Wordsmith for God

“When I grow up, I don’t want to be a teacher!” Public school teachers in the Philippines consider themselves less compensated despite the five-digit basic salary they are receiving every month, five-digit thirteenth-month pay, four-digit clothing allowance, four-digit chalk allowance and all other benefits they are receiving. I know for sure how much a public school teacher is earning monthly and annually because I am one. If asked if my salary is enough, I will be a hypocrite to say it is. No matter how high my salary could be, it will never be enough if I’ll use it to meet my wants more than my needs. The higher the income, the higher my wants will be. That for sure is a fact for someone whose life is geared on living only for this world. We wake up every day and report to our individual offices for a purpose. We apply for jobs that offer financial security and stability. We work hard in order to have ourselves promoted and earn more. We look for investment and business...

When I am discouraged, when my heart is sad, I will put my hope in God! I will praise him again – my Savior and my God! I do lose my optimism sometimes and lose sight of the hope Christ has been giving me. There are days when I feel like everything lies in my hand – both successes and failures. I forget that I can do all things through Christ which gives me strength (Philippians 4:13) and I end up depending on my own understanding instead. I try to resolve every discouragement and trials in my own way, my own terms, and my own wisdom. And when things become totally messed up or out of my control, I would then whine up just like the Israelites in the wilderness. When we see ourselves as the masters of our fate and the captain of our souls, we are actually bringing ourselves into our self-made doom. We can’t make it on our own. No matter how hard we try to, we will only end up broken, tired, and lost. True wisdom and power are found in God; counsel and understandin...

A chance does not always come easy. Some chances come roughly. And one thing I learned just now is that, sometimes, the root cause of our depression is our expectation. No relationship is perfect. Every relationship has its own share of struggles which can reveal the real condition of our hearts. Our response can be filled with thorns but, to those who have tasted that one true love demonstrated on the cross, it can lead us into asking ourselves as to who God is in the midst  of the rising heat. Each tree is known by its own fruit. For figs are not gathered from thornbushes , nor are grapes picked from a bramble bush (Luke 6:44). We ought not to stay on our thorny response. Instead, by God’s grace, we are to move into the fruit - biblical response to our present situation. You might be single now and is feeling that paralyzing self-condemnation where you drown yourself on the thought that your singleness is a curse. You might be in that complicated relationship wh...

I woke up today saying to myself, “I had it all wrong”. I appear ordinary – no high aspirations, no big steps taken, and no investment. Only a few people know that I am working on so much more behind my simplistic alter ego. I am involved in collaborative researches, joint literary book writing, and team application for law studies. I love the idea of people seeing me as a simpleton and be surprised one day that I am no ordinary gal. I have been so immersed with these worldly investments that I forgot for quite some time my real citizenship and what I was called for. “We are merely moving shadows, and all our busy rushing ends in nothing. We heap up wealth, not knowing who will spend it,” says David in Psalm 39:6. I have spent so much time researching for facts and analyzing data, but less on ransacking the Word and delighting it. I spent so much time writing poems and articles for local and national papers, but less time on my quiet time with the Lord in order to bui...