4 Dec 05 - God, you are still great in my life!

Journey...

As usual I took MRT to Somerset for morning church service. On my way there, a mother and her son caught my attention. She took a timer out from a bag and a file. Her son is reciting something so fast that I could not catch what he was saying. Little did I realised that his mother is timing his recitation of the words in the file. As I continued to observe, I felt an unjust for the child to go through such tough rote learning. He memorised word for word from cover to cover in the file. The man who sat beside me shaked his head at disbelief that a mother did that to his son. I was planning to read my bible on my way but I was not able to concentrate.

How can a mother do that to his son? Will any good come out of it in the long run for her son? Will her son resent learning in time to come? Does she know what her son really like to do?

I believe the mother loves her son but I think there's a better way of teaching her child. Has she forgotten the most important aspect of child education? To build up her son to be a man of integrity. A man of his word. A man who can be relied on.

Testimony..

Today in service, Jun Ming shared how he got to know God and our church through an internet portal. It's enouraging to know that we can use various media to communicate God's love to others. Share with u an online video, "How blogging can't be ignored". http://www.edelman.com/events/UK_Blog/startwm.html

Sermon..

The sermon today sets my mind thinking and evaluating my life in 2005. Have I grow as a person? To be more Christ-like. Have I grow in my understanding of who God is in my life? Do I have more joy in my life?

It's true that in our pursuit of achievement in our lives, we can still be poor in our personhood. How do u measure success? Is it measured by the wealth, fame, friends...that you have? It is not wrong to have these but in our pursuit for them, have we failed in our personhood? Have we lose our integrity to gain them? Who is glorfied when we have all these?

Character determines the depth of a person. Build up this important area in our lives, that we always fail to do, as it will determine where we are heading towards. Success that lasts or success that lasts for a moment?

Time to make new year resolution. God bless me with great success!

Another aspect that was mentioned is about friendship. I agree that we should lean towards friendship than stewardship.

Be courteous to all, but intimate with few, and let those few be well tried before you give them your confidence. True friendship is a plant of slow growth, and must undergo and withstand the shocks of adversity before it is entitled to the appellation. ~ George Washington

True friendship is indeed a rare find in the world that we are living in now. A friend that loves at all times...where can we find?

I remembered those days when my friendship with my friend was on the rocks. Both of us 'hated' one another and I even have thoughts of ending this friendship. But thank God we passed this testing and came out stronger in our relationship. Now we are the best of friends ;-)

In each of my friends there is something that only some friends can fully bring out. By myself I am not large enough to call the whole person into activity; I want other lights than my own to show all his facets. Hence true friendship is the least jealous of loves. ~ C.S. Lewis

No man is an island. I am thankful to have many friends around me who molded and shaped me to be the person I am today. Though there are still many areas that I need to grow in. Thank God for the many good friends that He has blessed me with.