Question

Father, what does it take to be a person after Your own heart?

"Whatever it takes."

The Smiley Face Phenomenon

I wonder if you've noticed.

The Smiley Face Phenomenon! Do you not know?

Haha, okay, just being annoying here.

I don't know if it's the stress from studying or is it just the melancholia of the world, but recently, I discovered that all I have to do is to draw a smiley face anywhere (on my hand, on my notes, on my homework) and I immediately feel cheered up.

And through my years of "research", -ahem-, I've discovered that the curvier the smile is, the happier it looks! And I've discovered that different people like to draw their smiley faces differently. Some with two dots for the eyes, some with elongated smiles, some with two parallel lines for the eyes, some with a nose, some with no nose.

Anyway anyhow, I think smiley faces are a wonderful thing, simply for the cheeriness they bring.

And I think another reason for the rise in the use of smiley faces (ohmygoodness that sounds so economics-y) is that people now are losing their joy, losing their hope, losing reason to be happy. But the little smiley face is somehow a sign of how they still cling on to it, and reminds them that somewhere out there, there still might be a reason to be happy.

Mom's a teacher, and she was telling me that there was this one day, to reward a child, she asked this boy in kindergarten whether he wanted her to draw a smiley face. He said, no, I want a sad face.

So sad right!! Where got kids want sad face oneeee. C'mon man, what's the world coming to?

So stop drawing smiley faces and start living out what it stands for!

Sidetrack-which-is-still-quite-relevant-to-this-post:
I think Mr Bean is another epitome of what Smiley Faces stand for, because everytime I pass by it right, I just feel all cheered up inside of me. Haha. I just love everything about it, the cheeriness, the whiteness of the place, the freshness of the soya bean, the everything!

Go and try the soya bean ice-cream, I love it!

Happenings

Holidays are God-given, I believe from the bottom of my heart.

I'm so sorry I've not been blogging recently, I really know it is quite irritating to go to a page and see the same post again.

Well, this week has been rather eventful, if I may say so myself.

Tuesday and Wednesday brought about an escapade (noun -- a reckless adventure; an escape from confinement or restraint) with Mom, Cheryl and Mom's two friends to our dear neighbour, Johor Baru, Malaysia to attend our church's annual Renewal Camp at Hyatt Hotel. Haha, I wouldn't call it a 'reckless adventure', so to speak, but it was seeing things in a whole new dimension. I mean, once you cross the causeway, it's a whole new dimension in itself, seeing different people in a different place other than Singapore. So near, but yet so different.

Though short, the trip was good, refreshing, and many thoughts got me preoccupied as Ps. Jane Lowder shared and spoke to the church. Not so much regarding the topics she talked about, but more about her life she lived thus far, being about 60 years of age.

And that got me thinking about my own life.

She talked about how she visited Egypt and loved it so much, how she prayed for people in the Philippines, what she did in Indonesia... Though she never emphasized on the miracles, signs, and wonders that took place, what captured me was the spirit of serving God.

Traveling around the world is awesome, but what tops it off is traveling around the world doing God's work.

And when I see people like Ps Preston, Ps Matt Fielder, Ps Paul Geerling and I read about people like Jackie Pullinger and Corrie ten Boom, all these servants of God, I look up to them as godly people who I admire. These people are the ones who let me see the larger-than-life God in them, and cause me to love God more than ever, and I wanna be like them, it's my heart's desire. It's like my last post, my heart just totally wishes I were in their postion.

And yesterday, we had the Amazing Race. It was Amazingly Fun, but Amazingly Tiring as well, and you know the feeling after you had an Amazingly Tiring day, when you get home, you would wanna do nothing else, throw everything aside, and just have an Amazingly Wonderful warm bath, and sleep in the Amazingly Comfortable bed.


That's what my heart's desire make me feel like doing, just throwing everything aside and serve Him and Him alone. Throw everything aside, and spend time with Him and Him alone. Throw everything aside and just listen to Him, be still and know that He is God.

And yet that small part of me knows I still need to take care of my ministries - family, church, studies.

But this reminds me that God's got it all under control:

Isaiah 52:12

But you will not leave in haste

or go in flight;

for the LORD will go before you,

the God of Israel will be your rear guard.

Prayer

If we really revere God and look to Him as the almighty God, then our prayer life would also follow accordingly.

It will no longer be petty prayers that are motivated by self-benefit like "make the bus come", "I pray that I won't be late" & in doing so treating God like a vending machine.

If we fear God, our prayers will be those that revere Him and honour Him, that acknowledges that He is God above all and that if it is in His will for things to happen, they will happen because He is God Almighty. And knowing so gives us confidence in God for allowing things that happen (or don't happen) and knowing that we can't always have things the way we want them to be.

It gives me the confidence that the Almighty God actually listens to Michelle-sized prayers, and that gives me great comfort.

Thank You, God.

Psalms 66:19-20

...but God has surely listened

and heard my voice in prayer.
Praise be to God,

who has not rejected my prayer

or withheld his love from me!