FEB-Ibig day!

One of the most popular expressions ever landed on social media is the banat line “walang forever” which for me consists of a fact and a bit of exaggeration. The term goes with the other banat or hugot lines alike and let me guess, such terms would be even more popular this Valentines’ Day or Single Appreciation Day as the singles would call it and for some, it would be Bitters’ Day.

Not that it’s kind of a big deal or not, but just to inspire teens who are bitter today, I would like to reiterate the fact that there’s more to life than having a date on Valentines’ Day.

I find it funny when teens would complain about being single and not having someone to celebrate hearts’ day with. Why? Because what’s so wrong about being single? Does that make someone become uglier or pathetic? Well, that’s a big NO. Being single means you are patient enough to wait for that right one God has saved you for. So, congratulate yourself if you’re still single. You are currently in the preparation of meeting your knight in shining armor. I have nothing against those who are in a relationship because I love people who are in love. Such teens just happen to meet somebody this early who’d love them the way they wanted to and that is one of the sweetest thing one could ever think of.

We all want beautiful love stories and most often we would dream for that one perfect guy to complete us but the thing is we often look and dream for the perfect guy while we’re not making ourselves worthy of that perfection. Now that’s the problem, we’re being too expectant but we often forget that we should also prepare ourselves for those expectations. Remember, a relationship is a give-and-take kind of partnership or else it won’t work. Not that I’m a love genius or something but that’s one thing I know about relationships.

As a teen girl who loves books, normally, I would try to say that I am in a relationship with fictional characters like Augustus Waters or Adam of If I Stay or Jeremiah and Conrad Fisher or Peter Kavinsky or Alex Stewart or Tobias/Four or Percy Jackson and many more lovable literary creatures. But the real thing is that’s a temporary thing and we don’t want that because we wanted to have our own forever even if in reality there’s no such thing as forever in the human context. Only lifetime. But I consider myself too blessed to have found my forever in the man who’d saved me thousands of years ago. What I can consider a perfect relationship is the one that I have with Jesus right now and that’s what makes me feel so alive and in love every single day of my life.

So don’t worry if you don’t have a date today (but I guess you should at least go out with your family or friends if you really want to celebrate Valentines’ day). Do not expect to find forever in human relationships because you’ll never have it. Find Jesus and find your forever in Him. And while you’re in love with Jesus at the moment, enjoy being single and focus at preparing yourself for someone special He has saved you for and when the right time comes your Valentines’ would be as perfect as anybody’s Valentines’!

HAPPY HEARTS’ DAY, folks!

Angel Eyes

For the past few years, Korean drama series took it's permanent spot in the hearts of Asians particularly (and most especially) Filipinos. I would testify to that. I'm not an addict (thank God) but I won't deny the fact that I love watching Korean movies and drama series. I even have my own list of favorites, you know. If you're a newbie to watching K-dramas, I'd love to talk to you for a while and give you hints on what to watch first and not. But I won't talk about it too much today. What lead me into writing today is this heartbreaking yet heartwarming (okay, sorry for the terms but that's how I'd like to describe it) story, of course, from Korea.

Angel Eyes

Photo courtesy of Asian Wiki.

Synopsis:
A melodrama about a man and a woman who are each other’s first loves, but get separated when they were teenagers due to a painful family situation and meet again 12 years later. Yoon Soo Wan is legally blind woman who gets her vision back after receiving corneas transplantation in an operation and decides to embrace life with passion by becoming an emergency rescue worker who is known not only by the fire department, but also by the local hospital. She is a tomboyish character who still fondly remembers her first love from 12 years ago. Park Dong Joo is a surgeon and Soo Wan's first love who was outstanding student and knows how to comfort one who is in pain. He is proud of his father and dreams of being a firefighter like him. He goes through various changes of his life and has to change his fate due to many happenings. He is a man who only watches over his loving woman from the side and overcomes the misfortunes ahead of him.

Profile

• Drama: Angel Eyes
• Revised romanization: Enjelaizeu
• Hangul: 엔젤아이즈
• Director: Choi Mun-Seok
• Writer: Yoon Ji-Ryeon
• Network: SBS
• Episodes: 20
• Release Date: April 5 - June 15, 2014
• Runtime: Saturday & Sunday 22:00
• Language: Korean
• Country: South Korea

If you would ask me to describe the story, I'll give you this two words - heartbreaking and tragic. But that's for the negative side only. I still got two more words to describe it looking at the positive side of it, heartwarming and full of love!

Let me explain it to you why I came out with those words. First, let's look at the negative side of the drama (sorry for beginning out with the negative side of the drama). I did say it's heartbreaking because I starting crying for the first three episodes of the show and you might want to see it for yourself. It's very tragic at the same time because there were too many accidents that lead to the death of some of the characters in the story causing the main characters get caught up in a tangled series of misfortunes. Second, on the positive side of the story, I did say it is heartwarming and full of love because though my heart has been broken by most of the scenarios in the drama, I have been encouraged at the same time by how the characters handled their life's misfortunes. You could see how the writer made an emphasis on the love for our families (which the actors had given justice to through their superb acting skills which made it appear to be so realistic on cam). And for the main characters, Dong Joo and Soo Wan, you could feel how strong and unbreakable the love that they have for each other in spite of the adversities they had to face.

What made it so memorable for me is that the production team made the right choice of the casts. Who would have forgotten Goo Hye Sun who was primarily known as Geum Jan Di from the Korean remake of Taiwan's Meteor Garden? She appeared to be even more beautiful and charming as Yoon Soo Wan here on Angel Eyes. I'd say, she's better off as Soo Wan than Jan Di.

Next is this two men who had managed to have the expertise in showing off a killer smile that you definitely can't resist. Lee Sang Yoon (grown up Park Dong Joo) and Kang Ha Neul (young Park Dong Joo).

Kang Ha Neul

 

Lee Sang Yoon

Now, if you have the time, I would highly recommend you to watch this beautiful Korean drama and be in love and be captivated by Dong Joo's irresistible killer smile!


You can visit this link for full episodes with English subtitles.
www.dramaload.ch

LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL

I was all tired and sleepy the night I was walking through the streets to come home from school when suddenly somebody not far from where I was walking shouted "F--- life!" in Tagalog.


(face palm)


I really hate it whenever I hear someone cursing whatever one chooses to curse and in this case, I heard that "somebody" cursed life which eventually lead me into writing this post.


L-I-F-E


A four-letter word which simply means the existence of an individual. The reason behind the fact that all living things function and grow..

but that doesn't end there.

Life is a gift and we always have to do something with our gifts. Either we keep them or ignore them.

Now here's the thing. Speaking from a viewpoint of an 18-year old young lady, I know I'm not able to expose all things about life but yeah.. still, I know something about life. That life is not here to stay for eternity. That life is something we do not own. As aforementioned, life is a gift - a gift from God and I know one thing.. life is beautiful.

Yes, I know that we don't always get the things we desire the most in life because apparently the world is not a wish granting factory as John Green would say it but that does not make any changes to the fact that life is beautiful. Why? Because we all are blessed to have a life. The fact that we get to live a life, see and enjoy the world, experience the entire creation of God and be someone in this world are simply few of those great privileges one can enjoy. I mean, who are we to complain about life? God entitled us with our own freewill and it only means that we are responsible for whatever happens with our own lives. This is how it goes: life's happenings depend upon our own choices and as far as I know there are only two choices in this world, a YES and a NO. Both choices come with different consequences and of course it's only between positive and negative. For example even if one is born indigent, which is apparently negative, still there is this hundred percent chance to turn one's life around. What I know is that our decisions make the biggest changes in our lives which is why we need guidance. Guidance in making life-changing decisions and this guidance seems to be so apparent. Three letters - GOD. Live a God-centered life. Trust in Him. The answers's as simple as that. So if you want to make your life beautiful, include God in it. Do not forget to ask Him to direct you because in the first place He was the magnanimous giver of life and He will always know what's best for you. For us.

Faultless Stars

Recently, I have found this tearjerker love story which happens to be John Green's The Fault in our Stars. But I would say their stars are impeccable (faultless). Here's a short overview of the whole book.

The Fault in Our Stars

by John Green

STORYLINE:

Hazel and Augustus are two teenagers who share an acerbic wit, a disdain for the conventional, and a love that sweeps them on a journey. Their relationship is all the more miraculous, given that Hazel's other constant companion is an oxygen tank, Gus jokes about his prosthetic leg, and they meet and fall in love at a cancer support group. Written by Anonymous

TFIOS' lead characters, Hazel Grace (Shailene Woodley) and Gus (Ansel Elgort).

What made the story special somehow, perhaps, is because Hazel Grace and Gus are both sick - sick to death. People who happen to accept the reality that they won't last too long on earth as much as they wanted because they do not hold their own lives - our own lives. I've had this A-Walk-To-Remember impression at first with the story but the two are TOO different from each other. Yes, they're both great and both of them broke my heart. Broke my heart in the sense that I got too affected with the story. To be honest, I felt sick all throughout the reading but thank God I'm only asthmatic not a cancer-infected-person like Shailene's character Hazel.

I've read the story more than once now and I still could not finish the last chapters without the crying thing. The story made me feel happy, sad, broken and in love of course. I had this hey-I-need-to-share-this-story-because-it's-great feeling. Hazel Grace and Augustus became my literary buddies whom I turn to whenever I feel like I need a friend though yeah I've got real friends in real life. Recently, TFIOS movie was released in theaters and it's so great to see your oh so loving love story turn into a film.

It best fits teenage readers/audience but recently my Mom watched the movie and gave me a great feedback about it so yeah, let's erase that first five words. It's a story for everybody. A story where you can get courage from two people trying to fight cancer and live their lives like all of us do. Their imperfections made them both perfect though nobody is perfect. Their love for each other seemed so genuine that it broke my heart when they had to part  because Gus died in the story. It is saddening when someone you love has to leave and Gus's character is what I have been looking for for quite some time now. Somebody who shares the same interests as yours especially when it comes to reading. On the latter part of the story, I started having this Hazel Grace's thoughts about the possible sequel for the story like how she reacted to Peter Van Houten's An Imperial Affliction  and if I'll have someone like Gus who'll grant my wish to meet and talk personally with John Green then that will be awesome. Real awesome.

The exact scene when Gus told Hazel about meeting Van Houten in person.. in Amsterdam. (One of the best parts of the story, I must say.)

Here's the trailer for you to watch! Enjoy and be in love!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ItBvH5J6ss

| Sumary source - IMDB. | tfios

Food for our SOULS.

Matthew 4:4 

Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.”

DAILY DEVOTION, Food for our souls.

Everyday, we don't want to forget about taking our breakfast, lunch and dinner but what we remember as always is just about feeding our physical bodies that we come to forget about feeding our souls.

As we live the seven days of the week, we are faced with different struggles everyday. Admit it. But have you ever looked upon the word of God even for a minute? Try it. It will give you a well-rounded day and even a week or a month or a year. The Bible and the daily bread is a very good source of inspiration and strength for each new day as God has mentioned it in His word.

God is with us always and we should always take time to have a little conversation with Him. He will guide us through His word. You will feel it, I promise. So, don't forget about taking your soul's food. I bet you don't want to be hungry. ;)

God bless!

Gift of God

"My songs, my praises to God."

It all started when I was still young, perhaps when I started to talk. According to my family, people around me started to notice that I could get the right tune of the song I'm listening to every time I sing along with the radio or recorded tapes. Then it all continued until I started going to school. The very first song I ever learned and memorized is Celine Dion's "It's All Coming Back To Me Now" all because of my aunt. My aunt sings well and she started to give me basic lessons  but I never really tried to practice it like making it a daily habit not until I started to join local singing contests. The very first was with my school (elementary). The very first piece I used was the nationalistic song "Dakilang Lahi". The contest was some sort of nationalistic because it was held during the celebration of Buwan ng Wika. Unexpectedly, I won. That's when my mother and people around tried to convince me into joining other singing contests but I never really wanted it. Why? Because I was this timid young girl who never wanted to present myself in front of a large audience especially when they're all strangers to me. (Well I think everybody has their own experiences regarding that matter.) For me, singing back then was just a hobby or an interest. It never came to me that I "could" sing for real. My very first vocal coaches were Christina Aguilera and Mariah Carey. Oh no, don't get me wrong. I never met them in person. What I meant was that I had their tapes back then and I used to sing along with them and try to imitate what they're doing with their voice. Then I turned 10. Every year, our town is celebrating the feast of St. Guillermo (the town's patron saint) and is holding an amateur singing contest. I joined and got the first runner up place. From then on, everybody knew that I could sing and I continued to join school singing contests until high school. Luckily, I already won few trophies and prizes but I'm not always at the top. And every failure became my disappointment and until then, I have never believed in myself. I only got a seed of confidence. I never changed. I've always been that girl who sings with her legs shaking but still I have always dreamed of becoming a popular singer someday.

But everything changed when I met and encountered God and I think that's what made me become who I am today.

I have come to know God's purpose why He gave me this one special gift -- the gift of music. Currently, I am a worship leader in our church and have been part of the music ministry for four years already. But things did not go the way I wanted it. Life has been tough. Been through lots of hardships as I live my life to serve God with the gift He gave me. The enemy was there, always there to distract me but as I continue to walk I have seen how great and faithful God is in spite of me having those stumbling blocks along my way. One of the greatest struggle was that of being asthmatic. There were times when I already asked the Lord to take my life because of the pain I am feeling whenever I am having those fatal attacks but still GOD spoke to me and said "My child, I still have plans for you." Since then, I have offered my voice, my songs to God and God alone.

I have learned what it means to be greatly blessed by a God-given talent and it made me believe in myself as much as God believes in me and now I sing for His glory and not mine. No more disappointments for I know I don't have to please anybody, only God.

"Our talents are God's gift to us and what we do with it is our gift back to God."

 I now sing to worship God, not to be worshipped by the world.,  I now wanted to become part of God's league of musicians, not the world's famous musicians. I want to be known as God's singer and not just a singer.

I will always love the ministry God has given me. Four years and counting! To God be all the glory and honor!