The Simplest

Its been 2 weeks after my 20th birthday. We celebrated it simply with my family. I think, this was the first time I spent my birthday at home because we do not have car anymore, and I guess this was also the first day the storm Gener struck the Philippines (such a lucky day hahaha!). We just ate simple lunch, spaghetti, taco, and the cake my cya-er sisters gave me. It is not much but I felt happy, it's like I became a bit younger (let's just say, im still 19?? haha!) and even though I did not received gifts but still im happy! (the CAKE was a GIFT, though.. :))))

That day, as I kept on thanking my friends for greeting me, I thought of how blessed I am for having them (Yes cheesy!!) But kidding aside, I realized that when we get older, we change our views of what really are important (Though, gadgets are great help and somehow necessities for everyday's task). But before, celebrating my birthday with a lunch in a restaurant was a big deal. But now? I rather have conversations with my love ones. I believe that these sentiments of giving great value to people around me started when i opened my heart in knowing who God really is to me. I think without knowing Him, I will still be locked up from my old-self and still not be able to express my joy of having these people.

Normally, we (especially kids) wish of something, which actually referring to a thing, when we celebrate our birthdays but I did it differently and I assumed that  I am becoming more mature na (aba tingin ko dapat lang kasi 20 years old na ako haha!).

And I know that this blog is not that good like the others but I just want to say that the Lord truly blessed me with great people. I can't say anything but THANK YOU. hahaha

Im so speechless, gosh.. (Hindi halata noh hahahaha!!!)

These will be My Baby Steps

Two days ago, I went to National Catholic Charismatic Congress (NCCC) at SMX to facilitate a small group. I was assigned in Being A Friend workshop where youths and other participants thought on how to have friends and have an effective conversation between them. The speakers thought us how to listen effectively, what are the types of listeners and what should we do to become an effective listener. 

After the talk, our facilitator heads divided us to our small group field work. I was assigned to guide them to have atleast four people to have a conversation at MOA. Two of my members are pharmacy students in Binan, Laguna whom are younger than the other two from Iloilo. As we do our task in random conversations, I saw two different views from my groupmates. The youths from my group were just doing there assignment and did not really build quality conversations with people. They were just after the number we need to gather. When I asked them what brought them here at NCCC they said to me, "Requirement kasi ng Prof namin ito eh. Para daw pwede na hindi na nmin pasukan yung isang unit.". I saw some kind of 'forceful' attendance from there statement. But I just have to let it be, because I know that God made His step in coming in to their lives now. That God is starting to build His connection with these sisters from Binan. 

The other two were a bit older than me. They belong to a community (not connected with Ligaya) that encourage them to attend the congress and compared to the younger ones, they have this purpose to complete the task. They were very open to learn something new. They were open to accept the teachings from other communities and willing to find God in there activity. However, being here in Manila was one of there challenges in doing our activity, specifically the use of Tagalog language. They were some how having a difficult time communicating in Tagalog. 

During this event, I realized that not all people are really there for the purpose of knowing God. But without their physical awareness, God has this opportunity to step in to there hearts and make a difference. But it is really our choice to entertain Him and accept Him as a part of our soul and life here on Earth because God gave us our freedom to love Him or not (but it is better if WE DO! HAHA). What ever reasons that we have, we cannot stop Him from entering our lives. He has his own plans for us and  when we feel that He really doing soomething into our lives we need to start opening our hearts, accept, love Him and be the child that He wants us to be.

This was my first time to serve and handle a small group activity, serving an event with Ligaya and meeting people and do random communications (evangilization). I found it exciting because I did not really know what to expect. What will I do or magiging productive ba ako sa araw na yon. As God made his promise in Psalm 31:24 that those who have hope in Him will have strength and courage to face the unknown. Many times I become clueless to some of the activities I attended to. But as God reminded me that He is always with me so why do I need to be worry.


This will be my start (officially) for being the servant of God who will bring souls to heaven through Ligaya and UD-CYA. (Naks.. haha)

CYA (three letters with life-changing power)

CYA, three letters with life-changing power. Why? because wonderful changes came to me when I started accepting them as part of my life. I became more joyful, happier, and even having more friends. Changes with my character - my faith, my perspectives, my hope, my love for my family and friends - became the most wonderful improvements that I observed.

Photo By: Bea Malveda - Punta Fuego Outing

I also encouraged and learned how to express my love and my thoughts by their way of sharing, and how to be more responsible daughter and child of God. Another is that, I experienced to be a leader a my school (which I really do not have any wishful thinking that I would become). Through CYA, I learned to look at people around me as my greatest gifts. Serving and making them happy with full of Joy are my ways of gratitude to God. Most significant was I started to open myself to God, that I am nothing without Him, that He is my savior, my friend, and my father who will guide me in choosing the right path.

I am very thankful to my CYA family for bringing me closer to God. Through them, I started to really enjoy my life. Being one of them is a great blessing from God. Having memories and spending time with them is one of my golden treasures of my heart that can never replaced by any material things. Not just them, God also gives me wonderful friends in school. They are my ENERVONS that kept me hyper everyday.
Truly, opening our hearts to the Lord and humbly accepting that we need Him will bring us overflowing joy, love, and peace in living our life here on Earth.

Kahit anong gawin mong iwas sa Kanya, gagawa at gagawa Sya ng paraan para magkita kayo, at forever mong hindi pagsisisihan ang pagkakataon yon. And there will be time that you will become one of His instruments in finding His lost sheep and bring it back to his arms again.

As for me, CYA is God's instrument in finding ME, His one lost sheep.

I know that God is working in your life. JUST PRAY AND KEEP YOUR SENSES OPEN AND YOU WILL FIND IT.

Love

Love, a four-lettered word that gives incredibly astonishing intangible things. Such as light to those who are in darkness, joy to those who are lonely, peace to those who struggle, hope to those who are hopeless, and comfort to those who are 'unloved'. There are many other wonderful things that Love contributes to the wholeness of a person.


At the same time Love - as a one of the important building blocks - also brings destruction to those who gives to much and have it as an 'excessity' - to others and even to his own self. Love can be the cause of failed marriage, unhappy relationships and others.


Love can give us happiness, encouragements to live, and chance to share it to others and change their lives for the better but misused of this powerful intangible word leads to shattered life, unorganized thoughts, unfulfilled life and other chaos events we could think of.


However, there are some of the ways i could think and share to you to prevent this from happening in our lives: Open your self to others, accept who we are, love unconditionally, know the limits, observe and share, establish our self-worth, appreciate the things that surrounds with joyful hearts, grow up with appropriate apprehensions and most effective of all, KNOW GOD AND YOU WILL KNOW WHAT LOVE IS and how it can be shared and positively change a person's life.


Love wisely and Live happily.


Godbless everyone!


GOD loves US ALL..

Precious

Precious...

This is the name of the main character from the book “PUSH”, a book that encourages people to push themselves to do things that they are afraid and tired of doing to free them from the horror of their pasts.

Precious is a 16-year old illiterate child molested by her own father and caused her to be a mother of two babies. This traumatic event makes her think about stop breathing and die; sit still and wished that people will not judge her for what she experienced. But when she entered an alternative education for her situation, she met people who had seen her for who she really is, somebody who is special, who can do things best and beautiful just like her name. These people gave her the light to write her thoughts (even though she does not know how to write) by imagining of what letters does the word she was thinking just to let go of her emotions of anger, sadness, hatred, etc.

In life, we experience events that make us feel that it is better if we are dead (somehow exaggerated) or feel very angry, hate things and ended up asking ‘WHY ME?!’ and worst comes to worst blaming others or even God for whatever catastrophe happening to our lives. Bad events that gives us the feeling of lost and loneliness that pulls us hundreds of feet below the ground. But all we need is a bit glimpse of light to see a small path, maybe towards people who are greatly important to us, that will again turn our life back to normal.

I always believe that everything is happening for a purpose. We just need to find things that will guide us throughout the journey. Family, friends, God... It is only ourselves who know what we really NEED to keep a tight grip to our life. Having people who we deeply love is our strongest lamp throughout the night. The lamp that will never be empty of light, which will make us stand firm and keep holding to the end of our season.

Live life by loving people for they are PRECIOUS.




Credits: image.google.com: http://www.google.com.ph/imgres?hl=en&sa=X&biw=1440&bih=783&tbm=isch&prmd=imvnsb&tbnid=DdZi1nIPZ_R7-M:&imgrefurl=http://sandalsandsnowshoes.blogspot.com/2010/05/precious-by-sapphire.html&docid=ViGR0Dz_LgjUBM&imgurl=https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsE1XX3OHYMHCU-pbey04vZrAUhTL-URhNphrmO7oKdlnVzHlW0NVEHbWSnCioyDm_QxrXKgXlfzZ6x-XYqMZ01nHtNJyoJ7WXaNEOk6ISaDm1-CejRbke3U2kh5u6f5YaJt_-IsdHkrA/s1600/precious.jpg&w=389&h=600&ei=cQt8T4zgOtCTiQfnmuXECQ&zoom=1&iact=rc&dur=460&sig=116625132389436943178&page=1&tbnh=144&tbnw=93&start=0&ndsp=30&ved=1t:429,r:3,s:0,i:70&tx=32&ty=66

Mask

Every one of us has a mask. Mask that we use to hide true self, emotions and feelings. When we are outside of our house, we often wear the ‘Happy’ mask, something that will lighten our aura for the whole day. Other people do not have an idea for what does that mask is hiding? What self, emotions and feelings can be found behind that mask? Some of us do not dare to explore these things because we have the possibility of having wrong assumptions.


I, myself, wear masks. I admit it. When I’m at school or other places, I wear the mask of courage, happiness, kindness, or anything that will make me feel better. Something that people will be happy for me. Some things that will make me feel confident enough to face the challenges that await me. But when I’m at home, I do not know what kind of mask I wear. I think I do not wear mask. That is why I became clumsy, irresponsible, impatient, impulsive and someone who can trigger the ‘world war III’. Why do I wear mask? Well, I think I cannot be clumsy, irresponsible, and impatient and will trigger world war III outside so I better yet be someone who can put things together.


However, masks do have holes. Holes that will somewhat show your true self. As for me, my mask has many holes. My holes are already mentioned above and these things hurt me so much. I always control myself not to become clumsy, irresponsible, impatient and impulsive but there are things that put me into failure. These obstacles in controlling my negative side give me burden. My parents become disappointed and mad at me because I failed to do things right. Yes, I do become great at school but when it comes to our family, I somehow become a failure. This gives me a feeling that I am happier at school than my house. Every weekend, there is no time that my parents will not be angry towards me. I feel that I often give them heart ache, someone who kept them disappointed and can shorten their life span. These things scratched my mask and somewhat add another hole. But then, I’m always do my best to fix things, there are just events and situations that is very uncontrollable.


Some people say, “Just be yourself”. Well I do not know what my real self is. I thought I knew. But when I reflect, I do things differently. I am different at school and at home. I think I’m a total disaster at home and an achiever at school. Now that I just said these things, I will try to know who I really am. And I pray to God that I can be able to find it before it is too late. Maybe you might give me a clue, haha!.


P.S. I do not put my parents into blame. I am not giving them a bad image. I think I have always the problem and not them.

Attitude :D

For me, Atitude is the way how we perceive things within ourselves and even from our environment.

'How' means the process of our thinking and 'Perceive' means our understanding towards something. This word - Attitude - is greatly applied in unfolding the wonders of what we call "Life".

Life is a very complex word. There are a lot of definitions attached to it from different people with different perspectives.Some define life with negative connotations such as sufferings, pains, difficulties and so on. But others describe life as something positive like happiness, love, having friends and etc. It is definitely true that life can be describe within the two given context but Why  is it people do have different perspectives or views about Life? Some people might argue about this and give their own logical explanations. There could be different answers such as the environment they belong, the influences of their family, their culture, or their own ATTITUDE. Attitude is something personal that people have. They might not be conscious about it but they have.

what I learned in Psychology is that we cannot change our environment but we can change our attitude towards our environment. This realization is supported by some of the books of Andrew Matthews, "Follow Your Heart" and "Being Happy". These books helped me to realize that in able for me to change my environment, I must change my attitude first. We cannot control our environment, the free will of our friends and classmates, the behaviors of our professors, but we can control ourselves. We can change our views about taking challenges or risks like reducing the "load" of the word "challenge" into "letting myself grow". I can support these statements from my personal experiences with my mother.

Before I view her as a "nagger" type of mom, I always get irritated every time she shouted my name to do chores but when I learned to change my attitude towards her behavior to me like im saying to myself that "she only shouted my name due to my slow responses. Okay, I will response to her immediately now." and it works! (I did not say that it worked during the day but it took some time like months) I change my attitude to her "shouting" tone and she also change her approaches to me. However, I sometimes slipped off my tongue and fired up her hot-tempered side of personality but i just keep on reminding myself about my atitude. I also apply this to my friends and classmates in school. And i evaluated my self and i see the progress. Honestly, before i was very hot-tempered and easily get irritated, but now i am more positive in mind (though, my body does not really illustrate the positivism.. hahaha!) and

can somehow control myself.  My change in attitude about challenges brought me to where i am now. I received something that I ,myself, cannot believe that "I CAN". I felt like "is this really me?? :)))" (with a funny face). My parents said "Si Joyce kasi may pagka-late bloomer" and I totally admit it. :))) Atleast it is NOT too late..

haha!

In conclusion, I view Life with different difficulities but then these difficulties will be overcome if we change our attitude for the better. We all have the capacity to change, though it is not that easy and it will take time, but then we will not be able to achieve it if we will not get started. We must exert effort first to make our life moving. We must have to weigh the possibilities of every changes that we will make because every action has its  equivalent results. Be courageous to jump off our comfortable bed and explore life.

God has Beautiful plans for us, we will not be able to know it if we will not going tostand up, walk and start doing change that will greatly affect the way of life that we have now.. :D

I guarantee that we will have the happiness that we haven't experience before.. :)

Godbless and thank you for reading my note.. hahahhaha!

PS im not that really good at this but atleast i started something. Improvement is always at hand.. hahahaha!!

Me, Myself and I

I first heard these words in a Nestea commercial and I found it funny. Everytime I watched it, I always smiled and laughed butI never really understand the meaning of these three words, until I realized recently thatthese words are the things that sometimes people forget. We tend to give ourselves to others without having an assurance if we are ready. My parents said that in order for me to love others, learn to love myself first. They did not meant for us to be greedy towards others but to be able for me to give my genuine love i must learn to accept my own self first. Then i will be able to understand others as well. 

For me, It is the same as the first 'must' in the field of psychology, Understand yourself first before others. As i interpreted this, it is easier to us toextend our hands and understand your own personality before others. Why? Because life is a mirror or reflection of yourself.We can understand others if we understand ourselves. It is easy for us to give love, trust and positive responses to othersif we fill ourselves with these things. If we allow ourselves grow, we will also meet people who are mature enough to spend our time with.We can't totally trust others if we have doubt within ourselves.

I always like to help people to improve their self-worth. I like to encourage them but this will be a waste of time if they will not help themselves.Giving self-worth to oneself is an effort to an individual. If he will not help himself, nothing will happen and he just keep on burying himself in self-pity and disappointments. I would like to encourage my friends to take their responsibility for their self-improvement. Help themselves to help others. The very last thing on earth that we will have is OURSELVES so it is better to take a good care of it.

As side of God's gift of life, He also gave us the chance to take care of ourself.. We must fill ourselves with happiness, love, trust and we can be true to others.. :)

My Greatest Year of Change

Year 2011 is really one of the most difficult year sa family ko.. at sa akn.. na naghatid sa amin sa mas malaking pagbabago.

Pinakaspecial na nangyari sa amin naung taon eh ung nagkarun na kami ng sariling bahay.. as in wala nang renta renta.. may sarili na kming kwarto.. at may lugar na ung kapatid ku kung saan xa magaalat.. xD pero,, isa ding challenge sa parents ko ang magkarun ng bahay lalo na mga panahon na to.. dalawa na kming nasa college at ung binabayaran sa school ay ndi biro.. pero my parents face that risk na magkarun kmi ng utang na tatagal ng mga 10 years sa pagbabayad.. because of this, meju nagalangan ako tumuloy ng pagmemed.. kasi nakaramdam ko na need ku na sila tulungan sa mga binabayaran.. studying again for more like 6 years with this kind of depths eh super hirap.. Scholarship? Well ndi din kmi tatanggapin sa scholarship.. kasi meju nasa taas ng border ung income ng parents ko.. academic scholarship? Waaa mahirap din.. haha tamang studyante lng nmn ako at bka ndi ku mamantain.. well.. humans can’t predict the future.. so ndi dpt ako gumawa ng decision na baka pagsisihan ko sa pandang huli.. kelangan ku lng gawin eh to give my best  sa today.. hahaha!

Sa studies.. hmm im doing very well.. naging presidente ako ng isang organization na kht minsan ndi ku naisip n mangyayari sa akn.. xD stdying while managing an organization sa school eh sobrang challenging.. (lagi kong ginagamit ung ‘challenging’ na word noh.. haha kasi mas magnda pakinggan kesa sa risk.. xD) mantaining my grades and psych soc.. grbe.. haha ndi ku naisip dati na magiging busy person ako sa extracurricular activities.. this really CHANGED my perspectives in life.. para sa akn sa naun.. being responsible sa mga decisions and getting of my comfort zone will make me grow as a person.. ndi lng ako tumayo at humakbang palabas.. TUMALON pa ako..  wew.. hahaha! The lord gave me chance to lead.. and to see my self as a leader.. kht na mahirap.. alam ku na magiging masaya din kming lahat sa huli.. alam kudin dti na, i will not be able to please everybody.. kht anung gawin ko.. may kontrabida padin.. but then, that’s life.. hahaha! The Room for improvements never close. Natutunan ku din dtu na.. kht,  disappointed sa mga bagay bagat,, ndi ku dpt isisi sa iba ung disappointment na nakuha ko.. imbis na manisi ako.. gagamitin ku na lng ung time na yun para gumawa ng pagbabago..

Sa social life ko.. hmmm haha aun.. masaya nmn.. i find time to enjoy and explore things.. like going to north edsa.. going to cubao.. going to somewhere.. haha! Inshort.. finding time to make some gala.. ndi nmn ako nabubuhay para lng magaral.. xD ang study nmn eh para sa future ko at sa family ko.. pero kung puro aral lng ako.. wenks.. ndi ako makakasaby sa daloy ng buhay.. im always happy with my friends, classmates, course, doing something in UD-CYA.. at madami pang iba. Haha ang dami noh.. IM JUST NOT WASTING MY TIME.. kht na minsan feeling ko parang ubos na lagi ung oras ko.. but then, God always give me extra time for my personal activities..

This year.. God really gives miracles and blessings to my family and to me.. He’s taking care of us.. while we are awake.. and giving us a peaceful sleep.. narealize ku din this year na.. just let God to handle things while doing my own part as a person like living and giving importance to the life that he gave me..

God is a faithful to us.. i just need to trust and be faithful to him to make things right..

Favorite qout ku naun eh..

“LIVE.LOVE.LAUGH”

Oops.. isa pa pala.. haha Loving and serving people makes me happy now.. haha!

CHANGE? Definitely YES.