Hope

But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect.

The world we live in is used to despair, to hopelessness, to trauma and disappointment. It is used to disease, to poverty, to distress and to every kind of decay and rottenness in humanity. The world is used to such things. What they are not used to is – HOPE.

As such, this is the thing that distinguishes Christians from the rest of the world. We have Jesus and because of him we have hope.

Needless to say, this hope leads to all kinds of strange, incomprehensible behavior. Because the world does not understand your hope, they will not understand your behavior. And because you are such a puzzle, they can either choose to:

1. Love you
2. Hate you
3. 
   

Why would they choose option 1? Simply because the most beautiful thing you can ever offer anyone is a sense of mystery. Also because you provide a platform of hope that no other in the world can provide. And it is so much easier to love you with the divine favour of Christ wrapped all around you.

Sadly, most people would choose option 2. It is in fact, the default option. People will automatically dislike people they do not understand. So perhaps the best options for hopies like us is to explain ourselves like Peter 1 3:15 says - Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect.

When something bad happens, people will have to cope with an influx of helplessness, depression and hopelessness. To cope, they build up a wall of strength, feigned confidence, convincing themselves that they can solve any problem at hand. This positive mindset might work for a while but after awhile, they find themselves inevitably overwhelmed.

Instead of providing assistance to these overwhelmed people, the world can be harsh and indifference. Our victims of live move from being overwhelmed to becoming in a state of absolute shock. They are shocked by how harsh the world can be. To protect themselves, to grow (as the world believes), they harden their hearts and become unfeeling, unemotional, inhumane creatures.

Jesus replied, “What is impossible with men is possible with God.” (Luke 18:27)

This is where we differ. When men disappoint us, we still have hope. And this hope, the hope that comes from Jesus does not disappoint us. So, we are always happy because we have a God that is always above all our circumstances. Our God is so powerful that he could part the red sea. So whatever your circumstances today, God can fix it. And because of this hope, we do not have to worry or to harden our hearts.

Perhaps, as ambassadors of hope, you will have to suffer some persecution, but fear not, the path of the righteous shines brighter and brighter. When you put Jesus in the center of your life, everything else fades under his splendor and you are no longer so bothered by the small insignificant affairs of everyday life.

Godly Smoothie

The world is lost. They need clear instructions as to how to live. How to live the life God has planned for them to live. A life where blessings flow abundantly and peace and joy resides within every magical moment of the day. A life that is so beautiful it makes waking so much more pleasant than sleeping. But to lead this kind of life, you need the word of God.

In life, only one thing is needful – to sit at Jesus’s feet and listen to his word.

I never use to understand this theory. In fact, the best time of my life has not been defined by the circumstances I was in. It was defined by how much time I spent in God’s word. It is hard to describe it in words. Perhaps a chart would better describe it:

Circumstances	Time spent in God’s word	Quality of life
Poor	Much	Fantastic
Good	Much	Fantastic
Poor	Little	Poor (traumatic)
Good	Little	Poor (empty)

It is really the only factor that matters. Our circumstances are like the weather. Like the weather, our circumstance changes so rapidly. But one principle remains. People are naturally drawn to God in the face of adversity. And in the process they find themselves delving deeper into the word of God ONLY in the face of hardship. It is ironic that it is during the hard times, where I struggle with my nasty circumstances but find time to comfort myself with the word of God that I feel the most fulfilled. Perhaps I should rephrase. The word of God comforts me.

Moral of the story? We should all spend time with the word of God in ALL our circumstances whether it is good or poor. That is the only thing that matters. A prosperous life that is peaceful and smooth sailing will become boring and meaningless without God. A life of disease and persecution will lead to a downward spiral of hopelessness and depression without God.

But in the presence of God, poor circumstances only lead to development of strength and character. And good circumstances become opportunities to bless others in God’s kingdom. Instead of emptiness, you will be filled with purpose.

What is spending time in God’s word? Some people read the word; some hear recordings of the word. For me, nothing can exceed the pleasure I get from reading God’s word and writing blog entries about it. It is this process of studying each verse and blending it with my own personal experience that creates a Godly smoothie of peace and joy within me.

I used to believe that this Godly smoothie was only a coping strategy for hard times. But now I realize that I need this smoothie everyday. It is the very thing that renews my mind each day by removing the junk of this world - the nonsense, hopelessness, paranoia and negativity and replacing these nonsense with Godly thoughts - Nothing is impossible with God, God will supply every need in accordance to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus, If God is for me, no weapon formed against me shall prosper.

Life itself is not easy. I believe that God has the best examples for this point. It is all over the bible. But lets consider the picture of the disciples on the ship amidst the storm. It is so easy to get lost in the circumstances. In fact, the circumstances are so overwhelming. Death is at your doorstep. Who can have the faith to keep calm and believe that God is in control of all things? In fact, it is just human nature to help ourselves, to try to pull in the sails, try to off load the ship. And when finally, we are out of options, we choose to wake Jesus up for help.

And after we ask for help, we doubt that the help would arrive. We live in fear that Jesus has abandoned us to our own devises. But listen clearly, Jesus ALWAYS answers. Jesus woke up and called to the winds. The storm was ended.

It is so easy to focus on the winds and the rain. To focus on the things we can hear, the emotions we feel, the pains that attack us so mercilessly. And similarly, it is easy to humanize Jesus and reduce him to the natural. After all, he looks and feels just like us. He is after all 100% man and 100% God. But please resist this tendency to underestimate Jesus.

The only way, we can feel the peace amidst the storm is to be firmly aware of the following 3 points:

1. Jesus is the son of God
2. Jesus is the most powerful being in this world
3. Jesus is for you. (God is on your side)

Well, most Christians do get past the first two points. They know it but they don’t really understand it. It takes a revelation to understand the greatness of the first two points. With that said, it takes an even greater amount of faith to internalize the third point. After all, years of education has taught us the principle of do good get good, do bad get bad. How can God be for us when we have done so many bad things? We can’t shake off the mindset that Jesus is our ultimate judge.

The truth is - Jesus was never sent to judge us. Nor was he sent to condemn us. He was sent to love us, to provide for us and fill the void within us that only he can fill. The church was meant to be a beacon of hope for the hopeless, not a school of law. And more so in recent years when our lives are so filled with lies and hopelessness. Everyday we are in desperate need of Jesus (manna).

Therefore, the church can no longer be negligent in proclaiming the grace of God. We have to drum into the heads of our people the benefits of the sacrifice of our Lord Jesus:

1. Forgiveness of all our sins
2. Redemption from all destruction
3. Healing of all our disease and
4. The fulfilling of our desires with good things that our youth is renewed like the eagles.

(Psalms 103)

They must know it before they can receive it! Proclaim the gospel (good news) of Christ and see lives being transformed.

Dear Lord Heavenly father,

I have learned so much over the last three months.
And yet all this worldly wisdom
has failed to fill me up.
I still fill as empty as ever.
It is now that I realize that only your love and grace
can fill me up.

Work is good.
It does not only give me the money I need to look after myself,
It also gives me some form of distraction and purpose.
I find it enormously meaningful
To spend my time educating the young.
It is so much better than just focusing on my training alone,
having no regard to everyone else.

I feel that this job is really a noble one.
And I truly appreciate it.
I do not know how long I would last in this profession.
I feel that I am lacking grace and favour in this area.
And that is why people keep finding fault in me.
This is why I receive all kinds of mean comments.

Perhaps teaching is really not meant for me.
Maybe there is a better job out there for me.
Whatever it is, please give me a sign.
Bless me with the wisdom that I might know what to do.

I believe firmly that good leaders and bad leaders,
You created them both.
And you gave them both with power to govern your men.
Thus, I must respect these authority figures
and leave when my time is up.

Please bring me to a better place,
Where I can feel welcomed and at ease.
This stress is affecting my health.

I pray for your grace to be upon my school,
my students,
my family,
my training squad,
and me.
Please bless us all with your superabounding grace and favour.

All this I pray in Jesus's name,
Amen

I used to take everything very seriously. I was a perfectionist. I wanted everything perfect. But as I got older, I learned to take things more lightheartedly. For wisdom and God's grace has taught me that nothing earth really matters. As long as God is still God, we are luckiest and most blessed people on earth.

But my job - teacher has successfully instilled another voice in head. Teaching has this tendency to blow up every minor error. It makes every minor hiccup sound catastrophic. "DO YOU KNOW THE CONSEQUENCE OF THIS?" We are being taught how letting one child off the hook for a minor mistake can lead to a serious consequence.

I tried to live up to this expectation. But I just can not be perfect. And this has made me so stressed, I find it hard to do my job well. Everywhere I go, every student I see has a potential problem... Minor things like forgetting to go for a haircut... not tucking in their shirts... are all major problems... and if I ignore them, I will be condoning them and encouraging them. That will be my irresponsibility as a teacher.

I hate this voice of law drumming in my head... It is robbing me of my peace... Perhaps teaching is really not the job for me. I need a job that shouts grace grace!! A job where my patience and cheerful nature will be appreciated.. and not hated and despised as a form of negligence!!

Teaching

I used to think that the most important trait of a teacher is intelligence. You have to be an expert in the subject you are teaching in order to be a good teacher.

Now I know that I was wrong. To be a good teacher you need to be so much more than an expert in your subject. You need to:

1. Be willing to be hated (Remember that your job is not to make the students like you. It is to help them do well in their studies and grow up to be good people)
   
2. Develop a new face/personality (your face have to be in a permanent frown in class - otherwise, your students won't take you seriously)
3. Patience is important!! (But you must never let your students know that you are patient. You have to be the most unreasonable, demanding teacher you can be in order to discipline the students - the students must be so frightened of you that they are afraid of stepping out of line)
4. You got to be firm (if you cannot manage the class and get them to respect you enough to listen, no matter how good you are at a subject, you will never be able to teach them anything)
5. Students respond well to clear instructions. Even the naughtiest of kids love instructions. They need step to step instructions. Never give vague instructions. NEVER leave the kids without instructions. Even if you have nothing to say, make something up. They need to hear instructions.
6. Every child has this inner longing to be disciplined. It is only when you discipline them, that they know that you care about them.
7. Never lower your expectations to meet your students'. Pressure them to rise up to meet your expectations.
8. You must believe in your students and be willing to enforce discipline on them. If you do not discipline them and let them run around like monkeys. They will take that as their identity. Enforce the correct identity on them - good students. Pressure them to rise up to it.
9. Teachers get so much respect that they often don't deserve. Every personal small act of kindness is blown out of proportion. So value your words and take every opportunity to encourage and talk to the students individually.
   
10. If you put in your best effort and your heart into teaching, your students will feel it. This will inspire them to work harder themselves. Nothing is more encouraging then seeing someone who believes in you.

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I have been told that I am not teaching material and that I must face up to that humbly and accept that not everyone is born for teaching. Maybe they are right. There are some aspects to this profession that I just cannot stand. I cannot stand putting up an angry face all day. I can stand shouting all day long. And I can't stand getting all kinds of unconstructive criticism from people who have this solidified bad impression of me.

If teaching just involves teaching and helping the students. I would very confidently say that this is the job for me. Unfortunately, it is so much more than that. Above being a responsible teacher, you have to be able to make your superiors like you... You have to also do all kinds of backstage work like marking, setting of papers, planning events, organizing of equipment, CCA management....

MOE, if you are reading this... Please hire some people who specialize on all the additional work so that we teachers can focus on teaching... Anyone can do admin work. Anyone can invigilate. Why hire a graduate, who has been trained for years in her subject just to force her to do admin work? Why waste the energy and precious time of such talents teachers on such tedious, mundane tasks? Why not just hire an O level graduate to do those tasks so that the nurturing, patient and genuinely concerned teachers can focus on doing their job - teaching? They will also be more patient and kind to their students as they will be happier. Please do not waste the energy and talent of precious teachers by making them clerks and admin staff as well....

In Conflict

As a teacher I must acknowledge the importance of discipline.

Do not withhold discipline from a child,
If you punish him with a rod, he will not die.
(Proverbs 23:13)

Discipline is a lot like a net... If you really wish to enforce it, you need to have a flawless net... One tiny hole and it is ruined... The hole will only grow larger with time and before you know it, you will lose even the good ones...

The good and disciplined students need to be praised and appreciated, or they too will slip out of the net.

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But I am in conflict. As a firm believer of grace... It is so deeply ingrained in me that we must forgive and love in order to let the child grow... But now I believe that nothing can be worse than overly pampering a child. Remember that the child is young and his moral values are not well formed yet. If he cannot find the leadership he needs in his parents or teachers, he will look for other sources (bullies and gangsters)... Frightening eh?

Therefore discipline is important... If you really love your child or student, you will discipline him... You got to firmly knock in the values in his head such that he will develop a voice that will hold him back from doing wrong when he tempted... Such a voice in the head cannot come just like that... it needs to be drummed in...

Once the discipline is set, this is when grace comes in... As a leader, you need to be able to distinguish genuine errors from errors that conducted deliberately due to disregard... The latter must be addressed firmly.. The former should be dealt with grace.... If you forgive a genuine offense... you will win the person over.. But you if choose to punish him for something that is not his fault, you will lose him... Therefore, it is not a light matter... Think carefully before executing punishment...

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I have to toughen up and train myself to be a firm and strict teacher... It is not about me... Personally, I don't like the new me.. The one who won't hesitate to pick on your flaws, point at you and stare at you... But this is the person I have to become in order to ensure that my students learn well.. To train them into better people.. To be the leader they need... I need to be a figure of authority that is worthy of respect before they would consider coming to me when they have a problem... If I keep smiling and appearing weak and relaxed all the time, they will definitely hesitate before coming to me... They might even choose bad company over me...

Therefore, NO time to lose... The change must start NOW!!

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Dear heavenly Father,

I pray that you bless me with the wisdom I need
To be a good teacher, fighter, Training partner, daughter and friend.
I know very well that you can work without me.
But I have come to learn also that you empower people
and place them in positions to make a difference.
And I want to make this positive difference.

Therefore dear Lord, I pray for the wisdom and patience
That is required not only to handle the students,
but also the staff and many training partners.
Some of my training mates are as young or even younger
than my students.
It is hard for me to switch roles.
I fear that I might end up hurting them
Or worse hurting the atmosphere at the training area.
Please bless me with the wisdom and favour I need.

I commit everything in your hands dear Lord.
This is not an easy time for me.
I am always tired and I find it hard to be alert and vigilant at all times.
I find it hard to drag myself to training after a hard day's work.
I find it hard to wake up every morning
Knowing I have to spend my day shouting at students.
I find it very difficult to tolerate the attitude problem
Of some of the people around me
My patience is coming to its limit.

And yet, I have been through much worse.
And you have kept me alive.
This is why I am confident.
This is why i am not afraid
Thank you dear Lord!!

In Jesus's name,
Amen

The king's test

There was once a king with two sons - James and William. Of the two, he had to select one to be the heir of his throne. He decided to give them a test.

He brought the two boys to an empty room and gave them each a copper coin. He said, "Buy something with this copper coin that can fill up the entire room. The person who succeeds will be the heir to the throne."

With the copper coin, James bought a large amount of hay. He layed the hay in the room and tried to spread it out to fill the entire room but failed. After many hours, his father the king came to him. "You have failed my Son. Now let's wait and see how your brother does."

They moved the hay out of the room and invited William in. They were surprised to see that William had only one tiny box in his hand. The king was surprised. He asked, " Son, have you come here unprepared?" William answered with a gentle smile, "No father, I am confident that this tiny thing here will fill the entire room."

William closed the curtains of the room and shut the lights. He took out the box and lite it. It was a candle. The light of the candle filled the entire room and the room was bright. William had succeeded in fulfilling the task. He was selected as the heir of the kingdom.

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Morals of the story:

1. Sometimes you got to think out of the box to come up with a solution.
2. All you need is a tiny light to light up the darkness. NEVER EVER underestimate the impact you can make. Always give yourself a chance. Give God a chance to work through you. You will surprise yourself.
   
3. Wisdom can only seen when a person is put to test

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Your way Vs God's way

There are two ways to solving a problem:

1) God's way (The way it should be.. the way that God intended it to be)

2) Man's way (The way that man has devised over years of experience to make life more bearable for himself)

The world is not an easy place to live in. Well, perhaps it can be quite easy for a baby, but you must admit that life gets tougher and tougher each day. As you grow older, you get more and more exposed to the harshness of this world. You start to learn that people are not really the kindest of all beings... That most of the times, doing the right thing takes extra energy while doing the wrong thing comes so easily... It is as if you were born to do the wrong thing...

That is the brutal truth of this world.... Anything apart from that, is just a padded and cushioned version of the truth to make life simpler for our vulnerable young ones... Unfortunately,the natural order of this harsh reality is also very true for children in school... And to cope with bitching and discrimination, children can either learn to deal with it with their own wisdom and power (man's way) or to deal with it God's way....

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Example 1:

A child is being bullied in class... His entire class discriminates him and makes fun of him every single day of the week... He feels left out and lonely... He starts to realize that the quickest way of being accepted is to be mean to others and act cocky... To bitch about others behind their backs and discriminate the weak ones... He has two options now:

Option 1 (Man's way)
He starts picking fights in class and spewing vulgarities... He challenges the teachers and bullies the newcomers. The students in class starts becoming afraid of him and decides to stop bullying him... He thinks that his classmates respect him and believes that he has done the right thing...

Some students even being to admire his 'courage' in speaking up to the teachers... and they decide to befriend him and join him in behaving badly in class... Together, they form the gang in class and any student who refuse to conform to their bad behavior will be bullied and discriminated by them...

Option 2 (God's way)
The child knows that bitching about people and bullying the weak is a very bad thing to do... As we should all treat others the way we wish to be treated... He, of all people know the pains of being ill treated and how lonely it can be... He decided that no matter how harsh the circumstances get... he will stand firm on God's word and not conform to the patterns of this world just to fit in... Though he knows that it is the fastest way to fit in, he will not hurt others just to fit in...

When the new student comes, instead of discriminating him, he chose to befriend him... Slowly but surely, the class starts to realize that you don't have to be mean to be accepted... Eventually the class is touched by his efforts... and by God's supernatural grace.. this culture of bullying is removed...

Of course the child persistence on keeping to God's way has caused him much more suffering as compared to the scenario 1 where he chose to do it 'man's way'.... but in the long run, it solved the problem... not by transferring the suffering to someone else, but by genuinely solving the problem of class bullying...

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God's way is definitely not the fastest way... It is also not the most pain free and easy way... In fact, it takes loads of determination and courage to execute God's plan and purpose in your life... Sometimes it gets so hard that you begin to doubt that the way is even effective... But fret not, God does not leave you with a difficult situation and not provide the solution... He will bless you with everything you need to overcome it... Your only job is to hang on and not give up...

Because you do not conform to the patterns of the world, people will find you strange... And your persistence on doing good will cause them to feel uncomfortable because they feel inevitably small and immoral beside you... You will probably end up being ostracized... And when people realize you are patient and kind, they will take advantage of you and criticize you openly, knowing that you will not retaliate...

But persist because you have a weapon the world does not have. You have God's grace! All this pain and suffering you are going through now is really not what normal humans can bear... It leads them to depression which eventually leads to all kinds of cancers and illnesses... But not for you, because this hardship will not overcome you... By God's grace, instead of becoming weak, you will be stronger, wiser and more Christ like...

You are God's child and he will help you through this with his super abounding grace and favour... When you align yourself with the plans God has for you in your life... you can't help but succeed... So persist in doing good and not listen to the counsel of the ungodly.. They might be doing it with good intention but exercise discernment... Choose the right advise to listen to... Of course some of the advise is good... but be sure to cast out the bad advise and not be tempted to follow them...

I am firmly aware of my identity in Christ... I am God's child... And God's child does not do something wrong and hurt others just to succeed... I know that my ways and silly persistence may seem annoying and strange to the people around me... But eventually one day when I succeed, I can boldly say that God's way is indeed the most effective way... My life would be a pure testimony... As opposed to.. yes, I did do it God's way 90% of the time but I also bitched and back stabbed 10% of the time....

That 10% taints everything...

With that said, I do make a multitude of mistakes... Whether as a teacher, fighter, friend or daughter... I do make many mistakes... But none of them were intentional... and none of them were done with the intention of hurting anyone... I am only human... And worse still, I am a young and inexperienced human... That's all I can do... I make mistakes... but I trust that God can use my weakness and mistakes and turn it around for good eventually...

That's what God's grace is all about... Living life fully aware of God's good opinion of you... and trusting that God's power is perfected in your weakness...

Lastly.. Quote of the day - You got to be tough minded, but soft-hearted

His glory appears

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TEdPiuAR66I

Fantastic song (Hillsong love-hope-faith)

You gave me hope
You made me whole
At the cross.

You took my place
You showed me grace
At the cross
where you died for me.

And his glory appears
like the light from the sun
Age to age
He shines!

Oh, look to the skys
Hear the angels cry
Singing holy is the Lord.

You gave me hope
You made me whole
At the cross.

You took my place
You showed me grace
At the cross
where you died for me.

And his glory appears
Like the light from the sun
Age to age,
He shines!!

Oh look to the sky
Hear the angels cry
Singing holy is the Lord

Apology

I must apologize for neglecting this blog. I have been so busy of late that it is nearly impossible to squeeze in sufficient sleep time. Let alone garner the patience I need to switch on my dinosaur laptop. Well, the good news is that I have finally liberated myself from slow speed computing and gotten myself a new net book. Small be fast. Will try to blog more from now on.

But it is true. Time is a crucial factor. Now that I am busy with work, training and tuition, I really am unable to blog as diligently as before. Many great blog ideas now hover at the gates of birth and only the best will make it through to the blog... And even then, I seriously doubt that I will be able to write much. I will probably end up summarizing my ideas into concise blog entries. But well, I must have faith that I am nothing but a vessel of God. If he has a purpose for me to write good blog entries, I will certainly produce the treasures. No doubt about that.

Before I forget, I am enormously touched that my blog (of 4 blog entries) actually has a follower!! Thanks dear!! You give reason to blog!!

Will try my best to 'grace' this page more often... Love ya!!

Wrong lessons

Humans are remarkably intelligent creatures... They learn instinctively... consciously and subconciously... It is this ability that has ensured the success our species...

Very unfortunately, today's topic will not be on Darwin's theory of evolution... I was also tempted to write about how humans instinctively mimic the behaviors of other successful human beings (whether or not these behaviors will eventually lead them to success as well)... But then it will inevitably lead to some form of chicken and egg theory... So perhaps, the best thing to write about now is the following... How humans learn wrong lessons in life...

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When the sun is shining brightly and everybody adores you... You feel no need to change.. You are comfortable and secure and oh so proud and confident... But when bad things happen... the human being is compelled to look within themselves for the reasons as to why these bad things happen... this is know has introspection... Which is actually a neutral word... Except in my dictionary... It's BAD...

But in mainstream culture.. Introspection is seen to be to some degree good.. It help us reflect on how we can adjust our behavior, speech, dressing.. and even our mindset to make us more socially acceptable... or to allow us to perform our jobs better.... Basically, through introspection we modify ourselves to make ourselves less likely to be the target of another blow of trauma...

Sadly, while introspection do encourage people to become 'better'... most people pick up bad habits from this act of introspection.. This is most evident in the phenomenon know as peer pressure...

What is peer pressure? It is simply the pressure your peers exert on you to be similar to them.. For example a child might be pressured to pick up smoking because all his friends in class smoke... So in order to fit in and be well-liked by the others in his class, he decides to succumb and pick up smoking...

Therefore, let's get to the main point of our entry today - wrong lessons....

Picture this (true story):

A child topples from a height of 2 metres, landing head first while he was trying to steal cookies from the upper shelve of the kitchen cabinet... His mother rushes to the kitchen all ready to scream at him... He picks himself up immediately, smiles at his mother and attempts to clean up the mess he's made to appease her and prevent her from blowing her top at him....

24 hours later, this small boy die of internal injury.. head trama...

It is sad... but this is a true story that happened in Singapore... The child was so afraid of his mothers screams that he did not tell his mother that he was in pain... and the delayed treatment eventually led to his death....

Who's learned a wrong lesson here? Both mother and child...

Mother:
She's micmicking her own mother who screamed at her when she made any tiny mistakes when she was young... It successfully reduced the cases of mistake occurences for her so she decides that it is an effective measure to take when young kids make mistakes...

Child:
Mummy gets angry easily... I better not tell her when I have problem.. She does not handle difficult situations well.. She screams at me whenever I get hurt... I better not show her any signs of pain....

The result of the wrong lessons - the lost of a life...

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Of course not all examples are as dramatic and heart wrenching as the example given above.. but you do get the message right? That there are many solutions to solving a problem... what works for you... might be effective to perhaps a 70% degree.. but there might be an even better solution out there that can have a 100% effectiveness...

Let me illustrate:

A girl was rejected by a boy at the age of 15.... She was so severly traumatised that she made a promise to herself that she would never fall in love again....

For the next 30 years of her life, she rejected all opportunities presented to her... and stayed single and stable... and reasonably happy.... She thinks to herself "I am so happy I made the right decision at 15 to stay single all my life."

What she does not know is that God had a better plan for her... to be married.. loved and to bear children...

Of course her solution (to block our all guys) worked. It prevented her from being traumatised again... But it was a terribly wrong lesson to learn....

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Lessons learnt through bad experiences can sometimes be so ingrained in our subconsciousness that they are nearly impossible to fix... With that said, nothing is impossible for God... Pray for the wisdom and strength to see things as they really are and to learn the correct lessons through hardship....

God's grace!!

Different = Bad?

I noticed this from my new job - contract teacher at MOE... that most people tend to be afraid of change.. Or rather... they tend to view peculiar things in a bad light... Not because they are rigid or mean... It's just that they are alarmed and taken aback by things they do not know... They simply do not know how to handle it.. And thus.. for most of them...

Different = Bad

Thus, they either start panicking.. or they resort to all means and ways to get rid of the new thing...

Picture this... A man tends to a small patch of grass for 10 years.. He weeds and mows the grass diligently... hoping that one day, a stray seed might find its way onto his grass patch and blossom into a beautiful flower... One day, he saw a small weedlike flower... He was afraid and he did not know what to do... Because he has never seen it before.. and yet... it was so beautiful he felt that it was such a waste to get rid of it.. However, he is similarly afraid that it might just be a weed that might take over the grass patch if action is not taken immediately... Thus, he just stands there and stresses over it for hours....

What this man does not know is that his dream was just on the verge of materialising... and it all depends on how he deals with this new and peculiar flower... The easy path would be simply to walk away and let nature take its course... but he chooses to ruminate and stress over this little flower...

Many of us are like that... When God blesses us with some things or some people.. they might not look or appear to be like what we have expected them to be... But in these people lie the greatest treasure God has in store for you... Do not dismiss them simply because they are different... For all you know, you might be killing the very blessing you've been praying for for years...

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The solution?

We must always move ourselves out of our comfort zones and expose ourselves to things that are different... In fact, try experimenting new things every now and then... Pick up a new sport... Get a new pet.... Dress differently.. You are bound to meet NEW people... and you eventually learn that peculiar people are not bad... they are just different.. With sufficient patience and genuine concern, anyone can be a good friend, collegue and buddy...

Being different might not necessarily be bad... especially in a world so ridden with misconstrued religion and other vices... Sometimes, if not most of the times, being different means that you are the only one who is right...

God never asked us to be exact photocopies of each other.. Be brave and original... And have enough faith to believe that people will love you for who you really are... even if you are different from them...

I'm back

Welcome back Koalathong... I am sorry I had to move you to another address... But I really did enjoy that period of privacy... Where I could keep everything to myself... But well, I am aware that God's grace and blessing requires an outlet in order for it to flow... So perhaps, it is time for me to revive this blog...

Why Koala? Well, I find myself quite alot like a koala... I sleep alot, Eat alot... Cling on to things alot... But more importantly, I like the image of a koala gripping on the a tree... it sort of reminds me of a christian clinging on to the word of God and his promises... That kind of blind childlike faith... It's beautiful...

So yap, Koala Thong it is... Needless to add... Thong's my surname... a small bit of me in this blog.. Though most of the time, I just hope that it will be God speaking through me...

God's grace... God Grace!!!