The Parable of the Mustard Seed

Today I have been given the chance to reflect on the parable of the mustard seed.

From Matthew 13:31-32,  "He set another man before them, saying, "The Kingdom of Heaven is like a grain of mustard seed, which a man took, and sowed in his field; which indeed is smaller than all seeds. But when it is grown, it is greater than the herbs, and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and lodge in its branches."

Firstly I asked, why mustard seed? Jesus could use any other seeds as examples.
Of all seeds, why mustard? Well first of all, mustard seeds are not the smallest in the world, 
nor are they the biggest tree in the world. 
Jesus would have known that. But instead, Jesus was drawing to illustrate how the kingdom of heaven could expand from very small beginnings to a huge presence.

So before you read on, I would like to ask you to think about the parable and ask yourself who the different things represent? 1) the mustard seed 2) the farmer 3) the field 4) the tree 5) the herbs 6) the trees

In most reflections I have read, people would refer to the man as God and the birds as us humans flocking over to meet our Maker in his kingdom. But I feel that there is more to it. 

Here is my own meditation:

The farmer is God. He sows the seeds in the field, signifying that He is planting the goodness in each of our hearts. Each seed He plants is a gift that He sends to us through the Holy Spirit. All these tiny gifts will soon grow into our very actions - Love. The very same love that God has given to each of us. The same love that makes up His holy presence. The same act of love we give to our loved ones, to our neighbours, to ourselves and ultimately back to our God. The big tree that blooms and grow is the result of all the love and goodness that God has made us into. For the kingdom of heaven was made out of love from God. It is a place where all love will come together as one.

From Luke 17:20-21, Jesus said “The kingdom of God does not come with observation; nor will they say, ‘See here!’ or ‘See there!’ For indeed, the kingdom of God is within you”.

The kingdom of heaven is within us. It is in all of us. And all these birds that flock to the tree, would be all the riches and rewards that Jesus has promised us when we finally get to the kingdom of heaven and meet Him. 

Finally then the herbs. Herbs are things that add taste and texture in our food. Here, it refers to me as the earthly rewards that we receive in our life on earth. Be it monetary, or anything that adds to our joy as a human. But we know that the rewards we receive in the kingdom of heaven is far greater than any rewards we receive on earth. 

Thank you Vanessa for giving me the opportunity to read more into this :)

The Power of Prayer and the Rosary

How many of you heard about the power of prayer?
And do you believe in it?
I definitely do believe in it.
Today I would like to share with you a life encounter that happened to me over a course of two weeks which made me feel even stronger and more connected with God through prayer.

I was taught the rosary when my parents prayed together with me when I was really young.
For some reason, we have broken off that practice.
Maybe due to time, work and other personal priorities.
I do pray the rosary once in a while when the congregation prays it before weekend mass but do not know the true meaning of it.
Two weeks ago, I was brought back to the rosary.
During one of our faith committee sessions, my dearest bromo led the session and shared about the 15 promises by Mother Mary when we pray the rosary regularly.
I told myself ok maybe I should start praying it again.
But you know the usual laziness took over and I failed to start.
Today, for some reason, I had no work, and was very free.
I decided maybe it was time I started praying the rosary.
I did not just recited it off like I always did, but really got so into it.
I shall leave that details to later.
So as I was saying, I started to feel something stirring.

I am facing some troubles with myself and a relationship problem with a very close brother.
Somehow I felt that our friendship was drifting apart and I felt very bad about it as he really meant a lot to me. I felt guilty and blamed my "needy" dependant nature.
For the last two weeks, I have always prayed to God to help keep my relationship with my brother.
Today while I was praying the rosary, I was drawn to a different kind of prayer.
I prayed to God to change me and lead me in my relationship and life.
After the whole rosary session, I started reading up on the 15 promises and asked myself what does Mother Mary mean when she said that she will give us signal graces?

All of a sudden, I had the sudden urge to attend today's weekday mass.
I had the feeling that there will be an answer when I get there.
So I listened to the prompting and went.
Today's reading was on Jonah and the Ninevites.
I reflected on today's reading with today's rosary - joyful mystery.
Obedience. Trusting in God and never doubt in him. Just like what Mother Mary did.
Yes she did fear. But never once did she let that fear lose her faith in God.
All of a sudden a voice came in my head "Hey you have known him for 5 years and he hasn't left you. Why would you doubt God that He will make your friendship break?"
I started to feel really relieved and shared this encounter with bromo on whatsapp.
While sharing, all of a sudden, something most amazing happened.
My brother texted me.
He has not replied my messages for a week.
I was not just shocked, I felt so happy and emotional,
both the signal graces that Mother Mary had promised and that I felt my faith just grew another step.
I know and believe that God will answer my prayer somehow as He always did.
But never expected that it be heard so soon and so direct.

This experience has been really touched me and yes I will definitely put more effort into praying the rosary daily =)

So for those who are interested, this is what I did.
1) Opening hymn (Choose any hymn to Mother Mary you feel is right for the moment, I chose Salve Regina https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXadODl_jBQ)
2) I used this video on youtube. The link is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6AW5wueFe-w
3) Visit this link http://www.rosary-center.org/joyful.htm and pause the video before every Hail Mary to meditate or visualise every step that Mary took.
4) At the end of the rosary, take some time to thank Mother Mary for the intercessions she has done for you in the past and ask humbly for her help again.
4) Closing hymn (I chose https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RERoQ1biLdE)
* I did not sing but I chose to play the flute instead =)

Thank you all for reading this. Remember that prayer is very powerful and the rosary will definitely bring you closer to God.

Amen and God bless

Matthew 14: 22-33

Jesus came to his disciples between 3-6am.
God always come at the hour where we are truly vulnerable and the time we do not expect.
Especially when we are frustrated, when bad things keep coming one after another,
when our life is upside down. Jesus appears out of nowhere to be with us.

What does walking on water signify?
Walking on water is an example of an impossible task and Jesus shows us that He can make any seemingly impossible task possible.
He is above all his creation (the ocean is his creation as well).

"Come!" Jesus invites us into the troubled water and shows us that he will journey us in our lives and not be afraid of what lies in there.
Give up our insecurities and get out of our comfort zone (boat) and join him.

He said "Courage! Do not be afraid" and when he went into the boat, the wind died.
This signifies that when the Lord comes into our unstable life, he will make everything stable. (Calming our insecurities)

To parents, with love

To all parent's out there, this post is here to advise you on what your teenagers are thinking in their head. Well you see, I'm hitting 23 this year which is somewhere in between the end of teenage hood and the first steps to being an adult. Although you are officially considered an adult once you hit 21, but most parents would still see their own kid as a child in their eyes XD. As a young adult who has just departed from the life of a teenager, I feel that it is my responsibility to teach parents about the life of teenagers nowadays so as to better prepare you for your own children who are reaching this phase or maybe some tips that your teens are facing. Do feel free to send me an email from the link on the right.

1. Being a teenager means that they are in a phase of learning.

This is the most important phase of their life. Whatever they become of in the future depends mostly in this phase; I call it the walk of maturity. Pre-teen, most of their memories are actually fuzzy and they probably wouldn't even remember what they learnt or do as they were kids. But during this period of their lives, their memories are deeply etched in their head. It is very important to guide them during this period of their lives especially when they have just hit 10-12 years old. At this period, their brain would open up so suddenly to the world that they might not be able to handle all the information properly. This is because at this age, they would have reached a level of maturity whereby they can think and process information much clearer than before. They would be so inquisitive at every thing they see. So at this point of time, it is very crucial that parents teach and guide their child on what they are doing or looking at. Also, you must be very open to whatever your child asks of you. Even if the matter is very embarrassing or weird, it is very crucial to explain it to them carefully and not just tell them "don't do it because I say so". If you were to do this, I would guarantee that once your child hits the later stage of teenage hood, they would definitely find means to try them. Lucky for me, my parents are pretty open and therefore I don't think they ever had any problems with me over this. They are really open and even ask me to try everything but to not get addicted or into any troubles with moral and legal issues. And so far, I had never gotten into any. So I guess my parents did the right way yeah?

2. No two person will ever walk the same path.

Try not to use the phrase "Ive been there before and I know what to do". Yes you may have gone through the exact same path of their education. You may have went through college before or high school before. But do note that times change, education system evolves. What happened then would not be the same as things happening now. Exams, workload, stress, may very well have been different since then. You may have experienced teenage hood before. But teenagers then and teenagers now are very different from the way they think, do things and act. So try to understand your child, you can impart your experiences and tell them what happened to you and how you manage to solve it. But let them try to solve it in their own hands. Who knows? Maybe their approach could be better and newer. Sadly to say, my parents are still using this phrase especially my dad in terms of academic. He always say (even till now) that if he was the one taking my exam he would have gotten aced them, and how its because of my tardiness that I am not scoring As. But he always forgets one thing, education in Singapore in the past is so much easier than what we are studying now. So many things have changed in 30 years. So parents please don't do this to your children. It gets really annoying especially when you repeat it over and over again.

3. You can only advise, but do not ever do anything by force.

People hate to be forced to do anything. Same goes to us and your child as well.
Most of the time, the more you force them to do something, the more they would do against it.
Try not to hint them into doing something against their will as well.
Learn to explain your rationale to them and if they accept it, they will definitely listen.
But if they dont, maybe they have a better reason for not doing so.

4. Listen, do not judge and NEVER criticise

When your child comes to you and tell you something, they just needed someone to listen to them.
Sometimes they just need someone whom they can trust to listen to their world and rants.
Although some may be totally irrelevant, there is no harm in spending some time listening to them.
Try not to criticise or judge them. If you ever do, there is a high chance that they will close up.
If that happens, you probably wouldnt get another chance to talk to them properly anymore.
That is because the moment you judge or criticise their thoughts, they will immediately feel that
there is no point in telling you anymore as everything they say would be criticised or judged.
And therefore they will either not tell you the truth, or not tell you anything at all.
Sadly, this is happening between my parents and me.
Ive kept quite a distance from them. Most of the time when they asked me who i hang out with,
they would judge and ask why I always hang out with certain group of people and stuff like that.
That is why i usually not tell them about going out or if they asked i would just say "friends".

5. Support and let them know you are always behind them

Your support means really a lot to them.
There is a saying that goes "A child would always go back to their parents when they stumble"
As a parent, let your child know that you will always be behind them no matter what happens.
And be there for them all the time. When they are graduating from elementary school, college,
every big moment in their life, you must be there to support them.
Your children will truly treasure the effort you put in.

6. Lot of love

And lastly, on top of all the other advice, shower them with lots of love.

Being Human is not a valid excuse for not trying to be the perfect image of God

Dear brothers and sisters, many times have we heard or used this phrase "I am human therefore I am not perfect". Most of them being used whenever others question us about our ability to do something.

The Lord asked us to love everyone unconditionally, but many of us say we cannot do it because we are not perfect, even the most perfect human being must have some people we dislike. The Lord ask us to love even our enemy when we are struck down. And again, we say that we cannot because it is hard for humans to do it but Jesus could because He is God.

Now I shall ask this other question that strikes me heavily. The Lord made us to be the image of him, so can we not at least try our best to be the perfect image of him? I have been pondering over this for a very long time now and I realised that every time we fail to do something beyond our reach, we keep giving the same excuse that humans are weak. But we must always remember one thing. Yes we humans are weak, but with the Lord's strength, we can be strong. Never forget that we are who we are because of Him and through prayer we can always find the Lord's strength in each and everyone of us.
And with this, I would like to bring up the chorus from the song "You Raise Me Up".

"You raise me up,
So I can stand on mountains.
You raise me up,
To walk on stormy seas.
I am strong when I am on your shoulders,
You raise me up,
To more than I can be."

The higher your expectation, the greater the disappointment

Dear friends, today I would like to talk about expectations.
Be it expectations of one self or expectations of others, we should be aware that the higher we expect, the greater the disappointment of failure.
Sometimes in life, we take people around us for granted.
We expect people around us to be perfect.
But as we all know, humans are never perfect.
The only perfect being is God and god alone.
Therefore, whenever others fail to meet our expectations or when we could not live to our own expectations, it results in disappointment.
We should learn to not expect so much in life and just live life freely.
This way, we can all be happy and if we fail, or when others fail, we do not get affected too easily.

Dear Lord, I pray that you can teach me to be satisfied with what I have or who I am.
Teach me also to be satisfied with people around me and not expect too much about myself or others.
Remind me that humans are not perfect although we are made in the perfect image of You.
And in this imperfections can I see that we are still human.
Amen.

Valentine's Day

Happy Valentines Day to everyone out there!

Do you know what valentines day is all about?
Im sure most people have heard about the story of Saint Valentine!
Well if you have not, Im sure you would be able to find that story on google.
Im am not going to talk about the story in this post.

Does anybody know the true meaning of valentines day?
You see, valentines day is not just a day of giving gifts to someone you love.
You can do it on any other days can you not?
Valentines day is a day of love.
It doesnt mean that you should only love the most on this day.
No it doesnt. Love should be given unconditionally everyday of your life.
This day 14th February is a day of remembrance.
It reminds us of those people who are ever so close to us.
Those whom may have been closed to us in the past.
Those whom may have passed on to God's kingdom.
And not forgetting those who are still beside us.

"Love is not how long you've been together.
Its not how much you've given or received.
Its not how many times you've helped each other out.
Nor is it based on feelings alone.
It is a decision we have to keep making everyday regardless of how we feel.
Love is about how you value each other."

Dear Lord,

On this day of love, we thank you for the loved ones we have,
who are always constantly supporting us and loving us.
We thank you for keeping us together in a relationship
and ask that you teach us to keep this relationship ever loving and growing.
Teach us to love unconditionally and to never take each other for granted.
Help us to not only love the people we know but to spread your love to everyone.
This we ask in your most precious name.

Amen