Back from T&G's church wedding!

Yeah..T&G are now married :) haha. Really happy for them. I just love to attend weddings :) For I know, the journey ahead of the wedding couple would be filled with great joy, if God continues to be in the centre of their lives and marriage.

Have been friends with T&G for many years. I was really glad to be able to help out as MC. Although that was rather stressful for both Kel and I, (now we got to get ready for the dinner in the evening cos we got to takeover our dear brother who's rather ill), we experienced God's guidance and grace throughout the whole time.

The wedding was held at The Arts House.. a very beautiful place I must say. The romantic mood was there.. everything was just beautiful. :) Both T&G looked great! and ya, for the first time, they were not the photographers at the wedding haha! :p

okie.. I am now waiting to go for rehearsal at the wedding dinner hotel... Long day for all of us :)

Oh ya! My curtains and blinds are finally done! Yippee!!!

Okiee..will upload photos soon.

Easily stressed:(

A few key words summarize some of my reflections today,

"Expectations" .. external (from others), internal (from myself)

"Perfectionism" ...

"Stress"...

It's a recurring problem, with deep-rooted causes. :( And I know I need to overcome that, if I don't want to keep killing myself with unnecessary worries, fears and stress. Some problems revisit us...but I believe we grow stronger each time we overcome them.

Life is definitely not a bed of roses...with all the things, expectations which have to be handled and managed. Working life is tough and sometimes I just wish to stay away from that. But...that's what life is about...learning and growing through challenges.

His grace is sufficient.

Random thoughts..:)

Thank God i am feeling so much better...really. For a while, I was quite down because of some stuff that happened... during that time, I thought I would not be able to pick up...but well.. time really did the trick. Gave myself a few days to feel sad.. and once I started feeling better.. things started to run again! God is faithful and He never forsakes me. Sometimes, He knows we just need the time to grieve over the pain... He is not in a rush for us to feel "ok" and He is always patient with us. I experienced that.. and I know that all the time, He was just waiting for me to start praying again.. and communicating. Yup, so He knew when I would be more ready to listen to what is true about all that has been going on.

Had a good time with WG on saturday morning.. it made up for our M-time this week. We took a bus to Serene Macdonalds, had breakfast, talked.. and walked to Botanic Gardens.. then ended up at Law School because I needed to get some stuff from the library. The time was good because he prompted me to just share what's been going on and he gave me guidance and advice (as usual)..which was what I needed :)

Cat and Dog Theology seminar in the afternoon was good.. cos it put my current circumstances into the right perspective. Sometimes I am such a cat.. but I do not realise it. The seminar reminded me of a song that I really love, by Steven Curtis Chapman.. "God is God".

Sunday service was good.. I learnt quite a bit from Moses' story in Exodus 2. What amazes me is how God orchestrates everything in our lives.. good and bad..for His purposes. And the next thing that I learnt is that, God preserves our heart for Him. :) I was encouraged.. for I knew deep down that my life is in God's hands.. and I need not worry what lies ahead.

The YF gathering on sunday afternoon was fantastic! I was so encouraged by what i saw.. it's hard to describe everything.. but the sharing by each person was so so so authentic. A time when everyone stopped wearing their masks. Beautiful.. although there was lots of tears..it was tears of healing. I was very much healed too:)

All in all, I am grateful to God for delivering me once again and giving me hope and strength for tomorrow :)

daddy & me time

Picked daddy up from the airport at abt 8pm last night...was happy to see him.

Then we had a good dinner at a chinese restuarant. 2 bowls of delicious porridge and roasted duck which was FANTASTIC! yumyum =p A bit ex though..but I told daddy it was a belated Fathers' Day celebration! haha.

I like daddy&me time. It's different from mummy&me time or daddymummy&me time.

That made my day somewhat and lifted me from my sadness.

The speaker at english service 2 days back reminded us to honour our parents and he urged us to spend more time with our parents...as I grow older, I do find myself cherishing parents&me time much much more...especially so after getting married.

Daddy mentioned that they may move overseas after retirement in Singapore due to other new commitments.. oh.. that made me feel sad.. and I don't wish for that day to come. :( But that made me realise that i need to cherish our times together now.

M-time this week :p and YIKES!!!

Hubby and myself realised that we have not be as disciplined with our M-time lately. Yups..so we were reminded yesterday to keep the discipline. Had our M-time yesterday, went to Vivo..had dinner at a Thai restaurant. Had 2 plates of pineapple rice, tom yam soup and beancurd. Dinner was good but err... a little expensive. We spent time talking (WG said, "no talking about work and ministry ok?")...about ourselves, the marriage, future plans etc...its was a good time. :p

And ya.. once again, I experienced how M-time makes a difference. You know.. we cannot take it for granted that because we see each other everyday at home, we are making efforts to build the marriage. To build/maintain a good marriage definitely takes intentional/deliberate efforts. As I always tell people, "Divorces happen probably not because there is absolutely no love between the 2 people, but because they did not know how to do maintenance."

It's definitely not easy to build a strong marriage, but i guess we just got to keep working at it.

haha, when we got home, something happened (relating to MY TOOTHBRUSH) and I sort of got a little angry..the feeling was "YIKES!! YUCKS!!".. argh... ah well, I shan't share the details.. but ya.. when such things happen, I don't know whether to be angry or to laugh it off! haha.. Well, eventually, I chose to not be mean and to laugh it off!

On a separate note, God knows that I would have to go through some difficult stuff these few weeks, so He made arrangements for my work to be more smooth-sailing and less hectic.. For that, I am truly grateful...He always knows what's best.

Yeah! A timely provision...:)

Yeah! Just as I was about to look for a cheap phone because my current phone is showing signs of death...haha...mummy called me to tell me that she would be receiving a free Nokia phone from Singtel next tues and she wanted to give it to me! =p It's so timely! For a while, I was wrecking my brains over the phone issue cos I have a general policy of not purchasing a phone at more than $100.00. It's hard to get one at such a low price without upgrading or signing a new line. I am not eligible for an upgrade at the moment...so it was quite a headache. But yeah!!!!! I will be getting a new phone next week.

God provides solutions at just the right time! Yippee :) :) :) :)

Relieved, glad, happy, amazed :):):)

Hard to share the long long story over the blog.. suffice to say, I am feeling

Relieved
Glad
Happy
Amazed
At peace
Encouraged

And all other positive feelings I guess :) haha

I passed the BIG test from God :) ya.. a difficult one.. but finally passed it!

Just 2 words, "IT'S AMAZING!"

And ya.. another amazing thing, reaped another fruit unexpectedly during dinner on sunday and experienced again what it means when the bible says that the gospel is the power of God. :p

The weekend and leave yesterday was good, and fruitful.

God is good...all the time.

CG was a blast!!! :):):)

Wow! Bible study today with CG was fantastic although there was just Pet, YH, WG and myself, just 4 of us.

We had such a great time studying Colossians using the inductive method. And Pet showed us a GodTube video to summarise the whole study, and that was also a blast!!

We really enjoyed the process of digging for truths for ourselves.. there was no spoon-feeding.. and yup, we learnt a great deal about the supremacy of Jesus Christ!

I am so encouraged. :):)Praise the Lord!

Free Italian meal.. yummy =)

Haha.. i just returned from a wonderful meal at a client's italian restaurant. He is the head chef of that restaurant..ya.. and he is the big boss. He gave us a treat after the matter was settled in court this morning. The food was fantastic... I have never been to such a posh restaurant... :) It was quite an experience. I may just return to the restaurant one of these days when I feel like spending the money. haha.

I enjoyed the chat with him..he was telling me how he likes Singapore etc. Well, I never saw things from his perspective.. but maybe it's different when you are looking from the perspective of a foreigner.

I've been having quite some fun lately talking to people from different cultures. WG's russian colleague came over to our place last sunday...she's a very nice girl.. and ya, we had a good chat. I had a good chat with this Italian chef today.. and ya, we will be having a German tenant for 2 months starting end June. So exciting! Cross-cultural exchanges. =p On a side note, the German tenant is my source of motivation to get my curtains done! (after almost a year of staying in the flat haha!)

I think I will enjoy having friends of different nationalities.. it adds more flavour to life. Something new for me...

Okie.. so J is coming over to do my curtain measurements this evening. Finally...I am getting that done. good good.

okok! Back to work!

More to life...

Last week, I met up with 6 of my good girl friends separately for catching up sessions... haha.. record-breaking!! Maybe cos it's been too long since I last caught up with them, so I decided to meet them all within a week. But it was very enjoyable... :):):)

Once again, I attest to the truth that God made us for relationships. I was just telling this friend of mine whilst we were waiting around in court that life's really meaningless if we just spend all our time working. Time with family members and friends is absolutely important in order to enjoy some quality of life.

Something else which I have been struggling with lately...the desire to shop and buy some really pretty and expensive stuff. It's the lure of materialism I guess...and I believe it's especially evident in Raffles Place (where I work). I think our generation finds it much harder to live simple lives and it takes much more to say "I will give that up". That's the reality now...

...but I thank God for reminding me always that there are many who are just struggling to stay alive and many who are living in poverty. (Like those in Sichuan and Myanmmar) "How then should I spend my money?" is always the question on my mind. Well, it's not easy, but it's a precious lesson to learn. The environment is shaping us and luring us to conform, if we do not resist, we will inevitably fall into the trap.

I've been thinking...actually life can be very meaningful...if only we choose wisely how to spend our time and money.

I was looking up Steven Curtis Chapman's ministry website, "Shaohannah Hope"...the Mission revolves around "Adoption". I think that's a beautiful ministry. Many orphans are waiting to be adopted into stable and loving homes. I am so encouraged by what they are doing and that just proves what I have just said, that life can be truly meaningful. (Do go check out their website!) :):)