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

Strong, Brave and Humble

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Our body, mind and soul could do amazing things even when we thought we would not be able to do it. Our weakest moment could be the time when our true, inner and most of the time, hidden, strength comes out and fight back. 

We survive because we try to do our best and the result surprised us, because we limit our ability to do something greater and settle for less, until something happened and we have no other choice but to survive. In our survival mode, the strength will rise and shine to its limit or I should say the ability to be the best.

Bravery is not just for those who fear nothing in life, but also and especially needed for those who worry a lot, freaked out too many times over little things, and scared of almost everything in life. Yes, life is (sometimes) unpredictable and is a scary place to live, but life also happens in a way that we never thought possible.

Whatever meant to happen will took place, whether we like it or not, ready or not, expected it or not. We could not control everything in life, so why bother by worrying about things that might never gonna happen to you anyway?. Deal with what is in front of you now, take it one day at a time, everyday has its own trial and triumph. 

So, try to be brave even when you are scared simply means to put up a fight even when you think you might not win the battle. But when you fight back, you do not give up easily, you put up a good show and who knows? you might win the battle, but if you never try, you never know, right? ;)

Strength is mostly mental than physical! If you set your mind to do it, the result will be much better than when you already think of "I can't do it!". When you set your mind to try your best, bravery will rises in you and will gives you the boost that you need to face everything in life.

Now, winners are those who defeated their enemies, may it be your own struggles and problems within yourself or with other people. Whatever it is or whoever they are that you defeated, keep in mind to stay humble. Yes, you are happy, do your happy dance and share your success with others, you deserve it. But, stay humble, because when your pride takes over your humility, you will not go far. A great leader and winner showed others how to be success, they do not keep it to themselves, they shared. A great leader and winner help others to reach their goals. A great leader and winner is the role model to others, that includes being humble, wise and smart, especially in victorious moment, when your character is being tested.

True compliment comes from other people who praises you based on your performance, accomplishment and testimony. Action speaks louder than words and people will see your action and hear/listen to your words. Be careful, don't let you defeated your own victorious  moment. 

Seek wisdom!

xoxo,

Lindsay

Encourage

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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

Identity Crisis

I LOVE MARRIAGE LIFE!

HA!

I mean despite the fights, the hectic schedules we both had or whose turn to take the dog out's conversation, I actually love marriage life. I love the companionship and friendship that my husband and I have the most, even though my husband is a "non talker" kinda guy, but he is cool. I cannot stand a very talkative man anyway, it is too annoying for me. 

I know I am too young to give marriage advice or to even talk about how to make your marriage work and I am not here for any of that, because I believe that everyone's marriage life is different.

I JUST WANNA TALK!

First years of my marriage I found myself lost, because my husband is the only man that I've dated who is younger than me (gasp) and we've only dated for one year (with him being on deployment). It was a fast, fun and crazy love. So, when we got married, it was actually our real date. We found things that surprised us in a good and bad way, we sees things differently and there are questions of "Am I doing the right thing" or "What was I thinking" moments.

I also find an identity crisis! HELP!

OK, my husband is a white man, I am Asian. We have different background of cultures, foods, habit, family upbringing, etc. The great thing is that my husband is in the military, which means he LOVES to learn about other culture, eat different foods (he eats more spicy/hot foods than me and I am Manadonese, we eat extremely spicy/hot foods), eager to visit different places, longing to live in a different places - which is why we move a lot and loving it!. I mean, we are young, we should move around and enjoy life to the fullest. 

But, I found myself doing things that I hate, but I do it anyway to make my husband happy. At least that's what I thought, but then I realized that there are so many things that my husband introduced to me that I used to think I hate it. I guess he brings out the potential, the goodness out of me. I do not  like trying something new (unless it is food lol), my husband is adventurous. I hate hikes, due to its intense hills, sunburn and bugs. But, guess what? I am loving it now. I hate hardcore music and one day my husband took me to "Sleeping Giant" concert and I love it now. I still do not like extreme roller coaster, no matter how much my husband loves it. I still do not wanna touch a snake, no matter what my husband think of a snake. I still hate cherries, my husband loves it (I do love cherry fruit, I do not like them on my drink/cake). I learn some "geeky" stuff, since my husband is one of them, I love some, understand some, hate some, don't understand a lot. LOL!

My point is that in the beginning of our marriage, I am still trying to adjust the two worlds. I had to brave myself up to try the things that is foreign for me or weird or sounds discomfort. There are things that I finally love, there things that I still hate. You don't have to like all of your husband's hobbies, habits or friends lol, but you learned to let go, compromised, acceptance, sacrifice and get your own bargain..uh huh ladies..you do A for him, which means he will do B for you. It works both ways to be happy ;)

So, remember, just because you are in a relationship, it does not mean you have to be boring. What I meant by "boring" is that you do not wanna do something new because you had one bad experience or because of your insecurity. Try it first, if you do not like it then tell him/her, but you might be surprised of your new found love. 

Do not do it in the name of "trying to fit in" or to look/sound cool on Facebook! Do it because you want to try it. Do it because you like the challenge. Do it because you want to find out what you have been missed all this time. Do it because you are curious!.

On the other hand, do not lose your identity either. God creates us unique in our own way, you do not have to be someone else to make him/her happy. Don't do something just because you want them to be happy and losing yourself in the process. Yes, we must sacrifice a lot of things in a relationship, but it does not mean you "killed" yourself. Stay true to who you are as a person and find what truly makes you happy. 

There are things that we do that I hate, there are things that he hates, but along the way, we started to find out what works-what does not work, what needs time, how we do it, how we say it/introduce it to our spouse, when we do it and how to understand that sometimes not everything that we love would works for the other person. Instead of pushing him to love your hobby that he hates, why not doing things that you both love?.

Sacrifice is needed but remember of who you are as person. Do not lose your identity! Be happy, be proud and celebrate yourself. On the other hand, open up and live a little..try new things, even things that you are afraid of or hate, you might love it, you might not, but hey..you have tried!

Do not limit yourself or your family! A lot of kids do not try new things because the parents are "boring" , doing the same thing over and over again. You might not like it, but your spouse might like it and your kids might love it too, but they will never know it because you might limit the fun meters. Sometimes you just need to let go and not being too afraid of everything. If you are a control freak, like myself, then it is time to learn that you can't control everything. If they (spouse/kids) wanna do something, let them try it and if you wanna do something new, do it! :)

-Live Life To The Fullest-

Me and my man on my B'day!

xoxo,

Lindsay

Fake Forgiveness

Fake Forgiveness!

HA! A friend of mine told me a very wise statement, "Truth that hurts is better than a fake honesty," I totally agree with her on that one. I mean, don't you wanna know the truth? ..I do.., even though there are many times that I've wished the answers would have been different or the answers would have made me smile instead of mad or crying.

Many times, we allowed ourselves to enjoy the moment of "fake honesty". We knew they lied but we go along with it because it makes us feel better about ourselves, our situation, our relationship. We ignore the importance of "truth" for the sake of "drama-free" zone. But, do you really wanna enjoy the things that are not suppose to be enjoyable? Do you really wanna lie to yourself?

Social Media, such as Facebook and Twitter, are a very great place to stay in touch with other people and also a very dangerous place as well. People are at war with each other based on status updates, pictures war and relationship statuses, *Laughing Out Loud*, you laughed because you know it is true! 

I deleted a lot of people because it was just way too much drama. I am on Facebook because most of my families and friends are in the other part of the world and Facebook makes it easier to communicate or shared my pictures (instead of sending the pictures via emails to hundreds of them). But, some people are just way to sensitive and take it too seriously. The funny thing is that many of them are being too coward to confront people when they see them, but "very brave" updating their statuses to explain what  they are feeling about them. Why can't you just go to these people or email them privately or call them and tell them the problem instead of pouring your soul out on Facebook? It is ridiculous to read how people are attacking each other on their statuses. The anger, the jealousy, the fake "like" and the competition to proved that you are better than them. Facebook is good for staying in touch with people you know, not a war zone. Facebook is a good place to encourage each other with your words, to entertained each others with your silly pictures or beautiful view from your vacations, not to showing off that you are richer or better than others. I guess it is all coming back to yourself, how you see things and how you take it. Some take it the wrong way and others just have fun with it. 

People also forgot that everyone is entitled to their own opinion, whether we like it, agree with it or not. Social media has lost its purpose and gained popularity for other purposes, such as "being fake" (from fake happiness, social status, pictures, feelings, etc).

Let's go back to fake forgiveness!

Many times when people said, "I forgive you!", they are still mad at the person, but they do it anyway so it will not burdened them. Many times people also said those words not because they really forgive that person, but they said that to make them feel better about themselves. I mean, yes forgiveness will make you free, but if you don't really forgive them, it does not give you freedom, it gives you another burden because you lied to covered your true feeling. It is better to admit that you could not forgive (yet) than to say I forgive but actually I don't. 

I am a believer in forgiveness as a way to make peace with yourself, but it does not mean faking it. I hate when people say they forgave but they said that because they wanted other people to see them as the nice, noble and better person. Yes, you are not the one who did the bad things on the first place, but to lie to other people, does not make you a better person either. You could lie to people, but you could not lie to God and yourself. If you really wanna be free, you should really forgives. If you still need time, it is better to admit it than to lie.

A friend of mine called me a couple of months ago, admitting that she used my name to win an argument with her friend. I found it very disturbing for a big girl to use me as an example to someone that I do not even know exists. She admitted that she had to lie to win the stupid argument and that she was sorry. I was offended! I mean, if you wanted  to use my name, at least have a dignity to use it for the right reason, truthfully. But, she did that because she could not be herself, she had to use someone else's life to cover for her own insecurity. Faking and lying about anything does not make you a better person, no matter what the reasons or excuses behind it. The worst part is I know when she told me the story, she did not really regret it. She was not sorry that she used my name, she called me because she was scared that her friend would ask me personally and therefore her name will came up as the  "story teller" , LOL, sad, isn't it? but it is also very true that we tend to do something "nice" because we are trying to save our own face. 

Admitting that you are sorry or that you forgave, even though you did not mean it, but you said it anyway to make you feel better about yourself or so that other people will see you as a good, noble and better person, is a wrong reason. 

If you wanna do something nice and noble, do it for the right reason. The right reason for this issue would be "To Forgive" or to say "I Am Sorry" and really mean it.

You could run but your could not hide (from God, your past, and yourself).

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xoxo,

Lindsay

Famous Failures

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Do Not Give Up!

Fight For Your Dreams and Future!

Have a great week everyone

:)

xoxo,

Lindsay

I Am Already Disturb, Please Come In

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LOL!!

People tend to do the things we told them not to do
or should I say, "rules are meant to be broken?,"

This sign should do it!

*still laughing*

Sometimes what we need to do in life is to let other people know how we really feel at that moment, that way they will not pushed your button or disturbed you when you need your holy moment of "Me Time" and you will not hurt them with your attitude or words. 

When we stressed out, 

we tend to say and do things that we do not mean to do, 

but a tired body and mind could not think straight. 

Everyone needs a break, a rest, a time to re-think and re-energized the body, soul, mind..life. Many of us think that we could not do that because there are so many people and things that depended on us and therefore we have no time to rest, re-think, re-energized ourselves, even when we need it.

Many times, we let ourselves down in order to make other people happy or functioned. It may sound selfish, but the benefits of you taking care of you is huge. You may never know what a five minutes rest or an hour or a day of "do not disturb" me moment will do to yourself (and others).

Marriage is the field of learning what to do and what not to do!

First year of my marriage, I tend to think and expected my husband to know me, to understand me, and then to  realized that he is actually clueless (he is not a mind reader).

When I am down, sad or stressed out, I expected my husband to just know it, but he did not. Men says that women are mysterious. That might be a surprise for us, women, because we think we are a VERY easy creature, "what not to love and what not to understand's" thought, but we are wrong. Women are complicated compare to men. I learned more about this after I got married. HA!

I, sometimes, do not understand me!

...LOL...

Hormonal, complicated feelings, circumstances, blah blah.. that is not the case. If you feel like you are in a bad mood, you should tell your spouse. Tell them specifically what you want to do, need to do and what you expected from them to help you out. There are times that they might not be able to help you out, because it is your own problem and you are the one who should help yourself out, but many times they are a great helper. If you do not tell others what you are feeling, they might take it personally. Many times, they (spouse, kids, etc) are the problem, but sometimes they are not the problem, but they are the one who get yelled at and that will hurt them.

Do yourself a favor and save yourself!

:)

I took a huge leap of faith when I quit my job,my source of income, my comfort zone. But, it was the right time to do so because I was going insane with my over worked body. I was exhausted mentally, physically and drained spiritually. I need a rest in order for me to re-arrange my own life to be a better me. I feel a lot better after that break and loving my life again.

We need to be brave,

do not over think or over analyze something that is actually a very simple issue. 

Sometimes, all you need to do is to re-think, re-energized, re-arrange your life and to let others know that you need that "Me Time" or "I am already disturb, please come in" sign and I betcha..nobody will mess with you at that time!

For those who did not get it (lol)

*It is not an invitation, it is a warning sign*

xoxo,

Lindsay

Comfort Zone Is Boring!

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This is my AHA!!! moment today.

A ship is built to sail, to explore the beauty of the oceans, to take you places, to experience adventures.

'Though when it is not doing all that, the ship will stayed in port, afloat, safe but going nowhere.

If only a ship could talk,

I am sure it will be like this, 

"Let's Sail!"

Our lives sometimes are way too boring,

because we hold onto our past (or present),

we hang onto our safe harbor,

we do not want to let go the comfort zone to the unknown zone!

I mean it is pretty much understandable that some people are willing to take risks more than others,

But it is not acceptable that some people would rather die holding onto their death wishes than to chase their dreams!

What do you want to do with your life?

What legacy would you like your kids to remember you someday?

What dreams that you still wanted to accomplish in life?

What nightmares that you wanted to let go, even if you think you could not do?

TRY!

Get out of your comfort zone,

Explore the unknown world,

You might like it!

If you hate it,

You could always comeback to your own "known" zone,

But at least you have tried instead of wondering.

I took a chance to come to the unknown country,

Live by myself,

Fighting for life,

Surviving the impossible

..and..

I could proudly say, I live my dreams because I took a step of faith to try first!

My journey is not always fun and all that,

It has ups and downs,

It's never easy to live in other people's country,

Without any immediate family member or friends that go to school and play with you since childhood.

Not everyone has the same destiny and path in life,

Not everyone has the same exact dreams, wants and needs in life,

But everyone has dreams, wishes, wants and needs in life.

Not everyone is brave enough to take a chance/risk,

Dreamers are those who likes to sleep,

Doers are those who lives their dreams.

Wake up,

be who you are created/meant to be,

make your dream come true by doing it.

A bird will never know she could fly until she try it.

You will never know how far you will go until you take a first step

and discover your strength, ability and greater self.

There is always a next port in your journey,

if you don't like the next port,

you could go to the next port after that, 

or you could always go back to the first one.

But at least you had experiences to remember,

Lesson to learn,

Story to tell,

A life to inspired other people.

God created you and I with a big dream and vision on His mind,

do not limit your God given talent by hiding it,

covered with fear and lack of faith,

or too lazy to even try it.

xoxo,

Lindsay

You Is Kind,You Is Smart, You Is Important

Kindness (noun) according to Webster Dictionary means favor, affection, sympathetic nature, benevolence; this word means manifesting a desire to do good/kind.

So basically it is in our nature to have the ability to do something good, a desire to be kind. 

Now, the problem is kindness will not happened only by a desire, kindness needs action. 

By nature, we have the ability/desire,
by choice we act the desire of our heart to do good or bad.

"Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you."

Ephesians 4:32 ESV

"Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love"

1 John 4:8 ESV

As a Christian, it is our most important commandment in life to love God and others because God is love and to love God means to obey Him (1 John 2:5 and 1 John 5:3).

As a human being, 
it is impossible to see around us and not having the compassion, desire and ability to do good 
for other people. 

As a normal people, of course we will have good and bad experiences when we offered our kindness to other people, because not everyone is grateful to receive such help. 

Not everyone is wired to say "Thank You" or shows appreciation based on their arrogant heart, lack of compassion, prideful behavior or bad experience with people in the past (that includes their upbringing in a family).

So, by nature, God created us with a good seed from him. 

But, on the day we were born, we started interact  with other human being. That is the first day of us learned and experienced kindness or the opposite. 

So, I do not believe that there is a human being who is evil from the day they were born. What they experienced from that day determines their ability to do good or not. 

How we live our lives everyday is a choice to do good or evil. 

So, the blame game really is just an excuse to run away from being a responsible human being to do the right thing.

I am one of those people who works better with giving than receiving/asking for help. I just do not have the heart to ask other people to help me because I do not want to bother them with  my problems. Due to me being an only child, I tend to do everything by myself and I am content with my "alone but not lonely time" according to my dear friend Mara ;)

But, not asking for help when you needed is not the right thing to do in a certain situation. 

See, I am a big believer in trying the best and along the way if you think you need help, then you should seek one. But, you tried first!

Doing everything by yourself is insanity at some point. You need other people to help you out, even if it means it might not be the way you want it, but hey..a help is a help, receive it with a grateful heart LOL!

Now, because I prefer giving than asking for help, I am, of course, the people-pleaser group of human. 

See, it is not a bad thing to make other people happy, it becomes a bad thing when we forget to understand that we are just a human and we too, need some love and help (say it...help! lol).

What I love the most of being the helper and the people-pleaser person is my ability to make something good happened for others and to see how happy they are when they received it. 

Priceless moment!

"In all things I have shown you that by working hard in this way we must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’”

Acts 20:35 ESV

The bad thing is that not everyone appreciate it and not everyone treats me right, many of them were taking advantage of my kindness. 
I hate those moments, 
because my kindness turns into anger, sadness and it discouraged me to a point where I hate human and I only see the negative sides of them or I will do no good anymore attitude.

If you are in that situation when you think and know that people are taking advantage of your kindness, think of these:

-You do it for someone that you respect/love the most (may it be God, family, etc)

-You do it for a greater purpose

-You are doing the right thing (even to the wrong people, you are still the good person)

-It is better to chose good over evil

-Its rewarding for you

-Keep in mind that being kind also means being wise!

"Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends."

1 Corinthians 13:4-8a ESV

What I am trying to say is that when you are kind to other people and you help them and they are taking advantage of you, understand that there is also a boundary of offering your help to other people. If you are in a situation when you are hurt, sad, feel used and even to the point of abused by other people that you helped then maybe you should stop doing that for them. 

Of course being kind is a good thing, but being kind without wisdom could be dangerous.
When you do something that is not your job, but you do it anyway out of the goodness of your heart, that is kindness. Even though we do good thing without expecting anything in return, but when kindness means someone used you for their own benefit in a very bad/selfish way, that is not good.

For me, I think kindness is every sacrifice we made for the benefit of other people. May it be energy, time, money, prayer, help, etc.
People tend to appreciate or categorize kindness as in "money" alone and we must admit that money is a big help in people's lives, but kindness is not limited to money alone.
Spending time with a person in need, making a meal for a family who just lost their loved ones, praying with a stranger in a hospital, buy a stranger some food, give your shoes to those in need, helping a child cross a street, give up your seat on a bus for an elderly man, giving water or a home to a homeless dog, answering the phone with a nice voice, not yelling at other people, share some tips on how to make their computer works better, etc..are acts of kindness!

"And if you lend to those from whom you expect to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, to get back the same amount."

Luke 6:34 ESV

By nature, we all have the ability to do good and be kind to other people.

Whether we do it or not is our choice!

Kindness is a sacrifice for other people's good benefit, not yours. 

It is an unselfish act of love and grace.

But, understand that you must be wise to know which/who needs your help and which/who is just using you for every wrong/evil reasons and purposes.
Kindness suppose to do good not the opposite!

Keep in mind that you too are important, precious and beautiful in God's eyes.

Never lose your identity just because you are too busy fulfilling other people's need and lost yourself.
Read this verse:

"We who are strong have an obligation to bear with the failings of the weak, and not to please ourselves."

Romans 15:1

You must be strong to help the weak, this is why it is important to understand that we need to take care of ourselves so that we could take care of other people. 
Strong does not mean we have to wait to do good until we are "strong" (financially, physically, etc) then do good. 
Strong as in we know who we are (our faith) in Christ,
we understand why we are doing this, 
we give with what we have to those in need, 
not just to those who are poor financially, but physically, spiritually and mentally exhausted with life. 

This is why we need to be strong because if we are weak, drained and exhausted with our own life, our kindness will turn into complaining, comparing, weary, judgment, asking for credit and all the wrong reasons. 
Also, we must be strong to say no to those who just used our kindness for bad things out of their greediness, manipulation, laziness, and evil thought.

One more and VERY important thing:

Be kind to your enemy. 

They might be one of those people who used you for your kindness for their benefit, but just because you refused to do certain things for them because you know they will use that for all the wrong things, it does not mean you have to be rude to them.

Even if they meant evil toward you, 

"Kill" them with kindness 
;)

"If your enemy is hungry, give him food to eat;

if he is thirsty, give him water to drink.

In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head,

and the LORD will reward you."

Proverbs 25:22-23

"A part of kindness consists in loving people more than they deserve."

Joseph Joubert

via
The Help

Indeed 

:)

xoxo,

Lindsay

The Waiting Room

via

One of the thing that I hate in life is waiting!

I just do not like the anxiety, the unknown, the uncontrollable mixed emotions!

I just hate looking ahead and see nothing,

or I see something but I could not reach it.

"Waiting Room" for me is a period of time/place in life when we are getting ready for something ahead of us, a process of being and having a better life.

If we are wise enough to wait, learn and moving forward, 

 those waiting moments in the waiting room are very rewarding in life.

It taught us about being patient, trusting, hoping, surrender and admitting that...

 "I am just a human."

We become smarter, wiser, stronger and more mature.

The waiting moments also taught us a lot of things on how to reach the top, how to get ready, how to grasp what we have been wanting- waiting - working  for in life.

Sometimes, we rushed things that we are not ready to received and we got burned,

we failed!

Stupidity, impatient and pride are a very bad combination while we are in that waiting moments. 

Think of the waiting moment as a step that you need to go through before the next step exists. 

There are steps that we could skipped because we mastered them already or they are not that important, but there are steps that needed to be precisely done step by step or you had to start all over again.

But,

many of us stuck in the waiting (moment's) room because we do not want to let go of the past (before the waiting room) and too afraid, too stupid, too lazy to walk to the next room.

We hold on to our past because the future is uncertain,

-understandable but arguable-

How do you know what tomorrow hold if you are too afraid to let go of your past?

Whether it was your golden moment or dark moment..

let it go!

If it is your golden moment,

be proud of it, 

keep it as your best memory 

and use it to motivates you.

But, 

it happened in the past, 

you need to let it stay in the past 

and create your new golden moments.

If it is your dark moment,

be proud that you get out of it, 

keep it as a lesson 

and use it to motivates you to be better 

or not to do the same mistakes you or the persons who did that to you.

It happened in the past, you need to let it go!

I hate being in the waiting room, 

but I keep myself busy in any waiting room,

may it be the dentist, doctor appointment, job interview, waiting for my food or for my next chapter in life.

I try to switch my frustration of being stuck in a waiting room into looking forward for the next room's surprises so that I could move forward.

Once it is my turn to go to the next room,

I am so ready,

sometimes nervous,

excited, scared, 

but ready.

Every process in life will either make you stronger or destroy your strength.
Choose strong and be strong! 


An athlete who won a gold medal did not just win it without training.
It is a long process of dreams, focus, motivation, patient, sacrifices, learning, up and down, sweat, tears, strength, hope, pray, dedication and work,
..in the waiting room..
but the reward is priceless!

-Things that we have seen are history, things that we see now are history in the making, things that we will see are still unknown. But unknown does not always mean bad..it could also mean great, awesome, exciting, better, promising, life changing, blessings-

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

I am content, therefore I am rich!

"He is rich who is content with the least; for contentment is the wealth of nature." 

-Socrates-

There are times in life when we do not appreciate what we have in the present moments because we want something more in life, which is not totally wrong, ambition is a good thing when it is balanced with wisdom. It becomes wrong when we want something more in life turned into ungratefulness, complaining and do nothing about it, comparing and blaming others for your own "I want what they have" moments.

If you spend a lot of time talking to old people, you will be amazed at how content their lives are all about by just having a new oxygen to breath, someone to call, meal on the table and newspaper. It is the simple thing in life that most of us forget most of the time, because we already have it, therefore those simple things in life lost their value. 

We get use to it and we thought it is no big deal, everyone has it, right? WRONG!

Water..we live in a country where you could drink water directly from the sink faucet, in some countries you must boiled the water first then wait for it to cool down then you could drink it. In some countries, you must walk for miles just to get water, unhealthy dirty water, and when you found it for maybe a bucket, you must walk back to your house for miles, then boiled them, then wait to drink the water that is not even clean after you boiled them. You could still taste the dirt in your mouth! 

We have water in a very easy and comfortable way right in front of our eyes. Not everyone has it the way we have our water.

Water is just an example, simple yet we need them so badly in our lives because we could survive without food but not without water.

My point is we take everyday things that we have for granted because we think that is not important, everyone has it anyway. But it is the most important thing in life that we have, we forget the value and nope.. not everyone has it in life.

These days everything seems so fast and advanced. Technology, beauty industry, social media, etc, that makes us want more in life. Things that we do not necessary need in life yet it becomes our standard of happiness, value, social life, beauty, satisfaction, rich or poor, etc.

You will be fine without your phone, but you will die without water!

Learn from an animal, who is content and praising God when they have food to eat, water to drink, place to sleep or hang out (may it be a filthy ground, a cave, a tree).
My dog is at his happiest moment when he sees me come home from work, everyday! His joy never drained..always so excited and thankful to see me home, appreciates me to the max and do all of his tricks just to make me happy. 

Are you that happy when your mom and dad comes home from a hard day at work? Did you hug them or tell them you appreciate their hard work for you?
When was the last time you appreciate your spouse or children or food/water on your table or jobs or kind neighbor?

Little things in life that we have, we forget the value, yet it is important!

You never know until you lost them! 

A week ago, AT&T U-Verse was having problems in my area and they never have any problem until that day. My Internet, TV and phone were down. I had never feel so sad in my life hahhha..you never know how much you depended your happiness on technology until that kind of things happened. It was only for 24 hours, but oh my gosh..I was on my ninja mode. I tried to be Mac Gyver to Steve Jobs all at once, I tried to fixed the internet, phone and TV. When every attempt does not work, I called the company and they told me that the problem was with their company and they are trying to fixed it.

It was the longest 24 hours of my life and the worst part is my husband is out of town and I could not reach him due to his job in the military. 

The next morning I woke up and see my TV, Internet and phone working again was like experiencing miracles in life. You should have seen my face and the words of thankfulness flowing out of my mouth LOL. OK, I exaggerate a little but the point is I was very happy!

It goes the same thing with people, you never know until you lose them to death or occasion in life. 

Enjoy what you have now in life, be thankful and proud of yourself for having those things and people in your life. Not everyone has it the way we do, so complaining and comparing, especially do nothing in between, is not good for your own sanity :)

There will always be someone prettier, richer, smarter, better than you. But, God did not create you to be him or her. You are created to be yourself with purposes that made specifically for you. You might not have it now, but you do not know what the future holds for you. 

There are things/people that you might never have, so why not enjoy with what you actually have and could have in life. 

I always value and respect those who earn what they have by working with their own hands. I love diligent people, I hate lazy people. Live a life that is worth living for with a grateful heart. It is easier to say it than to actually living it, especially when you know people who get it very easy in life and you have to work so hard to get certain things in life. But, hating those who has it the "easy" way will only make your life harder and who needs that in life, right?

We might as well enjoy what we have, who knows what tomorrow holds for us?

:)

I am content, therefore I am rich.

Things will never satisfy your needs, your heart's gratitude toward those things that will satisfy you. If you are greedy or never feel content, then you have a miserable life. You cannot keep up with everything, you cannot have everything, so don't beat yourself up!

via

xoxo,

Lindsay