Working Under Grace

It irritates me all too much when I see individuals who always come up with excuses why they do not have any means of earning to feed their family or even when they do not get to find the right job to do. My say to this is that sometimes we always just have too many excuses to come up with when our hearts are not truly set into the goals we are trying to achieve.

These past few days I have been taking my time to work less compared to the seasons of my working life when I wake up early and sleep late writing. I appreciate it greatly when I am given the extra time to rest early, watch television, cuddle my dogs, or even update our blog. But this does not mean that I hate working.

I think working hard and on the double turns bad when we exchange it for other aspects of our lives that weigh far greater than the money we can earn like spending time with our loved ones. At the same time though, it can help to remember that God has nothing against human effort since hard work even honors God. Hard work only becomes a cover up that God cannot provide for our everyday needs when we depend all our lives on our work.

Despite all the perseverance all of us may be showing in these times of economic hardships, it is still important that we have enough rest and a lot of spiritual refreshment. But this should not be an excuse to be lazy. To strike the right balance between working and trusting God is what we need to do along with times of resting as well while trusting Him still.

Thief in the Night

It is certainly hard to hit the right sense of balance in life; especially when it involves raising a kid who will soon become a stubborn adult like all of us. Lately, I have been getting things from Pio without his knowledge which I think he does not value much. And I have been constantly in the lookout for his possible reactions, attitude, and behavior with what could have been happening around him.

My guess is that he knows I may have kept some of his things already but he just does not want to bring the issue up because of pride. There are just some people out there in the world who always want other people around them feel that they are doing fine even if they aren’t.

Apart from the desire of seeing Pio learn from such things and instances, I find myself learning so much more too. Many of us fail to appreciate and give value even to the small things that we have in our lives. That is why I feel grateful and mature that even the smell of clean sheets, old books, seeing Dori sleep in a big, lifted bed, Tita enjoying our flat TV, Pio already enrolled for school, or the sight of my dogs happily strolling around the house well fed and healthy – all these and more make me feel happy grateful. This is probably because we stumble upon happiness only when we find meaning.

Procrastination is not just the thief of time. It’s the thief of meaning, our happiness and life itself. – Timothy A. Pychyl

No wonder God is also described in the Bible as a thief in the night. It says that Jesus is to come back like a thief in the night, when you least expect it. What would you do if one day you’d wake up to a day that all the things and people you often disregarded and failed to appreciate and value are taken away from you? Just like that, in a snap of a finger.

Or maybe by the time you have finished reading this entry, you are already decided to review your life quick and get back all that once was yours.

Placing Back Where They Belong

If there’s one thing that I have greatly realized with Pio’s presence in my life is to appreciate more how we have been raised. We may not spend everyday together just like before but at least, every weekend, I try to not miss an opportunity to teach him new things from his own ways.

Yesterday, he felt excited with the idea of cleaning things with an old toothbrush. He watched me scrub the huge rock for our turtles’ basking area and after a few minutes, he was already scrubbing his own toys with the toothbrush. To reach the sink, he took a small stool to step on which he got from the terrace. After he was done with his seemingly interesting activity, he left all his things in the bathroom. 

Our lesson 101? Place back all the things you used where you took them. I told him to place back the small stool back in the terrace and the old toothbrush under the sink so that no one will mistakenly use it. At first, he questioned why he should do it and eventually pretended that he did not hear me. I told him that it is part of growing up well. 

That if he takes something from a certain place, he should return it back to that very same place – that’s called organization. That if he borrows something from another person, he should return it in its best condition still – that’s called accountability. That if he uses the help of someone or the benefit of something, he should not leave it ‘just like that’ after he has benefited already from it – that’s called gratefulness. 

And for us adults, I saw how this should greatly affect our relationships and spiritual lives. Whenever God’s glory is shared to us, we should not be so irresponsible to just leave and drop it or claim everything to ourselves once we feel fulfilled, praised and exuberant inside. We should be responsible enough to bring back all the glory to Him as the Creator of all things, including our own mere selves.