The Change

hot fries on my lap

My son advised for me to take a break from cooking. He wanted me to just rest. Him and my husband wanted to pick up something for lunch yesterday. My husband suggested the old diner where we always went for burgers and fries.

After running an errand, we proceeded to drive toward that diner we frequented pre-pandemic. Post- pandemic, we still went but always through the drive-thru. Not because we were afraid of being with people but because it was more comfortable eating at home to savor the labor less meals.

Paying at the window, my son handed a $50 whole bill for $28 we owe. The familiar guy, despite the mask donned on his face, who usually happened to take our orders each time, cheerfully gave a change of $22 which my son quickly gave to his dad, sitting on the passenger side, as my son prepared his hands to receive, anticipating for our bagged lunch be handed over to him through that window. I saw my husband looking at the dollar bills intently as my son paid attention also, wondering why his dad was holding the paper bills longer than he used to. No wonder! As my husband counted the change, an extra $20 bill was hidden behind one which that guy gave.

There were no second thoughts between the three of us. We knew surrendering that extra $20 bill was the right thing to do.

"Excuse me!", my son uttered as he softly raised his right hand to get the guy's attention.

"I gave you a $50 bill and I'm supposed to pay $28," he added, as the guy now was closer to the square window, the whiff of freshly-fried potato fries spilling toward our car.

I could see a little annoyance through his eyes even with the dark blue mask he wore. I felt he might be a little offended that my son, waving all the paper bills change he gave in front of him, was challenging his accuracy regarding the money exchange. 

With a sure, slightly arrogant tone, he replied, "Yeah! But I gave you $22 dollars!!!" 

"No!," my son replied.

"You gave me $42, so here's the other $20 back!" 

Those hurt look kind of gaze was immediately replaced with a grateful kind as his voice cracked and didn't know how to thank my son. How to thank all of us.

As someone else handed him our order, I heard "Thank you guys" many times from him and ended with a wish for us to have a nice day.

Moving out of the drive-thru, my husband started a prayer. We all thanked the Lord Who deserved to be praised first for giving us strength to always do the right thing in what would always be pleasing to Him. Secondly, for the bagged lunch He blessed us with.

It was a good teaching moment for our son, and also to my husband and I, that we must continue to walk in integrity despite these evil times. I could only hope that the guy learned something, too that assessing the whole scenario first would be helpful than jumping to conclusion that he didn't make a mistake. I prayed that it softened his heart to know that there was nothing wrong about being corrected if it would improve towards some kind of growth on his part in dealing with their customers. 

I didn't want to write about this. I wanted to keep it between me and my family. But this morning, I felt the need to do so as the Lord made me feel that we all fall into traps of temptations. There are many kinds. 

It's not our own strength that will help us get out of them. It is His.

It's not the change (money) that was a big deal. It's our hearts, (especially if calloused) that need to change and be softened by His grace. 

8 And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise. 9 Keep putting into practice all you learned and received from me—everything you heard from me and saw me doing. Then the God of peace will be with you. - Philippians 4:8-9 (NLT)

10 “If you are faithful in little things, you will be faithful in large ones. But if you are dishonest in little things, you won’t be honest with greater responsibilities. 11 And if you are untrustworthy about worldly wealth, who will trust you with the true riches of heaven? 12 And if you are not faithful with other people’s things, why should you be trusted with things of your own?" - Luke 16:10-12 (NLT)

When Life Give Lemons

How quickly any life's journey can be turned upside down! I know. I have been there. My family has been there these past few months. Or years... Well, since the pandemic hit the whole globe!

As soon as my husband was to retire, we had our plan to downsize. We even bought a new house in Florida. But before the ground was even dug and its foundation prepped, my husband had a change of mind and we decided to cancel the plan. Unable to visit his aging parents and family back in our country, he had a mixed feeling of wanting to move there and be settled when our original plan was to retire here where we've been residing for so many, many years. 

I get it. A sudden change of life's routine can be stressful and overwhelming. Like him. From being a busybody to all of a sudden, merely has no work to do like he used to.  Except to eat, sleep or fix whatever needs to be done in our house. My husband is the type who loves to do something and make useful of each passing minute. Slowly, that period has been subtly stealing my husband's joyful heart. At the same time, his mind is being filled with worries of life. All the worrying and all the unknowns manifested with lesser appetite, broken sleep at nights, and having no interest anymore with the things our family used to enjoy. It became a cycle. Happy in one day. Sad for more. It took a toll on me and our son also. My son and I felt helpless seeing a stranger we used to know as my husband, his Dad.

How true of that phrase... "When life gives you lemons, make lemonade!" But how do we make lemonade? What is the proper way to make lemonade that will overcome the sours of this ever changing life's journey?

Happy conversations, enjoying each other's companies, laughters always saturating each corner in our home, strength from our triple binded cord, our shared daily petitions morning and night... They all suffered.

We still pray. We know that is the vital lifeline we hold on to, to make our purposes still work.

I know the way that no matter where we go, our ultimate destination is never in any place of this earth. I know the truth that no matter what we plan or what step we take, God is the One Who directs that. I know the life that in this dark valley we're walking on, His Light will guide us and will never leave us alone in the dark.

So... When life gives us lemons...No!!! We don't make lemonade. We seek God first! The One Who promised to those who love Him that He would never leave us nor forsake us and would be with us up to the end of age...

Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles of any kind come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. 3 For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. 4 So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing.

5 If you need wisdom, ask our generous God, and he will give it to you. He will not rebuke you for asking. 6 But when you ask him, be sure that your faith is in God alone. Do not waver, for a person with divided loyalty is as unsettled as a wave of the sea that is blown and tossed by the wind. 7 Such people should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. 8 Their loyalty is divided between God and the world, and they are unstable in everything they do. - James 1:2-8 (NLT)

Like God And Like My Mother

" ¹ Follow God’s example, therefore, as dearly loved children ² and walk in the way of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God." - Ephesians 5:1-2 (NIV)

 

 

I remember my mother as I prepare meals for my family now.

“I don’t know how to cook and I wish grandma taught me because she cooked well,” I often tell my son whenever he likes something I have cooked. Opening cook books and with the availability of many cooking blogs nowadays, I try to recreate and somehow, manage to copy a particular meal.

Taking a pause from sewing a masterpiece for a particular client, the dressmaker’s (my mother) breaks consisted of scouring through her pots and knives, after going to the market with her bamboo woven basket she filled with what she would make for that day for us. Day. After. Day. She chose this huge “kawa” (big wok), I would say her favorite among her pots. I knew when she selected that, she would be concocting a huge dish, not just for us, her children, but some to be given away to relatives, neighbors, and some friends, far or near our house. That was how she was. She labored in front of a hot fire under that “kawa” as she started sauteing, then adding ingredients one after another until the good aroma arose from that huge wok and got carried all over by the wind. She never demanded for me to help her. She would just ask for me to cut some vegetables or prepped other things when she needed an extra hand.

“Do and finish your homework,” she would often say. Innocently, I never knew at that moment how much I was missing when reading or solving math problems than assisting her in the “kitchen” or standing, ogling at her “kawa” being used in the backyard because it needed an open space. Those were the days when she would tell me to add a handful of potatoes or other vegetables, or a pinch of salt or sugar or pepper. There were no exact measurements. But her cooked meals were always great and people would often ask her how she made them.

kawa

 

I left the country and finished school. Until one day, I had a rendezvous with my parents and remembered to ask my mother about a particular recipe she used to make and I missed.

“Just grate the papaya. Add a little bit of vinegar and sugar. Then, put some raisins and carrots. Taste it. If it’s still sour, add a little bit more sugar…”

“Mom! It seems hard with no measurement.”

She laughed. I couldn’t oppose her infectious laughter as she was the expert in home- tested and many good recipes.

My mother has been gone for almost 22 years now. As I prepare daily meals, I taste her hardship of preparing what to make for my family as she did for us. It isn’t easy. Especially now that the prices of commodities are a lot higher, I try to make nutritious but budget conscious meals. In between my chopping I try to master now and re purposing leftovers, I now know that my mother’s talents of sewing beautiful dresses and her great cooking which she often shared to welcome guests, loved ones and friends, and to bless sick ones who couldn’t get up to make a meal was her God given ministry. She always created and cooked things with love. She was the aroma that people missed when she passed away.

“This is good, mom,” my son uttered as he tasted the kung pao tofu I made.

I know I don’t have that talent before. But God has shown me that there is nothing impossible when we ask and when He grants anyone to have a particular talent and becomes a ministry, then, nothing is ever too late to learn and bless others in return.

I want to imitate my mother… And I want to imitate God...

 

“Don’t pray that God would teach you how to love like He loves; pray that He would fill you with Himself and that He would love in and through you. Don’t pray that He would teach you to have joy; pray that the living God full of joy would enter into you. Don’t pray that He would teach you how to be peaceful; ask for the God of peace, the Prince of peace to infill you. Because if you try to imitate in your own strength, you will be a miserable replica. But if you allow the impartation of Jesus Christ to overtake you, suddenly it all works because it is Him imitating Himself, and He is very good at being God.” 

― Eric Ludy 

The Shield

 

“The Lord doesn’t take us to another or new place if we’re not ready…”

Those words were spoken clearly in a soft hush to my mind and heart as the more tolerable heat from my morning coffee touched my mouth. I haven’t blogged in a very long time. The season of drought came to my life for the past months and years. No! I didn’t stray away from my Savior!

The ever bold, daring manifestations of all kinds of evil swept over all the nations. It destroyed livelihoods, death stole many lives not prepared to depart from this world, and the broom of lies kept sweeping all truths under the rug of darkness. History was being changed to conform to what would fit to the evildoers’ narratives, as idols of many kinds were formed and created while the One, true God was being deleted.

My energy was sapped as my family and I also transitioned to a life of being done with school and retirement from work. We wanted to downsize but all of a sudden had confusion where to go. What to do. Constant darts of misunderstanding, worries of differing degrees, anxieties and issues that threatened our stable union were thrown daily to weaken the strong bond we shared as a family.

I learned so much though since that day I died and surrendered to Christ. He gave me life. In my spiritual battles, He taught me His weapons one by one over the span of years. He made me feel His protection that surrounded me wherever I was. He never failed supplementing for our needs even during hopeless cases that He proved time in time again that He would always be the Greatest Provider of all things. I knew that I wouldn’t need anything else because He was my All in all.

Despite the hurt we all experienced and arguments we never had before, we knew by the end of the day that we couldn’t and shouldn’t give up in folding our hands and letting out our petitions in unison to reach the ever, always merciful throne of God. Healing and restoration always came through flood of tears that often washed away the pain in our broken and battered hearts. His love was always the healing balm that soothed our wounded hearts. He always came to lift up and lighten up the unseen weight on our shoulders. He wiped away every drop of tears that hours before were blinding our visions all the more. We were facing battles daily and often, our choices were the first to be attacked. Clear at the breaking of dawn, only to end up in confusion once more by the end of the day. But we all knew as a family, losing everything even with our plans wouldn’t matter compared to losing Christ if we chose to not listen or replace Him with something else in our midst. 

 

I know we were going through such testing for the dross in our lives to be removed.

“Polish and maintain your Shield…” was another reminder that ensued. 

 

 

Shield of faith…

The very part of His Armor that guards us against all unseen darts that will always try its best to penetrate and corrupt believers in Christ, along with the other target which is the breastplate of righteousness. We need to guard it with all we got especially at these trying times. How can one go to another place or take a new task if one isn’t ready and weak even before starting? How can one emerge as a victor in every trial if one easily drowns in worries, anxieties or confusion? Those darts that will always attempt to destroy His gift of faith.

Let us be careful in how we live our daily lives. For believers today, if not careful and reliant on the Lord could become the unbelievers tomorrow...Some already are in that state today! Let us stay strong in the Lord’s mighty power!