Go Ahead, Hug a Tree

Christians aren't exactly known for our efforts in protecting the environment. That is a shame because we should be good stewards of what God has given us, including the planet Earth. We all can, and should, make more effort to reduce, reuse and recycle. It's a healthier, simpler, and more frugal lifestyle that preserve God's creation for future generations.

3 things you can do RIGHT NOW:

1. Switch to homemade household cleaners. You can find tons of recipes online using simple and inexpensive ingredients such as baking soda and vinegar. Try these from The Green Guide.

2. Buy used items. With summer approaching, garage sales are around every corner.

3. Get a dryer rack and air dry at least some clothing items.

"God saw all that he had made, and it was very good." Genesis 1:31

Know Thy Creator

I think most people have had disastrous relationships. It can be family, a friendship, or a "what-was-I-thinking" romance. However, there's one relationship that's like no other.

Since the creation of men, God intends to be in a personal relationship with His people. In the Old Testament, He walked and talked to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, He met with Moses in the Tent of Meeting and Mount Sinai, and He dwelled in the temple built by King Solomon. Then prophet Isaiah wrote about the promise of a child named Immanuel (Isaiah 7:14), which means "God with us".

In the New Testament, "The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us." (John 1:14). Jesus, the Son of God Himself, came and walked intimately with His disciples. After Jesus' resurrection and ascension, He sent the Holy Spirit, which is the third person of the Trinity, in live in those who believe in Him.

No other relationship is more important, nor satisfying like this one, for no one is perfect, holy, and never-changing like God. By studying and meditating on His word from the Bible, by constantly going to Him with praises, by presenting our petitions, and by seeking His wisdom in everything we do, we can get to know our Creator, our Almighty God. Not only to know ABOUT Him, but to know Him intimately in our hearts and enjoy His presence in our lives.

And this is ONE relationship you'll never, never regret.

Election Questions

Let's say in a Presidential election, it is Candidate A versus Candidate B. With Candidate A, there are 5 values that I disagree, whereas with Candidate B there are 3.

If I vote for B, hoping if he/she wins at least I'll get 2 values into the White House, does that mean I endorse the 3 values that I don't agree with?

Or should I not vote at all, risking A carry all his/her 5 values (or lack of) to be the leader of this country?

Mothers' Designer

Once again, I am amazed.

The design of the relationship between mothers and their children are brilliant. I'm amazed at how God leads mothers to instantly fall in love with their newborns, and how He provides them with milk, so the babies can eat AND bond at the same time. How efficient is that! And how babies feel most secure as they navigate the world in their mothers' arms. As rewards for the sleep-deprived, God brings on those sweet baby smiles to melt our hearts.

Even after they've grown into toddlers, they remain cute to minimize our head-banging on the wall, when for the nineteenth time, they insist on pouring the milk themselves and end up pouring half a gallon of it on the floor.

On this Mother's Day (and everyday after), let's remember the creator of mothers and children, and give Him the praise and worship He so deserve.

Consequence of a Late Nap

As I laid down with my son in his bed, waiting for him to fall asleep, I had nothing else to do but to let my tired mind wander:

1. No way I'm letting him nap past 3 p.m. tomorrow.

2. Wouldn't it be great if I can somehow project a book or the Internet on the ceiling so I can read? But then I have to have special glasses so only I can read them and not distract the boy.

3. The chocolate-covered almonds downstairs are definitely calling my name. Hmmm...

4. It's be so cool for mothers to have a special power that can cause their children to fall asleep at will. Nah, maybe not. Too easy to abuse this.

5. This bed is quite comfortable. I'm so thankful that me and my family have a warm bed to sleep in, instead of sleeping on a cold hard floor in a hut, or a sleeping bag in a soldier's tent in Iraq, or a bunk bed in a prison cell. I pray someday my children would realize how blessed they are.

Outlaw Country

Imagine if you broke a law, for example, you robbed a bank. I'd think if you didn't get caught, you'd thank your lucky stars and go enjoy your loot. You wouldn't think of getting together with other bank robbers and march on the streets and demand rights.

But wait! This is America! Apparently if you gather enough people that broke the same law, and have politicians that have no backbone, not only you won't get punished for breaking the law, but actually you might get reward for that.

This is the case for illegal immigrants. How can we maintain respect for the law, when we allow them to scoff at it? Before the bar of justice, shouldn't we all be accountable for disobeying the law?

But what about compassion and mercy? After all, as Christians we are called to love our neighbors. America does have legal immigration available, even though the system is flawed. We can also have aid and missionaries sent to countries in need.

I know this issue does not have an easy solution, as the problem has never been properly dealt with and has grown into a monstrous size. But the basics, like securing the borders, discouraging companies from hiring illegals residents, and offer help to fight poverty in poor countries, can at least slow down the population growth of the illegal residents.

As a legal immigrant, I filled out all the paperwork, paid all the fees, and lined up at the crack of dawn outside the immigration office building. I say it's all worth it. I consider my US citizenship a blessing from God and I'm very thankful for it. Let's pray that we can find ways to balance justice and compassion, quickly.

Scary Rhymes

I'm surprised by how many popular nursery rhymes and songs have questionable content. The obvious one is the nightmare inducing Rock-a-Bye Baby:

Rock-a-bye baby, in the treetop
When the wind blows, the cradle will rock
When the bough breaks, the cradle will fall
And down will come baby, cradle and all

Then we have Hush Little Baby, perfect for raising materialistic children:

Hush, little baby, don't say a word,
Mama's going to buy you a mockingbird.
And if that mockingbird don't sing,
Mama's going to buy you a diamond ring.

To teach baby boys how to treat their future wife, we have Peter Peter Pumpkin Eater:

Peter Peter pumpkin eater,
Had a wife and couldn't keep her!
He put her in a pumpkin shell,
And there he kept her very well!

While I doubt reading or singing the above rhymes to babies will damage them mentally nor emotionally, I'm not taking any chances. I'm sticking with Wheels on the Bus, it's my son's favorite anyway. Although it might damage me mentally if I have to continue singing it 50 times a day.

My Snapshots

Today I took my baby C.F. for his six-month check up. In the doctor's office, his two-year-old brother C.S. behaved like a perfect child. He waited patiently and quietly, even threw in a few kisses for his brother to woo the nurses. The staff was impressed. And I was proud. Not only of my son, but of my own parenting.

Ten minutes later in the parking lot, everything changed. The baby was crying hard, C.S. was screaming and refused to get into the car. I noticed an older man watching, silently judging me, I'm sure.

If you randomly take snapshots of my day, each one can draw a very different assumption of what kind of a mother I am. Snapshots don't tell the whole story. But I too have times when I subconsciously make snapshots judgements. They can be based on all sorts of presumptions and stereotypes. A mom giving candies to her children in a grocery store? Bad mother. Men checking their Blackberries on weekends? Workaholics. Children screaming in the parking lot? Can't their mother control her own children? Wait, that was me.

"Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?" Matthew 7:3

On Forgiveness

According to some friends that recently celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary, one of the most important elements in their long happy marriage is forgiveness.

How wise is that! As imperfect human beings, in all our relationships, sooner or later, we're all going to wrong and be wronged. There can be no healthy relationships without forgiveness.

Forgiveness is hard to give. Sometimes hold out on forgiving is a revenge, to hurt the ones who hurt us. Sometimes it is self preservation, as forgiving would seem like we're taken advantage of. Sometimes it is our way to enforce justice, as we decide whether the offender deserve our forgiveness.

The truth is, forgiving is less about us and the offender, but much more about us and God. Jesus illustrated it perfectly in Matthew 18:23-35, about a man whose debt was forgiven greatly, but turned around and harshly dealt with one who owe him much less. We all have sinned greatly against the most Holy God, and yet He offers forgiveness through His son Jesus Christ. It is only right that we forgive others as well.

Forgiving is to cease resentment. It doesn't mean absorbing the offender's responsibility. It's not a feeling, it's a decision. It's given unconditionally. It's not contingent on the offender's apology nor repentance. It's an act of love. It's being obedient to God. It heals and reconciles. It doesn't have a quantity limit, even if it's the 849 times he left his shoes all over the house.

"Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors." Matthew 6:12

Whole Again

Today, on a rare outing to the grocery store by myself, I put in Jennifer Knapp's CD Lay It Down. It was a nice change from the classical music and children's songs we listen to at home.

It gave me a lump in my throat, as I heard the song Whole Again, the part that goes:

If I give my life
If I lay it down
Can you turn this life around
Can I be made clean by this offering of my soul
Can I be made whole again?

In the wake of the Virginia Tech tragedy, this song reminds me of the hurt and brokenness that we all experience to different degrees. Whether it was caused by sins of our own or others. Whether it happened in the past, present or future.

But there's hope. When we confess to God that we can't do this life by our own power and strength, when we surrender to God and ask Him to take over our lives, He will give us rest, heal us and yes, He will make us whole again.

"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." Matt. 11:28-30

Parenting the "God's Way?"

There are many controversies on parenting issues, even within the Christian circles. I always get wary when books claim their way of parenting is the "God's way", and being dogmatic about it rather than presenting it as wisdom. I believe the Bible has given us principles on parenting, which is to discipline, guide and love them. But applications can vary from culture to culture, family to family and child to child.

The quote I recently found that is most useful is from Debi Pearl. Ironically, I disagree with many of her ideas. On breastfeeding and co-sleeping, she wrote on her web site:

"Learn all you can from all points of view and then throw it all out and do what works best for you. Relax. Don’t chose sides and fight it out. It is not Bible doctrine. In departing from someone’s system you need not feel guilt or pride."

I like to add that parenting should be done on our knees, praying constantly for wisdom for parenting, and regeneration for our children. Because while we can modify behaviors, true transformation can only come from the Holy Spirit.

Pink and Blue

The other day I was talking away to my husband, who was trying his best not to fall asleep. All of a sudden his face light up and exclaimed:

"Oh wow! You're going pink on me!"

Say what? He was referring to the video marriage conference we went to, Love and Respect. On the topic of how men and women operate differently, the speaker talked about how women (pink) sometimes talk in spiderweb. That is when we start talking about a point, but takes lots of detours before finishing it. (watch the video, it's hilarious!) Boy! I was totally doing that!

The major points of the conference:
• Men and women operate very differently.
• A wife needs to feel love and a husband needs to feel respect.
• Without love she reacts without respect, and without respect he reacts without love, hence the Crazy Cycle.
• Both love and respect should be given unconditionally.
• Whoever is more mature should be the one to break the Crazy Cycle.

I had a few "a-ha!" moments at this conference, and while this theory will not save every marriage, I believe it can change many for the better. I personally have witnessed how the Crazy Cycle can destroy a marriage, leaving both parties bitter, angry and hurt.

I still "spiderweb" when I talk, but I'm more aware of it now.

Farewell, Johnny Hart!

From John Deering, editorial cartoonist

It's Been a While...

...but here's a few things from chapter 3 of The Holiness of God by R.C. Sproul, plus research I've done to confirm the information.

• The word "holy" in Hebrew is kadosh. Its primary meaning is "to set apart."
• God is absolutely above and beyond us.
• Holy is not just one of God's attribute. Holy is God. Everything God has and do is holy. On the same thought, NOTHING is holy without God's consecrating. To call anything else holy is idolatry, since it'd give common things the awe, respect, worship and adoration that only God rightly deserves.

An interesting information I found, is that orthodox Jews are taught to revere God so much that they avoid writing the full name of God because of the risk that it might later be accidentally defaced. What a big contrast to the present day, when people freely use God's names in vain.

R2-D2's New Job

R2-D2 is delivering mail now?

To celebrate the 30th anniversary of Star Wars, the post office is rolling out mail boxes that are designed after R2-D2. So very cool! But I wonder how quickly they'd be stolen by crazed fans.

Zoom Zoom Zoom!

During high school my friends and I were always interested in doing various personality tests, even though I knew most, if not all of them are just for fun and nowhere near accurate. I think it was just a futile attempt to get to know ourselves better.

I still remember a test about what do we feel go by the fastest, a day, a week, a month or a year. I don't, however, remember what the results were supposed to indicate.

I'd think being a stay-at-home mom, time would go by slow. But since Colin was born, days, months, and years have just flew. Once in a while there'd be pockets of time during the day that seems a bit slow, but generally I never run out of things to do in the house or with the boys. After the time spent supervising mealtimes, nap times and most recently, "pooping-in-the-toilet" times, there really isn't that much time left.

Sometimes it freaks me out a bit when I was reminded how time just zoom by. I mean, in a few years I would be 40! 40 should be the age of my parents, not me! But as I think further, I realize I really have no ground for complaint about my amazing journey called life. I might want to go back and undo a few stupid things I did, but every step I took was part of God's plan to make me who I am today. And no plan is better than God's plan! I'm just so thankful of the grace of God that brought me to where I am today.

AUGHHHH! Can't Look!

Continuing on the book The Holiness of God by R.C. Sproul. By the way, he just given a message in a conference for pastors that is straight out from this chapter. You can read, listen and even watch it here.

My thoughts on chapter 2:

The Bible has many places gives us glimpses of just how holy God is. Throughout his life, Moses has numerous encounters with God. In Exodus 33:18, he asked to see the glory of God, and God replied "you cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live." (Exodus 33:20) But God did let Moses see His back. And just from that Moses' face became so radiant from reflecting the glory of God that he had to put a veil on his face, so not to terrify everyone else. (Exodus 34: 29)

God is SO SO MUCH holier than humans that we can't even handle looking at a face that has just looked at God's back. So how are we to face Him with our spotty records of our lives? How can we expect to spend eternally with Him in heaven?

"we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all." Hebrews 10:10

"... we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus," Hebrews 10:19

The Holiness of God

I believe that knowing the extensiveness of God's holiness is crucial to christian living. Otherwise, we wouldn't understand how necessary Christ's work on the cross is in order for us to gain access to heaven. After all, why should we deserve hell since most of us have never kill nor sell drugs. So we have lied a little, harbored bitterness a few times and being prideful once in a while, that shouldn't be enough to go to hell, right? Well, if we consider that our God is perfectly holy, then it would make sense that even a tiny speck of sin against Him would send us hell bound.

I want to have a better understanding on the holiness of God. And then my husband got this book from the library called, incidentally, The Holiness of God! The author us R.C. Sproul and I'm going to write what I learn from it as I read it since I tend to forget.

So far what I've learnt:
Chapter 1:
• God is so holy that "Holy is His name" Luke 1:49.
• How we understand the person and character of God affects every aspect of our lives. If God is the Creator of the entire universe, then it must follow that He is the Lord of the WHOLE universe. No compartmentalizing would make sense, including science, economics, and yikes, politics.

Keith Green's 7 Years of No Compromising

Seven years. That's how long Keith Green lived as a Christian before he died from a plane crash 25 years ago. But God used him to impact lives of many, and to this day, his legacy continues to inspire thousands of people to draw closer to God.

My husband and I watched a documentary of his life story, and we were touched by how he held nothing back to live out the Gospel. He could live a very comfortable life making lots of money from his albums and concerts. Instead, he cancelled the contract he had with a record company so he could give away his albums for free, and he refused to charge anything for his concerts. He took in anyone in need, to a point that his house is so full there're people sleeping in their garage, even when he was raising a young family. All his songs and messages points to God, and urged people to live out their faith. He had truly lived out the title of his 2nd album: No Compromise.

Now I need to ask myself: What do I hold back? What have I compromise in my faith? Am I willing to be used by God in anyway, or only when it's within my comfort zone?

Come Sail Away

Ever since I wrote the post titled The Grand Illusion, I can't help but think of the band Styx's album of the same title. Ok, so some of their lyrics are comparable to bad poetry from a high school student, I got to admit songs like Come Sail Away sticks with me and I would not hesitate to belt it along with the radio in the car.

Boy, now I'm nostalgic.