My World is Brighter Because of You

Facing the window as the gentle snow falls down from the sky. How beautiful! What a beautiful moment to reflect and write... How God loves details!

For the past 7 years, I remembered crying every birthday. For some reason, there are reasons that just makes me cry. Maybe for one, I was away from my family. Second, there were expectations that didn't materialize. This year, I said, it will be the best birthday ever. So I took the chance to just stay at home and spend some time with the Lord. It has been beautiful. I coulnd't help but cry as I can feel His love towards my life.

A week ago, I was thinking about my birthday and how I wanted it to be. Do I really know what will make me happy? The truth is, I really don't. So I reflected on my life and how it was for the past year and the past month. Life is good. REALLY really good! I can say that this has been the BEST season of my life. I am really happy and at times I couldn't explain my happiness. I am happy not because everything is doing just fine. I am happy not because I have everything I want. Actually it's quite the contrary. Everything is not doing smoothly as the world may describe it and I don't have everything I want.

But you know something, life doesn't have to be smooth and easy for one to be happy. The quality of life and our joy doesn't depend upon that.

As the years go by, I have learned that in this life, nothing will ever be "perfect". Nothing in this world will last forever. No one will always be good to you. Nothing will ALWAYS go the way you want it to go. One of the things that matter in this life is who we are really and whose we are. Then our perspective depends on that.

As I reflect in my life and just thinking how happy I am, I wouldn't be who I am now without the people that has become a part of my life. So I just want to take this opportunity to write a tribute to each of you. I am very grateful to God for EVERYTHING He has given me including the gift of YOU in my life - those who love me and hurt me. Without you, I wouldn't be who I am now and I wouldn't be as happy as I am now.

I thank you for your time. I thank you for sharing what you have. I thank you for every kind and harsh word. I thank you for sharing a part of you to me. I thank you for wiping my tears and I thank you for making me cry. I thank you for your encouragement and I thank you for the hurtful words. I thank you for prayers and I thank you for persecutions. I thank you because through all these, I was challenged and then I was drawn closer to Jesus more and more. I thank you for the hurtful words and actions because through these, I am cleansed by my own selfishness and immaturity and therefore all those things that can be shaken has been removed and I was drawn to death of SELF and drawn closer to life in Christ. Thank you very much!

I thank you for all those who love me. You made me feel very special. You made me see that there is hope in life, that God's love is still present in this world. You are also very special to me. and I treasure you for the rest of my life.

I really thank you for making a big difference in my life. To each of you, I pray that God will bless you even more! He is faithful and trustworthy. He is who He says He is!

I have the best birthday ever! Praise God!

God bless you!