3 Things that Cause UNthankfulness

This is just a quick post as I don't want to forget these little things I learned from the Homily of Father Jojo Monis of Hearts of Jesus and Mary Parish. The topic he discussed was about the top 3 things that cause us to be "UNthankful." 

1. Taking Things for Granted

Father Jojo said that this is one of the main reasons why we become unthankful - when we forget how blessed we already are. 

Sometimes when huge or even little challenges come into my life, I dwell on them until I feel like I've solved them. Though I pray to God to help me surrender these worries, I must admit that I sometimes have a hard time doing a "full surrender" to His will. 

The homily reminded me that despite my problems, I am still blessed with a loving family and a brand new day to make better decisions and become a better person. All of us are blessed. We just have to make an everyday effort to acknowledge these truths.

2. Envy and Selective Blindness

One day I had a meet-up with my girl friends and we were updating each other on what's going on with our lives. One of my friends said, "Oh have you seen the Facebook account of (some girl's name)? I can't believe she is now a (insert awesome career here). I hope I can do the same thing. She used to be not good in school. I can't believe she's a (once again, insert the career here)."

That conversation got me baffled. I am actually very happy for people who were once struggling adolescents but have now become better individuals. Likewise, I am also happy for myself and my journey through life. Sometimes, I just hope that we don't get too engrossed in this "it's-greener-on-the-other-side" mentality and simply be happy where we are now. Let's all be happy for each others' successes because we all have something unique to celebrate about our lives. Let's choose to see the good things instead of what we feel are wrong in our lives.  

3. The Feeling of Self-Entitlement

"I achieved things without the help of God."

Some of us may tend to think that we are self-entitled of our achievements. Like everything that happened in our lives were solely from our own efforts. No one helped you get to where you are. No one blessed you with your talents, gifts, and opportunities. It's all just you.

Father Jojo reminded us that although this arrogance can well up in our hearts, we should be reminded that there is someone out there bigger than us and taking care of us despite our ingratitude.

I have a friend who seemed to have it all. He's very proud of his achievements because he was top of his class while in university and recently, has passed all tests for a much awaited career promotion. When the time for promotion came, he apparently, was not chosen. He was so used to his success that when he did not get what he wanted, he became resentful of his work and secluded himself from his workmates. 

The call for us in our times of pride and arrogance is to regain the virtue of humility in our hearts. Sometimes there will be things that we will not get in life but this should not stop us from appreciating the rest of what's great about our lives.

Live Life to the Fullest! God bless you! :)

Jacq

365 Days of Love Notes (Week 2)

I came across a blog challenge from Story of a Rose to create Love Notes every Sunday. The Love Notes challenge is somewhat similar to the 100 Happy days challenge many are doing in social media, except this one is somehow addressed to God. 

My Sundays are often slow so I decided to accept the challenge. In my Love Notes posts, I plan to reflect on the presence of God in my work week and enumerate the most striking blessing to me per day. Cheers!

Day 6:

Dear God,

Thank you for giving us time to catch up with friends from YFC UP Manila. We had our usual MonDATE lunch at Maginhawa street. 

Photo from Ejae's Instagram

Day 7:

Dear God,

Thank you for giving us an awesome holiday rest day since it is Eid'l Fitr. Please bless our Muslim brethren.

Day 8:

Dear God,

Thank you for allowing us to join the #BeTheBoss conference to become more aware on how we could help our leadership manage this country better. 


Day 9:

Dear God,

Thank you for allowing us to have a productive work day and finish a lot of stuff on time.

Day 10:

Dear God,

Thank you for allowing our office to have an awesome excursion at Camayan Beach Resort and Ocean Adventure in Subic. Also, thank you for making Ablaze communications financially stable and, more importantly, that many are evangelized by our products. 

Photo from cfcablaze's instagram.

Day 11 (Bonus blessing):

Dear God,

Thank you for allowing Ablaze communications to conduct its first In His Steps Editors' Recollection today! And for allowing me to meet more awesome people inspired to work for Your greater glory. 

After I did this exercise, I realized that I have so much to be thankful for. There are times when I'm focused too much on my problems that I fail to appreciate the beauty of life. I realized that I should make a conscious effort to recall all the good things about my journey and how God has blessed me. I also believe we are all blessed and I would absolutely appreciate it if you could share with me your daily blessings.

If you would like to join us in creating Love Notes for God on your blog or any Social Media site, please include the hashtag #365DaysOfLoveNotes. You may also link my blog if you wish.

God bless you!

365 Days of Love Notes for God (Week 1)

I came across a blog challenge from Story of a Rose to create Love Notes every Sunday. The Love Notes challenge is somewhat similar to the 100 Happy days challenge many are doing in social media, except this one is somehow addressed to God. 

My Sundays are often slow so I decided to accept the challenge. In my Love Notes posts, I plan to reflect on the presence of God in my work week and enumerate the most striking blessing to me per day. Cheers!

Day 1:

Dear God,

Thank you for giving me this day to work from home and to have a pseudo-household with some young YFC/SFC friends from Singapore.

Day 2:

Dear God,

Thank you for giving us this day to be inspired by Fr. Benedict Lagarde at the Holy Eucharist. Thank you for all the uplifting messages he said for us missionaries in his homily.

Message for missionaries, from the homily of Fr. Benedict:

"You will see the best in the Church in moments of persecution."

"Like the saints, we have to be faithful and consistent."

"The moment we become comfortable, we become complacent at best."

"God calls the gifted."

"Great miracles will happen in your life. One day, you will cry tears of joy as you look back. God has a promise for us. Don't you ever doubt your vocation. The only reason you're here is because God loves you and you want to give it out to the world. He will take care of your families." 

Day 3:

Dear God,

Thank you for giving me my salary and for teaching me to live within my means. 


Day 4:

Dear God,

Thank you for allowing us to have a fellowship night with my workmates. We watched a free movie from the Italian film fest! Thank you Lord for giving me good friends.

Day 5:

Dear God,

Thank you for sending us Fr. Augustine to teach us how to become better missionaries for you.

Message for missionaries, from the homily of Fr. Augustine:

"Do mission and speak if necessary."

"What I cannot practice, I should not preach. What you speak in private, you should be able to speak in public."

"A good missionary has a rosary in his pocket and prays the rosary."

"Go and show who you are, instead of telling what you want to. They will believe not what you tell but what you do. Show them how you experienced Jesus in your life so that they may also see Jesus in you. When they see Jesus in you, then you may talk about him so they will hear. They need to see before they could listen."
 
After I did this exercise, I realized that I have so much to be thankful for. There are times when I'm focused too much on my problems that I fail to appreciate my life. I realized that I should make a conscious effort to recall all the good things about my journey and how God has blessed me. I also believe we are all blessed and I would absolutely appreciate it if you could share with me your daily blessings.

If you would like to join us in creating Love Notes for God on your blog or any Social Media site, please include the hashtag #365DaysOfLoveNotes. You may also link my blog if you wish.

God bless you!