MEDITATION IS LIKE A CUP OF TEA

Meditation is like a cup of tea.  :-)


We are the hot water.  God's word is the tea bag.


Hearing the word through a sermon or Bible Study lesson is like dipping the tea bag in water.  But taking time to read, study and memorize Scripture is like immersing the tea bag in water and letting it steep for an extended period of time.


When we consistently combine God's word with time and a teachable heart, His truth permeates our very lives.  Like sponges, our hearts absorb more and more of Him, and we are transformed in the process.

"Your word is a lamp to my feet

And a light to my path." -- Psalm 119:105

May this be a blessing!

HEALTHY MOM OR HEALTHY BABY

This week we talked about birth plan in our childbirth class.  The timing is right because Marcel and I are in the process of finalizing ours.


As our teacher helped us think of the birth options and our priorities in case of complications, she asked, "Would you rather have a healthy mom or a healthy baby?"


Right until before that question, Marcel and I were still in agreement with the other options.  We were easily able to put the options in the priorities we agreed upon.  But that question had us thinking and discussing for awhile.


I chose "healthy baby" as my priority out of my mommy instinct.  My reasoning is because as an adult, it is easier for me to cope with the "unhealthiness."  But for our baby, being new to this world, it must be more challenging for him to cope.  And it may need medical intervention too to cope since babies don't really have that self defense mechanism as mature as the adults do.


On the other hand, Marcel chose "healthy mom" because to him:
1) A healthy mom can better nurture unhealthy baby than an unhealthy mom can
2) A healthy mom (and the dad) may still have a chance to conceive more baby in the future to continue the generation.  But that is not an option if there were a healthy baby and the dad only

His sharing got me pondering on our pre-marital counseling with Pastor Hosea.  Pastor asked a similar question to Marcel back then, "If your wife and kid are drowning, who would you rescue first?"  And Pastor Hosea explained to us the responsibility of a husband based on Ephesians 5:25.

"Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her." -- Ephesians 5:25

It's only been 5 years since our counseling with Pastor Hosea.  While this has been a very familiar concept to me, I again was humbled by how teachable, responsible, and respectful my hubby Marcel is.  That teaching really resonated in Marcel's heart.  He took his responsibility as Christ follower so seriously.  He is convinced that what the Bible says is The Truth and The Light.  And with all his humility, he follows through what the Bible guides him.


So going back to the birth plan, at the end we both agreed "healthy mom" first, and then "healthy baby."

"The most important thing a father can do for his children is to love their mother." -- Theodore Hesburgh

I pray today for those who are still waiting for their soul mate to diligently pray and ask from God the soul mate that respects, fears, and follows the Lord.  And for those who are married to an amazing spouse, praise the Lord constantly for that wonderful gift.  Finally, for those who are yearning for a changed person in your significant other, I long to pray with and for you that God will pour upon your relationship His deliverance.


May this be a blessing.  Please let me know how I can be praying for you today.  If you're interested to hear a quick 1.5-minute encouragement today, you can listen to True Love.


Until next time,


The oh-so-loved-by-her-hubby Yanny
:-)

ALL HANDS

Marcel's five-toed shoes that he wears to ease the knee pains while running

What do you do when you need that 5-second cheer-me-up "mantra"?  At our home, Marcel and I mimic and/or use phrases from the little children around us.


Awhile back when Koko Maxie was at our place, Marcel went out for a quick jogging around the block.  When Marcel came home, Maxie spotted Marcel in his five-toed socks walking around the house.


Maxie, "Annie Annie, look!!!  Uncle Marcel so funny.  No feet.  All hands!  Heheheheehehe."


Marcel and I looked at each other and started laughing at Maxie's funny comment.  We never thought of the shoes nor the socks that way before.  But it's true.  They do look like fingers being separated out like that.


Fast forward to last week.  Work has been a whirlwind for both me and Marcel.  Plus, I caught cold from either the equipment at the gym or my friend's place (her newborn just started to get sick).  Physically, I felt yucky and tired.  By the time another round of whirlwind came at work, I was just so ready to step away and take a break.


Just at that moment, Marcel pinged me.  And we chatted a little bit about his and my day so far.  I told him that I just needed time away from work for now.  Then Marcel threw out the infamous "mantra."


Marcel, "OK if you need to talk to someone about it more, I'm all ears :-).  Uncle Marcel no mouth, all ears!"


I bursted laughing.  That refreshed me immediately.  Since I was sick and could not go out for a quick refreshing walk outside, that really made my day.  I was back at work soon after that.


So, what is your 5-second cheer-me-up "mantra"?  A Bible verse?  A quick prayer?  A quick walk?  A kid's phrase?  A phrase from a song?  A funny dance?  A funny face?  Whatever that is, may that turn your frown upside down!!!


If you need a quick 1.5-minute encouragement today, listen to this Benefits of Laughter.

MYSTERY OF DOWN UNDER

View from above my 32-week tummy

By now, everything below my belly button is quite a mystery to me.  :-)  I can't see my feet.  I can't see my lower belly.  It's challenging to find out by myself if I have developed pregnancy stretch marks or not.


But pretty soon ... a sweet and cute mystery will come out from down under.  :-)  I can't wait to see our baby eye-to-eye.  Hope you are as excited to see Mamah and Papah as we are, Manny.

SQUAGEL

When not secretly taping me, another thing my labor coach hubby diligently does every night is making sure that I do my pregnancy exercises.  We have quite a number of iterations to do every day as our homework.  Sometimes, I do combine them for the sake of time :-).


Have you ever heard of SQUAGEL before?  Here you go!!!

MY LABOR COACH

This is one of the pregnancy routines that my labor coach hubby does every night when he comes home.

He grabs my pink sheet and looks up nutrition facts online

Then he counts how much protein I have had for the day

Every day, he diligently does this to make sure I have at least 80 grams of protein in preparation for the labor and delivery.  If I'm off track, he keeps me accountable by preparing me protein-filled food for dinner and midnight snacks.


For him, protein means business!!!  What a great labor coach I have!!!  I can't and don't want to ask for a better one.  I have the BEST coach!!!


Thank you, Lord, for Hubby Cel.  Thank you, Hubby Cel, for encouraging me this way :-).  Woof you!!!

ARISE AND SHINE

Isaiah 60 : 1-3

1 Arise, shine;

For your light has come!

And the glory of the LORD is risen upon you.

2 For behold, the darkness shall cover the earth,

And deep darkness the people;

But the LORD will arise over you,

And His glory will be seen upon you.

3 The Gentiles shall come to your light,

And kings to the brightness of your rising.

Four processes that happen according to these verses:
1) First, God is the Light
2) Then, He gives His Light to us
3) We receive the Light
4) And finally we reflect the Light to those around us


What kind of Light are we reflecting?  Among others, let that be the Light of our characters.  The characters that bring people to Christ.  The characters that let people see Christ in us.  The characters that do NOT become a stumbling block for people to believe in Christ.


Are you ready to reflect the LIGHT?


-From Pastor Hosea's sermon-


May this be a blessing!!!

MY PROVIDER MY PORTION FOREVER BE

On the way to lunch this afternoon, Marcel stopped by to get some cash since the place we're going to only accepts cash.  While at the ATM, he withdrew some for me too.  When he gave the cash to me, I said, "Oh, it's OK Koko.  I still have $10 with me."  He said, "No, you should keep some extra in case you need it.  Take it.  Remember, I want to provide for you."


That statement penetrates deeply into my heart.  After the LORD, it is true that Marcel is the next person I feel the most comfortable with being provided by.  With Marcel, he provides for our family because He obeys God's commandment for the husbands to be the head of the family and provide for the family.  He provides because he loves me.  He provides out of his responsibility to God.  He provides and asks nothing in return.  He never said, "OK Yanny, here goes $40 for you.  Get grocery and cook delicious meal for me."  When he gives, he gives with trust.  And the most important thing for me is that his gifts are NOT associated with "power control." 


And with the LORD, I feel the same way and even MORE.  I know He will never change.  He always wants the best of me.  He provides unconditionally in EVERY aspect that I need His support on (mentally, financially, physically, and spiritually).  He asks nothing in return.  It got me thinking at times that WOW, what a privilege I have ... I'm so unworthy to accept all these; yet He continues to provide for me.  THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU, LORD.


Right now, I'm asking God to be my portion as I'm dealing and healing from the wound of the "power control."  Something happened recently that made me realize that all my life I've been a slave of this sin of "ill feeling" towards some people whom I felt using their ability to provide for me to gain more power and control over me.  And I let them do that to me OVER and OVER again which did not solve the issue but continued to let my "ill feeling" towards them to grow even more.  I felt like I have been in the crazy cycle and could never go out of it.


This morning, we drove to Church and intended to come to the English Service (ES) as usual.  For some reasons, the Indonesian Service's Care Ministers fell short and that Marcel had to attend the Indonesian Service (IS) to cover for them.  These past 4 years, when similar situation happened, I normally let Marcel serve in IS while I went and serve in ES.  Effective this month, since I no longer have commitments to serve in ES, I am more flexible to follow Marcel where he needs to be.  So I was in the IS with my husband and thankful of the situation. Turned out my coming to the IS was God's purpose.  He wanted to me to hear and be enlightened by Pastor Hosea's sermon today.  That's what God wanted me to ponder and reflect on as I deal with the "power control" thing.


I feel like what God just asked of me is too much.  I've never extended grace to that level before.  I know I'm incapable of doing it.  I know I need God.  And I need Him to be my provider and my portion to extend the grace towards these people as He wants me to.  As I let God do His thing with me, I only expect that it will be good for me, my character and His Kingdom in the long run.  If after all these, the people still don't change a bit, I will not be disappointed or have any regret about it.  Because from the beginning, I want this to be all about my relationship with God.  If they don't change, at least I will change ... and the change will be towards the Heavenly goal ... free from the bondage of "ill feeling" sins towards these people.


AMEN??  AMENNNNNN.  Have a great Sunday, Everyone!!!!

"My flesh and my heart fail;

But God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever."

Psalm 73:26

SECOND TRIMESTER WITH MANNY

Click here for our journal on the first trimester.


Verses that Comfort Us
"Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus." -- Philippians 4:6-7




On Manny

Did you spot the "turtle"???

So we found out from the doctor that you will be a BOY.  :-)  You've been growing steadily.  We could finally feel your kicks, moves, and stretches.  You often let us know how you feel through your different moves.  We found that very interesting!!!  You also enjoy the "tummy time" with Papah and Mamah ... the time when we sing, talk, and read to you.


This is also the first time you met Engkong, Ema, and Encek and heard them directly talking to you.  They were here from Thanksgiving time till New Year.  We knew you recognized their voices from the video hangouts we'd had with them before their coming.  And you greeted them with lots of kicks which they also found very exciting.


Another great experience was finding your name.  We involved our immediate families to help us find the name for you.  Since we live far away from them, we thought this will be a great bonding experience for everyone so we can feel connected with you since very very early.  We want to bridge that distance by allowing them to be a part of one of the most important experiences in having a child ... which is finding a name.  They thought carefully and sent us some of their recommendations that involve their hopes and prayer for you when you grow up.  Finally, we narrowed it down to ONE.



On Mamah and Papah

Finally the belly popped!!!

After we shared the good news to the bigger groups of people about us expecting, it's very overwhelming for us to hear their advice and opinions.  May they be about pregnancy, giving birth, parenting, caring for newborn etc.  Some are good.  Some are REALLY good.  Some other are either contradictory to our belief or made us less peaceful.  Though we appreciate everyone's care towards us, we needed to filter out some of the stuff that we should or do not want to hear.  And then we let God fill that gap for us and guide us to what He desires us to hear and do.  Hence, the Bible Verses above.


Not only that the Bible Verses helped us filter out people's advice and opinions, they also guided us through some difficult times with my mom's health conditions and finding out that I have glucose intolerance -- which is an early stage of gestational diabetes and if not cared for as early as possible could lead into the real diabetes and reduce the chance of having the unmedicated natural birth that we have been preparing for.



Things that We Learned or Got Reminded of

• It is harder to expect someone to change.  It is easier to change our own expectation towards this person to avoid further disappointment.
• Disappointment happens when what we expect is not what we get (of an event, from someone, of something, etc).  But God is the ONLY thing that NEVER changes and is ALWAYS faithful.  He is my only rock and the source of my satisfaction.
• Giving up the driver's seat to God is the best thing ever!!!

GRANITE VEIN

This post is to document and share with you what I learned from Lysa TerKeurst's Mommy Stress sharing just so that it can serve as a reminder for me in the future.  Also I want to document this just in case the recording will be deleted, archived, or moved to a different place that I can no longer access it.  :-)


Illustration: Granite Vein

Lysa talked about her new installed granite countertop that had something that looked like a crack or gap.  She was disappointed.  It looked like an eye sore to her.


When she called the store, the representative told her that what she saw was NOT a crack.  It was rather the granite vein.  And the vein is good to have on the granite because it indicates that it's an authentic granite.

[Click to enlarge]

Granite vein that looks like a crack or gap in Lysa's story

Granite vein can also look like a burn mark like this one at our home

Things that encourage me:

• We, moms, sometimes build the stability of our identity on the fragile choices of our children
• And when we do have bad moments (in parenting), we easily think of ourselves as a bad mom
• Each one of us has that "crack" or "gap" just like the granites do
• And our eyes tend to be drawn into that "crack" more than to focus on the entirety of the beauty, strength, and authenticity of the granite itself
• Sometimes the "crack" could be small; sometimes it could be big
• However, do NOT let the "crack" define who we are, label us, and impact our relationship with our kids (and spouse)
• Let the "crack" be the call to action through prayer to God
• Ask God to be our "portion" and fill that "crack" or "gap" for us
• Just because we just had a bad moment, that does NOT mean we are a bad mom
• As a mom, we shall focus on adding the QUALITY of our children's life and not the quantity as God has already numbered their days
• Our anxiety does not add or reduce the days God has numbered for us and our children
• Sometimes we as moms want to write the story for our kids no matter how old they are, what situation they are in, etc
• Be courageous enough to let God write our children's testimony

"My flesh and my heart fail;

But God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever."

Psalm 73:26

Though the sharing is more about parenting, I believe that this can also serve as a reminder for other parts of our relationships (with our spouse, family, friends, etc).  So I hope this encourages and challenges you as it did for me.


And to all moms who read this, if no one has told you yet lately, let me tell you that "You're doing AMAZING!!!!"

If you'd like to listen to Lysa's 25-minute recording, click here.

SMALLEST BLESSING

"The smallest blessings can be the hardest to notice; but they are also what give our life the richness and meaning."

[Click to enlarge]

Walking (especially after each meal) is one of the most important things I have to continue doing in order to keep my glucose intolerance under control.  The above photos were from my walk this afternoon.  This nice weather is what GOD has given me to enjoy.  It's already February -- almost the end of the Winter months -- the time when other places could or have been getting snow storms, rain storms, chilly weathers, etc.  But God generously gives me this kind of weather so that I can continue to walk during and throughout my pregnancy.  I could count with only one hand the days when it was TOTALLY impossible for me to walk outside ever since I got pregnant.


God knows what we need for sure.  He doesn't give us challenges or allows us to be in the condition that is above what we can bear.  And He gives His grace and deliverances for us FOR FREE.  When He gives, He also gives GENEROUSLY.  But a lot of times, they slipped off my mind.  I failed to stop to realize even the smallest blessing of the nice weather.  Now that I've been enjoying this nice weather FREELY, am I still in the position to call this "small blessing"??  No way ... this is AMAZING blessing.


Oh God, forgive me for taking You and Your blessing for granted every day.  And thank You for allowing unworthy being like me to enjoy Your creation.  I am blessed and honored to be cared for by You, Lord.


What a blessing huh!!!

WORSHIP DURING TUMMY TIME

Marcel and I really enjoy talking, reading, and singing to our Manny.  Especially these days when Manny can respond back through his kicks, moves, and/or stretches.


Here is a video of Manny during worship.  The moves were kinda subtle.  Probably because he's distracted with the on-going soccer game on TV.  Maybe next time I'll try to get another take when Manny's more focused during worship and show you guys some of his favorite worship songs.  :-)






Hope you enjoy the video!!!  Have a great one!!!