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After praying for a year, it finally happened! Marc has prayed the sinner's prayer and has accepted Christ as his Savior. I am ecstatic and super excited for him! And what's great about it is the Lord's way on how it happened. It was not an instant thing... the both of us, as well as the people who love us went through a process of learning, praying, and believing. It was patience, frustrations, and lessons after lessons. Looking back through my quiet time journal, I browsed through a lot of impatient pleading, crying, bargaining, negotiating, learning, enlightenment, gratitude, shame, etc. at least on my part. In this experience alone, I feel a sense of fulfillment and eternal appreciation on what God has done and is still doing in my life. Praise Him who alone can save, praise Him for His mercy and grace.
I have shared what God is to me, I have mentioned Him a few times to Catholic friends in a weak attempt to instill a mustard seed in them. I have tried to impart my faith to others on an on and off basis, but I have never attempted to fully share the gospel to anyone. I have asked God repeatedly for an Aaron, a spokesperson who could assist... well, my idea was actually that he could do the talking and I could do the supporting. God had something different in mind, which I found out recently. I had the awesome privilege to share God's selfless act of loving and saving. It was a full blown intimate gospel sharing. The experience left me so blessed, I thought I got as much out of it as the person I shared it to. I was hit with the realization that I should've known a long time ago. It wasn't me who was doing the work. It was the Holy Spirit, and with the Holy Spirit using you and guiding you to share, there wouldn't be anything left not considered. In my case, it was an impromptu meet, yet I had my journal and my Won by One booklet with me. I had the verses written there days before, and everything just simply fell perfectly into place. In the course of sharing, I relived my own experience, times when I feel God's abounding love and grace. He gave His only Son to die for us. There is no greater love than this. It was a wonderful night.
Looks like I got my Christmas presents early this year!
It's not too late, is it? Here's my wishlist in no particular order:
Lumix LX7
Vans Canvas Trainers (in the exact colors as shown)
Pink Blazer
Out of town vacation (that includes a relaxing soak in a tub)
HTC One (32Gb, white or black)
Too much? ^_^
I have been neglecting my blog lately so now I'm trying to make up for it. It's just that I have been so very busy that I haven't had the chance to stop and just write about stuff. With all the hustles and bustles of life, I kinda lost track of making the memories. My scrapbook, which I have vowed to complete for this year has been gathering dust on top of a new shelf. Anyway, here's what's been happening lately:
Since the retirement from my previous company, my office stuff has been cluttering the living room corner. I have been too lazy to clean up and find space for them. My mom, being the sweet angel she sometimes is, bought me 2 shelves to put my kalat in. I have then channeled my inner carpenter self, (yes, I do have one, courtesy of spending much tinkering time with my dad growing up) and managed to assemble them into decent furniture.
Not bad, huh? I have transferred everything to both shelves and they now have a place in our room. I have also recently tidied up my cabinets and drawers and am hopeful they'd stay that way for more than 3 days... a week... forever.
Another thing keeping me busy is the more than usual dining with friends. A few weeks ago, Marc and I had dinner with his friends at Sunrise Buckets and coffee after at Starbucks. We had another bonding over dinner this past Friday at Vikings, SM Marikina. The reason for the cramming was the impending migration of Dave, Christine, and their daughter Charley to the States. They left Sunday, December 8, 2013.
If there was a list done to note my approval for Marc's group of friends, I would've had them at the top of the list. This group being composed of Dave and his family, Karlo and the very pregnant Lala, and Kenneth and Ann. I like them, and if I had the chance to know them longer, I know for sure I'd love them tons more. While they have the usual banter and asaran, they are not bad influences. Not even the men. Their interests revolve around cars and bikes and are not looking for ways to get away from their wives 24/7 (unlike some people I know, smirk.) I actually enjoy spending time with them, which makes their leaving that much harder.
Karlo, Lala, and the soon to be born baby are about to leave for Canada on Dec. 28, too. We're going to miss all of them.
This past weekend, I spent Saturday night to Sunday morning with the girls for fellowship. We stayed at a hotel and bonded. We did accountability activities, future visions for our life, and the like. It was a blessing to get together and have everyone there. (Almost complete!) Praise God for aligning our schedules.
I've been wanting to visit Christmas bazaars, but Marc's on business trip for the week, so we'll see if we can do it on the weekend or next week.
I recently re-took my FBS test and my sugar has gone down, but still exceeding the normal range a bit. After my follow up checkup with the endo... (Would you believe the original endo is out of the country again, and I got a different reliever this time. One who knows what she's doing, thank God, compared to the previous reliever.) I'm back on medication. This time it has gone down to one 500mg tablet a day, with strict bilin to exercise. Also, the Metformin brand has been changed from Glumet to Glucophage because of the diarrhea.
Since I don't live in a village where I could run/jog or bike, Marc suggested I do stairs instead. He's been incredibly thoughtful and supportive with this, I could not ask for more. He actually searched for easy routines I could do and emailed me instructions for them. I have yet to learn to do the stairs thing properly to avoid injuries, and I need to make a schedule I could stick to by this week. I'm due back in 3 months. Hopefully, by then I won't need to maintain the meds anymore.
For my PCOS, I'm still taking the pills. I'm on my third month now and had a bit of a mishap with the timing when I started this batch, but hopefully I could stick to the original time and be PCOS free by January!
In the mean time, I'm also adjusting my diet and trying to lessen the carbs. (Goodbye white rice, sniff sniff.)
Like most Christians, I am struggling to be a better person. Like all people, I am having such a hard time doing so. In comparison to ladies my age, one could say I have led a good life so far. I don't drink, I don't smoke, I don't party excessively, I go to church, I don't curse, yada, yada, but then again man's standards are different from God's. I cannot justify that I am a lesser evil for evil is evil no matter how big or small. It's like the concept of killing and stealing. Man may have set severity levels on these, but the Lord's laws see them as the same: SIN.
James 2:10 (NASB) For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles in one point, he has become guilty of all.
So there, I am no better than the murderers or the thieves that are locked up in prison or those in line for death row. I have no cause nor right to think I am better than anyone else. Ang galing diba? Our all-knowing God has seen this even before. He has known all this and has made the perfect laws.
Isaiah 55:8-9 (NASB) "For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways," declares the Lord. "For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts."
Anyway, the reason I'm blogging about this is because of a current discovery. Friends have been sharing posts through FB from Joy Mendoza's blog. She is the wife of Edric Mendoza and daughter of Pastor Peter Tanchi of CCF. She writes about the ups and downs of being a woman, a wife, and a mother. It's very inspiring really: her marriage, her motherhood, her personal walk with the Lord. What I like most about it is that no matter how imperfect everything is, she shows through her life how one always has a choice to pick the right side, God's side. I hope she doesn't mind that I'm sharing a link of her blog here. I wish as well that her blog encourages more people.
Love. Love. ^_^
