Have you ever been in a situation like this: Something you hope will happen but didn't expect to happen, happened?
That was the situation I found myself to be in a few days ago. I hope the thing will go through and then life will be a bit easier for me.
Sharon Lai, Elizabeth Chung, Tuang Pei Yun, Andrew Chan and I had lunch together after Canaanland Celebration.
Insomnia
After gulping down the oyster in one mouthful, I heard Andrew mentioned the word aphrodisiac.
Eliz ordered Fish and Chips. She shared with
Pei Yun and Andrew ordered Wrasse Picatta ie. fish. Andrew said the fish was too tough.
I ordered Mussels Penne – four big mussels but there was not enough sauce for me. Probably it was supposed to be a dry dish. I do not know but the taste was great. I put two spoonfuls onto
Eliz gave me some of her Fish and Chips while she tried a little bit of the pasta and one mussel.
After lunch, Andrew went to Times bookstore while we ladies went to Centrepoint.
By the time I came home, I was very sleepy for I did not sleep until after 2a.m. and woke up before 8.30a.m. So I slept for an hour before going brisk walking around the neighbourhood for 55mins again. I picked up same speed as the day before.
Today Rev. Lee Tak Vui preached on Victory After Victory.
Victory is a process. God does not give us victory after victory.
Exodus 23:27-30 God told the Israelites He will give them little by little.
God does not give us everything because we will not be able to bear with it.
1. Inquire of the Lord beginning with setting aside the past success and sorrow.
Joshua 9:14
If we rely on our pass success, we will become arrogant. We may not be able to secure our victory.
If we remember our past sorrow, we will dwell on it and not move on.
Phil. 3:13-14 Forgetting our past – success, glory, failure, sorrow
2. Listen to the Lord through the Scriptures, Still Small Voice, Servants of the Lord.
Obedience always precede our hearing (or was it action?).
Joshua 5:13-15; 6:2; 10:8; 11:6
God can speak to us through our inner voice ie. through the Holy Spirit.
Ecc. 4:12
3. Step out in faith with a paradigm shift and renewed strategy.
Step out in faith involves action.
Paradigm shift – a change of mindset.
Joshua 1:11
Changing strategy according to the Word of God.
Joshua 6:3-5; 8:1; 10:8-11; 11:6-9
Old strategy will not work in new battlefield.
I may have heard wrongly some parts of the sermon. I was preoccupied with something else.
Basically I was about to give up on something and was wondering would I ever have victory on that particular area of my life. Due to this dilemma, i had been feeling down for a couple of weeks. Only God knew how I had been feeling and suddenly a sermon like this really spoke to me.
I can only depend on God for the victory.
Last night before I went to dreamland, I emailed my uncle and cousin in
This morning when I woke up there was a reply email from my uncle waiting for me to open.
Mum is enjoying the American life and food. They went to
Mum has taken a lot of photos to bring back. Yeah!
This morning while I was backing up all my work files, I encountered errors while opening the accounting software to check something. I nearly had a heart attack.
After all my files had been backed up, I tried again umpteenth times and did not give up.
I also prayed hard and asked God to intervene. If the errors kept on, I would lose eight and half months of hard work. I was not prepared to ‘fly the white flag’ just yet.
I tried to restore using the back up file from my pendrive but it did not work either.
After maybe ten minutes of trying real hard, the software was back to it’s old self again.
I thanked God for the answered prayer.
I left work at 5.15p.m. Since it was too late to go hiking at Bukit Padang, I went brisk walking around the neighbourhood for 55mins. This time my pace was faster as compared to 1 June 2009 and I managed to do more rounds in the same duration.
(Read these notes in one of my friend's page in Facebook)
Originally published in The Plain Dealer on Sunday, May 28, 2006
To celebrate growing older, I (Regina Brett) once wrote the 45 lessons life taught me.
It is the most-requested column I've ever written. My odometer rolls over to 50 this week, so here's an update:
1. Life isn't fair, but it's still good.
2. When in doubt, just take the next small step.
3. Life is too short to waste time hating anyone.
4. Don't take yourself so seriously. No one else does.
5. Pay off your credit cards every month.
6. You don't have to win every argument. Agree to disagree.
7. Cry with someone. It's more healing than crying alone.
8. It's OK to get angry with God. He can take it.
9. Save for retirement starting with your first paycheck.
10. When it comes to chocolate, resistance is futile.
11. Make peace with your past so it won't screw up the present.
12. It's OK to let your children see you cry.
13. Don't compare your life to others'. You have no idea what their journey is all about.
14. If a relationship has to be a secret, you shouldn't be in it.
15. Everything can change in the blink of an eye. But don't worry; God never blinks.
16. Life is too short for long pity parties. Get busy living, or get busy dying.
17. You can get through anything if you stay put in today.
18. A writer writes. If you want to be a writer, write.
19. It's never too late to have a happy childhood. But the second one is up to you and no one else.
20. When it comes to going after what you love in life, don't take no for an answer.
21. Burn the candles, use the nice sheets, wear the fancy lingerie. Don't save it for a special occasion. Today is special.
22. Overprepare, then go with the flow.
23. Be eccentric now. Don't wait for old age to wear purple.
24. The most important sex organ is the brain.
25. No one is in charge of your happiness except you.
26. Frame every so-called disaster with these words: "In five years, will this matter?"
27. Always choose life.
28. Forgive everyone everything.
29. What other people think of you is none of your business.
30. Time heals almost everything. Give time time.
31. However good or bad a situation is, it will change.
32. Your job won't take care of you when you are sick. Your friends will. Stay in touch.
33. Believe in miracles.
34. God loves you because of who God is, not because of anything you did or didn't do.
35. Whatever doesn't kill you really does make you stronger.
36. Growing old beats the alternative - dying young.
37. Your children get only one childhood. Make it memorable.
38. Read the Psalms. They cover every human emotion.
39. Get outside every day. Miracles are waiting everywhere.
40. If we all threw our problems in a pile and saw everyone else's, we'd grab ours back.
41. Don't audit life. Show up and make the most of it now.
42. Get rid of anything that isn't useful, beautiful or joyful.
43. All that truly matters in the end is that you loved.
44. Envy is a waste of time. You already have all you need.
45. The best is yet to come.
46. No matter how you feel, get up, dress up and show up.
47. Take a deep breath. It calms the mind.
48. If you don't ask, you don't get.
49. Yield.
50. Life isn't tied with a bow, but it's still a gift.
Last night I received a call from Mimi Quek telling me that tonight some church members will go to Tiong Hua Funeral Parlour at 8p.m.
Dennis Tan and his wife Lilian are in my usher team in Canaanland Celebration. Dennis’s mum had gone home to be with the Lord at the age of 93 two days ago.
So tonight I drove to the funeral parlour. After I parked the car, I was thinking of changing parking bays but when I tried to reverse, the car seemed to go forward. The drain was a feet away. (Looks like my driving still sucks big time)
I gave up and went inside the funeral parlour. Among the people who had arrived were Sharon Lai, Fung Yin Leung, Mr. & Mrs. Vitus Tan and Mr. Quek Lip Kie. A short while after that Mr. & Mrs. Chew Chong Bin came.
While chit-chatting with Lilian, Shelley Chew and Mr. Quek, I saw someone signing the register book and from behind he looked like my former boss, Horace Ho. Sharon confirmed that it was him and said that he attends William Wong’s cg.
When a group of people came, we decided to go outside and sit. Mr. Ho also came out and so I asked Lilian about him. She does not know him.
We shook hand and talked. When they were young, he and Dennis used to learn judo together in
We went back inside, stood around a circle, sang a song and Elder Fung said a prayer before we left.
Thank God for
Most of the time I think that the things especially groceries are cheaper in West Malaysia than in
I always think that KK is the most expensive city to live in in
I need something to prove that my first statement can be wrong. I did not purposely set out to do that but stumble upon what I found below.
When I was window shopping at Giant Supermarket at Parkson Grand, Subang Parade on 2 May 2009, I came across this price label.
I could not remember the exact price sold in Servay Hypermarket, Plaza Juta, KK where I buy most of my grocery stuff. But I know that the price could not be more than RM7.
True enough yesterday when I went to Servay Hypermarket I found that the price is cheaper. Then I thought maybe it is made in Sabah and therefore the price in
At least now I have proved that not everything is more expensive in KK and this is only one of those things.
Last night after a good sharing in Life Group (though I did not feel like going at first due to being tired but I went after having half an hour of sleep and therefore was late), I decided to have some supper of fried meehoon with sambal & fried anchovies and trifle made by Shelley Chew.
Normally I would not take any supper because if I do, then I would not be able to sleep until the wee hours of the morning due to having a full stomach and the food taking it’s sweet time to digest.
But since today is a public holiday, I thought that even if I ate supper, I could still go to sleep in the wee hour of the morning and wake up late.
The food tasted delicious and as usual no one could resist Shelley’s cooking. Everyone was raving on how good the food were. And some could not refrain from not taking the sambal eventhough to them it tasted spicy hot.
I did not go to dreamland until 3.30a.m. eventhough I was so tired. I woke up after six hours of sleep.
It is that time of the month for me and therefore I could not go for exercise this weekend. I did not go out as well. I tried to catch up on some reading but the hot weather makes me feel so lethargic.
The temperature in my room lingers around 31 degrees Celcius. My friend Anna Wong through Facebook told me to switch on the air-conditioner. I told her I would do that when the heat becomes unbearable for me.
But at 3.30p.m. the fan stopped turning and the computer suddenly switched off by itself. I detest this kind of scenario esp. when I am resting at home on a public holiday and prefer not to go out.
I tried to do some more reading but the tiredness took over and I decided to sleep on the floor of my room. I was that desperate. I slept for an hour on the floor before the electricity supply came back on and I woke up.
(Speaking of sleeping on the floor, when I was growing up, I slept on the floor. We lived in a flat which had three rooms but there were seven people ie. my parents, grandmothers from both sides of the family, my sister, younger brother and I. My elder brother had gone to
Two rooms had beds in them but my room which I shared with my paternal grandmother and Jeff did not have a bed in it. So sleeping on the floor had never been a problem for me. In fact the whole family can sleep on the floor without any problem whatsoever)
But now that I am getting older, I try not to do that too often. It is definitely not good for my back. (Or some people would say if one has a strong back, sleeping on the floor should not be a problem) I do not have a strong back anymore. :(
Snoozed again at 5.45 – 6.55p.m. This weather is really a killer. *sigh*
