Welcome to the latest volume of "Enroute - God-adventures of leonard & cassilda".
For those of you who are new to this, 'Enroute' started out as 'Overseas Education' (when we were at Sydney) as a series of of mail-outs Cassilda and I send out every now and then, to share bite-size lessons we have learnt from trying to live the God-ward life.
We hope these words would encourage you, help you and make you smile as we journey together enroute, in this life. If you are interested, previous 'Overseas Education' and 'Enroute' volumes can be found on this blog.
Do drop us a note if anything touches you, we would love to hear from you.
God Bless,
leonard & cassilda
Recently I realised...
1. that carpenters got money to go for facial.
2. that you know the favor of God is on your life when your boss tells other people that you are prolific at work when a quick check back with your colleagues showed that your amount of output and theirs are the same.
3. that while following God is hard sometimes, nothing, ultimately is harder than not following Him.
4. that you can make more friends in two months by becoming interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get other people interested in you.
If I aspire to be a good conversationalist, I need to be an attentive listener. To be interesting, I have to be interested. Ask questions that other persons will enjoy answering. Encourage them to talk about themselves and their accomplishments.
5. that we need to live life the most excellent way. Be a success in life. Excel in what I do.
If I'm a student, make it to the Dean's list. If you have looks, join the Miss Singapore contest. If you can sing, try Singapore idol. If you are an employee, be the Best Employee. If you have a business, do well and contribute to society.
Christians need to get out more and be more. Why?
Influence. We need to be influential people. Without influence, how are we going to lead others to Christ? The fact of the matter is that people are more attracted to people than they are to Christ. Living a life of excellence positions us to speak into people's life.
6. that they finally decided to name the new Pasir Ris Church 'Divine Mercy Church" (D.M.C).
Maybe because it sounds like 'UDMC'. Which is great.
"eh. I thot you say go Pasir lis chalet? Why you bring me to catholick church?"
Quite smart huh?
7. that we all make messes in our lives through ignorance of God's ways.
Even when we begin to learn His ways, it still takes a lot of time to see all the negative situations in our lives turned into positive ones. We can benefit one another greatly by being sensitive to the Holy Spirit's leading to help in various ways. Just being moved emotionally is not being led by the Holy Spirit.
Emotions should always be submitted to wisdom! If wisdom agrees, then we can go forward with our plan.
8. that Wisdom always waits for the right time to act, while emotion always pushes for action right now!
Emotionalism is rash. It calls for immediate action. While wisdom calmly looks ahead to determine how a decision will affect the future, emotions are only concerned with what is happening at the moment.
I have lost count of the number of times I have said or done something in the heat of emotion, then later experienced deep, deep regret for my rash action. "Oh, if I had only kept my mouth shut!"
It is amazing the damage that can be done to a relationship by one emotional outburst.
9. that we wear 30% of all our clothes 70% of the time.
10. that an attractive guy I think, is one who express self-confidence, excitment with life, optimism, interest in many things, a certain independence, and a certain ability to go on unconnected with anybody for the rest of their life if that's what God requires.
Habah-Habah.
11. that those who don't require respect don't recieve it.
12. that when others make mistakes, the tempting thing to do is to point it, and the harder, but more fruitful way is to offer genuine words of encouragement.
i can't recall the number of mistakes i have made at work each day since i've started. But my boss, a non-Christian, chose to motivate me by encouraging me and telling me that he sees potential in me. This makes me want to try harder, rather than hang my head in discouragement.
perhaps the next time you are tempted to point out a person's mistake, choose to see if that is an opportunity to present some words of encouragement instead.
13. that if don't think you are valuable, others won't either.
When you see a building whose windows go boken and unrepaired, you assume no one really cares for the building. As a result more people feel comfortable breaking more windows, and eventually criminals take over, all because no one values it.
This happens to people as well. When we de-value ourselves, we leak and broadcast our lack of self-esteem far and wide, opening ourselves to people who would take advantage of it.
14. that me (Cassilda) , my boss and Paris just doesn't go together. You see, Paris is a beautiful and romantic place - and romantic places are meant to be spent with your significant other half. So i found myself standing under the majestic Eiffel, with my boss and the rest of the tourists from the world, thinking to myself - "alamak! wrong company!
Where's Leo?!"
(everybody goes "awwWwww")
God Bless,
leonard & cassilda
