Appreciation

This hould have been here a long time ago, but I'm only posting it now all because my laziness and procrastination. I wrote this for Christmas appreciation. At that time, it was merely for the sake of writing because everybody is supposed to come up with a "creative 5-minute appreciation", and I still remember finishing it up on the bus on the day of sharing, although in the end we didn't get to present what we have prepared. I was still glad, because even if I had presented, it would be useless because I know that I didn't put in as much thought and effort as I intended to. It's not well written, but as I type it out and review it again, I hope that at least it did come out from my heart and not just for show:

Every year we celebrate
The birth of an amazing king
Who saved us, rescued us
So that we can be here today

He is my Shepherd, guiding me
And when I am lost, finding me
All I need to do is to ask
Because when I ask, I know I will receive

I'm embraced by His amazing grace
His perfect love for me, His child
Through Jesus I become who I am
Becoming more like Him each day

You teach me generosity
As Christmas is all about giving
That giving is a priviledge
And I'm blessed for you provide

You teach me righteousness
How not to do the wrong
And how to love my little sister
Every day a little more

You have shown me my family
Aside from the one I know
With different mothers but a common Father
Here are my brothers and sisters

Everybody I lay my eyes on
Is someone whom you have died for
Hence you teach me love and kindness
To be forgiving and pure at heart

How we all meet together is not by chance
Everyone here is here because of your plan
So let us keep loving one another
As you, our king, has loved us so much

And now, cell group appreciation:

I want to know each of you more
And share with you parts of my life
I want to put smiles on your faces
Because that will make me happy too

I'm really grateful to be here
To be a part of this family
Warm and cozy, loving and sweet
By my side when I need company

Each of you teach me so much
Every Saturday when we meet up
This family is so easy to love
Because it's full of adorable people

Every story, bitter and sweet
Our hearts come together, listening closely
When we pray for each other
Miracles will happen, and glory to our Father




After typing out my whole poem that I haven't read for a few weeks, I realised how much God has blessed me and reminded me to love and pray for the people around me. I haven't been doing my Quiet Time for the entire week, but God never gives up on me. He contines to talk to me and teach me throughout the week, whether I've been paying attention to Him or not. I'm really thankful for this, and I hope that through posting this poem, I'm honouring Him because I feel that this has come out from the bottom of my heart as I went through the poem again, especially after going through the excruciating process of typing it. I want to remind myself of all His love, mercy and grace, so I hope that I will take out my poem to read whenever I feel down or drifting from God. I'm sure that as I read it again and again, God will tell me something different each time and encourage me! (:

This week has been chaotic and tiring for me but I feel really lucky and blessed because I find all the good things happening to me:
Track trainings, although draining, are acting as a really good platform to not only strenthen me physically, but they also train my mental strength and keep challenging me to do better each time.
I haven't been sleeping much these days, sometimes to do my tutorials beforehand (as in before the lectures have finished on the topic), and although I've finished my probability tutorial (with many blanks) and my arenes tutorial and being thought of as a freak, I lost a lot of time for sleeping and to spend time with God. I want a change in this and want to revert back to the time when I felt so happy communicating with Him, because I know that He hears me and that I hear Him. (:
I also thank God for all sorts of things that happened to me this week, even though it's only the first week of school, and I've already been blessed with so much: chem rep, H3 pharmaceudical chemistry, my juniors' good O level results, my SChO 2009 results (I don't know what I'm going to get until 30 Jan), even getting Ms Sharon Phua as my GP teacher, and definitely the fact that I can hand in my GP holiday homework only next Tuesday (:D). I really need to do the factsheets. And the Econs project. Over the weekend. Even more less sleep or me now! Hahas. But I hope that through all the things that I need to get done, I won't stay away from God again because our relationship is what really matters, and He will bless me abundantly if I am faithful. (:

He has taught me a few things this week:
During training on Monday, I was training and felt very tired because I am quite unfit. Then I saw the girl's soccer team practising on the field. They looked happy and seemed to be enjoying their training, although I don't think it's any less tiring for them than for me. Then it struck me that I must enjoy what I'm doing, because I'm not doing it to just get a medal at the end of it all from the Nationals, but beacuse I enjoy running and training and I want to do well for my team. God wants me to be happy and not think of trainings as torture, so that I won't be finding excuses to skip trainings or miss out on track outings.
He also taught me to fight for the things I want, that I should do something if I want the change, so that I can be the change. Results are not rewarded, but earned. And I'm going to earn the results I want for myself! (:
Getting Ms Sharon Phua as my GP teacher also introduced self-discipline to me, to sit properly, to hand in my work on time, to be neat all the time, etc. All I need now is to put it to good news and not just put it aside. I'll try.
And just today, God told me to know what I'm fighting for, so that with a clear goal in mind, I'll be willing to roll myself there if I have to.
As I counted my blessings for this week, I'm really touched by the love that God has for us. And I realised that although people may find that life isn't fair, God is. You have to be there to know it, and I hope that I keep all the lessons in mind to bring myself even closer to God.

It's amazing how things work these day, all the anxiety, excitement, fun, hard work in a week. As the week is ending, I hope that I'll catch up with Him and put Him first in my life. I also want to be more organised and really make use of every second of my life and not waste any on stoning! D:

Another thing that God told me in the shower just now is that I don't need to live 100% in every moment of my life. Using track trainings to understand this, even sprinters don't run their 100% in every training. We do about 80-90%, and rarely 100% because it will take a very long time to recover. I will be recovering longer that it's worth my 100% is I really put in every of my effort, and it will be really tiring and inefficient most of the time. Therefore, the moral of the story is, DON'T live like you're dying. 75-90% is good enough for now. (:

Thank God for all that He has told me this week, and thank God for all the friends that made my week better that it would have been without any of their support. I hope Celine will come again, although I will be quite embarrassed if she reads my poem, and I hope that Madhu will be more honest and admit her true feeling. I can always introduce, and with S&T I don't I need to do much work. Hahas go girl! I'll root for you! xD

I probably won't come back for a while, but I hope that my life will still be just as good as it has been this week, with all the homework, challenges, responsibilities and with me enjoying every bit of my life with God. (: Jiayou everyone!