Everyday Adventures: July 2016

Are You a First Time Parent? Attend this Workshop!

By Mommy Donna and Kib - July 11, 2016

0 Comments

Reflecting on the 5th Commandment

By Mommy Donna and Kib - July 07, 2016

At the church, the series of messages these days revolve around the Ten Commandments. Most people will say that they already know the Ten Commandments and there is no need to review or to study it, but I do believe that we must always study God's Word every now and then for us to be reminded of what God can do to our lives and what God wants us to do in order to live according to His will.

The first four commandments are about God (#1- You shall have no other gods before me; #2- Do not make carved images; #3- Do not take the name of the Lord in vain; #4- Remember the Sabbath) and the fifth commandment is "Honor your father and your mother". The Lord made this as the fifth commandment because the parents are His representatives in our lives. This is also the first commandment with a promise (Ephesians 6:1-3).

Sadly, these days, a lot of people do not honor their parents anymore. I have been hearing and reading a lot of stories about children mistreating their parents, not giving respect, or harboring anger towards their parents.

The fifth commandment struck me too. Since I'm a single parent, I know for sure that there is something lacking on my child's wholeness. The Lord has reminded me to talk about this to my son especially his feelings towards his daddy. I was so shocked to know that he is harboring anger towards his father. I understand where his anger comes from because he is an abandoned child. He really didn't feel the love of a father to him (note: he knows who his daddy is, but sadly, the daddy doesn't want to really want to be a father to him). I must also say that I also contributed on his anger towards his daddy because I was angry at his daddy then. It is also hard to explain to my son that his daddy loves him because in the first place he didn't feel it.

When I told my son that he needs to forgive his daddy, he said he doesn't want to. Somehow I got hurt because I taught my son to harbor anger towards his father. I reminded him about the fifth commandment and he asked me how can he honor his father because his daddy didn't honor us in the first place. He kept on asking me why he needs to forgive his daddy. I said that the Lord commanded us to do so and God has forgiven our sins too. During our conversation, I can really feel his pain for being fatherless and his longing to have a father. I really tried my best to assure him that a lot of people love him and he can even rely on to God to be his father. I said that he doesn't need to immediately forgive his daddy but he has to constantly pray to God to help him forgive his daddy in due time.

We ended our conversation with a prayer. Both of us prayed. I thanked the Lord for reminding me about the fifth commandment and I also thanked Him for giving me a chance to explain it to my son as early as now. If I delayed this a bit further, I believe that it'll be harder for my son to forgive his father and may do rebellious acts on me.

For single parents like me, let us teach our children to honor the absent parent. There is no need to love them (loving is a decision, not a feeling), but keep the respect and forgive them for the mistakes their absent parent did. Teach our children to live a life according to God's will so that the Lord will continuously bless them.

0 Comments

bucket list

Things To Do Before I Reach Another Milestone

By Mommy Donna and Kib - July 01, 2016

I may look young because I'm petite, and I fool a lot of people whenever I ask them to guess my age. People always guess my age incorrectly and I feel kilig whenevever they tell me that I don't look like my age. I think I can pass as an Olay endorser, hahaha.

Anyway, my birthday this year is my last year of being an early adult. Next year will be a milestone for me (Life begins...). This year is the year that my most of my school batchmates will turn 40. Waah, I'm scared to begin the next chapter of my life! Though they say that 40 is the new 20 and age is just a number, still, your body grows old. Our energy level is not the same before and admittedly, our health is already starting to deteriorate. Most of my friends are older than me and they are already complaining of some health issues that they are already taking some maintenance. Last December, I just had my check-up and I'm so happy that my doctor still gave me a clean bill of health.

There are things that somehow I will be able to do before my birthday next year. Reason why I also delayed doing some things that I personally wanted to do is because I wanted to do together with my son.

Here are some of the things that I wanted to do before I reach 40:

Go mountain climbing again (waah it's been more than a decade since I last had my hike. Some of my friends are still into it but I just can't leave my son for a weekend climb. I also wanted him to experience this.)
Travel abroad (my son and I have been travelling locally, but I do not have much funds to travel abroad. Hopefully I would be able to go to a nearby country)
Do water rafting (it might look scary on the photos, but I think it's fun, hoping that I can schedule a trip to Cagayan de Oro for this)
Learn a new skill (I just enrolled at an online course, Javascript for Beginners at Udemy, hopefully I will be able to finish it on the least possible time. I still wanted to enroll to a brick and mortar school though, I miss the feeling of going to school)
Have a business (I am not really entrepreneurial, but somehow I still wanted to have a business that I can call my own. My friend and I have been always planning on putting up a business but we're both busy with our families. Hopefully this year we will be able to concretize something already)
Eat something exotic (though I am not sure if I will be really able to do this because I easily get grossed when something unusual is being offered to me)
Go on a date (seriously! I miss dating, haha...application is ongoing, lol)
Lose more weight (I'm happy that I was able to lower my weight and maintain it to normal BMI levels, but if I can I'd still like to lose more. My balik-alindog is ongoing, haha)
Continue my discipleship journey (I missed being active in church, praying to the Lord that He'll use me in His ministry more)
Volunteer in one NGO activity (I have been doing volunteer activities at church, but praying that Kib and I have an opportunity to serve people outside the church)

There you go! I've shared my bucket things before I reach of 40. I'll update this list every now and then and put a check mark if I was able to make it or not. Stay tuned!