THE LESSON IN WAITING

So I finished university in May this year. I have been trying to find a job ever since I can remember and for some reason, it seems not to be working out as planned. Sometimes I get frustrated after I've stayed at home for a while because I feel like I'm wasting my time doing nothing at home. Mind you, I worked for 3 weeks after university as a door-to-door charity fundraiser. I was excited at the start because I had gotten a job but then it all began to change when at each door, a stranger would either be nice and not sign up to my charity or someone would be so rude I wondered how people could act like that. One time, I went to a man's door and as soon as I knocked, he came out and gave me the most unpleasant unwelcome I have ever recieved in my life.
Hebrews 13: 2
"Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers for some who have done this have entertained angels without realising it" 

Not that I'm claiming to be an angel or anything lol but anyway, My experience made me moan about the job all the time and eventually I was fired because I could not hit the target number of donors required by each employee within the 3-week period.

With that being said,  I was somewhat glad I got fired and regardless of everything, I am extremely glad I went through this experience because it built my confidence in approaching strangers and these days when I'm afraid to do something, my inner voice just says "act like it was a door-to-door fundraising" because in that job, regardless of whether I was afraid, I still had to approach the strangers door.

Anyway to cut a long story short, I have found myself on many occassions, "almost" securing a job and never quite getting it. I have moaned about it and then been thankful to God and then moaned about it all over again but then one thing I keep forgetting in my process of complaining is the many times God has worked the odd things out for my good. And so, whenever I remember these circumstances, I begin to think, maybe God is actually looking through the jobs to find me the perfect one. I read a few days in Golden thoughts' page on what God does when we ask for something; that He takes the opportunity to offer us the best out of the rest. And so bearing this in mind, I have decided to practice patience and learn any other lesson I'm required to learn whiles I'm at home

Besides, I might end up complaining when I get to work full time and there's no time to just chill lol.

Verse of the day- Isaiah 40: 31
"But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary, and they shall walk and not faint"

Thank you Jesus, As I wait on you, I will not be wearied because I know that through it all, you'll work everything out for my good.


Espanoles frase del dia
Dios esta obrando cosas para mi bien- God is working things out for my good. 
Gracias dios!- Thank you God

Adios a todos!! - Bye everyone
Hablaremos mas tarde- talk to you later

THE ONE!

So ever since I can remember, I've always thought that I have to be patient because God has "One" person for me and even though I am definitely not sure when, where or how I will meet that person, I have found myself in countless situations calculating the odds of someone being "the one". I think my expectations from my partner have grown so high that when I see the good side of someone, I immediately put him on a high pedestal and begin to think that maybe he's "the one" and we might end up being together and even sometimes end up having relationships with the person in my head lol... craaaaaaaazzzzzzzzzzzzzzyyyyyyy!. I know right?  Then when I find myself thinking of the person and considering how it will be like when we have to date and other stuff, I end up reconsidering the idea.

Anyway, the long and short of the story is that I came across a video once again about "How do you know someone is the one"

Jefferson Bethke explains it a little more here.
He clarifies that there is no such thing as "The One" because we end up putting too much pressure on the other person to be perfect when we should be putting Christ first and learning to show love, grace, mercy and forgiveness to the other person plus holding people in high standards might cause us to miss the good, godly people surrounding us.

In a nutshell, WE ARE FREE TO CHOOSE WHO WE WANT and it is important to be transparent in the process and trust God to enable us to make the right choice.
Ps: We still need to exercise patience because God always knows Best!

LISTENING!!!

I read a post a few weeks back on "the art of listening". Before that, I had spoken to my cousin and there had been a misunderstanding between us on a decision we were supposed to be making at some point. During the conversation, I realised that I was very keen on making my point clear, being argumentative and making assumptions on what I thought my cousin meant. He pointed out that when I am speaking to someone, I should listen well to what the person is saying before I speak. Something which I found quite insulting at the time and had an "all new" argument with him lol but anyway I'm gonna get straight to the point

After the conversation, I went about my normal duties yet the whole conversation ran through my mind again and I thought to myself "you are sometimes too keen on picking fights and assuming"

But that's not the issue here. The issue is my ability to listen attentively, be slow to speak and quick to hear as the Bible recommends that believers should do.

Because of this I embarked upon the journey to learn the act and art of listening. I read a post titled The art of listening in which an exercise requested that I listen to my favourite music and try to listen to every single word in the song. True to the findings in the post, I ended up drifting away about halfway through the song. I tried again as was requested by the exercise and the second and third times I drifted off again. This made me realise two things about my listening ability.

1. Familiarity (assumptions) prevents me from paying attention
2. I don't really listen to the words when I'm listening to music

So after these two discoveries, I followed up a link on conversations- urges of an untamed mind and I learnt a few things about conversations. About the fact that there are different forms of conversation that we have as humans. Sometimes its in the form of speaking, other times, its watching others speak and at certain times its through our own mental conversations which we have. And most at times these conversations prevent us from truly listening.

For instance, in my conversation with my cousin and even with other people, I've realised that often when the other person is speaking, I am already making up my own story in my head as to what to give as a reply hence preventing me from truly listening to the other person. The post also gave an instance of people who have conversations and never listen but are only waiting for the other person to finish so that they can give their own opinion on the issue (i.e me sometimes).

So I found here a video by Iyanla Vazant  on Listening. It just summarises the simplicity of listening; that the true art of listening is without judgement or expectation but is a process of love which comes from the "right now" moment when you make a connection with the person that you're talking to and finally, it comes from the heart

After realising these things about myself, I have decided to make a deliberate effort to be silent at certain points in the day, for I realise that sometimes silence brings more peace than noise and in so doing I'll learn to practice my listening much better than I have been doing so far.