PARADOXICAL

“Don’t waste your time dreaming of being someone else. Don’t try to be someone else. Work and pray at being yourself. Be who you are, where you are. Concentrate on the little everyday problems and pains that beset you. Reserve your best efforts; expend your spiritual energy on what is right before you. This is what God asks of you. Listen closely. This is very important – and very misunderstood – for we all prefer to do what is to our personal liking. Very few of us choose duty first, or the will of God. Don’t cultivate someone else’s garden. Grow where you are planted.”

Our ego chains us to a lot of attachments - Nolan

Prayer is the right key to open the day and lock the night. It also leads the way to God's heart. (via Waldy)

We have a choice as what others say. But the problem is we may have the ability of choosing yet not the capacity to stand firmly with what we have chosen.

You need to feel a bit deprived at times, a bit lonely, and in a way incomplete. Because if you've got everything here on earth, would you still look up to heaven?

Everyone's not afraid of trying again. The're just afraid of getting hurt for the same reason. But life is simply unpredictable. You'll never get the answers to your questions until you learn to risk some things.

Life can never be free of pain, but God will always give you the means to endure and survive. In the rush of events, you will see that he's holding your hand at every moment.

Life is a continuous journey, a constant challenge of choices. We get rich not by treasures in our banks, but by treasures we bank for eternal life in heaven. Happy banking!

There comes a moment each when we must simply drop what weighs on us and hand it over to God. May God bless you with what you pray for, reward you with what you work for, grant you with what you hope for, and surprise you with what you have not asked for.

Sweet words are easy to say, nice things are easy to buy, but good people are difficult to find. Life ends when you stop dreaming, hope ends when you stop believing, love ends when you stop crying, friendship ends when you stop sharing. So share this with whoever you consider as a friend, to love without condition, to talk without intention, to give without reason, and to care without expectation.

Friendship is like the hands of a clock. Though we are in the same clock, we don't always meet. But the most important thing is that we stay connected.

The deepest level of worship is praising God in spite of pian, thanking God during trials, trusting God when tempted, and loving Him when He seems distant.

Seven cardinals rules of life:

1. make peace with your past so it won't screw up the present.
2. What other people think of you is none of your business.
3. Time heals almost everything. Give time.
4. No one is in charge of your happiness except you.
5. Don't compare your life to others and dont judge them. You have no idea what they journey is all about.
6. Stop thinking too much. It's alright not to know the answers. They will come to you when you least expect it.
7. Smile. You don't own all the problems in the world.

Fwdd msg

A blind boy sat on the steps of a building with a hat by his feet. He held up a sign which said: "I am blind, please help." There were only a few coins in the hat.

A man was walking by. He took a few coins from his pocket and dropped them into the hat. He then took the sign, turned it around, and wrote some words. He put the sign back so that everyone who walked by would see the new words.

Soon the hat began to fill up. A lot more people were giving money to the blind boy. That afternoon the man who had changed the sign came to see how things were. The boy recognized his footsteps and asked, "Were you the one who changed my sign this morning? What did you write?"

The man said, "I only wrote the truth. I said what you said but in a different way." I wrote: "Today is a beautiful day but I cannot see it."

Both signs told people that the boy was blind. But the first sign simply said the boy was blind. The second sign told people that they were so lucky that they were not blind. Should we be surprised that the second sign was more effective?


Moral of the Story: Be thankful for what you have. Be creative. Be innovative.. Think differently and positively.

When life gives you a 100 reasons to cry, show life that you have 1000 reasons to smile Face your past without regret. Handle your present with confidence. Prepare for the future without fear. Keep the faith and drop the fear.
Just think God is Near! God Bless you and your family. From a friend to a friend.

The most beautiful thing is to see a person smiling¦
And even more beautiful is, knowing that you are the reason behind it!!!

How often do we rely too much on God and neglect the work that he calls us to do, whether in evangelization or in our own growth in holiness? And how often do we rely on our own strength, doing the "work of the Lord" but neglecting the "Lord of the work"? Both approaches are fraught with danger. The first one can leave us feeling fruitless and frustrated; the second can leave us full of ourselves or worn out and dispirited. But the middle way -- the way of cooperation between divine grace and human work -- brings not only fruitfulness but refreshment and joy as well.

It's an interesting combination, isn't it? We need to humble ourselves and recognize that we are weak without the Lord. But we also need to believe that we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us (Phil. 4:13). God wants to convince us that we can victorious in our lives no matter what circumstances we face, no matter what our weaknesses are, and no matter how many times we have falled in the past.

-WAU

I KNOW WHO I AM
I am God's child (John 1:12)
I am Christ's friend (John 15:15 )
I am united with the Lord (1 Cor. 6:17)
I am bought with a price (1 Cor 6:19-20)
I am a saint (set apart for God). (Eph. 1:1)
I am a personal witness of Christ. (Acts 1:8)
I am the salt and light of the earth (Matt 5:13-14)
I am a member of the body of Christ (1 Cor 12:27)
I am free forever from condemnation ( Rom. 8: 1-2)
I am a citizen of Heaven. I am significant (Phil 3 :20)
I am free from any charge against me (Rom. 8:31 -34)
I am a minister of reconciliation for God (2 Cor 5:17-21)
I have access to God through the Holy Spirit (Eph. 2:18)
I am seated with Christ in the heavenly realms (Eph. 2:6)
I cannot be separated from the love of God (Rom 8:35-39)
I am established, anointed, sealed by God (2 Cor 1:21-22 )
I am assured all things work together for good (Rom. 8:28 )
I have been chosen and appointed to bear fruit (John 15:16 )
I may approach God with freedom and confidence (Eph.. 3: 12 )
I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me (Phil. 4:13 )
I am the branch of the true vine, a channel of His life (John 15: 1-5)
I am God's temple (1 Cor.. 3: 16). I am complete in Christ (Col. 2: 10)
I am hidden with Christ in God (Col. 3:3). I have been justified (Romans 5:1)
I am God's co-worker (1 Cor. 3:9; 2 Cor 6:1). I am God's workmanship (Eph. 2:10)
I am confident that the good works God has begun in me will be perfected. (Phil. 1: 5)
I have been redeemed and forgiven ( Col 1:14). I have been adopted as God's child (Eph 1:5)
I belong to God
Do you know
Who you are?

"We are not always in control of our feelings. It's the will that has merit." - Fr. ???

No one can know God who does not first know himself. - Meister Eckhart

Never get tired of doing little things for others. Sometimes those little things occupy the biggest part of their hearts.

The inner work of personal transformation is like a creative work of art rather than like a planned step by step journey along a mapped out road. - Albert Nolan

The road to human development is paved with renunciation. Throughout our life we grow by giving up. - Judith Viorst

If we go inward, we can see more clearly what is on the outside of our life. - Joyce Rupp

Be compassionate. People need love, especially when they don't deserve it.

Don't postpone joys. The circus will come back, but childhood won't.

In this time of crisis, remember that the first Christmas was without the trappings of materialism and commercialism.

Prayer is not a monologue. It is a dialogue with God. And He has more to say than we do.

Happiness is a daily decision. We don't find it in the absence of problems. We find it despite the problems.

Sometimes we learn out lessons the hard way because learning something without hardship is a lesson learned but taken for granted.

Have a heart that never hardens, a temper that never tires, a touch that never hurts. - Charles Dickens

Good friendship is about two things: first is to find out the similarities, and second is to respect the differences.

The great challenge is loving your wounds through, instead of thinking them through. In your head, you can analyze them but you need to let your wounds go down to your heart. -HJMN

"...[P]roductivity and success can greatly enhance our lives. But when our value as human beings depends on what we make with our hands and minds, we become victims of the fear tactics of our world. When productivity is our main way of overcoming self-doubt, we are extremely vulnerable to rejection and criticism and prone to inner anxiety and depression. Productivity can never give the deep sense of belonging we crave. The more we produce, the more we realize that successes and results cannot give us the experience of "at homeness." (At homeness can only be had from God, freely.-R.O.) In fact, our productivity often reveals to us that we are driven by fear. In this sense sterility and productivity are the same: both can be signs that we doubt our ability to lie fruitful lives."

-HJMN, Lifesigns