Are there people who irritate you in your workplace? The gossips and those who are only working when the boss is around, or those who feels like he/she is the boss, those who are always negative and irrate but unfortunately affecting the entire staff performance, or those who feel like they know everything and those who feel like your work place is a vacation-getaway!

You just wish they disappear from the surface of the earth but they seemed to be immortal and eternal and to make matters worst they are influencing the saints, like you! Bad of all bad, no amount of calling the attention of the HR officers no action is done!

Here’s a story Jesus told to give you some thoughts to ponder (Matthew 13: 24-30):

There is…”a farmer who planted good seed in the field. But that night…his enemy came and planted weeds among the wheat…When the crop began to grow and produce grain, the weeds also grew.

“The…workers went to him and said, ‘Sir, the field where you planted good seed is full of weeds!…’

“‘Should we pull the weeds?’ They asked.

“‘No,’ he replied, ‘you’ll uproot the wheat if you do. Let both grow together until the harvest. Then I will tell the harvesters to sort out the weeds, tie them into bundles, and burn them, and to put the wheat in the barn.”

Lessons:

1. Our workplace is one of life laboratories where we can practice the virtues we learned.  If there are no places and people like the ones mentioned above, we will not be able to exercise patience and the like attitudes.
2. Many times we only think of our concerns and our seemingly right solution to these concerns, we do not see the big picture and the bad consequences our thoughts may affect the affairs of our entire company.
3. God is more concern with the development of your character than eliminating those things, bad it may seem, that will contribute to your growth as a person.

I hope this thoughts will give you new perspective as you deal with your irritating colleagues!

Secret for more time is Scheduling!

Do you often hear yourself say, “I am toxic!” “I am busy busy busy!” “I don’t have time!” And in our colloquial Filipino, we say “NGARAG!”

In the blog Margin Part 1, we have learned that Margin is anything available beyond what we needed! It is anything where the best things happen.  TIME included!

How can we have more time to enjoy the best things to happen? The answer is SCHEDULING YOUR LIFE!

A lot of us will say, “Well, I schedule a lot, in fact I can tell you now what will I be in the next 5 years! But still I find my life in a mess!”

Do you know why?  There is still a problem, that is, we do not schedule & plan wisely!

The good old Book says: Be very careful, then, how you live – not as unwise but as WISE, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil.  Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is. (Ephesians 5: 15-17)

How can we be wise in scheduling and planning our life? CHOOSE NOT ONLY THE GOOD THINGS AND THE CONVENTIONAL THINGS BUT CHOOSE THE BEST - THE BEST IS GOD’S WILL!

When we choose God’s Will in scheduling our lives we will have good and pleasing lifestyle. How will we do it?

• By prioritizing God’s Will! Making it the 1st!

Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and He will give you everything you need. (Matthew 6: 33)

• By going to Him when we are stressed out and pressured by the demands of the day!

…Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest…because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. (Matthew 11: 28, 29)

Do this and discover for yourself how you will have a lot of Time Margin!

To answer that question, I would like to present a similarity between physical wound and emotional wound!

Healing of a physical wound is natural but it takes time because healing is a process. Sometimes, specially when the wound is fatal and an infection occurs, a medical intervention is necessary to facilitate good healing. Aside from that, every wound leaves scar, because it damages skin tissues. This scar remains even if the pain is not there anymore. The healing maybe complete but it leaves unfavourable souvenirs!

A scar is a reminder of the wound but the pain isn't there anymore!

Same is true with any offense that causes emotional pain. It is like a knife that slices a wound. It can be very nasty with emotional pain! It is not always good! It can create chaos in life, its healing isn’t easy, it takes time!

God asks us to forgive immediately, like the way He forgives us! He asks us to give Him our anger, our bitterness and hatred and allow Him to handle vengeance! But forgetting the offense, the harm, the hurt and trusting again is another thing. It is like healing, it is a process. It has to be dealt with time. Trust has to be regained!

There are times that we will not forget the offense and the harm but the pain will not be felt anymore. Remembrance of the painful incidents becomes a reminder for the offense not to happen again. It is a reminder that if we sense circumstances leading to an offense and hurt, we learn to excuse ourself from those!

Even if the healing is taking some time, what’s important is to forgive the person who offended us…because in doing so the healing happens!

I pray that we will learn to forgive immediately and bear the memory of the offenses until the time will come when we won’t remember the excruciating emotional pain caused by the offenses and harms done to us!

Bless your emotional healing time!

Today I attended a church leaders’ mentoring group, while the speaker and our mentor-pastor spoke, two words were impressed in my mind: FOCUS and BALANCE!

On Focusing, I’ll say:

Multi-tasking is an “IN” thing today, it maybe a good practice but if we are not really efficient it might result to destructed and unfulfillment in life. We know the saying “Jack-of-all-trades but master-of-none.”

When we are FOCUS on the thing we are gifted at and that we love and passionate to do the most, it will result to life fulfillment and accomplishment in a larger scale! A light that is focused, say a laser beam, can do much better things than an unfocused light, say sunshine!

Same is true with our performances and works, if we don’t focus, we will not accomplish better and more. The impact of what we will do will not be powerful.

Balancing may not be easy but do it anyway for your benefit!

On the other hand if we are not careful, we may become extremely focused in performing so much, neglecting the other essential things in life, sooner of later we will be exhausted, burned-out and tired. The answer to this other far end of the pendulum is BALANCE! When things are balance physically, mentally, emotionally and socially life is healthy.

If you wanted to be fulfilled and healthy this year be FOCUSED and be BALANCED!

Note: For the followers of  ‘Restore Your Broken Relationship Blog Series’ I will post again about it on my next blog.

“We all know it is very easy to say ‘forgive and ask for forgiveness’ but it is an insurmountable task to do!”

Why is it so?

Because most of the times we are paralyze by the fear of the possible pain during the confrontation, so we don’t make a move to ask for an apology or offer forgiveness.

Yet in reality having a severed relationship is more painful than the confrontation. Check it out by asking those people whose families had broken relationships and didn’t move at all for reconciliation and you will hear from them extreme emotional pains.

This time, let us survey what did the Word of God, being the best life standard, says about this difficult act of forgiving and asking for forgiveness.

Mending broken relationships are like mending broken delicate Vases!

“Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another.  FORGIVE AS THE LORD FORGAVE YOU.” (Colossians 3:13)

• We’ve got a lot of grievances for someone and someone else have grievances against us, but we’ve got to BEAR with each other.
• Forgive because when you don’t these grievances will become bitterness and hatred, then it will transform you to become suspicious  and miserable.
• Do not allow hurt, anger and bitterness eat you up, it is awful, terribly awful! Try it if you want!
• Forgive immediately! Ask for forgiveness immediately! Do it ASAP as the Lord forgave you! The person who offended you doesn’t need to do something to be forgiven. You don’t have to wait for a sign for you to ask for an apology.

You may ask, how should I forgive immediately, does it mean forgetting the offense? That will be the topic of the next blog!

New Year’s resolutions and predictions!!!  These are what we normally do during New Year.

Have a 2010 connecting with God!

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!

The reason why God doesn’t give us the things we ask for is because we ask too little.  When we dream of something we dream not big enough!  When we set a goal or aim for something then pray that God grant that, we aim & goal too low and the worst is we want an answer soon!  God delays or not answer our prayers because He knows that it isn’t the best for us & He is waiting for us to be ready to receive the most ever, best & greatest answer we never have thought of!

Have a Christmas filled with time being ready to receive the best gift & answered prayer from God!

Last tip to receive a prayer request coming up the day after next!

We are dependent with each other.  We need each others’ physical & emotional support.

The writer of one of the books in the Bible, the book of Ecclesiastes said: “Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their work: If one falls down, his friend can help him up.  But pity is the man who falls and has no one to help him up!”

Our lives will be easier & better if someone is with us to accomplish things, to help us in hard times and to share our joys with!  We need mentors in our business activities, as we perform our jobs, improve our finances, make our marriage better.

There are times we are satisfied with who we have in our friendship circle. We never intend to expand our social networks even if these are rampant in the web world. You will notice if you are like that, that more often than not you hardly grow as a person. On the contrary, having new friends give you new horizons to explore, new learning to know, new characters to discover and even new challenges to pursue!

Expand friendship with those who are older than you are – you will get a part of their wisdom and patience. Be friends with those who are younger than you are – you will be encouraged by their enthusiam and energy. Try being friends with those who are completely opposite of your personality – you will be challenged to exercise love. Offer friendship with those who are financially blessed than you are – you will be blessed likewise. Associate with those who are more intellectual than you are – you will benefit from their intelligence.  Offer friendship with the lowly – you will be humbled. Recruit a non-Filipino friend (if you’re a Filipino, if not have a Filipino friend) – you will learn how to be comfortable outside of your comfort-zone!

A scorpion friend can teach us about venoms too!

Be very cautious though.  The Bible says, “Be wise as a serpent, but be gentle as dove.” That is very true in expanding your circle of friends.

Enjoy new friends this Christmas Season!

One…had been sick for 38 years. When Jesus saw him…he asked…”Would you like to get well?” (5,6)

Jesus talking to the paraphlegic man near the pool