God's Thoughtful Gift

Every child born into the world is a new thought of God, an ever-fresh and radiant possibility.~Kate Douglas Wiggin

The Road to Your Dream

Do you have a dream?  I believe all of us have at least one dream.  Deep inside our soul is a dream, a desire, a goal, a need to fulfill something in our life.  We search for the road - the right and quickest road to our dream.

We search for ways toward the fulfillment of that dream. Whatever our search may be - love, meaningful job, spiritual understanding, peace, better health – we can get frustrated and get wayward causing us to take a longer time to fulfill that dream or worst never reach that dream.  To help you realize your dream, it would be best to practice the following suggestions.

Take note that you are in a journey.  No matter what we’re looking for, no matter what you are dreaming of, the process of finding and reaching your dream is an unfolding journey. The better you understand that you are in a journey, the more capable you will be in recognizing the signs and signposts along the way that will lead you closer to your dream.

If you badly desire what you are looking for, you need to hold on to it and believe that you can reach your dream.  Faithless and unbelief will cause you to easily give up.  God has a plan for us and if we build our faith and trust in Him, He will guide us towards that plan and help us reach our dream.

Sometimes what we dream of may not be what God wants for us. I believe that if we follow God’s will, we will get the best and not the second best. Therefore, be flexible. If after several tries and different roads transversed, you still are not reaching your dream; probably, it is not what God intends for you. Being flexible and listening to the leading of God will enable you to reach a bigger dream.

Listen to the wisdom of people around you.  You will learn a lot from the experiences and journeys of other people.  The wisdom of the elderly is one of the best wisdom to tap as they have ‘been there and done that’.  We are on our individual life journey but there are many common experiences. 

Have a pleasant journey to your dream!

Happy Chinese New Year!

Understanding Your Children

We are uniquely created by God. Isaiah 44:24 says, "Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer, and He who formed you from the womb..." God molded uniquely, so our children have unique and different attitudes or personalities from us. It is important to understand these attitudes to help us motivate our children and
raise them to be the best that they can be.

You may have a spirited child or what is commonly referred to as difficult or strong-willed child. These kids exhibit great energy.  They are quick to understand and notice change and are uncomfortable with change. They are sensitive and persistent. Or you may have the extreme type - the easy one or the more predictable child who sees new experiences in a positive way.

A child’s reaction to his environment is strongly influenced by his temperament, his innate or unique quality. A difficult, strong-willed (and therefore challenging child to raise) child responds to his environment in a negative and intense way. As a baby, he can be described as a fussy infant. As a toddler, he is prone to temper tantrums and is difficult to please. Adapting poorly to changes and environment, these kids may have trouble adjusting in school. Be prepared to hear complaints from teachers or even parents as these kids will have difficulty adjusting in the new environment – classroom and school playground. If you have such a kid, it is very important to spend more time with him, explaining things to him and helping him adjust (slowly) to his new environment. Because of the tantrums that these kids have, you may get a stare from other parents and their classmates may not like them. It is at this stage that you need to teach your child the importance of the change. Your child must understand and agree that change is necessary for his growth, development and his future.

Children are blessings. But if you have an “easy”child, you have a blessing and a bonus. The easy child reacts to his environment in an easy manner. He has a positive mood and is calm. He easily adapts to a new environment so his first days in school will be a “walk in the park”. He is excited in his new environment and the new people that he meets. Like everyone else, he may encounter a frustrating situation but he would normally respond to it with very little anxiety.

It is important to understand your children and their temperament so you can choose the right words and motivation that will impact their life. In raising children you need to choose your words wisely as these growing years of these delicate ones play a vital role in what they will become in the future. As Frederick Douglass said, “It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men.”

Simple Living

 

The Christmas and New Year’s Eve festivities have just ended.  Because of the commercialized celebration, most of us were stressed (though we believe we had fun).  Thus, it is very important to distress ourselves and be reminded that we need to live a simple life.

Living a simple life can help reduce your stress and enable you to have an overall good attitude in life. We end up with so many to-do lists everyday. Because of this, anxiety kicks in. The ability to cut the anxiety that comes with the endless daily to-do lists will put you on your way to simple living. We all want to accomplish more with less stress, so hear some of my cut-out secrets to kicking anxiety out of the endless daily to-do lists and live a simple life this 2014.

Set a Routine.  Some people would say that routines are boring.  This may be true in some situations but if you are talking about to-do lists, then setting a routine will help you become an expert and enable you to accomplish more without the anxiety. Schedule a day or time to clean your house, go to the supermarket, pay bills or run errands.  Keep to this schedule and soon you will find that the task becomes automatic and you don’t have to put much effort or thought about it; thus, it lessens your anxiety.

Be Organized.  You will spend some time to do this, but once done it will be almost perfect and it will be easy to stay organized.  You likewise don’t have to spend time thinking where you kept things.  It thus saves you time and the anxiety of thinking and never finding things.

Pray and Exercise. For us, single moms every penny counts and every time with God is a precious gift.  Thus, we can combine both by walking daily for about 15 minutes and use that time to commune with God.  This is an exercise of the heart, mind, soul and body.  It will help you clear the clutter that may come your way. 

Spend Time with Family and Friends.  If you still have little ones, this is a must.  Your children need you more than they need your money.  Keep this in your daily schedule and enjoy the moment while it last.  Kids grow very fast and soon they will have their own company but if they grew up with you spending time with them, they will do the same with you even when they’ve grown up.  Keep connected with the rest of your family and friends especially with those from whom you get the gold nuggets of life; those you learn from and give your encouragement.

Focus on What is Important, quit being materialistic. Don’t work your heart out trying to get a big house, buy branded clothes, designer bags, go on a Caribbean cruise.  Remember, you don’t need these to live and enjoy life.  Life is simple joys spent with your kids.

Stop and Smell the Roses.  Enjoy nature; appreciate the refreshing wind on your skin, the warmth of the sun, the blue sky and the colorful flowers.  Nature has a magical way of distressing us.  Appreciation of nature is an antidote to loneliness and stress. Nature brings hope and peace to our soul.  Appreciation of nature brings a smile on our face.

Say What You Feel.  Be open with your emotions.  Do not try to hide it. It is easy to see when people are happy but it is sometimes difficult to know if a person is sad because most people try to hide bad feelings.  Never do this as this causes anxiety in your life.  This will cause you to feel overwhelmed and could lead to depression.  Be open and say what you feel and get it over with.  Do not stay long in a pity party.

Think Positive.  Start the year right with positive thoughts that you should carry starting now till forever.  Should negative thoughts come to mind, erase these immediately with thoughts of happiness, prosperity, love, joy, peace.  Soon you will realize that you are attracting these positive things and are being mirrored in your daily life.

Start the year right, live a simple life free from stress!

 

Teach Children the True Meaning of Christmas

We have forgotten the true meaning of Christmas.  The true meaning of Christmas will continue to be in oblivion if we don’t remind ourselves of the true meaning of the season and teach our children the essence of Christmas.

The true meaning of Christmas, the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ, is often buried in the commercialism of today’s Christmas celebration.  We get caught up in the excitement of the holiday and unwrapping our gifts.  Kids couldn’t quit thinking if their “wish lists” would come true.  To prevent the true meaning of Christmas to be totally forgotten, we need to teach children the true meaning of Christmas, the spiritual side of Christmas.  

Some very intuitive single moms, came up with the following ways to teach children the true meaning of Christmas:

Use the Jesse Tree to help children learn about the salvation history.  Show the genealogy of Jesus through symbols and use this to decorate your Jesse tree.  This is a fun way of teaching and a great time for bonding with your kids.  For instance, ask your kids to draw an apple to represent Adam and Eve then hang this on the lowest branch of your Jesse Tree.  Next ask them to cut-out a rainbow from their old story book to decorate another branch of your Jesse Tree, all the way to the baby Jesus being born.  For every ornament they draw, cut-out or make, tell them the story and the importance of the symbols.

Instead of the usual bed-time story books that you read to your kids, get a Bible story book for your children.  They would love to hear the adventures of Noah, Moses, David, Samson and more.  Get them excited by reading portions of the adventures every night.  Make the birth of Jesus Christ your finale emphasizing its importance, saying that Jesus came to gift us with eternal life and nothing can ever compare to this gift.  Receiving Christmas physical gifts on Christmas day is a bonus but the gift of eternal life, the sacrifice of Jesus is the utmost gift anyone can receive.

Let your creative juices flow and build a manger with your children.  Make it more meaningful by allowing your kids to “add comfort” to baby Jesus by allowing them to add straws on the manger every time they do a good deed.  Get a cardboard box large enough to fit a baby Jesus doll.  Put some straws on it and then let the fun begin as your kids try to be good to enable them to add more straws on the manager.  On Christmas Eve put all the ornaments – baby Jesus on the manager, Mary, Joseph, the shepherds and sheep, and the three kings.

Lull your kids to sleep with old-time Christmas songs like Silent Night, Hark the Herald Angels Sing, O Holy Night, etc. On your bonding time, watch Christmas movies such as The Polar Express, The Grinch Who Stole Christmas (animated version), etc.

Make the Christmas holiday truly fun, enjoyable, entertaining and full of the true meaning of the season.

Can You Do Two Things at the Same Time?

Can you do two things at the same time?  In our world and age, people would say “yes” because this is how they understand multitasking and most of us believe that we need to multitask to survive in our fast-pace world.  Moms, especially single moms, are known to be experts in this field.  But seriously, if you consider the pros and cons of what the experts say, is it possible to do two things at the same time?

According to Kendra Cherry, author of “The Cognitive Costs of Multitasking” published at about.com, multitasking can reduce productivity by approximately 40 percent and switching from one task to another makes it difficult to tune out distractions and can cause mental blocks that can slow down one’s progress.  It seems that Philip Stranhope, more popularly known as Lord Chesterfield, a British Statesman and a man of letters, agreed with Kendra. In one of his many letters to his son in the 1740s, he gave this advice, “There is time enough for everything in the course of the day, if you do but one thing at once, but there is not time enough in the year, if you will do two things at a time.”

On the other side, the demands of today’s workplace require an employee to work on different tasks at one time or simultaneously.  Today’s employee will be responding to urgent emails while sending text messages to remind his co-workers of a task they need to finish or attending a virtual meeting.  It is expected from the employee to juggle several different tasks at the same time without losing sight of his ultimate objective.  A number of business leaders believe that to survive in the rat race, they must be able to master the art of multitasking.

I am inclined to agree with both sides of the argument because multitasking is possible depending on the task at hand. 

If you are a writer, you can think of what to write while folding your laundry.  Folding laundry can be combined with thinking because you don’t have to fold your laundry in a scientific way.  You don't have to work your mind in this task, so you might as well use the time to think intelligibly instead of flooding your mind with bad thoughts and heartaches.

You can relax by reading a book or watching TV while you set your automatic washing machine to do your laundry.  As most of the people in the business world say, it is mixing business with pleasure.

In our internet world it is common to see a family glued to the TV with laptops and cell phones in hand updating their status on facebook and twitter, catching up with families and friends.

Jogging while enjoying your favorite music.

Walking your dog while listening your audio book. You exercise, finish a task, learn or relax with this multi-activity.

Having coffee while catching up with friends on facebook.

Feel free to add to this list J