nailing the prince charming
Competition
"Sian, except for 1 subject, you beat me to the rest of the others." My friend, JH, said glumly.
Twisted values of the world
I was checking my email the other day, after so long since the last clearing. Scrolling down the long list of unread mails, and ticking off the ones that goes straight to the bin, one mail caught my attention.
Its title was " In the Name of Religion, Or Cruelty?"
It read,
One 8 year old boy in Iran ( or was it Iraq?) was caught shop lifting. In the Name of I**** (name of the religion), he was sentenced to have his arm crushed by a car.
(Taken from http://www.flatrock.org.nz/topics/odds_and_oddities/ultimate_in_unfair.htm)This photograph showed a starving Sudanese child being stalked by a vulture which won Kevin Carter the 1994 Pulitzer Prize for feature photography.
The photographer later commited suicide due to depression. He had taken this photo when the child was starving to death. He could have helped you know. I think he realised that, that in order to capture the most award-winning picture, the thought of saving the starving child just slipped out of his mind.I realised more and more of such things are happening and there's nothing we can really do about it. This world is so twisted.
Signing off,
Jo
Queen NOT Slave
What a wonderful sermon by Ps Tommy Tenny. He was funny, humorous & straight to the point!
Esther was a slave gal who had everything against her. But what caused her destiny to change? She found favor with the right Person!! She didn't go around pleasing every other person, she made up her mind to please the King!
And when the King likes you, it doesn't matter who dislikes you! The King can change your destiny. God can change your destiny!
*With inputs from EJ; It absolutley summarises up the key points!*
"Don't flirt with lower lovers! You can lose your destiny! Don't prostitute your anointing from God for something lesser than God's blessing! You are shortchanging yourselves!"
How true these words are. So often because under the peer pressure influence of our friends, or because we do not have "spiritual guts" to stand firm for God, we cave in and follow the world and its cheap values. Things that we know in our minds is not right, but somehow we keep giving excuses that 'I'm not sure' or 'I can't help it', and soon we go with the flow.
Some examples - Illegal downloading, possession of pirated softwares, vulguarities, joining in to gossip about others...etc
We join the world into doing all these things because we want to feel accepted by the general crowd. We don't dare to make a stand, fearing that our friends will ostracize us. We rather go with the flow - If we can't be the popular and charismatic gal, at least people don't hate us. It is definitely and always easier to go with the flow.
But the truth of the matter is people whom go with the flow will NEVER find favor with the King.
Esther determined in her heart that she would not go with the flow and made choices not for herself or to feel good, but rather she made the choice that the King would like. She didn't bother what the rest would say, she was single-minded in just wanting the King's approval.
Hey dears!!!! Arise & stand firm for the Lord! Be a true blue God-Pleaser!!! Why wait? Why delay? If not now then when???!!!!!
You're destined to be a QUEEN, dun be a SLAVE!
Luv Cynthia
Mothers - A gift from God
Couldn't find the version that we saw in church. This works as well. Also I found this nice poem about mothers. Take a look & appreciate your mother okies! :)
Why are you crying, a young boy asked his Mom?
"Because I'm a woman," she told him."I don't understand," he said.
His Mom just hugged him and said, "And you never will, but that's O.K.".......
Later the little boy asked his father, "Why does Mom seem to cry for no reason?".
"All women cry for no reason," was all his Dad could say......
The little boy grew up and became a man, still wondering why women cry.
Finally he put in a call to God and when God got back to him, he asked "God, why do women cry so easily?"
GOD answered......
"When I made woman, I decided she had to be special. I made her shoulders strong enough to carry the weight of the world, yet, made her arms gentle enough to give comfort...
I gave her the inner strength to endure childbirth and the rejection that many times will come even from her own children.
I gave her a tenacity that allows her to keep going and take care of her family and friends, even when everyone else gives up, through sickness and fatigue without complaining....
I gave her the sensitivity to love her children under any and all circumstances. Even when her child has hurt her badly....
She has the very special power to make a child's boo-boo feel better and to quell a teenager's anxieties and fears....
I gave her strength to care for her husband, despite faults and I fashioned her from his rib to protect his heart....
I gave her wisdom to know that a good husband never hurts his wife, but sometimes tests her strengths and her resolve to stand beside him unfalteringly....
For all of this hard work, I also gave her a tear to shed. It is hers to use whenever needed and it is her only weakness....
When you see her cry, tell her how much you love her, and all she does for everyone, and even though she may still cry, you will have made her heart feel better.
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Cynthia: I thank God for my mother because she showed me what patience truly means. In my most difficult of days my mom loved me. In the earlier days when my dad was the sole breadwinner & money was tight & tempers are short my mother stood by my dad & chose to endure for the sake of the whole family. I wish I can be a better daughter sometimes. Try to send her small little smses, come home for dinner & spend more time with her. What about you?
Let's celebrate our mothers :) Their goodness, love & patience & simply everything!
Basketball & Me
And so the end of our match with NYJC marks the end of our "A" Div tournament.
A week before the match on Monday, my ankle was still swollen, but i am determined to play. This time i really want to play. I really wouldnt want to regret that i did not give my best for this match years after when i look back.
So in the hope that my ankle would heal miraculously by Monday, i started praying and even fasting so that, you know, God would heal it. Because he is the only one capable of doing that. I really believe that i could actually get up to play on Monday.
But not everything happened as i had hoped.
On Sunday, i messaged my coach and asked him what i could do about my ankle, as it was feeling really "loose", like any sudden jerk would detach my ankle bone from my feet. "Nothing." was his prompt reply. He went on to say that its not worth it to risk worsening the injury for such a match.
!!!!!
I asked further what he meant and that i only want to prepare myself even if i ended up warming the bench. He said he wouldnt put a player who is less than 90% fit to play. At that moment, i felt like someone had slapped me in the face, like the hint wasnt clear enough already! Annoyed and very upset i was.
On monday, i still brought along my bball shoes. Maybe, there might still be some chance..
It turned out that i get to sit and watch my team mates play for the whole thing. I watched them lost. Throughout the game, i kept glancing at my coach's direction, hoping that he would look my way and get me in. But no. As the game turned into the 4th quarter, i was practically DYING to play.
And it was like that, the timer went into the last second, we proceed to shake our hands with the other very happy team, thanked the coach and the referee, and went out the stadium for our debrief.
Actually, there really was nothing much to say. We had lost. The last match is over. And from that day onwards, we need not go for training anymore. Truth be told, i felt quite pai seh for him. He had been coaching us for a year plus plus and there's not much of a victory from the team. A bunch of losers, huh? The team knew well that many people in school are mocking us behind our back, look down on us, and always very eager to find out how much we lose or how great is the score difference after each match we played.
Needless to say, i was bombarded by my classmates with questions about the results the minute i stepped into class the following day. WHAT'S THEIR PROBLEM?!
Oh, we took some pictures in the stadium's toilet that day too. NAH, we would never stay sad for long =)
I'm no.9! ^.^
Signing off,
Jo