

You feel like there is nothing left to offer for life, but life keep asking you to give more of you.

What else do you want from me, life?

I have given you everything!

Have you ever feel like you are drowning, trying to catch your breath and when you finally could breath again, there is another wave came at your way, slapped you hard and you drowned again,

fighting to survive the life, trying to find a way to breath again.

Trapped, seemed like there is no way out, nobody cares, and problems just keep adding up.

Well, you are not alone because I have my moments like that and in fact, all of us have our moments like that in life. 

The problems might not be the same, but the feeling is the same.

We all have our own "luggage" in life!

May it be from our past to present life that will affected our future.

May it be from our parents, surrounding or ourselves.

May it be a temporary ones or a permanent ones.

May it be important, less important, priority, less priority.

But, we still carry that luggage either way.

There are things that we could easily unpack from that luggage, but there are things that still need our cares or attention and therefore we could not unpack it, we must carry it, because we have no other choice.

  Examples?

Debts that needed to be paid,

Children that needed to be taken care of until they could do it themselves,

Marital problems that needed help,

Health problems that needed your attention,

Piles of work that needed to be finished on a certain due date,

Family member that needed your help because they are unable to survive without your help,

Traumas from death, abusive relationship, mistreated,

etc.

My point is that we all have our own struggling, problem and luggage in life.

Some might have more than others, whether we are responsible for those problems or not, but we must face those problems regardless what or who caused it.

Feels overwhelmed?

Try to unload ALL of your luggage,

write it down,

sort it according to its priority (important, less important).

Then,

sort it according to what you could do by yourself and which one that you needed other people's help.

Ask for others to help you out,

you do not have to do it alone (but if you are literally alone, try to do it one by one according to its level of priority).

Sometimes you just need to unpack the less important luggage,

You need to prioritize your life. 

Stop beating yourself up trying to save everyone all at once and neglected yourself and your own family (spouse-children).

Stop thinking that you could do it all by yourself when you have option to share it with others who are involved in it. 

Throw away things that are no longer important in your life, scratched it off your list, unpack it from your luggage.

Life's burdens are no joke!

People are fighting with each other, killing each other and even killing themselves because they could not handle it anymore. 

The pain, the problems, the "seemed to have no way out" moment, the depression, the needs are way too hard, too much to handle.

You have none left to fulfilled the needs, the expectation from everyone (esp. the loved ones) that you must solve it when you actually could not do it anymore, the pressure are just way too much to handle.

Many people says that those who ended their life are cowards and the list goes on, but they knew nothing about this person. It is easier to say those things because you have an army to help you out when you have problems, you sit on top of gold, or your problems are not as hard as the person who chose to ended his life. 

Do you know what it takes to end your own life? Everything!

They found no help, no love, no hope from everyone and everything and therefore death seemed to be a quick way out to ease the pain, to end the problems.

Sadly, it is not.

:(

People who killed themselves left a never ending sadness to their loved ones, who always wondering why they never ask for their help? 

The never ending of "Why" and the regret of what could have happened had that person asked for their help/support.

There is always hope behind every crisis,

There is always a way out,

There is always someone who is willing to help you out!

Please do not kill yourself, 

Because though you are broken, you are still precious and there is always someone who loves you.

Life could be overwhelming but do not give up!

If you think you cannot take it anymore and needs someone to talk to, please check out these websites:

http://www.suicidehotlines.com/

http://www.suicidepreventionlifeline.org/

http://www.veteranscrisisline.net/ 

http://brokenbelievers.com/247-crisis-lines/

CALL:

1-800-784-2433

1-800-273-8255

1-800-799-4889 (Deaf Hotline)

My prayers and love for you today as you read my post and thinking that you are alone, but I promise you that you are not alone. 

Knowing that you are stronger, able and precious. 

You deserve to live a good life, 

so please do not take that away from yourself. 

You do not know what tomorrow holds for you. 

Giving up is not an answer!

My prayers for you right now is that God will give you the hope that you need,

the way out,

the people to help you out,

the strength to empowered yourself to fight back,

His love to remind yourself that you are worthy and too precious.

I may not have all the answers for you,

Am I problems free? nope and so are the rest of the human population.

We all have problems, 

some are even harder than we thought because they do not show it in their everyday lives.

Just because people are smiling or put cool statuses and pictures on Facebook or Twitter (lol), does not mean their lives are problems free. 

Just because they seemed happy does not mean that they do not have problems in life.

People only shows what they want the world to see them, not what really is going on in their lives.

But, if we involved in helping others in need, we started to see that we are not alone buried with problems, other people have it harder than us.

Sometimes what we need is other people to help us with our problem, to defined our problem, to open our eyes up to see that we can do it, it is not that bad and even if it is that bad, we will be fine because they has proved it by their own living testimony.

Community,
especially those with the same problems really helps us understand that we are not alone. Sometimes we must stop looking "up" and starting to look around us or below us to understand that we are not the only one living this nightmare, others has their own and there are many who has worst situation than ours.

Find your community! 

First, you must defined your problems then you seek help. 

What do you want in life, set a goal, then go from there. 

Little by little, but moving forward!

"The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit."

Psalm 34:18

"Our soul waits for the Lord; he is our help and our shield."

Psalm 33:20

via

“Along the way you might fall down, sometimes in life, you might fall down and can’t find the strength to get back up, do you think you have hope? 

Because I tell you, I’m down here and I have no arms and no legs. 

It should be impossible for me to get up, but it’s not” 

- Nick Vujicic

via

xoxo,

Lindsay