It's a Comma not a Period!

One of my favorite verses is Psalm 30:5, which says, "Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning." I'm glad that I have memorized this verse many years ago. It has really helped me get through tough circumstances in my life trusting Jesus for a victory. I wanted to impose memorizing this verse to women who imprison themselves in hopelessness and despair. Those who think that the troubles they are in right now would never end. Regardless of how serious a problem they are battling at present- infidelity of a husband, memories of child abuse and physical affliction, every thing is a comma and not a period here on earth. We cannot let our circumstances drown us into the ocean of depression. What can hopelessness do to us but to make us ugly! Trust the Lord to bring you through your circumstances victoriously and make a beautiful woman in you.

A Victim of Circumstances?

While attending one of the parties that my Filipino group organized 6 months ago, I met another young Filipino lady who is also married to an American guy. We seemed to click with each other after our first conversation. Maybe because she professed to be a Christian. She and her husband started visiting us in our house. We would just eat, talk and have fun. As time went by, I began to notice the negative tone in her language. She would bad-mouth some of the people that I know in our Filipino group. It progressed to speaking ill about her own siblings- of how she was mistreated by all of them. She would use the most disgusting word to describe her very bad idea of these people. She would also complain just about anything- how she felt like being overworked in her job, her unplanned pregnancy, having a very irresponsible step-son and the list can go on. She blamed all these circumstances for her all-time depressed mood. Until one day, I couldn't take it anymore. I literally told her to stop! We had an emotional conversation and I thought I lost her for good. We didn't talk for a couple months. Recently, we bumped into each other at a common friend's house. She hugged me. She smiled. Her aura has drastically changed. I saw happiness painted on her eyes. She said, "thank you for being my friend."

Many women today think that if their circumstances were different, they would be different. They feel that if their upbringing, their environment, the people around them were different, they would be more patient, more loving, more content and easier to live with. But this is not true. If it is, then we are victims. If we are victims, then we are not responsible- we can't help the way we are. But we are responsible! Responsible for our own responses to the circumstances. The truth is our circumstances do not make us what we are. They merely reveal what we are. Thank God for giving us these circumstances for by them we will know how we need to be changed by His grace.

Extremely Busy!

I've read that the average woman today has the equivalent of fifty full-time servants, in the modern, time saving devices and equipment. Isn't that amazing? I tried picturing myself back to the days when there were no washing machines, dryers, microwaves, vacuum cleaners and dishwashers. I simply couldn't imagine myself in it. I am more thankful to God that I live in this generation. But that's not really what I want to point out here. What I've been thinking is how many women of today could say that they don't have time to do everything they're supposed to do. Statements like "I'm so busy!", "We've got so much going on in our family!", "I just can't keep up with everything I've got to do!" and "I'm exhausted!" are disturbing to me. It seems like women try to do every thing under the sun. Part of the reason why a lot of women do this is to fit in today's crazy culture. The world today salutes women who do so many things including those that are inherent to men. Well, I don't buy it. I don't want to be so stressed out and eventually resort to depression pills. I want to be happy in the Lord! Here's how... follow Jesus' example. John 17:4 says, "I have glorified thee on earth; I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do..." There you go I am not going to follow the world's "to do" list for me. I simply cannot meet with every person who wants an appointment, call every person who wants to talk, counsel with every person who had a need, tackle every project that people think I would be good at, read all the books I'd like to read, do scrap-booking because it's hip among ladies, blog unnecessarily, party like there's no tomorrow, spend the kind of time I'd like to spend with my friends and keep every room in my house presentable for guests who drop in. It's just not physically possible for me. My goal is to have time only to do everything that is on God's "to do" list for me in a certain period of time. And right now it is loving and serving my husband and raising a godly daughter.

Helper

I wrote about role reversal yesterday and I thought I would do a follow-up of it today. You know how we, wives, sometimes if not most of the time, think that our husbands should help us with the chores at home. We feel like our husbands have an equal obligation as we have in doing the household chores. In the same way, we feel that we have an equal obligation in meeting the financial needs of our families. So much equality issue has been placed between a man and a woman over the years . Feminism has been the source of this confusion.

God made the woman for the main purpose of providing the man a helper. Not the other way around. It is definitely not wrong for a husband to help at home but he is not obligated to do so. In the same way, the wife is not obligated to help with bringing in money to their home. Troubles come when they confuse these roles. The result, homes are producing emasculated husbands and super busy moms. Who suffers? Everybody! Especially the kids, who end up raised by baby sitters instead of their own mothers.