The Greatest Guitarist

When I was 11 or 12 yrs.old, my oldest brother came home for a visit from another country, after being away for so many years. One day, he started playing a guitar and for the first time I saw him, my eyes were glued with his techniques. My stares were just fixed with the way he would pluck each string and made beautiful music. I was carefully observing him then. Inside my heart, I felt a passion to learn something new at that moment!

So, I decided to learn the guitar on my own. Patiently, I studied the dots that corresponded to the way I would place the fingers of my left hand on the frets, as the fingers of my right hand tried to go up and down to try to make a chord. After a few days, my fingers were hurting! I noticed the blisters that had formed on each finger. Though it would hurt so much to try to play again and again, I tried to disregard the pain so I could learn how to really play this instrument. Learning how to adjust the strings many times, more strumming and plucking of each string with the blistered fingers of the left hand positioned to strike a chord, I heard a note formed. The notes became a song that was familiar. Pretty soon, I was playing the guitar chords faster producing a more recognizable song. I was ecstatic, though I wasn't as great as Amy Grant!!! I learned to compose Christian songs and apply the simple chords which in turn, became songs I could use to worship the Lord.

Little did I know, with my whole, entire life, God is doing the same thing for me. I was the guitar He patiently used to create music. I'm sure He got a lot of blisters, too! [when I'm stubborn and not listening nor obeying His Word]. "How many times did He try to adjust my strings [my attitudes in life]?", I wonder....Oh Lord, continue to adjust me. Refine me. So I can be Your guitar that produces beautiful music to others' ears when they hear me, so that others will come to know You, the Greatest Guitarist! May they fix their eyes on You, Lord Jesus and be awed by how well You play every guitar in this world!!! Thank You for Your patience and for always being faithful and not giving up on me!

Psalm 143:5 -"I remember the days of old; I meditate on all that You have done; I ponder the works of Your hands."

Psalm 139:23-24 -"Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts. And see if there be any grievous ways in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!"

Psalm 19:14 -"Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight, O Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer."

Psalm 51:10 - "Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me."

As We Get Older

I'm having fun lately chatting with my sis-in-law using the yahoo messenger. It's wonderful that we are oceans away yet, we are communicating, sending messages within seconds. We are both updated with our day to day life events and hearing them makes both of us strong by encouraging each other when one is down or going through trials, or we may share a good laughter from funny things we say.

I was eagerly anticipating to chat with her yesterday but all day that I waited, she wasn't able to do so. I thought she might just be busy doing some errands. This morning, we were both online at the same time and had another great time chatting. She told me she had a headache and didn't feel good so she apologized that she wasn't able to chat with me. She joked about how hard it is to get older. I said, "I know". Because sometimes, I also feel aches and pains. I see my hair now with some strands turning white. Or my face with "age-spots" that they call. How many times has it happened that I keep changing my clothes, trying to find one that would make me look thinner? As we age, our skin wrinkles, our weight doubles, our memory might not be as sharp but come to think of it, they are just reminders that our lives here on earth are short and that we must look to the Lord always for He will sustain us during our aging process. I think when we feel old and weak then, we can rely on our God and we can throw away our fears about dying, knowing that the Lord promised eternal life to those who believes in Him. Thanks be to God for His love, mercy and grace.

Isaiah 46:4 -"Even to your old age, I am He, and even to gray hairs I will carry you! I have made, and I will bear; even I will carry, and will deliver you."

Psalm 71:17,18 - "O God, You have taught me from my youth; and to this day I declare Your wondrous works. Now also when I am old and grayheaded, O God, do not forsake me, until I declare Your strength to this generation, Your power to everyone who is to come."

Proverbs 16:31 -"The silver-haired is a crown of glory, if it is found in the way of righteousness."

Psalm 91:16 -"With long life I will satisfy him, and show him My salvation."

Proverbs 3:2 -"For length of days and long life and peace they will add to you."

Psalm 23:4 -"Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me."

Psalm 23:6 -"Surely, goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life; and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever."

Plans for Future

I always see this particular inmate every night, complaining of any ailment. The first time I saw her to treat her, her excuse that her ears were bleeding were not valid. When she came to the clinic inside the prison where I work, her story changed. She asked me if it was okay for her to be moved to a particular unit where they usually house those with mental health issues. It was because she heard it from a friend before her incarceration. Thinking that they get a better treatment, everyone wants to go there without knowing the specific reasons why such group of inmates get that "treatment", not knowing that those people needed it to help them overcome and improve their mental health problems...So, since she couldn't get it her way, she comes down to the clinic with any little complaint and at night, she makes it sound like something big was wrong so she won't be denied to be seen by the medical staff.

She said, "Well, I still bite my tongue." But she didn't know that prior to her coming down, I already read her chart and found out that she had been refusing her medications. On her own, she thought the medications were not working when the doctor just started her on them. I told her to stick out her tongue and didn't see any cuts or any potential problems. But I advised her that I know she had been refusing her meds and if she wanted to give them a try, give it some time for the medications to work. And she couldn't look me in the eye when I said that.

I was trying to be patient at all times and praying that I won't lose it, just like last night when she complained of bleeding ears and there was none. Calmly, I explained to her that such medical issues not requiring emergency treatment could have waited until the morning when the morning nurses do the sick call in their specific units. [If there was a true emergency from others, she was pulling me away from responding to that, since I had to deal with her]. I told her that all her medical and mental issues were already properly addressed and treated by our medical doctors and psych doctors. But there was no way I could tell her the specific reasons when we put someone in that unit she wanted to go to for the reason that she would start acting them out. I told her, she must be patient on her own, to wait until the prescribed medications start working for her and to follow what the doctors tell her in order for her to improve. She must not go by what she heard from her friend outside and the doctors know if she would need such placement if it would be appropriate by then. She said, "okay, thank you..."

In no distress, she would request right away to be sent back to her unit when she couldn't get anything that she wanted. But I know, she might be back again tonight.

Such scenario reminds me of how we act like that particular inmate towards our God. We are impatient when we don't get things [or plans] our way! Sometimes, we even get angry when He doesn't answer our prayers. We don't seem to trust that our God knows what's best for us. We keep bugging Him [or maybe not! when we lose our desire to communicate with Him] and start refusing to call on Him just like how that inmate started refusing the medications that might have help her in the first place.

Unlike me having the potential to lose my patience, God has never-ending patience. He is waiting for us to call on Him, have faith in Him, accept Him in our hearts and obey what He wants for our lives. He is our future! It is impossible to please God when we don't have faith in Him. Let's stop acting like we know what to do when achieving our plans. Then, we always end up worrying about our future....God knows best!!!

From the Holy Bible [New Century Version]:

Jeremiah 29:11 - "I say this because I know what I am planning for you," says the Lord. "I have good plans for you, not plans to hurt you. I will give you hope and a good future."

1Corinthians 2:9 - "No one has ever seen this, and no one has ever imagined what God has prepared for those who love Him."

Proverbs 16:1 - "People may make their plans in their minds, but only the Lord can make them come true."

Proverbs 16:2 - "You may believe that you are doing right, but the Lord will judge your reasons."

Proverbs 16:3 - "Depend on the Lord in whatever you do and your plans will succeed."

Nehemiah 9:16, 17 - "But our ancestors were proud and stubborn and did not obey Your commands. They refused to listen; they forgot the miracles You did for them. So they became stubborn and turned against You, choosing a leader to take them back to slavery. But You are a forgiving God. You are kind and full of mercy. You do not become angry quickly, and You have great love. So You did not leave them."

Isaiah 55:8, 9 - The Lord says, "My thoughts are not like your thoughts. Your ways are not like My ways. Just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts are higher than your thoughts."

Food For Soul

After breakfast this morning, I had noticed that my son hasn't been eating fresh fruits like he used to. He is chewing much better now after getting adjusted to having his brace. And the brace was the reason he stopped eating, because it was hard for him to bite the apples, pears and other harder fruits he enjoyed. So I brought it up, " Hey! You haven't been eating fresh fruits. It's different if you do than those processed ones so you can get the nutrients from it. That way, you will be stronger to fight illnesses." He replied, "I'm sorry mom. I know I can chop up the fruits, too. Okay, I will try to eat more fresh fruits."

"Wait a minute!," I thought to myself. I haven't been eating the proper fruits I need, too, to nourish my soul. Lately, I have been not as enthusiastic to read the Word of God [the Holy Bible]. Sometimes, being fully adjusted to the thought that I have been saved by having the brace for a while [the Holy Spirit indwelling in me], I forget that I still need to eat the fresh fruits or God's Word so I can nourish my soul and be stronger when illnesses [Satan's attacks] come. "I'm sorry, Father. I know that having the Holy Spirit is no excuse not to read Your Words...I may not read the whole Bible in one day, but I know that I can chop up the Words, verse by verse, day by day, to nourish me in return..."

John 1:1- "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God."

John 6:35 - Jesus said to them, "I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me will never go hungry, and he who believes in Me will never be thirsty."

Ephesians 6:17 - "Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God."

John 10:10 - "The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life and have it to the full."

1 Corinthians 10:13 - "No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, He will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it."

1 Peter 1:23-25 - " For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God. For, "all men are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field; the grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of the Lord stands forever."

Hebrews 4:12-13 - " For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. Nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of Him to Whom we must give account."

Psalm 119:103 - " How sweet are Your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth!"