A Sip of Companionship

Thinking about the past reminds us of the goody, goody times . . . that was during those younger days, when life is focused on what pleases us and what makes us happy but not what makes life worthy.

Building friendship is one big part of it. Friends, whom we grew with, our playmates and classmates are among them.  It’s often thinking of a get together during weekends and planning ahead of time on where to hang out. It’s all about satisfying our empty desires and gratifying our wants in life.

Now, it’s different in terms of what is apt for the day and tomorrow and the days to come. It’s more on taking time to plan on what do, how to do it and when to do it. It’s preparing for the rainy days. It’s hitting right to realization dreams in life. It’s more on working today for the future’s security.

Part of it though is building a strong foundation of our life both on Spiritual and Physical. Physical here includes secured financial life and healthy psychological being. This is  in preparation for whatever dilemma  and trial await our life. This is true on everyone’s life around. Moreover, we don’t stand alone. We need someone to boost us. Someone whom we can call a FRIEND!

We need to bear in our hearts that a strong bond of friendship cannot be formed overnight. It takes time, and in some instances, it may take a lifetime. As Rebecca West describes friendship, she based it from what she had experience in life. She said, “Friendship is a definite process, involving talking to people and listening to them for hours at a time.”

Can we think of friendship as a cup that must be filled? I think so! The cup contains many shared experiences. A listening ear, a caring heart, comfort in times of grief, and joy shared in the triumphs of life . . . all help fill the cup.

I remember reading a portion on Samuel Johnson’s illustration, he said it this way, “We cannot tell the precise moment when friendship is formed. As in filling a vessel drop by drop, there is at last a drop which makes it run over; so in a series of kindnesses there is at last one which makes the heart run over.”

We have a great friend who’s up there. He clings to us in or out of season. He is the only one who is faithfully behind us whatever happens. His friendship is no different. Although He knows everything about us because He created us, we need shared experiences of faith with God to be able to know Him as a true friend.

Communicating with Him on every instance of our daily concerns would greatly make a difference in our life. Pouring trust, obedience, and whole-hearted devotion into our friendship cup with God. He will cause our cup to run over with contentment, joy, and blessing in our life. We can turn to close friends and family and help fill their cups with God’s merciful heart and perfect love.

Nothing beats building a strong foundation of friendship to God by means of talking to Him through our daily devotional prayers and reading His words to strengthen our faith to Him.

Romans 10:17

“So then FAITH cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”

25 Amazing Food Cure

 Hello Guys,

I want to share this article to you . . . learn something from it, I just did!

25 Amazing Food Cures

By David Zinczenko
Sep 27, 2010

When I was growing up, I spent a lot of time with slabs of meat on my face.

As kids, my brother Eric and I fought like wild animals. He still sports a scar above his lip from a cut I accidentally gave him, and my nose isn't quite as straight as it might be if I hadn't taken so many shots to it. We're as close as can be today, but back in our teen years, we sported many a bruised ego and blackened eye. And the home remedy for the latter? A hunk of steak.

Turns out, a lot of moms don't have the whole story when it comes to food cures. Cold is good for a bruise, but meat doesn't do anything more than a bag of ice would. But there are plenty of foods that are effective home remedies for curing everything from pounding headaches to potency issues to procrastination. Take these 25 secret food cures, for instance. Incorporate these wonder foods into your daily diet, and you'll be surprised at how quickly your body and your mind react.

And best of all? Nobody will laugh and call you "meat head."        

1. BE MORE POSITIVE
Dark Chocolate
Research shows that dark chocolate can improve heart health, lower blood pressure, reduce LDL cholesterol, and increase the flow of blood to the brain. It also boosts serotonin and endorphin levels, which are associated with improved mood and greater concentration. Look for chocolate that is 60 percent cocoa or higher.

2. REDUCE ANXIETY
Garlic
Tuck a few extra cloves into your next stir-fry or pasta sauce: Research has found that enzymes in garlic can help increase the release of serotonin, a neurochemical that makes you feel relaxed.

3. FIRE UP YOUR MORNING METABOLISM
Caffeinated Coffee
A study published in the journal Physiology & Behavior found that the average metabolic rate of people who drank caffeinated coffee increased 16 percent over those who drank decaf. Caffeine stimulates your central nervous system by increasing your heart rate and breathing. 

4. FIRE UP YOUR EVENING METABOLISM
Chile Peppers
It turns out that capsaicin, the compound that gives chile peppers their mouth-searing quality, can also jumpstart your fat-burning, muscle-building engines. According to a study published in the Journal of Nutritional Science and Vitaminology, eating 1 tablespoon of chopped red or green chiles boosts metabolism by 23 percent.

5. LOWER YOUR BLOOD PRESSURE
Fried Eggs
Go ahead, crack under pressure: Eating fried eggs may help reduce high blood pressure. In a test-tube study, scientists in Canada discovered that the breakfast standby produced the highest levels of ACE inhibitory peptides, amino acids that dilate blood vessels and allow blood to flow more easily. 

6. REDUCE STRESS
Gum
When you find yourself feeling overwhelmed at work, reach for the Wrigley’s: Chewing gum can help tame your tension, according to Australian researchers. People who chewed gum while taking multitasking tests experienced a 17 percent drop in self-reported stress. This might have to do with the fact that we associate chewing with positive social interactions, like mealtimes.

7. STAVE OFF DEPRESSION
Salmon

Omega-3s may calm your neurotic side, according to a study in the journal Psychosomatic Medicine. Researchers found that adults with the lowest blood levels of eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) were more likely to have neuroses, which are symptoms for depression. Salmon is loaded with EPA and DHA, as are walnuts, flaxseeds, and even cauliflower.

8. SPEED WEIGHT LOSS
Yogurt
The probiotics in yogurt may help you drop pounds. British scientists found that these active organisms boost the breakdown of fat molecules in mice, preventing the rodents from gaining weight. Try the Horizon brand of yogurt—it contains the probiotic L. casei, the same organism used in the study.

9. AMP UP YOUR ENERGY
Grilled Chicken Breast
The protein in lean meat like chicken, fish, or pork loin isn't just good at squashing hunger and boosting metabolism—it's also a top source of energy. University of Illinois researchers found that people who ate higher amounts of protein had higher energy levels and didn't feel as tired as people with proportionally higher amounts of carbs in their diet.

10. BE MORE EFFICIENT
Kidney Beans
These legumes are an excellent source of thiamin and riboflavin. Both vitamins help your body use energy efficiently, so you won't be nodding off mid-Powerpoint.

11. STABILIZE YOUR BLOOD SUGAR
Barley
Swedish researchers found that if you eat barley—a key ingredient in whole-grain cereals—for breakfast, the fibrous grain cuts blood sugar response by 44 percent at lunch and 14 percent at dinner.

12. IMPROVE YOUR ENDURANCE
Clams
Clams stock your body with magnesium, which is important in metabolism, nerve function, and muscle function. When magnesium levels are low, your body produces more lactic acid—the same fatigue-inducing substance that you feel at the end of a long workout.

13. BOOST YOUR IMMUNITY
Rooibos Tea
Animal research suggests that this South African tea, also known as bush or redbush tea, may provide potent immunity-boosting benefits. In addition, Japanese researchers found that it may help prevent allergies and even cancer. Adagio offers a wide range of great-tasting rooibos teas.

14. STOP COUGHING
Honey
Penn State scientists have discovered that honey is a powerful cough suppressant—so next time you¹re hacking up a lung, head for the kitchen. When parents of 105 sick children doled out honey or dextromethorphan (the active ingredient in over-the-counter cough medicines like Robitussin), the honey was better at lessening cough frequency and severity. Try a drizzle in a cup of rooibos tea.

15.TAME A COLD
Kiwi
The vitamin C in kiwi won¹t prevent the onslaught of a cold, but it might decrease the duration of your symptoms. One kiwifruit provides 117 percent of your daily recommended intake of vitamin C.

16. SOOTHE A MIGRAINE
Olives
Foods rich in healthy monounsaturated fats help reduce inflammation, a catalyst for migraines. One study found that the anti-inflammatory compounds in olive oil suppress the enzymes involved in inflammation in the same manner as ibuprofen. Avocados and almonds are also high in monounsaturated fats.

17. LOWER YOUR CHOLESTEROL
Margarine
Not just any margarine, mind you—those containing plant sterols. In a Tufts University study, people who ate a butter substitute containing plant sterols with three meals each day saw their LDL (bad) cholesterol drop by 6 percent. How? The researchers say that plant sterols prevent cholesterol from being absorbed by the intestine. Promise Active and Smart Balance Heart Right are two great options.

18. REPAIR MUSCLE
Spinach
Popeye was onto something, it seems. Rutgers researchers discovered that treating human muscle cells with a compound found in spinach increased protein synthesis by 20 percent. The compound allows muscle tissue to repair itself faster, the researchers say. One thing to keep in mind, however: Spinach doesn't automatically make any salad a healthy option.

19. RECOVER FROM A WORKOUT
Green Tea
Brazilian scientists found that participants who consumed three cups of the beverage every day for a week had fewer markers of the cell damage caused by resistance to exercise. That means that green tea can help you recover faster after an intense workout.

20. REPLENISH YOUR BODY POST-WORKOUT
Low-Fat Chocolate Milk
Nothing like a little dessert after a long workout. British researchers found that low-fat chocolate milk does a better job than sports drinks at replenishing the body after a workout. Why? Because it has more electrolytes and higher fat content. And scientists at James Madison University found that the balance of fat, protein, and carbs in chocolate milk makes it nearly one-third more effective at replenishing muscles than other recovery beverages. 

21. IMPROVE FOCUS AND CONCENTRATION
Sardines
According to research published in Nutrition Journal, fish oil can help increase your ability to concentrate. Credit EPA and DHA, fatty acids that bolster communication among brain cells and help regulate neurotransmitters responsible for mental focus. Salmon, trout, halibut, and tuna are also great sources of EPA and DHA.

22. AVOID ALZHEIMER¹S DISEASE
Bananas
The antioxidants in bananas, apples, and oranges may help protect you from Alzheimer's, report Korean scientists. The researchers discovered that plant chemicals known as polyphenols helped shield brain cells from oxidative stress, a key cause of the disease.

23. PROTECT YOUR BRAIN
Steak
Vitamin B12, an essential nutrient found in meat, milk, and fish, may help protect you against brain loss, say British scientists. The researchers found that older people with the highest blood levels of the vitamin were six times less likely to have brain shrinkage than those with the lowest levels.

24. BUILD LONG-LASTING BRAINPOWER
Carrots
Researchers from Harvard found that men who consumed more beta-carotene over 18 years had significantly delayed cognitive aging. Carrots are a tremendous source of the antioxidant, as are other orange foods like butternut squash, pumpkin, and bell peppers.

25. SHARPEN YOUR SENSES
Ground Flaxseed
Flax is the best source of alpha-linolenic acid (ALA)—a healthy fat that improves the workings of the cerebral cortex, the area of the brain that processes sensory information, including that of pleasure. To meet your quota, sprinkle 1 tablespoon flaxseed on salads or oatmeal once a day, or mix it into a smoothie or shake.

What are we living for? . . .

“Affirming our dreams by confessing and acting is like whistling in the dark, it gets you there and keeps you going, even at the darkest point of your journey”.  Do you agree with this? It has to be consummated through what Apostle Paul said to the Hebrews: 

“Faith is the substance of things hoped for and the elements of things not seen.”   Heb. 11:1

One thing is sure though, nothing is permanent . . .”The grass withers, the flowers fade but its only the word of the Lord that will last forever”(Isaiah 40:8). I may be able to make it into tomorrow, which is now today, so tomorrow still may not come and if it does there will be a day when it does not. While some may praise my achievements, others will curse my failings, and yet God will judge both. There will be a somber time and a sad time and quite likely a time of great loss and tears.   

“But the truth is, everything we are,  we do, we act, we dream,

we work for is possible because of God’s Grace.

When it comes to doing things we want to do, we often never find enough time yet imaging that we will get to it someday because we have lots of time. So soon, time runs out and all the things we cared so much about do not get done or get undone. God is giving us all the time to prepare so we can be together with Him when the right time comes.

We want to get right with God but we don’t Have time right now. We have things that must be done and people that must be met. We work, work, and work and at the end of the day, we feel so tired. We have responsibilities; degrees to earn, children to be raised, mortgages to be paid, basic needs to be attended to, physical as well as psychological needs and of course vacation that we just have to have or burn out.  Then time runs out, we die and face hell because we neglected the many times God gave us to get back to Him. We lose rewards that would make all of the riches of this world because we were too busy chasing baubles instead of laying treasures that would last for eternity.

Friend, what if tomorrow never comes? What will be said of your life by God, “Depart from me you worker of iniquity or enter thou into the joy of your Lord?” You better have time to come and reason together with him before you spend eternity weeping over lost time.

As we separate ourselves from worldly things and saturate  with God, that which is good will increasingly replace what which is evil. We live for such fleeting things and waste our time on things that are destroyed while we are still here, left behind when we go or will be destroyed when He comes. We do live for the Lord and also die for Lord (Phil. 1:21)!  

“Enjoy life as if the Lord will come a thousand years yet, but prepare for your life

as if the Lord will come anytime soon” 

On Letting Go. . .

            Letting go? What is this? Letting go is always painful, I guess. . .    

I remembered when my best friend (my confidante), Sarah  had to say goodbye because she’s getting married.   She was so miserable and frustrated with life that I could even hear her groans even when I was already home.  She married her boyfriend at age 17 and the guy was 19  because she wanted to escape from a family’s mess. Her parents got separated and their youngest was then 3 years old. Although it pained me, having Sarah gone, but I have  to release her  because  that was best for her at that time.  I didn’t have enough knowledge on counseling yet, I was still in school … After long years, my friend was able to connect with me again through my facebook.  Now, Sarah got 2 wonderful kids and a loving husband. Her life has become a self-made as she used to dream of it before.  Thanks to the many moments of letting go, although painful, she is now self-assured and have her own life. She now resides in Vancouver, Canada with her happy family.

              For me, letting go means letting people be, no matter how irrational and crazy they appear to us.  We have no right to mold people according to what we want them to be.  If we do, we deprive them of their freedom of self-determination. Each one is a unique being. We don’t steal from them such ownership. It is one thing to guide or assist. And  it is another thing to control or dominate.   We have choices to make and decisions to give. If our advices fall on deaf ears, then let it be.  There are times that even the closest to us become stupid or downright shameful, it’s  their choice. We cannot hold them on their neck.  We might not understand them, at least we respect them no matter how disgusting they have shown us. 

             When we learn to let go, we begin to look at those weighty negative emotions in a new light. We don’t allow ourselves to be enslaved by them. We learn that when we hate, get jealous or become bitter it is not because some people made us feel that way but rather because we allow them to make us  feel that way.  By letting go we confront our feelings and realizing that by continually nursing our wounds and pains we don't become better persons but rather we become our own enemies.  Letting go of any ill feelings lets us free ourselves and will cause us to recognize our worth as persons.  After we come to our senses, we can, at the moment, see the pettiness of it all.  Only then can we become bigger than our heartaches and problems. So, we don’t maximize negativity, instead maximize the positivity.

              It took me quite a time to accept that my best friend, Sarah is getting married…and that I would be left alone.  I was then 17 years old and for me at that time, separation was a puzzle.  I kept consoling myself for days that Sarah would come back and decide not to marry her boyfriend (she was still young and we had many good times together). It would refresh me a lot knowing I won’t be alone, because I’m used being with her all the time…in laughter and during our upstream and downstream. Slowly, almost imperceptibly, I became aware of my own solitariness until it dawned on me that my friend, Sarah would be having her new world and won’t  come back to me full time.  

 

              I realized though that letting go is not only forgiving ourselves and but also others.  We all make mistakes, sometimes intentionally, sometimes not.  We all have stories to tell.  The wrongs that we commit at times, no matter how simple or grievous, can be a source of uninvited guilt or an awakening.  "If only I could turn back the clock, I would have chosen differently."  But there's no turning back anymore.  There is only a moving on.  We just have to let go of the sorrow that comes from sinning and forgive ourselves, to hope that there have been lessons learned along the way, to pray that we become better persons, and that we can right the wrongs we have done.  Letting go is allowing ourselves, unafraid, to confront that which cannot be undone anymore and to take heart that we can still do otherwise.

             An excerpt from the movie, “The Hiding Place” made me realized that nothing is held permanent on the face of the earth. Everything changes and everything experiences shaking. In the movie, Corrie Teen Boom said: “There is no pit that is so deep that HE(God) is not deeper still”. She uttered this passage after she was freed from the Concentration Camp. As a human being, though she was a dedicated Christian, it was, I guess hard for her to accept that her family was shattered and her sister died inside the camp because of pressure and torture by the Nazi army. But letting go of pain from people who did all the mess to her family was her means of surrendering to and accepting the inevitable, the what is and the what can never be . . .all because of God’s amazing love and grace bestowed to her. 

              In retrospect, letting go is just a matter of being more open . . . being more loving . . . and being more kinder to ourselves and others. No one is perfect and nobody can never be one. We have limitations and weaknesses; within the sphere of what we can be and cannot be,  within the bounds of what we can do and cannot do and devoting on a certain responsibility to the best of what we are and who we are.  When I was able to let go, I began to play again and to smile.  I had to surrender Sarah so I could live again and find another Sarah in the person of other friends.

“It Takes God’s Grace to let go of a person we love . . . to let go of a pain inflicted to us . . . to let go of a precious thing we treasured so much . . . and even on letting go a job for the sake of a relationship”.

           

             Now, Sarah is back with me but not alone…with her whole family: her loving husband and two lovely kids. When I let go of her…I reap three other more faithful friends………………..

...As my Day Starts!

What a beautiful morning . . . As my day starts, one of the most important thing is looking up to God for guidance the whole day! Acknowledging God as the source of everything I need for the day . . . It is God's GRACE that lets me shine even at the darkest point of my journey. I prayed for my husband's soonest recovery from his surgery. and for my kids and family. I prayed for my friends too and  our leaders and country.

It is one good thing to thank God not only in victory per se but in every circumstance as well.  The little details of my life will make a sense if I will put something on it. As I write this, it is 10:24 AM and I am on the brink of another few hours before another day comes, but then I don’t hold the next few hours and  I could have gone before the new day. No next minute  or an hour  is guaranteed.

I was mesmerizing about a lot of things previous day until the close of the day yesterday. I was so thankful on how God works from within me and out. With all of my friends around, who, in one way or another had contributed a great deal of support in every way they can. With the presence of my Family, of course my husband and 2 kids, I could not ask for more…they are precious gifts in my life. Nothing compares having a family such as I have.  GOD grace makes everything possible in my life.

As I was preparing breakfast this morning, having a mug of coffee, I uttered  in silence , "Thank You Lord for the wonderful day"!  And Suddenly,  it came to my  remembrance  the beautiful times with my friends having coffee together, reminiscing memoirs in life, the bygone days and the younger years... laughter, laughter and so much laughter.

“Coffee with a friend is an endearing sip of companionship” . . . Dave Davidson

“The times that mean the most to us are when coffee

and friends are warm and close to us” . . . Dave Davidson

And as my day starts, reflection is always part of my responsibility in giving back to GOD all the Glory due His name. . .for all the happy and gracious time He has given me.