To prepare for life, is to begin to LIVE

As I enter into the 20th year on this earth (around 7 am tomorrow), I want to thank all the people who were a HUGE part of my childhood and teenage years. These people are the treasures of my life. Without them (and God) my life will be incomplete. The most important thing I have learned thus far in my life is that God has given me more than I deserve; my friends and my family.

MY FAMILY

Dad, you are the biggest source of encouragement in my life. I love how you always know what to say whenever I come crying to you with my failures.

Mom, you always know how to make me happy. You always cater to my need and you are the funniest person in this planet!
Asen, you spoil me. You always buy me whatever I want, you feed me well, you take me out all the time. Basically, you are the best big bro a rotten kid could ever ask for =]

Ajen, I love how you always deal with my craziness and you never take things personally. I love the late night conversations we have about life… and you always make me laugh.

Mami and Papi (my aunt and uncle), you basically raised me and taught me everything I needed to know as a child. You took me in when nobody else wanted me. I can’t thank you enough for taking care of me when my parents were in America. 99% of the good memories of my childhood were made when I was living with you.

———-

MY FRIENDS

Grace and Esther H, you were the first friends I had when I came to America. You were my first spiritual companions. My first sleepover was with you guys. 11 years ago, now and forever, you both will always be my spiritual companions and someone who will help me grow in life. Grace, you’re the coolest person on the planet and you’re always there for me and you never fail to make me laugh. Esther, you are a pattern to me… you helped me realize that my goal should only be God.

Julia, you are another one of my friend that I have known within the first month of coming to America til now. I remember calling you to go to the grocery store that is literally across the street! I enjoyed living next to you, and I spent every Christmas up to my high school years with you.

Esther K, every minute I spent with you is GOLD. I have known you for 9 years and we are basically … sisters. I am so comfortable with you and you know my deepest darkest secrets. We know each other so well that we can make out the sounds we make when drink water into words -__- craziness!

Kevlin, you always got my back. You are such a bro, you somehow make me laugh and you keep me young. I look forward to exploring the world and the obscure with you.

Jennifer, you always give me such good advice and you’re always there for me when I needed you. You also feed me well and somehow you make me get in touch with my girlie side. haha.

Sam and Tejal, you guys were the BESTEST friends I had in high school. I was mad weird, mad geeky but you were still my friends til now. We are like … the sisterhood of the traveling pants … haha. We all fit into the same pants even though we’re all different sizes… weird huh?

Thu, my wing woman. I loved being your workout buddy, your tennis partner, your track buddy and your “let’s graffiti Ciaccia’s car” vandalizing buddy. haha

Mairead, you are the sweetest person I have ever met. I have always trusted you 100% (although I shouldn’t). You made me love ultimate and the little things you do for me (making me cards, snowflakes, cookies) always make my day =]

Martha, I am married to you, so I’m stuck with you til death do us part. haha. But you are the best wive I could ever have! =] Marf Marf

Katrina, how could I have survived my semester without you as a spiritual companion. The time we spent praying in the morning, sustained me for the rest of the day. Ever since we started to have morning revival together, life was just … sweeter.

Last but most definitely not least… Emily, Sara and Sindhura, you guys are the best thing that happened to me in college. I have the sweetest, nicest, coolest, smartest, funniest, bestest, all good things-est  friends in the world! You have no idea how lucky I am to have you. You always cheer me up when I break down, you always help me out, you guys deal with my craziness and love me for who I am! I must be the luckiest gal in the planet to have friends like you. The three of you taught me to realize that the little things in life matter. You helped me overcome my fears of showing my emotions and being myself. The three of you made the last of my “teenage” year important. I have grown the most mentally, and emotionally this year… all because the three of you showed me the real meaning of love (yeah yeah corny, I know.)

——

OTHERS

Although you are not mentioned specifically in this post, know that each and every one of you shaped my life. With every conversation I make, I have to break out of my shell, overcome my fear of TALKING. I thank-you for helping me grow and for building my self confidence. I am certain that each of you made me smile one time or another … that smile, is the little things that matter in life.

I can’t say that when I was a teenager I did anything crazy that will WOW you. However, I can say that when I was a teenager, I had everything I needed in life to make me happy =]

As I enter into the 3rd decade of my life, I hope that every relationship I make, every friendships I have will continue to grow. My main goal for this decade is to grow closer to God in everything that I do.

-vyl lyn-

I’m TRYING to write a personal statement, but I just CANT. What am I supposed to say about myself to impress people? How do I summarize myself in less than 500 words? I thought I’d start out just writing everything about me … everything that comes to mind. I find myself ranting on and on about being a Christian … about loving God. It’s such a big part of me that I cant leave it out of my personal statement, but what if … people reading it just wont understand my love for someone UNSEEN practically INVISIBLE, someone who to many are NONEXISTENT. It’s just so difficult, but I feel like without God, my personal statement would no longer be mine…

Here’s part of the jumble that I wrote about myself … not something you put in a personal statement eh?

“My friends may also describe me as religious. Religious? They may see me as religious because I read the Bible and I go to church meetings and I pray with a friend every morning. Well, in my eyes, I’m not being religious. The definition of religious is to follow strict rules and codes that a religion imposes. That’s not what I do. I read the Bible, I pray and I go to church because of one reason and one reason only … that reason is that I love God. simple. Because I love God, I want to get to know Him more. To know a person, one can read about him, hear about him from other people or best yet, talk to him. That’s all I’m doing. I’m trying to get to know my God and the more I spend time with others who love Him, the more I read about Him and the more I talk to Him, the more subjective He becomes. Others may see me as religious, but I see myself as just a girl who is so captivated by this person that I spend my time getting to know Him by talking to Him.”

-vyl lyn-

First day of the New Year happens to be the first Lord’s day of the year. It’s just so great to have God as the first thing I enjoy this year. I went to the meeting and then to the video training and I just want to share my enjoyment from the first meeting. Now, most of you would probably go “WHAAT?!” or just stop reading after the first point, but it’s okay. I just want to flow out what I’ve enjoyed! You know, when you find something so great, you just want to share it with everyone…

I really enjoy that my goal needs to be the fullest enjoyment of Christ, the fullest gaining of Christ. I need to be pure in heart. To be pure in heart is to have God as my only goal. Seeking anything other than God is vanity. I just felt so convicted during the meeting that my heart is not pure. I want so many things in life other than Christ. Even though I pray, “Lord have the first place in my heart,” He’s probably one of the last thing on my list. Oh Lord Jesus!

Many times I say to the Lord that I want Him to have the first place in everything that I do. I want Him to have the preeminence in my life. I guess, I didn’t fully understand what I was saying. In the video training today, I was just so impressed with the twelve points that the brother shared about this matter.

1) To love Him with the first love is to regard Him as everything in our life. To consider His love for us and our love for Him to always be fresh.

2) To repent and do the first works. The first works are works that issue from the first love, our love for God. (Rev 2:5)

3) For God to have the preeminence, we need to drink the Lord as the source of living water.

4) We need to eat of Him as the tree of life. Eating is enjoying Christ as our life supply. It is through our loving the Lord that we enjoy the Lord.

5) To give God the first place is to contact God, receive God and enjoy God. When we are not enjoying God, mire and mud comes out of our being (grossness).

6) We need to take Him as our centrality and universality (Colossians 1:17, 18). Our personal universe should be held by Christ and we need to take Him as our center even in the small things.

7) We need to be well pleasing to Him, please the Lord in all things. The way to please Him is by growing and by walking with God just as Enoch walked with God (II Corinthians 5:9, Colossians 1:10, Hebrew 11:5-6)

8) To have a clear sky with God’s throne above it. This means that there is nothing between us and the Lord. We need to be filled with His ruling presence and allow Him to reign in us (Ezekiel 1:22-26)

9) We need to Hold Him as the Head. This means that we need to enthrone Him as the ruler and decider of everything in our life (Colossians 2:19)

10) We need to let God be our guide regarding every detail of our life. Let Him counsel even the little things like the way we dress, how we comb our hair …

11) We need to give the flow of the Lord Jesus a preeminence. The flow comes from the throne, bringing the throne with it. In our daily living, we need to have this flow (Ezekiel 47:1, Revelation 22:1-2)

12) We need to be a captive of Christ, let the Lord conquer our entire being. We need to be moved by our spirit. (II Corinthians 2:13-14)

Lord Jesus, make me one who gives you the first place in all things. I pray that You would conquer me so that You can be the center of my life. Make my love for you fresh everyday and I pray that you would be my first love.

-vyl lyn-

At this time tomorrow it’ll be 2012. I was just looking at my New Year’s resolution from last year and found that none of it has been accomplished. Disappointing.

It was as simple as… Reading a verse a day from the Bible.

I just had to repent to God because I’ve just been wasting my year away and not redeeming the time as I ought to. I realized this year, more than ever, that I am a fickle person and very emotional. My love for people and everything changes, people around me change and my environment changes. Only God is constant…that is the one guarantee that I have in life… I have God and His love for me will never fade. I cant ask for anymore because I already have the highest of the highest … God Himself!

I have a bunch of goals for 2012 but the first and most important one is that I may gain the Lord morning by morning, day by day, and little by little. Goals are something one pursues while resolutions are something one breaks. haha

As this year comes to a close, I just want to consecrate this coming year to the Lord. I pray that He will be more real to me and that I will gain the Lord more. I just want to thank God for all the good and the bad things in my life this year… everything that happened was an opportunity for me to turn to God. At the time of my distress, I turned to the Lord most … everything happens for a reason. I thank the Lord for all the friends and spiritual companions that He has given me. And I thank Him for my family … without whom I would not have known God subjectively.

-vyl lyn-