WAVES OF NOW

The problems may be great, yet your ability to successfully deal with them is greater. Each disappointment can be painful, and yet through that pain you are compelled to grow stronger and more capable.

Life goes on, and each moment brings new positive possibilities. You live, you learn, you experience, and through it all you become more fully alive than ever.
You have carried with you to this moment all the joy and beauty you've ever known. Now you are in a position to discover and to fulfill even more.

Seek not to fight against what is. For within what is, the very real opportunity exists for precisely what you wish to be.

In whatever may come your way, you can find the energy and substance to bring your own dreams to life. Run eagerly to greet each moment, for in each moment is the opportunity to fully live.

Life's sparkling treasure rolls in on endless waves of now. Appreciate the depth and the vastness of that treasure, and it is yours.

CRACKED POT

A water carrier in India had two large pots, each hung on the ends of a pole which he carried across his neck. One of these pots had a crack in it, while the other pot was perfect and always delivered a full portion of water. At the end of the long walk from the stream to the house, the cracked pot arrived only half full. .

For a full two years this went on daily, with the bearer delivering only one and a half pots of water to the house. .

Of course, the perfect pot was proud of its accomplishments, perfect for which it was made. But the poor cracked pot was ashamed of its imperfections, and miserable that it was able to accomplish only half of what i t had been made to do. .

After two years of what it perceived to be a bitter failure, it spoke to the water bearer one day by the stream. "I am ashamed of myself and want to apologize to you. I have been able to only deliver half my load because this crack in my side causes water to leak out all the way back to your house. Because of my flaws, you have to do all this work, and you don't get full value from your efforts, " the pot said. .

The bearer said to the pot, "Did you notice that there are flowers only on your side of the path, but not the other pot's side? That's because I have always known about your flaw, and I planted flower seeds on your side of the path, and every day while we walk back, you've watered them. For two years I have been able to pick these beautiful flowers to decorate the table. Without you being the way you are, there would not be this beauty to grace the house."

The moral of the story? Each of us has our own flaws. We're all cracked pots, but it's the cracks and flaws we each have that make our lives together so very interesting and rewarding.

You've just got to take each person for what they are, and look for the good in them. Remember to appreciate the diversity in your life and your workplace. And mostly remember, in the end we are just cracked pots!

GOD MEANT IT FOR GOOD

“… You meant evil against me, but God meant it for good in order to bring about this present result …” Genesis 50:20 (NIV)

May this be a time of Thanksgiving for you – Praise God that he makes “all things work together for the good of those who love God: those who are called according to His purpose.” (Romans 8:28, HCSB)

The life of Joseph was anything but peaceful. It was filled with youthful folly, broken dreams, and the mean-spirited actions of others. Yet he remained a man remarkable for his lack of bitterness or regret, always seeing God as the “Great Engineer” behind even the worst of circumstances.

In a final confrontation with his brothers, he graciously noted, “You meant it for bad; God meant it for good.”
The theology packed in that statement is astounding. ‘God meant it for good means --

You can accept the past -- No sin, no action, no choice on your part is too big for God to handle – or too big to be worked for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His name. Just ask Joseph; Better yet, ask his fearful and famished brothers, who were forced to rely on him for survival.

You can embrace the present -- There’s no need to play the ‘what if’ game. The past is gone, and no energy you expend will ever change it. The future is in God's omnipotent hands, so you’re free to focus on the present. Your job is to love God with all your heart, soul, and mind, trusting Him to forgive the past and transform the future. Martyred missionary Jim Eliot once wrote, “Wherever you are, be all there,” not living in the past and not fantasizing about the future. God wants you in the present because that’s where His grace will flow.

You can look expectantly toward the future -- Even if you make mistakes today, God still controls your future. Walking in the Spirit, you can live life to the fullest, unafraid of making mistakes and unconcerned you may stumble into some terrible circumstance that takes you out of God's control. Even when things appear to be terrible, you can trust that God is working out some divine plan through you.

So what?
· No matter how bad things get -- God is still able to bring good out of it. Today, thank God that nothing – no disaster, no delay – is bigger that his ability to turn it into something good and godly.
· Thank God and let go - Thank God that he is sovereign over your past, your present, and your future.
· Give God the circumstances, disasters, hindrances, hurts, and sins from your past; · Give God your current situation, your disasters, hindrances, hurts, and sins of today; · Praise God that he can work anything in your future for godly good, that you can walk in confidence that there is nothing anyone can do to you, or anything you can do that will be beyond the reach of God’s Grace and redemption.
· Look for God’s hand -- Walking by faith means you see God’s hand even in the most difficult of circumstances. You trust in his ability and his willingness to transform the bad into godly good. God is not limited by people’s motives; in other words, it does not matter why someone hurt you, God can still transform a deliberate, mean-spirited situation into something for his good.
· What will you allow God to change? – There it is: some situation, or event, or person in your life who, as far as you can tell, ‘meant it for bad.’ How do you think God meant it for good? Ask God what he wants you to do with this situation (event or person). When he answers, do it.

JOURNEY

I'm almost through with my First semester in my Third year in college.. whew!! it has been really exhausting for me and my classmates.. it's like,..

• Conducting a seminar in Financial Management
• Documentation in Financial Management
• Debate about the Review School
• Documentary project in Social Science
• Practicing for the presentation in Organizational Behavior
• Reviewing for the quizzes
• Working for the other requirements

needless to state that we have to do it simultaneously.. that is why we had trouble with the schedule because we have different groupings in each project..

in spite of all the stress, and after all those sleepless nights.. i must say that it's all WORTH the Effort.. because I learned a lot from it.. not only the technical stuffs but also the things which would be difficult for me to find out if I haven't been through the pressure..

IT IS NOT THE DESTINATION, BUT THE JOURNEY...

it's true.. there are a lot of people who do not get the chance to enjoy what they're doing because they are too focused on their destination, to the extent of missing more important things.. in everything we do,.. may it be a struggle, may it be within or beyond our will,.. let us enjoy our journey.. let us appreciate the chance that is given to us.. let us always look forward to the things that it can teach us.. and let us be grateful all the time..

..and for the people who almost want to complain about being overloaded with responsibilities..

TO WHOM MUCH IS GIVEN, MUCH IS EXPECTED..

be grateful..