~this child of God~


Giggle - Know me, know my Lord!
I have a good LORD and I live a simple life
- do you want to know my Lord too?

The reason this blog exists:
* To testify to God's goodness
* To journal and reflect on God's blessings in life
* To encourage/challenge one another with good articles/verses, etc
If you find the contents in this blog worth reading and sharing, please feel free to do so =)

Favourites:
~ Books by Max Lucado
~ Jigsaw challenge
~ Music (especially Canon in D & theme from the Ice Castle "Looking through the eyes of love")
~ Reading
~ Beauty zzz

~Wishes of God's child~

+ Just a closer walk with Thee
+ A vibrant youth ministry in every church of God
+ A good team player that builds the house with God with other co-workers
+ To be a faithful and available minister of the Lord
+ Family salvation

~Bridge-to-bridge~

junling
 rachel
 glenn
 breanna
 glenda
 sarah teo
 sn (password protected)

~Anything to say?~



~credits~

simply.dance
blogskins
blogger
echoica
Raffles City advert from today

~Previous posts~


Couple of random thoughts
Stress of students
Flag day
The car-horn
Miracle Maker
Counting the manifold blessings
On holy ground ... at work!
The burdens of leadership
Respond ... not react
This is scary!!!

~Journal archives~


August 2006
September 2006
October 2006
November 2006
December 2006
January 2007
February 2007
March 2007
April 2007
May 2007
June 2007
July 2007
August 2007
September 2007
October 2007
November 2007
December 2007
January 2008
February 2008
March 2008
April 2008
May 2008
June 2008
July 2008
August 2008
September 2008
October 2008
November 2008
December 2008
January 2009
February 2009
March 2009
April 2009
May 2009
June 2009
July 2009
August 2009
September 2009
October 2009
November 2009
January 2010
August 2010
August 2011

Friday, August 12, 2011
Couple of random thoughts

1. National day songs - it suddenly dawned on me that the focus of each year's National Day song has gone from those that are patriotic in nature to that are more sentimental/unity in nature. I still remember songs like "We have a vision", "Count on me Singapore" - whose words and beat cause the people of this little red dot to arise and stand for the country. I don't recall too many songs of the recent years but some of my favourites include "Home", "Where I belong", "Reach out for the skies" - songs that I thought were not as patriotic in nature as those of earlier past. Has the change been a reflection of our achievements or our complaceny? Hmmm...

2. Politics playing - this is something you find, not just in the official political circle, but everywhere as long as there is a creature called "human being." I hate politics playing - I hate to play politics and I hate people people who play politics. To a certain extent, I don't "blame" people for playing politics - sometimes it is really essential and necessary for survival. Over the years I keep reminding myself that I wouldn't allow myself to be dragged into politics, neither should I be found doing it for a couple of reasons:- (a) it's rather inevitable that people are backstabbed along the way when politics are played and I don't want to be the dagger thrower, (b) I know that God will act for me and playing politics to save my own skin would not be something that is pleasing to Him, (c) at the end of the day I still want to be able to recognize myself - woe to the day and time if I should be so suck into politics that I become a totally changed person that I cannot even recognize who I am...

3. Jesus and ministry training - now and then, churches conduct courses to train and equip lay or ministry staff in various areas for ministry. I wonder how Jesus trained His disciples when He spent time with them. Did He require them to finish a complete course before sending them out, or did it warm His heart that they carry out OJT (on the job training) as and when they learn, as and when they go. I wonder if Jesus was our trainer in all our courses, would He require that we all get a PASS before He dare to send us out, or He would rather we use whatever little we have learnt from Him and minister as the needs are brought before us ...

Some more food for thoughts huh ...




2:57 PM
Posted by Giggle
(0) comments

Thursday, August 04, 2011
Stress of students

I was chatting casually with some parents after our weekly parents prayer meet and we hit the topic about the stress our Singapore students seemed to be facing.

Interestingly, during the conversation, someone said that actually the Singapore education system isn't the most stressful one as compared to education system in countries such as China and Vietnam. It surprises me!

Well, I didn't quite "bother" to do some "homework" to check how true this statement was, but it caught me pondering for once about why the students of our country feel so stress and loaded ...

It took me a few days to think and ponder and wonder what had changed since the time I was formally schooled until the current times. It's true that the days are longer and more packed, but I guess that's also because our kids these days are more brilliant compared to generations before. But I believe it's not just the kids in Singapore that was more intelligent and bright, the same goes for the other parts of the globe too. So what has changed?

As I thought, I came to a conclusion that perhaps our kids feel so stressed, not because of the education system, but because of the additional commitments loaded onto their limited capacity. Besides school, they have countless tuitions, not to mention a string of "extra curricular activities/lessons" (eg piano, ballet, violin, drawing, swimming, etc, etc) planned by their own parents.

Can I say for sure that kids in other countries do not have these extra lessons? No I can't, because I have no sources of information, neither did I have the time (or rather bother) to check it out. My gut feel tells me that I should be "quite right" - based on the Singaporean culture, Singaporean upbringing, Singaporean kia-su spirit, etc.

So maybe the next time we say that kids in our country are stressed, we better think twice before putting the blame on the education system, if the fault should have been laid with us.


2:45 PM
Posted by Giggle
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Tuesday, August 02, 2011
Flag day

Students in school would not be unfamiliar with being asked to volunteer their time for flag day - whichever organizations that may be calling out for help.

I was driving past an MRT station on my way to the church and as I stopped at the junction waiting for the traffic light to turn green, my attention was fixated at a girl holding a tin-can standing on the pavement, just outside the MRT station. Her body language did not really portray enthusiasm to what she was doing, as she waited quite "boringly" for some passerby that she can approach during the morning of a weekday.

She was fairly fortunate to encounter a man coming along her way. The man paused for a moment, seemingly in a short conversation with her, before putting some money into the tin-can.

Well, obviously I could not hear the conversation that went on, but I reckoned he could have asked the girl the cause of what she was helping in - ie. perhaps what the organization is, or perhaps where the money will go to or who it will bless, or perhaps a brief introduction of the cause of the organizatoin.

As I pondered on the possibilities of the questions, I begin to ask myself if the students who chose to volunteer for such services (perhaps they "volunteer" because of the points they need to clock/accumulate) actually make an effort to find out more about the organization and its cause from which they are representing to solicit public donations.

In the same way, as followers of our Lord Jesus, do we really believe in the person and the mission of our Lord? Or do we know to the slighest details what we are doing when we are challenged to walk the streets to show His love and win souls?

I, for one, "dread" passing by people holding tin-cans that look the least interested in what they are doing (ie. just holding out the tin-can and put it before your face as you walk past), and it makes me wonder how people also "dread" passing by us Christians who seemed the least interested to talk about our Savior and His cause ...

Hmmm... food for thoughts ...


2:30 PM
Posted by Giggle
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Monday, August 01, 2011

The car-horn

Gosh, it's been almost a year since I last blogged =P ... Well, I guess the busyness of ministries and family had left me with little time to really sit through and ponder on things and penning my thoughts down. No excuse still, I know =)

After having my brain juice and brain power "pause" for so long, I suddenly felt the urge to begin writing again - well, not those theological pieces, but something simple and reflective, from daily life.

Was out tonight for some appointment and on my way back I had to pass by Orchard Road, the stretch from Scotts Road towards Newton, to be exact. A part of the road on the left side was merged from two lanes into one, and some cars were stopping to alight their passenger. The cars behind them began to signal their intention to filter out to the next lane, which happens to be the lane that I'm was driving in. As it was impossible for them to filter out while I was passing the cars by, I honked to signal a warning to them.

As I drove past, it began to dawn on me the real purpose and intention of the car-horn. What I just did caused me to think about the purpose of the car-horn. Shouldn't a car-horn be meant as an instrument to signal warning, and to alert road users and drivers to possible dangers and hazards? The next thought flashed past as I recall reports of ugly incidents concerning road bullies, some for misusing the car horn - honking out of impatience, and honking when they became inconvenienced. From an instrument with a pure and noble purpose, the human hands had used it as a tool to overpower and to hit back. Sad =(

This is just one of the thing that made me pause to ponder and think ... I believe if I look around more, put more thoughts and reflections into what is happening around daily, I will be able to see things meant for a pure and noble purpose being misused, because of man's pride and folly.

Till then ... =)


11:42 PM
Posted by Giggle
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