Category Archives: Faith Talk

Faith Talk Married Life Mommyhood

Dawn & Rain’s Dedication

My little family

Whenever I stare at this photograph long enough, I start tearing up. No, really. Happens every single time. In fact, I’m trying to keep my eyes from staring at it too long right now.

Two weeks ago we dedicated our twins, Dawn & Rain, to the Lord. It was an emotional week for usThe in-laws (D’s parents) were in town to meet their grand children for the first time (it’s been a while since we spent time with them too!), there were gatherings of loved ones and friends here and there, even making DIY decorations for the party was a sentimental time.

The truth is, I panic sometimes. How are we to raise these two kids when we, ourselves, are just.. kids? But maybe it’s a good kind of panicbecause it makes us come to Him everyday with full awareness that we can never do this without an abundance of His grace, provision, and strength. He is the one who has given us these blessings, and He will be the one to enable us to take care of them. There’s simply no other way. It is in that note that we gathered a small group of our loved ones and friends (we wished we could have invited more!) to witness as we dedicated our dear Dawn & Rain to the Lord.

As Pastor Dave shared in his message that day, we’re dedicating them to the One who said, “Let the little children come to me.” (Matthew 19We may not have everything it takes to raise two babies at once, but we do have God with us in this journey, and He happens to love little children! Where else can we learn parenthood but from The Father Himself?

Photographs from the dedication are in my Facebook account, you can view them all here. Normally I’d dump lots of photos here, especially from an important occasion such as this. But today I feel like posting just one photograph, one that summed up the occasion for me: Me & my husband standing in front of the altar, beaming with so much joy, holding these two little humans with trembling hands, and dedicating them to the One who has entrusted them to us.

Faith Talk Life as I Know It

Rejoice, pray, and give thanks

give thanks!

As if God has not affirmed enough what He’s been so patiently teaching me this past month, these are the words in Charles Stanley’s devotional guide which started my day today:

A Tough Command
1 Thessalonians 5:6-18

Some verses—like today’s—are easier to memorize than practice. Giving thanks is easy, but giving thanks in everything is a nearly impossible task. And gratitude at times even seems inappropriate, considering the depth of pain or turmoil we are experiencing. But we have a Comforter who helps us exercise thankfulness in every situation.

The Holy Spirit enables believers to do what God requires, and teaching us a gratitude habit is part of His work. Psalm 92 teaches that since “it is good to give thanks to the Lord,” we should “declare [His] lovingkindness in the morning and . . . faithfulness by night” (vv. 1-2). In other words, we should regularly anticipate and recall His provision. But when believers awaken to painful circumstances that have no logical reason for thankfulness, our Comforter provides the motivation and words.

Expressing thanks during turmoil takes place neither spontaneously nor apart from another spiritual activity—prayer. Today’s passage links the disciplines of rejoicing, prayer, and thanksgiving: both exultation and gratitude hinge upon regular communication with God. A prayerless man cannot remain thankful for long, because he is too overwhelmed by his problems. Talking with God forces problems to recede so they can be replaced by peace.

Why does the Lord command us to exercise gratitude? Because He knows that when we focus on His work in our life, we’ll discover our spirits lifting and courage strengthening. Then as we watch Him intervene, we rejoice more, pray more fervently, and learn to give thanks in everything.

Copy-pasted everything, because it spoke to me greatly, and I couldn’t have said it any better. Also, I thought we could all use a reminder like this—to love the Giver more than the gifts.

Here’s to starting the week with a joyful attitude, a prayerful spirit, and grateful heart. :)

Faith Talk Life as I Know It Love Mommyhood

30 Days of Gratitude, it’s a wrap!

30 Days, 2013, It's a wrap!

My 30 Days of Gratitude ended last Monday! I missed out blogging some of those days, and normally I would consider that as failure. But I’ve been learning to not beat myself up for not meeting my own standards, if you know what I mean. Looking back, I can only be grateful for times when I couldn’t find time to blog, it only means that those days have been so full.

Offline, my journal has become a messy list of blessings, one-sentence prayers, reflections, Bible verses, and dried up tears. I loved reading through the past 30 days, and remembering the big and small things God blessed me and my family with.

If there’s one thing I (re)learned through this 30-day challenge, it’s that, when we’re in the spirit of gratitude, no amount of bad news can drag us down. In fact, even negative situations can become positive in the light of God’s sovereignty and goodness.

Admittedly, the past month was made of the highest of highs and the lowest of lows. Some prayers were answered, some questions still left unsolved. Emails that made me smile, emails that made me tear up. People who made me feel horrible, friends who made me laugh.

And then there’s our two little girls.. my constant source of joy. Challenging as it may seem, raising two babies at once, each day is just so much better with them around.

Today I thank the Lord for being good, no matter what our circumstances are. It’s easy to fall into a state of anxiety and self-pity when things are not going the way we expect, when doors are slammed shut, or when we’re locked up in a waiting room and we have no idea what’s up next. Come to think of it, it is times like this when we can really practice gratitude—moments when nothing seems to make sense except that God is good, and He has our best interest in mind.

It has been quite a month. 30 Days of Gratitude, it’s a wrap!

Faith Talk Family & Friends Life as I Know It Married Life Mommyhood

Day 22: Leading worship, speaking to the youth, and lovin’ my family

February 10 at Lifex

1. Leading worship. My husband was assigned to lead the praise and worship in church last Sunday, and I stood up there with him again (at his request). It’s what I would do too when I’m the one leading worship—I’d ask him to stand up there with me. Not that we couldn’t do it apart from each other; it’s more of, we simply love doing this together. It doesn’t feel like a long time ago when I was just praying to have someone I can grow in faith with and worship the Lord with. God answered those prayers beyond my imagination. Not only do I get to worship with D now and all the days of our lives, I also get to do this ministry I love with him.

2. Speaking to the youth. Later in the afternoon, I delivered a message at Lifextreme, our church’s youth worship. The last time I had the privilege of speaking to the young people in church was February last year, where I talked about, well, marriage. And then I got pregnant and took a little hiatus from speaking in front. One year later, last Sunday, I spoke about loving your family. Funny, these topics they assign to me. Someone’s getting old.

So I told them the obvious, that we get to choose our friends, who we hang out with, and in a way, who we work with. But the family we’re born into.. now that is something that God chose for us. It’s a gift, something that we should nurture and take care of even though, and especially because, these are the people who know us for who we are. And these are the people we’ll go through life with, whether we like it or not! Be kind to the ones you do life with, says Bobbie Houston. I stood up in the pulpit for 30 minutes speaking about this topic that means so much to me, especially now that we’re starting a family of our own.

3. I love my family. I could never get tired saying it. I love my family. I love the family I was born into, and I love this new family God has blessed me with. The thing with speaking about topics like this is, as you study your passage and review your notes, you also get to look into your own life and have a deeper appreciation of what you have. I feel so blessed beyond words.

*The rest of the 30 Days of Gratitude shall be posted with dates backtracked. Like I anticipated, it’s easy to list down blessings, but to find time to post them here.. it’s more challenging than ever. I just need one uninterrupted afternoon to get those drafts out, so watch out for a flood of posts soon. ;)

30 Days of Gratitude, Day 22.

Faith Talk Life as I Know It Mommyhood

Day 18: Real food, sleeping routine, and a timely reminder

Sleeping routine

1. Real food. Today we had chopseuy for lunch, a huge improvement from the cans of tuna, spam, and corned beef we’ve been eating the past days. With our pantry and ref replenished with goods from our recent grocery shopping, we have two weeks worth of real and healthy menu in place. I wish I could say I’m the one cooking, but I don’t have 8 hands. Thank God I can leave the cooking to Ate Sally (our yaya) while I look after the twins.

2. Sleeping routine. One of the many challenges in raising twins is getting the two babies to follow ONE sleeping routine. In the afternoon, they almost always take naps alternately. Meaning, one sleeps while the other is awake, and just as the other one starts to fall asleep, the other one starts to wake up. Which makes it impossible to take a break and do other things because you always have at least one baby to feed, or entertain, or carry.

But in the evenings when the lights are out, ahhhh, these two sleep like a baby! (I know, they are babies.) Looking back to those first few days when each of them (EACH!!) would cry within 2-3 hour intervals, and now, they sleep through 5-6 hours straight (sometimes even longer), we sure have come a long way in the sleeping department. #happydance

3. God is in control. What a timely reminder, when suddenly some things in our life are not certain, and fears start to creep back in. It’s reassuring to know that, just as there’s food in the ref, and we have a warm bed to sleep in at night, God is in control.

30 Days of Gratitude, Day 18.