Beautiful Day

Sunday, August 31, 2003

Who's the boss?

Who's the boss

Finally it's Sunday. Peter's been working everyday including the weekends for so many months now trying to finish our house. But today he's got to meet up with his parents coming from Port Macquarie as his sister is in hospital. So he doesn't have to go to work and thank goodness, he doesn't have to get up that early.
But the baby is in a different mood. The kids went to a birthday party last night, and I guess the baby also got over excited. She just wanted to play until nearly midnight. Then 2 or 3am she woke up very loud and didn't want to go back to sleep. We figured out she might be teething, so we gave her some panadal, the oral gel, a glowing dummy, changed her nappy and she went back to sleep. But early morning, around 5-6am she decided to let the whole world know that she's awake and she's ready for the day. Very soon the other two kids joined us and we had the 5 of us all in the same bed. The two bigger ones went to work with Peter for the whole day yesterday and went to a party in the evening which they jumped and chased around for a good few hours. They're tired and they wanted to sleep, but they also wanted to fight for the best spot in the bed. The baby didn't want to sleep at all, she'd crawled to the edge of the bed, ready to jump off, or she'll pull one of the kids' hair, sit on their head, knock them head on, in the meantime, kicking around, hitting the balls(heads) like Langping. We tried to police the situation for a while, the bed's so warm and comfortable in the last winter morning, but eventually we gave up. Everyone's out of bed, getting ready for the day. But while having breadfast, the baby decided she's had enough. So she went back sound asleep, and she's having the big king bed all to herself.

As seen by Susan @ 10:17 AM

Wednesday, August 27, 2003

Perspective

Perspectives can have dramatic influences upon our lives. Different perspectives result in different attitudes, actions, and of course the outcomes. It can be the same thing that different people are involved in, but with the different perspectives they get completely different results.
When the 12 spies went out to see the promised land, 10 came back with the negative reports, only Joshua and Caleb saw it with Godly perspectives. And the result? Only the two went into the promised land. The other 10 perished in the desert land.
When the Lord present to us a new thing, whether it's a business or a ministry, sometimes the past experience, other people's opinions, the social influence, and especially our own inadequacies are all we're looking at, and it's so likely for us to neglect the quiet and gentle conviction that comes from the Spirit. It's so easy to see it with the world's eyes rather than the Lord's eyes. But remember, if all you see is the giants, the enemies, the negatives, you'll never be able to enter into the provision and blessings that the Lord has prepared for you. Only when you are bold enough to see that there's milk and honey flowing everywhere in the land, then can the Lord release His power to help you defeat your enemies and enter into your destiny.

As seen by Susan @ 9:45 AM

Saturday, August 23, 2003

Car

Peter's finally happy with his car.
He had so much trouble with his van before. The gear-box blew up. The first quote to fix it nearly choked him, which was 7000 dollars. After a while, he found a cheaper deal, but it was still 4000 dollars. We took the car over to the other side of Sydney to get it fixed, and the mechanics spent hours and days on it, and couldn't figure out what was wrong. Eventually after nearlly 3 months time, we finally got his van back. During this period of time, he had to use my car for work for a while,which meant our kids couldn't go to schools and lessons. Then he borrowed two cars from different friends. But after only a week, the gear-box's not working again. We took it back again, and waited another few weeks. The van worked alright after that, but it's sort of scary. We finally decided to sell it. He really can't afford any time on the selling, as it takes a lot of hassle to take all the tools out, clean it and make it presentable for any buyers. So one Sunday he told the Lord that he's gonna believe he will sell it that day. The whole day passed and nothing happened. But he still believed the car should be sold on that day. He has a bad habit, that he hardly ever checks his messages on the answering machines. On Thursday someone rang him up asking him about the van. He told him that he had left a message on his mobile phone on Sunday. He came and he drove the van away in the same day. He left his car with Peter as a trade in, which had 2 weeks rego left. Peter had a car to drive to work at least for a while. And on the last day before the rego ran out, he sold the car at the price he wanted, and in the same evening, he found a station wagon that he really liked, and he bought it straight away. The insurance company that he was with before refused to insure for his wagon as they told him the price he paid was 10,000 dollars under the market value, so he had to change another company to do that. He bought it at an auction, where at the same night, there were quite a few other wagons, with the same model, same year, were all sold around $10,000 dearer. And the value we got for his van was 1800 dollars more than his asking price, can you believe it?
I can see that he's so happy with his new wagon now, and all of the kids and me like it,too. It's 2000 Holden Berlina station Wagon. It's a beauty.

Editorial: God is faithful. The principle of Job(Job42:10) does work!

As seen by Susan @ 10:15 PM

Tuesday, August 19, 2003

The Second Wind

When I was a student at schools and college, generally speaking, I loved sports. But for P.E lessons, I dreaded 800m tests, and so did most other fellow students. But that particular item speaks the loudest how fit you really are.
I find there're quite some similarities in running a good race and being successful in whatever we want to do in life.
When we just start to run a race, we're all fresh and we have a lot of energy, passion, and high expectation. We're tempted to run faster than we should and we want to dash out to the very front. But then sooner or later we'll reach to a point, in Chinese we call it Jixian, where we feel extremely tired and exhausted, our bodies just don't seem to cope, the heartbeat is up, the legs are heavy,and we're out of breath. All we want to do is to stop. But if we can just hang on, after a while the body will actually adjust to it and we'll get "the second wind", which is a renewed and prolonged strength and energy that will see us to the end. The faster we run at the beginning, the harder the transition will become.
When we start a new business or a new project, a marriage,any new endeavor, we tend to put a lot of energy and action right at the beginning, as we're fresh, we're passionate and we have very high expectation. But sooner or later we'll come to a point where we're challenged totally from every area: The plan doesn't seem to work, the passion's gone, the strength and energy's gone, we lose the vision, everything just seem to work against us. All we feel like is give up and forget about it. But, that's not the whole picture. Hold on! Just keep going, and persevere, or just hang in there, and in time we'll find that the circumstance will start to change. We will have a "second wind", which is a more realistic attitude, strength and energy that will see us through.
The second wind, or the renewed strength, is the most important factor in the whole race. It's the key element in deciding whether we are gonna win or not, or whether we're really fit or not.
There is a danger, that if we put too much action and expectation at the beginning, the "jixian" will come prematurely, and it can become too overwhelming that we simply cannot cope and just have to give up. If we're running a 800m race, but start out with a 100m race speed, we know we're in for big trouble.

So, whenever we want to enter into something new, we need to plan for the whole procedure: start with good endeavor but realistically, hang on when things get tough, persevere with renewed strength and energy, and give all you have when success is within reach.

Isaiah40:31 "But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they sall walk, and not faint."

As seen by Susan @ 11:45 PM

Friday, August 15, 2003

Progress or fade out

Ellie's been learning piano for a year now, she's doing pretty good. She's now preparing for her concert piece to play at the Sydney Opera House later this year. Last year she progressed very well, as I was commited to sit with her for her practice every day, and she had a lot of time home. This year she started school, and apart from school, she still has dance, drawing, swimming, tennis, drama lessons to go to, so I find she slowed down a lot with piano. And when we started our new business, I find my time with her for the piano practice has to cut down again. Her teacher wasn't happy and I had to explain to her that it's not Ellie's fault, I just haven't got the time. I have a baby that just gets too excited when she hears the piano's making any noise and she's determined to not leave us alone, and Peter always gets home too late.
She has a problem. She learns very fast, but she forgets very fast,too. She learns to play a new song and she forgets an old one. Generally speaking, if she practises twice a week, that'll just keep her where she's at: no learning, no forgetting. No practise for that week, she forgets everything straight away, have to start all over again; more than twice, she'll make progress, of course, the more the merrier. Sometimes, I feel like fighting a battle, if you don't keep progressing, your losing. At times I have attempted to take a break, but her teacher and also my brother(who's a very good piano teacher in China)strongly opposed the idea. They told me, if we take a break, it won't be long at all that she'll have to start from the very beginning again, and all the effort before would be in vain.
This reminds me of other things in life. A lot of times we start doing something. At the beginning, there's ususally a lot of passion, and also there's a lot of action. But after a while, the passion starts to fade, and the action starts to slow down. And then we're attempted to take a break, (if we could), or just keep it at minimum. A lot of the times we don't realise that we're like riding a boat against a flow: if we don't progress, we regress. The minimum action required will just keep us where we're at, but that won't make us progress. If we want to progress, we have to put in extra action and keep on the good effort; and if we take a break or stop, the flow will move us backwards, and pretty soon we'll find out there's just too much to catch up and have to give up the whole thing. Not too many people actually decided to stop wilfully at the first place. Most of the times it happened because they slowed down, took a break, and before they knew it, they faded out.

As seen by Susan @ 9:45 AM

Monday, August 11, 2003

Flowers

Flowers are created to be beautiful. In a perfect world, every flower should be blossoming with the utmost beauty. But in reality, only some are noticed and recognised as beautiful.
Here I'm trying to find out some of the reasons:
. Some flowers are beautiful, but someone has dumped some yukky stuff on them. So they demonstrate themselves as flowers with poos on their faces.
. In an early stage, there were some harsh condition, and some of the nerves of the flowers were hurt, so they decided to close up.
. Not enough nutrition. So they look ok, but not thriving.
. Dead. They can be beautiful for a little while, but not for very long. There's no life in them.
. Flowers without gardeners or someone who looks after and cares for them. They are struggling. Sometimes they can look miserable.
. A flower on it's own seems a bit boring, it looks best with other flowers and leaves well mixed together.
. Sometimes people's concept can have big influece on their lives: expensive ones are more looked after, and the cheap ones end up in the wilderness. Some people prefer white flowers than purple flowers. Some like roses, some like lilies. But in fact, they are all beautiful. If a rose happens to be brought up in a house that thinks only lilies are beautiful, then the poor rose wouldn't think she's beautiful no matter how stunning she actually is.
. In the wrong crowd.
. In the wrong soil.
. In the wrong atmosphere.
. In the wrong country.
. In the wrong climate.

As seen by Susan @ 2:29 PM

Saturday, August 09, 2003

Wheat or weed
In Ellie's school newsletter, there's this thoughts for the week: " Decide carefully exactly what you want in life, then work like mad to make sure you get it." by Hector Crawford(1913-1991)
When Peter just started our new business, he asked the Lord to give him a verse, and the Lord gave him Isaiah7:9,"If you don't stand firm in your faith, you will not stand at all."
In James 1:6-8, "But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all he does."
Wherever there's a seed of wheat sowed, there will also be the seeds of weed. If you don't take proper care of the wheat, and diligently labor to get rid of the weeds, pretty soon the weeds will take over.
If God has put a seed of faith in your heart, but you don't diligently guard your heart and deal with all the doubt and fear that come from all directions, then your faith won't last very long to see you through.
It actually takes a lot of work. First, we need to recognise what's wheat and what's weed. Then, we need to take actions, to get rid of the weeds. No farmers should expect to have harvests if they don't do the weedings.
If we allow both faith and doubt to grow at the same time, we're just like that double-minded man -- who should not think he will receive anything from the Lord.

As seen by Susan @ 11:50 PM

Raven and donkey

Time and time again, I was reminded of the two stories in the Bible about the raven and the donkey.
When Elijah was out in the field, the Lord sent him a raven to bring food to him every day. Then He used a widow who literaly had nothing but a little bit of oil and flour that's not even enough for a meal for her own family, to support him.
Missionaries today like to find big churches for support. Other people like to rely on someone that's rich or has influence to fulfil their dreams. It's so easy for us to put trust in people, yet in the same time it's so easy for these people to fail us, no matter who they are. The funny thing about this is that we can get so hurt in the process while the other people might not even have a clue that we're hurting!
Only when we put our trust in the Lord Himself are we on a safe journey. He can use a raven, He can use a donkey, He can use a widow, and surely, He can use anyone,anything that we may have never thought of.

As seen by Susan @ 4:25 PM

Thursday, August 07, 2003

Looking forth, looking back

When God calls us out into a new dimention, He doesn't always tells us everything. Sometimes we understand why, sometimes we don't. Sometimes we can see the whole picture, sometimes we can only see a glimpse.
But the attitute and actions that follow that calling can vary greatly, and so are the results.
When the angel told Lot and his family to leave, (Gen19), he just said, run for your life, and do not look back. Lot and his family tried to nag and tarry, and out of the Lord's mercy, the angel just took them by their hands and urged them out. But Lot's wife looked back, and immediately she became a pillar of salt.
Moving is always a hassle. It's always harder to look into the future than it is to look what's behind: we have spent so much time and energy to settle down and building up, how can we just leave everything behind? and once we start to look behind, then one thing after another start to squeence and follow in: the memories, old glory and comfort, cares and belongings.... the emotions!.... and....we're stuck!
Jesus tells us to live a life like travelors. But we like to settle down and accumulate our comfort.
But one thing I'm sure: Canaan Land is always better than the desert, and it's definately worth the effort of leaving Egypt. It's the attitude and actions that makes up the difference between 11 days and forty years. What a lesson!

As seen by Susan @ 10:56 AM

Wednesday, August 06, 2003

21 century revolution

Over the last century, there was a graduate, not too obvious, but definate, powerful revolution, which was the invention, application and popularation of the computer system. Wherever you go, from shopping centres to banks, from schools to homes, now they're everywhere. Computers have taken the place of manual work in lots of areas.Whether
you like it or not, embrace it or hate it, they're there.
This reminded me of an incidence about 12 years ago, when I was working in a university library back in China. Everything in the library was then manually operated and organised. A lot of the people that were working in the library were middle aged or older. Then the director of the library had a trip to U.S, and when he came back he brought with him the computer system. Oh, what a riot that was to that poor little library! There was huge work load involved, they had to go through every book to get them ready for scan. It wasn't an easy job and concept for the staff, especially the older aged. But the director was determined. and he turned that library into the first mordern library in the universities in Beijing. He actually got quite famous for that. But very soon after that, the poor director had to resign from his last job. The rejection, mocking and hatred toward him was more than he could handle.
I can see for this century, there's an even more powerful revolution that's going to take place. There's a new trend that's definately happening and growing. It's coming, you can hear the sound now, and it won't be long before you actually see the tidal wave roaring.
It's a new way of shopping habbit: instead of shopping at the big shopping centre, everyone will start to shop at home, shop from their own shops, and make profits while shopping; It's a new way of working: instead of working 70 hours a week, you'll only need to work a couple hours a day and make times more income, instead of working hard, everyone starts to work smart; It's a new way of living: instead of living from paycheck to paycheck, stressed out from Monday to Friday, leave home dark and come back home dark, you'll be able to spend plenty of time with the kids and have vacations whenever you like. There's a new system in the society that's going to replace the traditional style. Whether you like it or not, it's going to take place. You can love it, enjoy it, or resent it, hate it. It won't make much difference. Eventually it's going to take over. At the moment, it's still like 3 o'clock in the morning, most of the people are still asleep. The sooner you wake up, the sooner you plug into it, the earlier you'll benefit from it.
And the cutting edge of this new trend is called "Market Australia".

As seen by Susan @ 12:57 PM

Tuesday, August 05, 2003

Stir

Sometimes life goes on day after day, week after week, month after month, even year after year(I hope not too many years though)without a change, it just becomes a routine. We do the same things at the same time of the day, say the same words to the same people,think the same thoughts, paying the same checks, making the same checks, having the same dreams, facing the same frustrations. Gradually the colour of life fades during the process.
It's like a pond. Nothing comes in, nothing goes out, it looks still and calm, but gradually it turns into a swamp.
Then it comes a stir of the nature. A gust of wind, an inpour of a flood, or a change of flow. Then suddenly the seemingly still and clear water lose it's calmness. All the dirty and yukky stuff surface up. But during this stir, fresh water comes in, and old stale water has a chance to run out. The water start to move again, and there's a new life flowing into it. And the pond looks alive!
Similarly, sometimes we need a stir once in a while in our lives. It can be messy,unpleasant and inconvenient at the time. Everything goes upside down, inside out and round about. We feel like having a rage, and losing control. But the outcome will be rewarding: the new rush in, the old clearing out. Life turns colourful again!

As seen by Susan @ 11:48 PM

Monday, August 04, 2003

Baby walk

Baby Walk
I have a 10 month old baby, her name is Katie. As gorgeous and chubby as she is, she's not walking yet. At times I can see she's really trying very hard. but all she could do is push herself up then tumble down. If she falls hard, she'll cry, and she'll yell out mamadada... and I'll give her a cuddle, then she'll be fine. And it won't be very long before she forgets all about it and attempt again.
I start to think about my "baby walk" in adulthood. Sometimes we start something new, like a new career, a new business, a new family... At the beginning most of the times it's hard. We fail. We got rejected. Our boiling hot passion was met with cold water. Our expectation turned into frustration. All we want to do is yell out, God! where are you? Why didn't you turn up? Why didn't you do something! Why did you allow this to happen?....
God just smiled and gave us a hug.
So many times, we just want to give up. We just want to forget about it and walk away. We just want to cry, with tears, and say, "this is too hard!"
But God just says, No, baby, each time you fall, that just means you're a bit more stronger, and you're closer to walk. every time you fail, that just means you're one step closer to succeed.
Sooooo, when you feel that you have failed, don't lose hope! Give yourself a cuddle, a good sleep, a nice juicy fat bite, a day off, then shake it all off and start again! It won't be too far away.

As seen by Susan @ 9:32 PM

Be thankful for everything

Turn Around

At times when I look at my friends, around the world, I start to have different feelings. And before I realise it, these feelings can creep up into lots of poisonous elements in my whole being. Uncontiously I start to compare myself with different people and I could be anywhere end up miserable. Like, look at this one, she didn't even go to a good college in China and she's having a good job and she's successful. And what about that one, he's got a doctor's degree, and I can't even finish my TAFE. That girl, she was so ordinary before, now she's teaching in top university...... and this boy, how come he can make that much money!! And consequently, I start to become bitter and angry. I start to complain, and try to find someone to blame.
I could let these go on and on and I'll get totally lost. But a gentle,soft voice in my heart says, no! you can't let these dominate you. You can't let your thoughts go wherever they like. You've got to control it, and turn them AROUND!
OK, turn them around! So What should I be thinking? What should I be focusing my thoughts on? I feel the voice keep saying, be thankful! Be grateful for what you've got. Keep a heart of thanksgiving and praise.
So I'm gonna let my thoughts turn to that direction:
Thank God, I have three beautiful children that everone just keep telling me how cute, how lovely they are. My big daughter Ellie's teacher told her, I wish I had thirty Ellies in my class. She kept telling me in the mornings how she had dreams about heaven and Jesus and angels were dancing with her. She said there are beautiful flowers, Mom and Dad, sisters, we were all dancing and laughing. Oh, how touched was I when I heard those words! She was prophesied that she's gonna be a dancer. She's five now, and she's gonna do her Ballet grade 1 exam this month.
And Jamie and Katie, what blessings they are! They really deserve my time and every effort.
And my beloved husband! He works so hard to meet the family's need. He's the hero of all our girls. And all of us (me and the kids)adore him and crave for the time he can be with us.
He has the best workmanship and he's a very responsible person. He has such a tender and loving heart towards the children. He's really a man that I can comfortably rely on. He's a good man. Most importantly, he has a calling from God and he has a close relationship with Jesus. I can trust him at all times, such men are hard to find in the world today. What gain do you have if you have a good career but having a broken family?
Thank you Jesus, What a beautiful and precious Lord you are!
When I start to think about what Jesus had done in my life, I really can't put down to words now. They are like sands of the seashore, how can I count them down?
I cherish my Lord, He gives me a purpose in my life. He lets me know who I am and where I am going and I trust Him that he's faithful and he's powerful and he'll take me to my destiny.
I'm so thankful to Him, that He makes my days so meaningful and no matter what the circumstances I might be in, I can still be full of joy and peace. I really can't imagine now to live a single day without Jesus. That'll be so empty and so meaningless.
I'm thankful that whenever I feel hurt and down, I can always go to Him, and He will comfort me and heal me, and then He'll charge me up, full of faith and strength again!
I'm thankful, that there's a quiet place for me to go, where all my needs are met, all my tears are wiped off, all I feel is warmth and love, His gentle touch and loving words, that surrounds me, overwhelms me, ....oh, there's no words that can describe that feeling, it's so wonderful.

Be thankful. Be thankful for everything. This is the joy of life.

As seen by Susan @ 11:12 AM

Saturday, August 02, 2003

Wednesday night we went to a housemeeting. The leader of the meeing shared with us that before the meeting he had some warfare. He had quite a bit of money owed to him from different sources including money from insurance company,etc, and it's been a long time, and he suddenly woke up and said, "hey, what's going on here?" He realised that the enemy was in his finance, and he has been giving his enemy a very easy job. So he did the spiritual warfare in prayers, telling the devil to get out of his finance. He shared that with us in the meeting and also prayed for everyone.
The next day, he happened to come around to our house to fix some electrical problems, as he's an electrician. And he told me, "guess what, remember I did the warfare prayer last night? Well, all the money that owed to us, including money from that insurance company, came in this morning."
Wow! That's a powerful testimony to me. And suddenly I start to realise how many areas in our lives, especially in our finance, in our housebuilding, that we have given the enemy an easy job to do. So many things that have gone wrong, we just thought that's the way it is and we just cope with it. But no! it's the enemy that's been giving us all the hassle! And what we should really get serious about is the spiritual warfare!

As seen by Susan @ 11:19 PM

Friday, August 01, 2003

I didn't realise that having a blog is not that hard at all,I used to think that it's for the scholars, not mothers. But now I guess the real challenge comes with the responsibility to regularly post something worthwhile to read. I'm really not sure if I'm ready for that yet. It can be a good excercise,though, to get in a quiet place to get some thoughts out. It seems like taking on a job. But who's gonna pay me for doing that? Well I hope it'll be fun enough, that pays.

As seen by Susan @ 8:36 PM