An unwrapped gift

An unwrapped gift

Each and every day is an unwrapped gift given to us by God. We have to open the gift with care and see, what is there for us.

We often love to get a gift or present from someone, especially our loved ones, and God gives us this gift every day in special ways. We have to know that whatever God brings into our life is for good. Take the example of Mother Mary who was virgin, but was able to give birth to Jesus through Holy Spirit. Even the angel greeted her and blessed her, which mother Mary accepted joyfully. It is we who have to accept the gift, according to his or her choice. In fact, we should not see the sender, or the size, and packing of the gift, but what is inside and; accept it happily and joyfully.

When I first, unwrapped the gift one morning, long back in 2003 on the hospital bed, with gift of a rare disease; I was not grateful. I did not smile and say, oh! Such a beautiful gift… in fact, I was upset and tears rolled down my cheeks. But like Joseph, who said God has intended everything for my good. He used it to strip me of self-support and self-satisfaction and my egos etc. He revealed me that without Him I am nothing. He turned my sorrows into peace and joy.

In our trials we face hardship and do not feel good at all but all that is used by God for His glory.  We should understand that God doesn’t give good only but bad also good only, we have to receive it with open arms. They don’t come wrapped in beautiful covers to satisfy us. The use of our God-given skills and abilities in turn gives us self-esteem.  Being able to do something and do it well, so that it makes us feel good about ourselves.  Not in a prideful way, but in a way that makes God proud.

Famous Quotes:

“Use your unique gifts and talents to make a difference in the world.” - Lailah Gifty Akita

Quarantine Period

Quarantine Period

Quarantine means a time to be separated from normal involvement to a certain period. It is the time to remain completely separated from others.

When a person is suffering from contagious or infectious disease, he has to go into a quarantine period. It is a time to remain alone or apart from others.

I remember, once when I was small, I went in quarantine for few days but that was because of chicken pox. Almost for 21 days I was in quarantine and I was not allowed to come out of my room that time. My mother used to take care of me and no one was allowed to meet me.

When a person wants to experience a deeper relationship with God, he needs a quarantine period. So as to listen to the voice of God. And to cut off from the worldly matters or to isolate oneself and spend your time with God. Even the matter which is involved with others can affect your life. So, it is better to have a separation from them.

That is the time when you draw closer to Him, He refines and molds you, to take away what isn’t needed, and to shape you into who we need to be.

 During this period of quarantine, thoughts can arise in our mind that we are alone, lonely, which can make us sad and depressed. But when one spends time in quarantine, he develops certain good qualities like seeking, listening, praying, tuning your ears to hear from God, submitting to Him, feeling of joy, intimate relationship with God.

God is there for you and, He is drawing you to himself, protecting, healing and giving you strength. He is revealing you to yourself, the real you, with all your weakness, strengths, flaws, but even more importantly your potential.

Famous Quote:

I never said I wanted a 'happy' life but an interesting one. From separation and loss, I have learned a lot. I have become strong and resilient, as is the case of almost every human being exposed to life and to the world. We don't even know how strong we are until we are forced to bring that hidden strength forward. - Isabel Allende

Stained eye lens.

 Stained eye lens

Is your eye lens stained? Are you having a clear vision?

 Whatever a person sees or visualize with his eyes that is reflected in the behaviour of the person.

The eyes are the doors to the mind. Good eyes mean, eyes that not only see well, but also perceive well. It is not only what we see, but how we see and perceive. What we see; that makes the difference between godliness and ungodliness, between light and darkness. Bad eyes lead to bad perception, and darkness; but if our eyes are good, the whole person will be illuminated. The eyes are the entrance to our heart, body and mind.

Just like the lamp’s purpose is to provide light or illuminate the path at night or in darkness. eye illuminates our whole body While the types size, shape, colour, of the lamp may differ but the purpose remains the same. Everyone’s eye is of different size shape, colour so much so that identification of a person can be done by his or her iris; but their function remains the same of lighting up the world removing the darkness around, at the same time its our duty not to let the darkness enter our heart and mind by seeing all that which is not healthy and can lead us to sin.

Prayer is one of the ways that we can guard our eyes. God changes our eyes from being dark to light.  If we want to be filled with the true light, we should turn from sin and repent and ask God to forgive and cleanse us and open our spiritual eyes. We should aware of what we see and perceive whether its good or evil.

Famous Quotes:

The world only exists in your eyes. You can make it as big or as small as you want. - Scott Fitzgerald

When the darkness comes, keep an eye on the light - whatever that is for you - no matter how far away it seems.-Jan Berry

Appetite for God's Presence

Appetite for God’s Presence

After a heavy, tiresome work, did you ever had a craving or desire to eat a favorite dish prepared by your mother ? or had a longing to eat delicious food after a long tiresome journey?

Our appetites dictate the direction of our lives, whether the craving is for food, or for some possessions or, is it to seek his presence? Do you have an appetite to seek the presence God?   Hunger for God is the longing for His presence. To have an encounter with Him, to be with Him, and to be filled with His Spirit.

When we are hungry for God and His Presence, we will do whatever is needed to get close to Him. We can know His heart, also we can have an intimate relationship. God longs to have an intimacy with his children.

My Doubts and Quires

During my tough times, when my life was like a dry and parched land, I had a close encounter with my God. He let the streams of water flow and moistened it with his immense presence. I longed for His presence. He came close to me, hearing all my doubts and solving them. I felt his presence for quite some time. For when God is the supreme hunger of your heart, he will be supreme in everything. And when you are most satisfied in him, he will be most glorified in you.

As John Piper puts it, “If we don’t feel strong desires for the manifestation of the glory of God, it is not because you have drunk deeply and are satisfied. It is because we have nibbled so long at the table of the world. Our soul is stuffed with small things, and there is no room for the great.” If we are full of what the world offers, then perhaps a fast might express, or even increase, our soul's appetite for God.

There are people in the world so hungry, that God cannot appear to them except in the form of bread. -Mahatma Gandhi

When you are hunger for God, He will fill you. -Jentezen Franklin

Unity is God's beauty.

Unity is God's beauty

One day, I was admiring the beauty outside, when my eyes fell on a line of ants. I saw few of them doing, gymnastic by taking, each other on their back. They all had a desire to suck the nectar from the flower. They, with great efforts succeeded in their mission. A great lesson can be learnt from the illustration I shared.

That is unity, it’s just the act of getting on together, let us go little deeper to it.

Unity is, not a metaphysical idea, but something essential and ordinary. It is found in every breath, be it a winged butterfly, or any bird or an animal. It is for each of us to live and celebrate this oneness, to participate in its beauty, and wonder. God’s blessing is commanded to come where there is unity. To have unity with others, live a life with:  Humility or lowliness, Meekness or gentleness of attitude, Patience or long suffering.

We can see the unity in any choir. The beauty of the choir is felt when sung in unison. When their diversity unites in worship to God, the beauty of their praise will echo the depth and greatness of God’s beauty. God calls his people to live in unity with one another, so it is important to make every effort to live together in harmony.

 A small story will surely motivate you. 

 Once a deer, a crow, a mouse and a turtle were great friends. One day, the deer went to graze. He was caught in a hunter net. In the evening the deer did not return to his friends. The mouse said to the crow, ‘Will you fly over the trees and find the deer?  The crow flew away. He came back after half an hour. He said, ‘Our friend, the deer is in the hunter’s net. ‘What shall we do’? said the mouse and the turtle. ‘I will take mouse on my back,’ said the crow. ‘The mouse will bite through the net and set the deer free. ‘Yes,’ said the mouse. I will do that. “I will show the way, turtle said.” The crow took the mouse on his back and flew with him to the deer. The mouse bit through the net. The deer was free. All the friends were happy together.

Moral of the Story: Unity is Strength. Friends should act together, and then they will be happy.

Famous quotes:

The reason why the world lacks unity, and lies broken and in heaps, is, because man is disunited with himself. - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Circumstances cannot hinder your growth.

Circumstances cannot hinder your growth

In life, when you experience problems, difficulties, and tensions all around. How is your attitude at those times in life?

Growth is a natural phenomenon which happens in the life with correct circumstances. Even the man has to face similar problems as of plants. If there is four essential things, nothing will hinder or stop the growing process. There should be proper nourishment for the plant, there should be sunlight, good rain, and no hindrance of weeds in the life of plant.

Few days before, in our backyard, I saw a plant growing in between few stones. It was a curry leaf plant. I saw it growing beautifully, quite healthy, with many leaves coming from it. The plant even though, was having hindrance in its growth, but because of proper nourishment, rain, and sun it’s growth spurts were remarkable.

Sometimes problems which come are unpredictable, inconvenient, not planned and come in different forms. In those time how is your attitude to face the problems? If you accept the circumstances and have a gratitude towards everything then for sure no one can be an obstacle for your growth. May be the problem which is present, was not at all predicted by you, still your growth should not stop.

God, will walk with us, through our trials like, a good friend, He will always help us, from whatever we are facing beyond our current situation. In order, to actually trust God, we must first understand the nature of God and how wonderfully He works in our lives.

Famous quotes:

The journey is never ending. There's always gonna be growth, improvement, adversity; you just gotta take it all in and do what's right, continue to grow, continue to live in the moment. -Antonio Brown

The best thing is to accept the circumstances, not take them personally, deal with them, stop complaining, and give everything your best. - Sushant Singh Rajput 

You are born to do great things.

You are born to do great things

What happens, when sometimes we do a certain work, try hard but find failures only, in our lives and get disheartened? Do we try again? Or do we become like, the squirrel having a definite focus in life, though the squirrel is faced with a difficult task it goes around jumping, from one tree to another happily.

You are not ordinary, but each and every one is unique. I thank my God, for creating this universe around me, to learn many things from my surroundings.

 Lately, I had a desire to study about squirrel. We can learn a lot many things from it. I have seen them, getting food by jumping on trees with nuts in mouth. They run effortlessly from branch to branch, sometimes even cross road and hang on electric wires. They remain focused to their goal and work with full vigor to reach the destination of attaining food.

The squirrels help a lot in cleaning the environment. They eat the plants, eat it’s fruit, nuts, seeds, leaves, roots, it’s bark; whatever is there, sometimes, they catch insects and caterpillar too. Along with all of that, they help in planting a tree as they dig holes to hide their nuts and seeds and they usually forget where they had hidden it. After many days a new tree emerges where they had hidden those seeds and nuts. Indirectly, they do great job in our lives.

 In the same way you should consider yourselves extraordinary. You are born to do “GREAT things”! Success can be yours, regardless of your present situation or circumstances. Tap into the discipline, perseverance and mindset of determination to create a new future for yourself. Affirm to yourself that no excuse is acceptable to keep you from achieving your goal.

We are here to live a good life, to love God, to love people around us, to work hard, to laugh and smile often and thus be great achievers in our life.

Famous Quotes:

You have the ability to choose which way you want to go. You have to believe great things are going to happen in your life. Do everything you can, prepare, pray and achieve, to make it happen. - Ben Carson

God's Handiwork

God’s Handiwork

Have you, ever opened your eyes with this beauty? A love at first sight.  

If creation is so magnificent, how amazing, must God be? Where else can we discover God’s beauty?  We find it all around us in this lovely nature.

Maple Tree

Looking at the beauty of my garden, and the beautiful landscape, it made me stop; and think about all the wonderful Handiwork God has made. Suddenly seeing the beauty around my lips stared singing… “All things bright and beautiful all creatures great and small ”…

 Once when I stepped out of my house. I was amazed to see something outside. It was a pink carpet, spread on the ground, which really fascinated me. The beauty, the color, and the sweet scent spread in the air, with birds chirping, and squirrels running to and fro. The pink carpet, was of the flowers of the rose apple tree, which were fallen on the ground.  Though I am always fascinated by the beautiful nature around.

 Sometimes even the roadside flowers and leaves are so lovely that our breath is taken away and we remember the greatness of the creator.

This beautiful creation is God’s handiwork. We are all part of a larger masterpiece. As it is said that “the heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament shows His handiwork “Psalms 19:1.

God is a great artist making everything perfect. God is working in you. He’s making you valuable and priceless, so that when others see you, all they see is the work of the Master.  Let your life show who the Artist is, and how wonderful is his handiwork. 

Famous Quotes:

Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better. - Albert Einstein

Nature is my manifestation of God. I go to nature every day for inspiration in the day's work. I follow in building the principles which nature has used in its domain.- Frank Lloyd Wright

Mirage.

Mirage

 In a hot dry and parched land, a thirsty lonely traveler; becomes suddenly happy with a hope, that he got an oasis in front of him, but as he walks to some more distance; it disappears from his sight and he realizes that all his hope has been shattered, it was a mere refraction of light in the hot desert.     

Once, in a hot summer while, riding my scooter, on the road I saw a small puddle of water, a few kilometers from me. Thinking, I will slip down, I reduced the speed of my scooter. Later, I came to know that, it was just a refraction of light from the sky in the hot road.

Mirage can be tempting. As the traveler, in the hot desert, has his desires to be satisfied with streams of water, which he develops by a picture in his mind; and he sees it after sometime that a mirage of lake in the desert is present. It brings satisfaction in his life, the sight of the mirage gives a new strength or enthusiasm to the traveler for the onward journey to continue.

We all have humanity stored in us, so we struggle from the beginning to be satisfied. Many people even when they become old, they are not satisfied and say, if I would have had a better family, had many friends, had a dream car, had a big mansion with servants around; then I would have been satisfied.

 God made you, to be happy and to be satisfied, with what He has given in your life. In this material world, every one desires happiness, which is like a mirage in the desert. Happiness is very difficult to obtain, so they run after the so-called happiness of the material world, and never come to the right conclusion that happiness is there inside each one. This emotion can be best found in spending quiet moments with the creator, meditation on God’s word, smile often, be grateful and do what you like to do.
Famous Quotes:

   “People are raised to believe that happiness is the land to which they are destined to travel. But that belief, which one so easily accepts as true, might just as well be a mirage.” ― Pramoedya Ananta Toer, 

“Pursuit of happiness is a pursuit of mirage; you only realize it’s a delusion at the end of the road” ― A.M.M Alusi

Strive hard and climb the ladder of success.

Strive hard and climb the ladder of success

Each of us are striving hard to climb the ladder. We get up in the morning to fulfill our dreams.

Hard work in any field, any area, to anyone, is rather very important to gain or to have a better life. If you are working for a firm, work hard to increase the profit, if you are in school, learn and study hard to gain your wisdom. With hard work, you can accomplish many things in life.

Some people work hard to survive. Working day to day, to pay the bills, some to attain high position, some to feed their families.
"Adam has to undergo, painful toils all the days of his life.By the  sweat of his brow he has to eat his food." 
You can see how," diligently the ant works and prepares for the cold season. Even though it does not have a guide, overseer or ruler" it prepares it's bread in summer and gathers it's food in harvest.

Once I was walking in my garden when I noticed a spider busy jumping from, one branch to another. First I thought it might be catching its prey. After a while, I noticed a beautiful web made, as if some architect came down to measure and design the beautiful house of the spider.

Suddenly my eyes fell on the bird who was chirping nearby that too busy, in collecting fine twigs and collecting materials for a beautiful nest to lay her young ones.

Work is essential for living and obtaining the essentials for life. The creator has designed each one of us to work, so we should accept our work as God’s divine design. And work as hard as we can; to think like an ant which plans for the coming winter; to continue to grow in the knowledge of the Word of God ; to know that whatever we do we do for the God.

Famous Quotes:

Dictionary is the only place that success comes before work. Hard work is the price we must pay for success. I think you can accomplish anything if you’re willing to pay the price. - Vince Lombardi

The ladder of success is never crowded at the top. - Napoleon Hill

God will make a way...

God will make a way

A valley dark and deep and you are alone crossing it, where the roads are blocked, and you have to reach a higher altitude…How and what will you do? Will you be able to cross it without fainting? Can we? Yes. But it is not very easy. Surely God will make a way through the valley and hills.

When you face situation, of a job loss, or receive a bad report from the doctor, or when you face the death of a loved one, you may think that all doors are shut and there is no way out. But “God is always working in ways we cannot see “and, He can change impossible situations from your life. He sometimes moves mysteriously; to provide what you need in miraculous ways. Life can be difficult. But we should lean on God’s promises.

I, have crossed through such hurdles, in my life and I felt, as though all my doors are locked, and I am in a room alone. When suddenly, I see a light flashing into my room, it’s no other than God; opening, for me one, then the next, then the other, and so on all the doors.

But, we have to follow certain steps for the doors to open. First is to develop faith in God. Secondly we should walk with Him step by step as a pleasing child of His father, by looking on to my behavior, to do those things which pleases Him, to care, co-operate, help others etc. Finally, to have a stronger trust in Him. So, trust God, even though things don’t make complete sense to you at the moment.

God will open a way for you

 Seek God sincerely in prayer. Keep hoping, keep believing, and keep praising and see how God makes a way for you.

God's Compassion

God’s compassion

Do you feel heartbroken or pity…?

I remember, on my way to school, I used to see many poor children standing on the way with torn clothes and shabby hair. Some crying, some fighting, snatching and running with bread in their hands.

Those days I had a desire to help them. This desire, or the emotion on seeing another person’s burden or suffering and to help them through their life’s way is called compassion.

Actually, God wants us to be humble and to have love and compassion in our hearts. It is a way to give ourselves to lift another in an invaluable manner. Unconditional love and compassion goes hand in hand. We can show this act through many different ways like a simple talk, a smile and eye contact, giving a listening ear, a touch, a helping hand in their needs physically,mentally, spiritually ,and materialistically; all these can bring a relief to the one who is suffering with varied problems.

In doing so, we can demonstrate our love for humanity, as we are a living example of what love is - natural, non-discriminate, and whole. In this way, we can build our society in a better way and can help to eradicate poverty in our very small way.

“The greatest disease in the West today is not TB or leprosy; it is being unwanted, unloved, and uncared for. We can cure physical diseases with medicine, but the only cure for loneliness, despair, and hopelessness is love. There are many in the world who are dying for a piece of bread but there are many more dying for a little love. The poverty in the West is a different kind of poverty -- it is not only a poverty of loneliness but also of spirituality. There's a hunger for love, as there is a hunger for God.” ― Mother Teresa

“Our task must be to free ourselves by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures.” – Albert Einstein

Amazing Creation...

Amazing Creation

Transparent Butterfly

You are amazing, beautiful.Yes...each one of this creation is wonderful. Say, it!! a small ant or a two  winged butterfly, a fish in the sea or a flower in the garden or a giant lion or an elephant. The size, shape, colour, texture, or the way they produce sounds, 

 walk, eat, everything incredible!!

 

Flying Duck Orchid

  I sometimes feel stunned, to see the amazing masterpiece . God created all of us in His own image, that too, all different and nothing same exactly. We all have noses, but everybody has different smell, we all   have mouth,  with different  taste. Everyone has mind but the thinking, emotions are all different from each other. God designed each part of us with so much thought and passion. He counted each hair on our heads and he knows each and every one of us even better than we know ourselves

When I was sick, at times with my disease, I used to think why God made me with so much imperfection? Then I heard the voice, same voice which spoke to me...."When I designed you, I made you as my most beautiful creation, my greatest masterpiece. I designed you in my image."  Oh the excitement I had, after hearing His voice. I  want to tell you, one secret that to appreciate our Creator  we all should just bow down, worship and praise Him for His marvelous work.

An orchid looks like an insect

Famous quotes:

"When I admire the wonders of a sunset or the beauty of the moon, my soul expands in the worship of the creator."-Mahatma Gandhi. 
"God, our Creator, has stored within our  minds and personalities, great potential strength and ability. Prayer help us tap and develop these powers".-A.P.J. Abdul Kalam