This is the product of my fertile thoughts. I am recreating them here and am sharing them with you, dear bloggers, for whatever benefits, if any, you could derive from them. I wish you could be more open and share with me your comments and suggestions so that I can improve on my blog. Thank you, God bless and have a nice day. Mel Avila Alarilla
The choices we make in our lives will determine what we will become. They are some sort of a crossroad where we choose whether to go to the left or to the right. First of all, we have to choose which will we will exercise. Is it our own personal will or the will of God? We have been trained and nurtured by worldly wisdom to learn to exercise our own will in everything that we do. As the poem goes, "I am the captain of my ship, I am the master of my soul." In the competitive world in which we live, it is the battle of wills of different individuals with different vested interests and persuasions. But the Bible says, we have to follow in and walk by the will of God. As the Lord's Prayer says, "let Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven." That is the first choice we have to make.
The second choice we have to make in our lives is how we should live our lives. Shall we live by faith or shall we live by sight ( the senses)? We have our senses to use and we are so dependent on them. But in difficult and trying times, when our senses tell us of the impossibility of things, shall we not rely on our faith to carry us through? Remember, the Bible says that faith can move mountains. Those who hold on to the functions of their senses and those who exercise their own will are limited in the things they can accomplish. They cannot go beyond the possible. Not so with those who surrender themselves to the sovereign will of God and have exercised their faith rather than their sight (senses). Nothing is impossible for them. They will experience out of this world possibilities. NOW WHICH OPTIONS WILL YOU CHOOSE?
Tags: All Things Are Possible With God, Divine Will, Personal Will, To Live By Faith Not By Sight, Miracles Do Happen For Those Who Believe
There are so many voices that compete for our attention. Which voice we will heed will determine the path that we will take on our journey through life. The earliest voices that we heard were those of our parents. Theirs were the voices that nurtured us in our formative years. Then, there were voices of tiny angels like us who dreamed and wondered with us when we were groping for answers to the unending questions of life. We have encountered the different voices of our teachers and mentors as they instilled in us the disciplines and idealism that helped shaped our formative years. Yes, theirs were the voices of our heroes of the past, the ones we placed in our pedestals. Then, there were the cacophonous voices that proliferated our world when we competed with other wannabes as we climbed the stairway of the corporate world. Those were the voices of intense rivalries, of backstabbing and rumor mongering, of idle talks and gossips, of dressing downs and praises for jobs well done. There were even sinister voices that led us astray, who promised pleasures galore but led us to the decadence of our souls.
But there is one particular voice that we must heed and take to heart. That is the still small voice that whispers so softly in the stillness of the night when everything is so quiet. We can only hear it when we are at peace with ourselves and not agitated. It is the voice of God coursed through our consciences. Continuous disregard of that small soft voice will result in the hardening of our hearts and losing the ability to hear that still small voice. Which voice we follow will determine our destiny for eternity. SHALL WE HEARKEN TO LISTEN TO THAT STILL SMALL VOICE? Tags: God. Jesus Christ, Conscience, Still Small Voice, Voices
Have you not consider how wonderful it is to be alive? How thoroughly rewarding it is that we are loved by people that mattered most to us? Have we not appreciated that the sun shines after a stormy day or the light dawns after the darkness of the night? There are so many things we ought to be thankful for. Surely, we thrive in the fresh air we breathe. We hear the singing of the birds in the morning and the swaying of the leaves and grasses as the wind passes by. We are thrilled by the surging of the waves in the picturesque seashore. And have we not gotten the thrill of our lives by journeying to the imperial mountains that stand majestically amidst the clouds. The tiny creatures of the day and night show how wonderful it is to be alive. Have you seen the flying eagle as it soared ecstatically among the clouds, impervious of all the din down below? How we love to stroll by our favorite bay walk as seagulls come flying by? How we marvel at the majestic sun as it sets in its golden halo as the night slowly creeps in? And how we savor our favorite ice cream bar as we exchange pleasant stories in the moonlit night?
Ah, the earth is so peaceful as the light of the moon encompasses us all. And yes, have we not felt the presence of an Unknown Being who have made all of these things possible? How wonderful it is to be alive and cared for by an Almighty God who is so gracious in providing all of our needs. ITS A WONDERFUL LIFE.
Tags: It's A Wonderful Life, It's Wonderful To Be Alive, Life, Love, Cherished Memories, God, Divine Providence, Divine Grace
Live each day as though it is the last day of your life. Savor each moment. Relive each dream. Focus on the joy of your heart. Each breath, each beat of your heart will tell you that it is so wonderful to be alive and happy and strong and well. Yes, life is so good. Why do we have to waste our time looking at negative things in life when there are countless blessings and positive things we could focus on? Why do we fret on a love that was lost instead of looking at the countless love and caring that are showered upon us by our loved ones and true friends? Why do we rue the opportunities lost in the past when there are countless of opportunities beckoning before us? If we dig just deep enough, each sand will uncover a long lost pearl. If we just strive hard enough, our golden dreams will see its fruition in our lives.
Have we not felt so blessed that we have been born without any congenital defects to hamper our progress in life? And even if we have one, are we not glad that it is not worse than the defects and misfortunes that others have? For every misery that we dwell upon, there are so many blessings in the air waiting to be plucked if only we would notice them.
So keep your head up high and feel the sweet scent of air flowing through your lungs and live each day as though it is your very last. Smile and the whole world smiles back at you.
Tags: It's A Wonderful World, Live Your Life Fully, Count Your Blessings, You Are loved
Your most productive years may have been behind you now and you spend your time in utter loneliness and isolation, reliving your glorious past. Before, you were used to the praise and adulation of your millions of fans, but now you are left alone, staring on a blank wall where the sound of silence seems so deafening. Ah yes, you could still hear the applause, the laughter, the celebration every time your name was called during curtain calls. Your name was on everyone's lips and dashing gentlemen made a beeline to hand you their bouquet of flowers. You have them all, boxes of chocolates, endless greeting cards, love notes- everything that reminded you of the tumultuous glory days of your life. People swooned when they heard your voice, and each end of your production numbers were greeted with thunderous applause and endless calls for an encore.
Ah, you remember your past loves, the endless queues of men in your life. The fabulous places you have reached, the how do you do's with the high and mighty in your heyday. You have been around the world living in the adulation of your legions of fans. You savored each inebriating moment of your existence. You transferred from arms to arms, intoxicated by the love abundantly poured on your lap by your countless lovers. But you had your final curtain call. You are no longer famous. You are no longer beautiful. The voice that has so captivated millions of souls have now been reduced to a croaking and melancholy voice.
And as you look at the empty wall on a cramped room you are renting, you felt the hot tears of loneliness and grief falling from your eyes, gliding down your face. You closed your eyes and relived once more in your mind the glory days of your youth, when the world adored the beautiful and marvelous you. That was your very last curtain call. Early next morning, the porter of the hotel found a lifeless corpse of an old and emaciated woman still clutching in her hand her favorite photograph.
Tags: Vaudeville Superstar, Rich and Famous, Last Curtain Call Posted by: Mel Avila Alarilla
When was the last time we worry about so many things and found out later that all our worse fears came true? When was the last time we berated our kids about their faults and told them they will grow up someday to become good for nothing? And when was the last time we nag our spouse on his/her obvious faults? Beware, all that we profess with our mouths may become self fulfilling prophecies. Remember, we have the power to bless or curse anybody by the power of the spoken words. And more often than not, negative pronouncements carry with them intense emotional undertones that are more liable to become true.
Kids believe whatever their parents say to them. Parental pronouncements are imbedded deep in their subconscious minds and they are liable to act out the roles delineated to them by their parents. So we must be very careful what we say to our kids, to our spouses and even to ourselves in moments of anger and emotional outbursts. We do not want the things that we say to them or to ourselves to find realization, do we not?
Better to give positive love affirmations and encouragements to our kids, our spouses and even to ourselves. They will even reinforce the good traits imbedded in our characters. Careful, careful!
Tags: Self Fulfilling Prophecies, Traits, Positive Affirmations, Negative Pronouncements, The Power of the Spoken Words
This is the most abused term nowadays. Everybody seems to be always in pursuit of happiness. Happiness is something very temporary. It is the attainment of a short term goal. It is the satisfaction of the immediate needs of man. But is the pursuit of happiness beneficial to man in the long run? Remember, the pursuit of happiness is anchored in the immediate gratification of man's wants. People call it freedom to do what they want to do, without any restrictions , without any fear. They call it freedom from fear. But where does this pursuit of happiness leads man?
To tell you the truth, it leads man to perdition and eventually, to slavery to sin. Sin is something man enjoys for it is a violation of a restriction or command, and man loves to violate every command and every restriction there is. But John 8:34 says, "Jesus replied, 'I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin." Why? Because although sin is enjoyable at the start, it becomes addictive, and without man noticing it, it eventually becomes the master of the sinful man. It attains a life of its own. Man, who used to enjoy and wallow in sin, now becomes entangled in its deadly web and is unable to disobey the harsh voice of its tyrant master and break free from its strangle hold. And man becomes more miserable than when he first started.
Not only did he veer away from the dictates of his conscience, he has chained himself to slavery under the grip of the lord of this world- Satan. And in the end, the pursuit of happiness becomes a short cut on the road to hell. The Bible warns us about this when it says, "Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it." (Matthew 7:13-14) Let us be included in the few who enters the narrow gate and eventually finds eternal life.
Tags: Pursuit of Happiness, Freedom From Restrictions, Freedom From Fear, Narrow Gate, Destruction, Eternal Life
"Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts" (Hebrews 4:7b)
DO YOU NEED HELP? ARE YOU IN THE DARK? CAN'T FIND YOUR WAY AROUND? NEED A FRIEND WHO WILL STICK WITH YOU THROUGH THICK OR THIN OR WHEN EVERYBDOY ELSE HAS DESERTED YOU?
