...

Wednesday, November 04, 2015

WOYWW: Our Debt of Love

 When I started WOYWW 
on April 28, 2010, (Julia's 47th WOYWW post),
it was in the hopes I would get too ashamed and would clean up!!!
My first WOYWW below:



That has not happened in the 5 years I've been sharing my desk.
I've just been more brazen!!!!

 "Pay all your debts, except the debt of love for others." Romans 13:8

Sometimes it is overwhelming to think of "loving your neighbor as yourself."  
Where do I start?  I think of all the refugees having a harsh time 
traveling through countries without food and other basic necessities. 
I think of persecuted people, Christians and Muslims, 
and minority ethnic groups around the world. 
And here in the Philippines, children who don't go to school, 
children forced into sex slavery by their own parents, 
prisoners incarcerated because they don't have 
P20,000 to pay the police who just picked them 
up off the street to extort money from them. 
In Romans 13:8, Saint Paul exhorts us to "Pay all our debts, 
except the debt of love for others. You can never finish paying that!" 
Indeed it is a never ending story. 


I was listening to a TEDx talk by Amanda Koster, 
an internationally acclaimed photographer who 
documents and shares stories about real people with real needs. 
She used to go all around the world in search of these stories, 
until one day, leaving church, she thought she should look around in her own city. 
She has now brought attention to the needs of kids aging out of foster care, 
and has helped many in her neighborhood.  
She then challenged her listeners in the TEDx San Luis Obispo 
to teach something to someone for one hour, to start with that. 
We just need to review our resources, our talents, 
and start using that to bless others.  

Recently, I learned how to do Shibori, dyeing cloth the Japanese way. 
It was quite interesting. I taught it to someone who needs livelihood, 
hoping that I can sell what she makes. 
And there's a pending project with QC Jail too. 
Some of their staff wants to start some sort of business.  
Paying our debt of love may not be easy, 
but we pay out of the unlimitless love our God has for us. 
And the resources and talents He gifts us with.



Joining the lovely Julia Dunnit for a 
peek at desks and projects!

I find a lot of inspiration
visiting my friends here:

Blessings!
Patsy
Posted by at 13 comments:

Wednesday, October 28, 2015

WOYWW: Of Awards and Saints

This is what I finished last night.
I need to do some "timing" to find out
how long it would take to make a background, the face, etc.
I am doing a workshop on Nov.7 and we only have an hour.
Possible? I'll find out!!!

Last week, my siblings and I attended
the SM Partner's Summit, an event to
celebrate 30 years of partnership with SM.

 papemelroti received the SM Green Retail Award,
along with Starbucks, Sanuk and Smart.
When Hans Sy congratulated me,
he said, "You are one of our pioneers!"
Yes we are! We were there when the first SM Mall 
opened its doors to the public in North Edsa 30 years ago.

"You are fellow citizens with the saints..." Ephesians 2:9
Saint Paul wrote this to the people of Ephesus, and I am sure if he wrote to us today, he would say the same thing. That we are fellow citizens with the holy ones, part of God's household. I could think I am no Mother Teresa who took care of the sick and dying, and who thought of herself as a little pencil in God's hand. I could tell myself I will never be a Pope John Paul II, a great man of God, who heard God call him as a young man, and followed Him to the Vatican, and helped bring down Communism. I'm not a Saint Francis of Assisi who left all his worldly goods to become a poor monk who built God's church at a time when it was crumbling. We may not be called to do something great, but like Mother Teresa, we can be God's pencil, and write what He wants us to write with our life. Nothing is impossible with God!




Joining the lovely Julia Dunnit for a 
peek at desks and projects!

I find a lot of inspiration
visiting my friends here:

Blessings!
Patsy
Posted by at 5 comments:

Wednesday, October 21, 2015

WOYWW: Much is Required


 "To whom much is given, much is required." Luke 12:48


This is not only a Biblical principle, but holds true as well in business, in families, in much of life. In Jesus' parable of the talents, He reminds us that when we are entrusted with 10 coins or 20 coins, He expects us to "invest" and use it. We are not supposed to just hide it and make sure it does not get lost. As part of Jesus' household, we are stewards of gifts, talents, resources and time. Much like God the Father told Adam and Eve to go forth and multiply, we are also supposed to use what He has given, to multiply it. Sometimes we can get intimidated by all that implies, but if we start out by giving God the best and our first fruits, He becomes our working partner in whatever we do!







Joining the lovely Julia Dunnit for a 
peek at desks and projects!

I find a lot of inspiration
visiting my friends here:

Blessings!
Patsy
Posted by at 11 comments:

Friday, October 16, 2015

Paint Party Friday: Nothing Hidden!

 "Even the hairs of your head are counted!" Luke 12:7
How precious are we to God? So precious He knows how much hair there is on our head. Now I do not know why He needs to know that, but that's what it says in the Bible! If He knows that, then He also keeps track of what we are doing every minute, every second of the day. In Jeremiah 29:11 it says that God has a plan for each of us, not just a mediocre plan, but a really excellent one. So it would be great to get to know what that plan is, to work with God, to make it come true.

 Nick Vujicic was born with the tetra-amelia syndrome. He does not have arms. He does not have legs. But he goes around the world preaching to millions of people. One time, he had a short meeting with the President of Ecuador. A few days after that, the President had to consider a law that would allow abortion of disabled fetuses. He vetoed it because he said Ecuador needed more Nick Vujicics! We may not have as big a challenge as Nick, but certainly we have as important a role to play in God's plan for the world!

"There is nothing concealed that will not be revealed, nothing hidden that will not be made known." Luke 12:2

When Jesus told this to the crowd of thousands listening to Him, it might have seemed like a threat, but I take this as a promise of freedom. The enemy likes to work in the dark, he likes us to hide thoughts, motives and intentions, so he can have power over us.

When I was young, I liked to read but we only had a few books in the house. Then my aunt went to the US to get married and left us boxes of her books. There was War and Peace and Gone with the Wind that I read innumerable times during my High School years. Unfortunately, the rest of the books were romantic novels by Lucy Walker and Barbara Cartland, mostly Mills and Boone. I kept a stash of my favorites under my bed for years, the ones that did not embarrass me. When I was in college, God told me to throw those favorites away. I did not want to. It was my guilty secret. It was almost as if I loved those books! I wrestled with God for months until one day, I told my sister Meldy what God wanted me to do. She said, "Then throw it away!" and just like that I was able to throw it all away. The hold the enemy had on me was broken.

Now I know if the enemy has a hold on me, all I have to do is bring it to the light!


Home

Linking with

So many WONDERFUL blogfriends 
to discover here!

and


Thank you for dropping by!

You are appreciated!

patsy
Posted by at 5 comments:

Wednesday, October 14, 2015

WOYWW: Celebrate!

 Here is my desk with a painting I made for 
my friend Cristy's birthday.
Above it you can see some mark makers I bought last Monday.
They are actually a non-slip rubber mats that I cut up.

Here's a close-up of the painting and the mark makers.

 "Let Your ears be attentive to my voice in supplication." Psalm 130:2
There are times when I feel confident that God is listening to me. And then there are those times when I feel my prayers are falling on deaf ears. Sometimes a whole year passes and I do not hear from God. When we need advice, we go to an expert, is it not? Sometimes we even pay to learn some skill like calligraphy or bread making. How about prayer? 

 One of the experts on prayer is King David, and what's great about him is he left his prayers for us to study and dissect, but most of all to use to pray ourselves. There are Psalms where David confesses his sin before God, where he labors to see sin as God sees his sin. There are prayers where David pleads with God, where he praises God, where he asks for help, where he is despairing. There are 150 Psalms in the Bible. I think we will find one for every situation we find ourselves in. When we pray, if we cannot find the words, we can start with David's words, and then continue on with our own!

 "Since the creation of the world, invisible realities, God's eternal power and divinity, have become visible, recognized through the things He has made." Romans 1:20
Saint Paul says in this chapter that people have no excuses whatsoever for not knowing God, for God shows His existence by what He created. For me, the most compelling proof that God exists is the amazing, awesome design of the universe, of man, of a butterfly, of an ant, and how life could not have happened without all the details of space, time, and matter colliding. The distance of the earth from the sun, gravity, the position of our solar system, all these and so many more details essential to life, could not have been sheer, random chance! It is inconceivable that life would form without God's prodding if the "the odds of a single protein molecule forming by chance is 1 in 10243 (that is a 1 followed by 243 zeros). A single cell is comprised of millions of protein molecules."

If God took such infinite care with forming our universe, our solar system, our earth, to give life to us, what does that mean? We are infinitely precious to Him! He placed into our hearts a desire for eternity, a desire for Him. Our life on earth is just a stepping stone to a life with the Father who made us. If we can live each day knowing this, we will not merely exist, we will celebrate!



Joining the lovely Julia Dunnit for a 
peek at desks and projects!

I find a lot of inspiration
visiting my friends here:

Blessings!
Patsy
Posted by at 11 comments:
Subscribe to: Comments (Atom)