God Never Blinks

My colleague gave me this book and said I would like it - and I love it!

It is a compilation and expansion of the fifty lessons life had taught Regina Brett, which she wrote for a newspaper column when she turned fifty. 

I love how Brett tells stories with each life lesson that she had learnt from the obstacles and problems she had been through, which she regards as "My lessons. My honors. My gifts." 

She talks about becoming a single parent and a college drop-out at 21; having to work odd jobs, and then eventually landing on the career which she loves; working out on her relationship with God; making peace with her difficult childhood; finding love in all the wrong places, and then finding the perfect man and getting married at 40; and then being diagnosed with breast cancer at 41. - I can pretty much relate, somehow, except that I am no single parent and that I chose life by choosing not to go for Chemotherapy.

As I read through every lesson, I was going, "This has got to be my favorite lesson!" Then I realized that the next, and the next and the following were also my favorite. Halfway through, I decided there is hardly anything from this book of lessons which I do not learn from.

It is interesting, fun, witty and so full of Life! 

Reminds me to be grateful for each day and everything that I have been blessed with. 

Lesson 40: If we all threw our problems in a pile and got a look at everyone else's, we'd fight to get back our own. "Yes, if we all threw our problems in a pile, I'd take mine back, not because they are easier, but because they are mine. My lessons. My honors. My gifts."

Get Names Right!

I have always emphasized on the importance of getting names right - be it people's or things'. It is crucial. The same way we would not like others to get our names wrong, please do the same for others. It does not hurt to simply ask "I'm sorry, but how do you spell / pronounce that?" Does not even take up one minute of your time.

Names are identities. They play major parts especially in identifying crime suspects or even heirs to wills or thrones. If it is not important, what is the point of identification cards or passports? Oh, would you like if God were to get your name wrong or mistaken you for someone else on Judgement Day?

I met one client today. Lost the account, but I have learnt so much from this amazing lady! She has decided to not continue because since day 1, people have gotten her company's name wrong though she has tried all marketing ways and approach in different medias to make her brand name known. I do not blame the media. It is the people with their 'whatever' attitude.

It gets pretty annoying. I have personally met a lot. They just completely shut it off - do not even bother to at least try and get it right, let alone remember.

Always with the attitudes, "Oh, too difficult to pronounce." or "Such a long name!" or "What sort of name/word is that? Never heard of. Not in my dictionary, so I don't need to remember."

Please.

It just shows how much you really care, at all. The first basic point of getting to know someone, and most people have failed terribly...

If you really find it hard to remember or pronounce, then at least create a shorter form or simpler version of the original name, or get a nice nick/pet name, especially for someone closer. Goes a long way to show how much the other person matters or how close he/she is to heart.

Faith Like a Child's

"And calling to Him a child, He put him in the midst of them and said, "Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the Kingdom of heaven."          

- Matthew 18:2-4

I have come across these verses numerous times in the bible, and have even quoted these before in one of my previous posts. 

However, I had never really grasped the true meaning of the message, or rather, I had never comprehended how it applies, until today - and I learnt it from my 6-year-old son, Nathan. 

Like most other 6-year-old boys, there are times when Nathan can be such a pain. Being hyper apart, he tends to be very hard headed at most times. His therapist and doctors have been trying to figure out a diagnosis for his drooling and delay in proper speech. At first, we saw an Ear, Nose and Throat specialist and thought it was Ankyloglossia (tongue tie) and he even underwent a minor surgery for that. No difference made. Then we thought mild cerebral palsy, and then the pediatrician said there is nothing wrong with him, and sent him for speech therapies. It is impossible for it to be nothing - he has been complaining to me about pain in doing certain movements, and even chewing. The speech therapist said it could be ADHD - he has pretty short attention span, giving you about 10 minutes of his focus and then he gets out of control. She shall continue monitoring him until she figures out the best therapist to send him to. Traditional specialists say it has something to do with his nerves, or his imbalanced posture. We have tried many means. Until about last year, I had always blamed myself for his condition.

So, what has my son taught me about Faith?

Just last night, my daughter, Mikaela was muttering about being scared of the dark. Nathan then comforted his sister with his limited speech, "No scared. No ghost. Jesus strong! (flashing his bicep - he shows a lot of actions to help people understand what he is saying.)"

I have been telling my kids that there are no such things as ghosts, only Holy and evil spirits, and anytime they start to be afraid, they can always turn to God and pray - Jesus is always there with them. It touched me so much to hear these from my son. Such faith and trust coming from my not-so-little boy.

Since baby, people have been calling Nathan the happy or smiling boy, always with a big grin on his face, especially when seeing someone new - though he may smile his habitual crooked or cheeky smile. I have noticed, even after we have scolded him for misbehaving, he tends to forgive and forget fast. Just this morning, he made me blow my top in the car when sending him to school, but when he got down to enter the main door, he turned and looked at me and gave me a loving and sincere smile and waved goodbye gleefully at me. That hit me, how much we can really learn from a child.

Then I realized what Jesus meant when He said what He said in Matthew Chapter 18 Verse 2 to 4.

I may not be the best mother, but I have learnt to thank God for giving me such beautiful blessings in my life. I pray that I am able to love, teach and guide my children the way Jesus would, the way He does.