Category: My Thoughts

How 2024 Shaped My Framework: Clarity, Courage and Consistency

As you look back on this year, what moments stood out the most—those that challenged you, grew you, or filled your heart with gratitude?

At the beginning of the year, I made a decision to post my blog every week. I wasn’t that confident I would make it through the year. Now, on week 52, I am proud to say that I have posted my blog every Monday (maybe a little past midnight on a few rare occasions) this whole year.

I am most grateful for this “win” in my life, as I can proudly pat myself on my back for keeping my word to post every Monday. It has challenged me, I have grown through my writing, and I am most grateful for the feedback I get from my friends for my posts.

In the process, it has shaped my 3C Framework:

  1. Clarity – knowing what I want and why
    I want to post my blog every Monday, as I want to share my insights and inspire others to pursue their dreams
  2. Courage – taking courage to do what I want
    I had announced I would post every week in my blog, even though I was very hesitant at first. Taking that first step was a leap of faith – faith that God would see me through and reveal to me what He wants me to write every week. There were weeks when I felt it was not “perfect” – I have to overcome my doubts and the fear of whether it is “good enough” to post. Just Do It!
  3. Consistency – show up and do the work
    It has become a habit to post every Monday. So I am always on the lookout for things to share, e.g. books or videos. There are times when something cropped up on a Monday, but I would make a decision to post, not wanting to miss a single Monday. Once I have made that decision, I will find ways to make it happen. Show up, whether you feel like it.

This is my invitation to you today: to get crystal clear on what you truly want, summon the courage to pursue it boldly, and stay consistent in your efforts to make it a reality.

Would You Get Rejected on Purpose?

Have you been rejected before? Do you fear rejection? Do you avoid rejection at all costs?

I recently watched an Instagram post by Maureen Evelyn, who created the rejecto app (I have not tried it yet). She decided to make it a challenging game to get rejected everyday. She even applied to Harvard to get rejected, but she was waitlisted instead! She purposely did crazy things to get rejected – to get herself out of her comfort zone and try new things, without letting her fear of rejection stop her.

Her mindset posed a reflective question to me:

What if rejection wasn’t something to fear, but something to seek?”

You could embrace rejection in practical ways:

  1. Set Rejection Goals – like what Maureen is doing with her app, set rejection goals to achieve every day or week, make it into a game and get over the fear and embarrassment! If possible, make it fun or funny!
  2. Celebrate Every “No” – celebrate overcoming your fear, and let it be a stepping stone towards your goals, and cheer yourself for taking the courage in the first place.
  3. Reflect and Learn – ask yourself what you can learn from the experience and how to improve next time, you can learn to turn every rejection into a lesson.

You can start with small rejections. Every rejection helps you to desensitise from the fear, embarrassment and judgment of rejection. Eventually, you will build the muscles of courage to take bold actions towards your goals and dreams.

I believe that this Power of Seeking Rejection can help you overcome your fears and build resilience. In fact, it can lead to unexpected opportunities, learning and growth. By overcoming my fear of rejection and impostor syndrome, I have published not one, but three books, in the past two years!

This is my invitation to you today: challenge yourself to get rejected on a regular basis, build your muscles to combat rejection, and take action to pursue your boldest dreams!

Do What Scares and Excites You at the Same Time

Last weekend, I attended the ‘Get Paid To Speak” bootcamp by Eric Feng in Marina Bay Sands in Singapore. I was chosen to do the after lunch session to “energize” the participants on Day 2 so they don’t fall asleep after lunch. I was excited initially, then got really nervous, especially after I saw the great job done by the “energiser” on the Day 1!

I was hoping they would cancel this session on Day 2 due to the tight schedule. On Day 2 morning, Eric confirmed my 10 minute session at 2:30pm. Yikes!! It’s too late to back out now. There was only one thing to do: go onto the stage and do the show!

I decided that I will get excited about it and enjoy myself. Once that decision was made, I continued rehearsing, even while walking back from lunch! I imagined the thrill of walking onto the stage, engaging with the audience, and just having fun! And that’s what I did.

Guess what I found out? It wasn’t as scary as I thought. And guess what else? It was quite exciting and fun! One of the things I realise from my own experience is this: when it is exciting and scary at the same time – always go for it! It is a sign to overcome the fear, and feel the excitement.

As I mentioned last week, do not let your Lizard Brain scare the shit out of you when you are doing something new, unfamiliar and out of your comfort zone. The Lizard Brain is doing its job of protecting you in case you fumble and embarrass yourself in front of a big crowd. That’s its job – to protect you. However, mistakes are lessons we can learn from – so that we can grow, improve, and reach a new level.

This is my invitation to you today: if you encounter a dream that is scary and exciting at the same time, do not let your fear stop you from pursuing that bold dream. Create a new chapter for your life!

The Hazard of our Lizard Brain

Have you ever had a great idea, only to talk yourself out of it?
Have you ever wanted to start something new, only to abandon it?
Have you dreamt of going to new places, only to chuck it one side?

I attended the Mindworks Program by Frances Penafort today, and she talked about our brain. There are three parts to our brain: lizard brain, limbic brain and pre-frontal cortex. The lizard brain is the primitive brain that used to protect us from predators, but in the modern world, it is more to keep us in our safe and comfort zone. Therefore, when we have any new ideas that kicks us out of our comfort zone, then the lizard brain will quickly put in motion all the danger signs and warnings to keep us back in our comfort zone. Hence, it will cast doubts and cause anxiety, it will analyse and overthink the matter. Eventually, we talk ourselves out of it with excuses and return us to so-called reality. In other words – stop dreaming!

So we need to be aware of the hazards of our lizard brain. It has the important role of keeping us safe. However, implementing new ideas will definitely require us to get out of our comfort zone and do new things, meet new people and have new experiences. Most of the time, our default mode is to stay the same, comfortable and don’t rock the boat. However, for us to improve and grow, we need to get out of our comfort zone to explore new ideas, maybe fail a few times, learn from our mistakes, improve and level up. It requires a lot of hard work and going through frustration, sweat and tears. Hence, it is important to know the reason why we want to set new goals or achieve new dreams. It is the “WHY” that pushes us through the hardships and sufferings as we endure towards our goals and dreams.

This is my invitation to you today: be aware of the lizard brain, but don’t let it stop you from achieving your dreams and goals. As we approach a New Year of 2025, dare to pursue your boldest dream!

Advent Hope as an Anchor for Our Dreams

Do you feel like the year has passed too quickly, and you can’t believe it’s December already?
Are you stressing out that 11 months have passed and you feel like you’ve wasted so much time?!
Do you realize that you have only one month left to achieve the goals and dreams you have set for this year?

As we come to December month, many of us might feel the stress and pressure of having one month left to achieve our goals. I certainly do! The tendency is to shrink our goals. This was what Terri Saville Foy was tempted to do when she heard her daughter sharing how she has already achieved most of her goals in July! But God told her otherwise – Don’t shrink your dream, enlarge your faith.

Terri shared a few ways on how to enlarge her faith:

  • Visualise your future – be it your wealth or your health, let it be crystal clear and be specific in how your future looks like
  • Deliberately choose your input – faith comes from hearing, therefore listen to God’s Word on a daily basis; use your drive time to listen to godly messages
  • Declare a fast – God asks us to pray, give and fast, so that you can see many fold increase in your blessings – pray and ask God what you need to fast from, for example, certain food cravings that you usually can’t resist
  • Sow your memorable seed – do not delay in giving your best offering that God has prompted you to give, for it is in giving that we receive

As we start on this year’s Advent season, let us place our Hope in Jesus to achieve our goals and dreams. He has placed the goals and dreams in our hearts for His purpose. And as storms come our way, let Jesus be our anchor to keep us steady and strong. Let us hang on to Jesus when we feel like being tossed about in life’s messy storms.

This is my invitation to you today: as we prepare ourselves during this Advent season to celebrate the coming of Jesus on Christmas Day, let us anchor in the steadfast Hope of Jesus. Whether it has been an eventful year or not, know that God makes all things good for His purpose.

When your overthinking gets in the way of what you want

Do you tend to overthink?

Are you your worse critic?

Does your overthinking “speaks” so loud that it gets in your way?

When I saw the title of the podcast – “The Surprising Solution to Overthinking”, I didn’t think twice to listen to it! It was Andy Stanley’s interview with Jon Acuff on his book, “Soundtracks: The Surprising Solution to Overthinking”. He chose the title to depict how a soundtrack can change the entire emotional feel of a movie without changing the movie. Similarly, our thoughts can change how we feel without changing the circumstances we are facing.

Jon Acuff defines overthinking this way: when what you think gets in the way of what you want. When thoughts get in the way of what you desire, and it turns into bitterness and haunts you.

This overthinking habit tends to stop you taking action, leading to undesired results of not achieving your hopes and dreams. You can hear the same “soundtrack” when you encounter the same circumstance. For example, when you want to lose weight, your soundtrack constantly reminds you of how many times you’ve failed.

This is the Trojan Questions that Jon Acuff suggested in his book:

1. Is it true?

2. Is it helpful?

3. Is it kind?

These three simple questions help us to seek truth and clarity in our thoughts. Many times, our thoughts are assumptions of what other people think, or scripts that we have narrated from our childhood, e.g. I am bad with numbers or I am not bright. Next, we need to find out if these thoughts are helpful to what we want to achieve. Lastly, we have to be gentle to ourselves and not let our thoughts overwhelm us and keep us in an infinite loop of self-sabotage. I think the last question is the hardest to answer.

This is my invitation to you today – be aware of the soundtracks that are playing in the movie of your life. Let the soundtrack be a crescendo of courage and excitement as you reach for your hopes and dreams.

A Journey of HOPE – Sharing My New Book

Is your tendency to be HOPEful or doubtful?

Do you believe HOPE is wishful and based on fantasy?

Or is HOPE something you are confident of?

Hope is sometimes a double-edged sword. Hope gives us something to aspire to, to look forward to and to cling onto. But when we lose hope, it is a desperate situation that can lead to despair. When Hope is based on what we want, but we are not in control of the situation, then the feeling of hope can easily turn into feelings of anxiety and uncertainty. On the other hand, when Hope is based on a sovereign God, we can trust Him to make all things good, according to His plan.

This year, I decided to write my third book based on HOPE – Living in Humility, Obedience, Power and Endurance. It is a small book with four main chapters on Humility, Obedience, Power and Endurance – each chapter consist of a story from the Bible, a personal story, ending with practical applications – to bring Hope to a world which longs for something unshakable and unbreakable.

It has been a journey of reflecting on my Hope which relies on a sovereign God, a Hope that is based on WHO HE IS – a loving, compassionate and faithful God. I realise that a hope based on my effort and status will always fall short. A hope based on how I feel will always be wavering and unstable. A hope based on circumstances out of my control will result in anxiety and uncertainty. Through my many trials and tribulations, I found only one Hope beats them all – that is the confident divine Hope of a faithful God who never fails us.

I am thrilled to announce that I have published my HOPE book on Amazon Kindle today. Another thing you can shop for on this 11.11 day sale!!!

This is my invitation to you today – to place your Hope in a God who is ever loving, full of compassion and always faithful. He is always with us, and never abandon us in our time of need. He has great plan to grow us in strength and maturity, and for us to live a full and abundant life.

5 Cs to Accelerate Your Life

What has changed or improved in the past year?

What do you want to do with the rest of your life?

What are the dreams that you want to pursue?

Recently, I watched Terri Saville-Foy’s video on her talk in a Christian conference on the 5 Keys to Acceleration – Clarity, Confession, Continual Growth, Constant Gratitude, and Consistent Giving. This is my take on it.

  1. CLARITY – Be crystal clear on what God has called me to do or to be, and pursue my divine dreams courageously and with clear purpose
  2. CONFESSION – speak out loud my words, declare my vision and goals, and daily affirm God’s promises in spoken words
  3. CONTINUAL GROWTH – make it a continuous life-long journey of learning and growing till the day I die, and seek God’s wisdom
  4. CONSTANT GRATITUDE – give thanks to God for His countless blessings, and for the adversities that has pushed me closer to Him. And also, thank God in advance for His abundant blessings coming my way
  5. CONSISTENT GIVING – sow wherever and whenever there is a need. You will reap what you sow, and much more than you sow. Finance is one of the ways God tests our faith – He has been faithful and always shown His abundant blessings to me – without fail – even though there were many times when I still worry about it.

I would describe myself as a “thinker”, even an “over-thinker”. But I suspect that thinking so much has not given me that great a clarify – until I write it down. So I always write things down, to the extent that a friend called me as a “scriber”! Now, I am levelling up to – speaking out my words. Yes, I have started speaking out loud my prayers and Bible verses while driving alone in the car. In fact, I am reading out loud this blog post now!

This is my invitation to you today – seek clarity and write it down, confess your words to change your life, keep learning, always be grateful and give generously. Do not waste your precious time – accelerate your life and achieve the dream life that God has already planned for you.

The Success Habit of Keeping Your Promises

Do you say one thing but do another?

Do you find excuses not to do what you said you would?

Do you still keep on making the same promises and breaking them?

I was watching an Instagram reel and this guy was saying that this is THE ONE habit that you must keep if you want to succeed in your life – do what said you would do. So simple, yet so profound! It hit me hard as I have developed the bad habit of putting off the things I said I would do, and often breaking the promises I have made to myself.

I realize that it doesn’t matter what productivity hack I have discover, or new insights I have gained, or new skills/talents I have developed – if I don’t keep the promises I made to myself and to do the things I said I would do. For example, every night, I say I want to sleep early. Guess what – I always end up losing track of my time scrolling through social media, and sleeping way later than I should!

This is what I figure I must do:

  1. Write it Down – put pen to paper, or type it on your gadget – and more importantly, write down why it is important to do it
  2. Prepare an Action Plan – determine what are the tasks involved, how long it is estimated to take or deadlines, and sometimes, the people involved
  3. Get an Accountability Partner – to keep you accountable for your actions – for me, this works like magic!
  4. Celebrate all the small wins – each celebration triggers the brain to want to do more of it – it is a dopamine reward to keep up your momentum

I know that when I keep the promises I made to myself, my trustworthiness and self-esteem increases. I feel more confident to take up more challenges in the future, because I can trust myself to do the things I said I would do.

This is my invitation to you: start keeping small promises to yourself and celebrate each small win. Build on this habit and keep on levelling up.

Taking Responsibility for the Voices in Your Head

Do you hear voices in your head?

Oh no! I don’t mean those kind of voices!

I mean, the voices in your head that always convince you that you’re not good enough? Or that you deserve another slice of cake? Or to purchase the limited or exclusive offer? Or convince you to just have a few more minutes of social media scrolling, you know, just five more minutes?!!

There are thousands of thoughts in our heads every waking hour of our days. We hear them endlessly. Some are helpful in making decisions big and small, sometimes they are insights that lit up in our head, sometimes they are just random thoughts, but most of the time, they are just circular thoughts that goes round and round, causing us to worry and fill us with anxiety.

Most of our lives, we are not conscious of the countless thoughts that traffic our mind. Yes, they do cause traffic congestion oftentimes. What I want to propose today is: capture your thoughts, be aware of the positive and negative voices that are influencing your thoughts and subsequently your mood and behaviour, and proactively choose the voices that will be “dominant” in your mind.

We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ – 2 Corinthians 10:5

In our current world, we are constantly bombarded by news and social media. We are easily influenced by the secular values of materialism and consumerism. The traditional values of integrity, honesty, kind consideration, reverence and decorum are not in the trending list. It is an uphill struggle listening to the voice of God in the deluge of worldly messages and images, reels, stories and posts.

When someone whispers something, we need to lean in to hear what he is saying. Similarly, in the midst of all the noise in the world, we need to be still and to lean in to God to hear the soft whisper of the Holy Spirit.

Today, I invite you to be still and lean in to God. Then make it a daily practice. Let the voice of the Holy One be the dominant voice in your life and see how your life transform.

Focus On Things that Only You Can Do

Out of the hundreds of things you do daily, what are the things that only you can do? Out of the many roles you play in your life, what are the roles that are unique to you? What are the things that only you can do?

In our lives, we do so many things for so many people, all the time. What we don’t realize is that there are very few roles that are uniquely ours. One of which is our parenting role, if we are a parent. That’s why it is so important that we spend time with our kids and nurture a close relationship with them. I know that my daughters have been my biggest motivation to change to be a better person, and overcoming my character flaws. I wanted to be a good role model for them. They are truly my greatest blessings in my life!

They are many other roles and tasks we have in our lives. What I want to drive home today is that there are certainly a few things that only we can do in our unique roles. That is where we should focus our time and energy, and let go of things that can be done by others. This is true at work where we sometimes want to do everything ourselves, although some of the work can be done by someone else or gotten rid of. That’s why AI is gaining momentum, as it can take over some of our mundane tasks, allowing us to focus on what we, only as humans, can do. AI is derived from intelligence, human outdo AI with our wisdom and rich emotional and spiritual life.

Our past and varied life experiences, our skills and talents, our style and personality, our character – this unique combination – defines who we are and gives us unique roles and tasks that only we can do. Seek out what they are and focus on them wholeheartedly. Also, focus on relationships that you have a special role in and treasure them.

Find your voice, your story, your song, your book, your compelling truth, your beauty, your heart, your soul – and share it with your family, friends, communities, and even to the world!

Write the Story of Your Life

Do you like telling stories that inspire others?

Do you like listening stories that moves you?

Do you have stories to share that can impact others?

These were some of the questions that came to my mind as I attended a 3-day bootcamp in Singapore called “Get Paid To Speak”, by Eric Feng. I was very touched and enraptured by the stories that so many shared on stage during the three days. It reminds me that our life consists of a series of stories – the mundane and the extraordinary, the joy and sorrow, the high and low – all lived out daily.

The most touching stories were those borne out of tragic, sorrow or suffering. But it was also the most awe inspiring ones. They were shared courageously and authentically, the ones that can be described as “from ashes to beauty”. It is through courage and resilience that we bounced back from enormous setbacks or weather through the storms of our grief and sorrow. That’s why it is so important to never give up when we are in the midst of great pain, sorrow, or turmoil.

We all have many stories to share – some have great stories to share.

Stories that can change the world around them.

Stories that can inspire change in people.

Stories that can make us reach deep within ourselves.

Most of us think that stories are what we tell others. Let me tell you: we can create stories for our life. Imagine our life as a book, we are the author and we can write our stories. We can proactively write our dreams and hopes for our life. Our life is not just what happen to us – we can take control of our life and live it intentionally, pursuing our dreams and achieving our successes, according to our own terms. Our stories are ours to create. Don’t let others dictate our stories. Even if our stories were to be strewn with rocks and hailstorms, we can still dream of a beautiful rainbow glowing across the vast sky.

You are the Author of your Life. Write your story and make it Amazing!

Dig Deeper by Asking WHY 5x

I completed Andy Stanley and Lane Jones’ book, Communicating For A Change, within 3 days. I have been listening to Andy Stanley’s podcasts for many years. I love the way he is able to clearly convey the message simply and to the point. And he loves to make the words rhyme or have fancy acronyms.

This got me reflecting on the reasons I am writing my blog. These past years, I have chosen random topics from books I read, videos I watched, or insights I have gained. Things that interests me, things that could help and inspire others, things that I felt the Holy Spirit prompting me to share.

Today, I want to dig deeper into the WHYs I write my blog weekly:

  1. WHY? I want to help people get out of the cycle of daily grind and mundane living, to living an Intentional Life of Greatness and Abundance
  2. WHY? Because I truly believe that I have been created for MORE. It’s just that I have been comfortable for too long, and I dread getting out of my comfort zone
  3. WHY? Because when I do things out of my comfort zone, I garner the courage to explore new things and have an opportunity to elevate to a higher level, even if it might be strewn with failures along the way
  4. WHY? Because failures can teach me new life lessons, strengthen my character and build my resilience
  5. WHY? Because I am truly grateful for the many blessings in my life, and I am honoured for having this platform to share my insights which I hope can help and inspire others

This is my journey from daily grind to Blessed Abundance, more importantly, From Ordinary To Extraordinary. And my invitation to you to join me on this amazing journey to become Extraordinary!

Each of us can achieve extraordinary in our own terms, when we overcome our own struggles and challenges, and elevate to become the best version of ourselves. If you believe that you are created for more, then have this pursuit of an extraordinary life. Don’t settle for ordinary. Go for extraordinary! Imagine what our families, communities and corporations could be, if all of us elevate from ordinary to be extraordinary!!! And what a legacy we will leave for our future generations.

Let’s march on: From Ordinary To Extraordinary!

Pursue Your Dream To Overcome Weariness

Recently, I read a YouVersion devotional by Rick Warren called “Daring Faith”. He said that our number one problem is not worry or fear or guilt, but weariness. Weariness is so normal that I didn’t really see it as a big problem.

Upon deeper reflection, I realise that it IS a big problem. It is not okay to be constantly tired. As I reflected, I realise that there are different types of weariness and suggestions to overcome it:

Type Description Overcoming Weariness
Body Physical over-exertion; Lack of sleep or proper nutrition; Have more quality sleep, eat well, exercise or play sports, add movement, or dance
Mind Overuse of mental power without proper break; Non-stop scrolling of news or social media; Incessant worrying; Procrastination Take regular breaks at work, reduce news and social media consumption, read jokes or watch comedy, overcome procrastination, take (small) actions, have growth mindset
Soul Lack of community support; Lack of real connection with family and friends Build supportive community; Reach out to people and help others in need; Go out to nature; Read good book; Practice self-care
Spirit Feeling distance from God; feeling alone and isolated and abandoned Pray; Forgive; Daily devotions, Read the Bible; Listen to Christian music; Practice meditation; Journaling
Types of Weariness

Our body, mind, soul and spirit are interconnected – the weariness spills over from one to the other, e.g. from the mind to the body. As I thought about it, something occurred to me: one of the best way to overcome weariness is to PURSUE YOUR DREAM!

Dream and how it will overcome your weariness
Spirit Seek God’s will to reveal the dream He has put inside your heart
Soul Connect within yourself to seek the passion and the dream that has kept you restless – seek until you become excited and scared at the same time
Mind Generate ideas, think of solutions, plan and organise to achieve your dream, monitor and review your plan, overcome negative self-talk and believe in yourself
Body Do the physical things required, let your body be energised
Pursue Your DREAM

This revelation is so thrilling to me! Most of the time, we are weary due to lack of purpose or passion. Pursuing a dream gives us the impetus to overcome this weariness – energising and making us excited for God’s plan for us, and giving us renewed Hope!

Being Busy without Being Hurried

In Jordan Raynor’s book, Redeeming Your Time, he devoted one chapter on ‘Eliminate All Hurry’. He mentioned about Fred Roger as a busy man, but remarkably unhurried. I wonder how I could be like that too…

Being hurried is an inner condition of the soul. It means to be so preoccupied with myself and my life that I am unable to be fully present with God, with myself, and with other people. I am unable to occupy this present moment – Jordan Raynor

I find that I’m always in a hurry. Many days, I am rushing from one thing to the next. I realized that I am guilty of this inner condition of the soul that is too preoccupied with too many things most of the time. I find it a challenge to be fully present with God, even during my devotional time.

In Jesus lifetime, he was always busy with his work and always focused on His mission here on earth. However, He was never in a hurry. There is a story of Jesus entering Jerusalem one evening, but went to Bethany as it was late already. The next day, he overthrew the den of robbers in the Jerusalem temple. The fact was that He was there the night before and could have overthrew the robbers then, but did not. Jesus refused to be hurried. In other words – it can wait – there is no hurry, there is a time for everything.

This is something I really need to work on in my life – to stop being in a hurried state. To be busy without being hurry – to focus on the important things in my life and get rid of things that does not bring value to my life, as these are the things that are causing the rushing and hurrying in my life. Be more like Jesus! Trust that everything will work out perfectly in His timing.

Being Grateful with the Bronze Medal Mentality

Last week, I was listening to Mel Robbins’ podcast on the Olympics. One of the topic she touched on was the Bronze Medal Mentality. Based on studies, the bronze medalists were actually happier than the silver medalists. The reason is that the silver medalist would compare with the gold medalist – filled with regrets of all the what-ifs, as he/she had fallen short of obtaining the gold medal. This is especially acute if the difference between the gold and silver medal was by a few seconds or milliseconds!

The bronze medalist, on the other hand, is just thrilled to be on the podium, receiving a medal. Sometimes, this is a chance in a lifetime, for example, at the Olympic Games. Bringing back a medal for your country is such an honour. Standing there on the podium – that is truly a privilege, compared to those who did not make it to the podium.

The problem with most silver medalist is the comparison upwards with the gold medalist, and the subsequent regrets. That happens to most people – we compare our jobs or business, our cars or houses – and find that we fall short of other people who are better off than us, resulting in envy and jealousy. This is true even when we have so much in our lives already. This is most rampant in social media, where people show the highlights of their lives, e.g. their overseas vacation or grand birthday celebration, and we feel we are missing out on these things that we think we should have.

This Bronze Medal Mentality highlights the gratefulness I should have for the many blessings in my life, rather than comparing what others have that I don’t have. What I have IS more than enough. A medal signifies my achievement – how far I’ve come and how hard I’ve worked to get to where I am today. A bronze medal motivates me to reach for a higher level of achievement. There is more room for improvement and advancement. Always be grateful with what I have achieved and aim higher and bigger next time! I am reminding myself to celebrate all the small wins, yes, the bronze medals, and the major wins will come when I receive my gold medals in life!

From Coward to Mighty Warrior

Gideon is one of my favourite Bible story. He was chosen by God to save the Israelites from their enemies who oppressed them cruelly. Let me share the many insights from his story.

The Angel of the Lord visited Gideon while he was threshing wheat in a winepress to keep it from the Midianites. They were so afraid of their enemies that he had to resort to hiding in the winepress while threshing wheat.

Insight: Too often, we live cowardly out of fear. But God comes to us in our current situation, and seeks us out to do His Kingdom work.

The Angel greeted Gideon, calling him MIGHTY MAN OF VALOR. But Gideon was very doubtful as his clan was the weakest and he was the least in his family.

Insight: We sometimes feel unworthy. But God is able to see what we are capable of, and calls us by a new name, so that we have a new identity. Gideon became a Man of Valor, A Mighty Warrior!

Gideon asked for a sign that the Angel was from God.

Insight: We are always testing God for a sign, and God sometimes shows us.

Gideon built God’s altar and tore down Baal’s altar. He did it at night because

he was afraid of his family and the townspeople.

Insight: We have many forms of idols in our lives. God is calling us to get rid of our idols and live boldly in God’s light and truth.

Gideon got more than 30,000 men to fight, but God reduced it to 300 men.

Insight: We tend to rely on our power and ability to achieve our successes, that’s why God wants to show His might through achieving something impossible, yes, something that only God can do!

God asked Gideon to bring his servant to the enemy camp and they overheard the enemy’s dream and its interpretation.

Insight: God sends people to help us and sometimes journey with us. He is the source of our confident hope. He grant us courage and strength in the midst of our battles or trials.

Gideon led his people to defeat their enemies.

Insight: When God is with us – we can do great things – indeed, we can do impossible conquests through God’s almighty power.

I hope that you are as inspired as I am with Gideon’s story.

When Prayer is like Making A Stew

One of my favourite dish is good beef stew. The beef is tender and flavourful, tasty and nutritious. It takes quite a lot of ingredients, and perhaps a few hours to cook a really good stew.

Why I am talking about beef stew? Because it reminds me of PRAYER.

Prayer is like cooking a stew:

1) Select the ingredients – God chooses us and prepares the family and friends for us, in accordance to His plan

2) Wash the ingredients – God cleanses us from our sin

3) Prepare the ingredients – God prepares us in many ways, like “cut”, “shred”, “chop” or “slice” – those who has gone through tribulations would relate to these preparations

4) Follow the recipe steps to cook the ingredients – God shows us the steps to have a blessed life

5) Cover and simmer for a few hours – waiting on the Lord to work His miracles in our lives

Sometimes, we don’t follow the recipe or we leave out an ingredient or two, resulting in disaster. But our Master Chef God is always able to recover from our mistakes and make a delicious dish. Sometimes, He even create a brand new, even more delicious dish! There is nothing He can’t recover from. He is the God of Master Chef!

The most important part is the simmering, where the full flavour of the ingredients is extracted to give its wonderful taste and nutritious value. And that is why it is so important to wait on the Lord as He brings out our best qualities and bless us abundantly.

Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us – Ephesians 3:20

When we become impatient and try to “shortcut” God, we ruin God’s wonderful plan for us. Do not be deceived when you see nothing happening during our “simmering”, for this is the time where the best work is being done by God as He grows our character and extract our full potential to do great works for His kingdom.

If you are in a season of waiting – like I am – trust that God is working in our lives in wondrous ways.

Taste and see that the Lord is good; Blessed is the man who trusts in Him!

  • Psalm 34:8