Happy new year to all my readers out there!! Thank you once again for staying with me for another 365 days, and it has surely been quite a year. 2013 wasn’t the best of years in my book, as there have been several personal setbacks, deaths of loved ones, and trials of every sort. There have also been some great personal victories, a new venture, and some happy moments as well.For the past two New Years, I traditionally have made a very reflective post to recap what happened in the year that was (here's 2013's and, my favorite, 2012's). I won’t do that this year; and instead, I’ll do something a little different.
If you have Facebook (who doesn’t), then they have a feature where you get to recap your biggest FB moments in 2013 (I guess that means your posts with the most likes and comments). I screen captured these status messages, and for this New Year, I will replace my traditional posts with these screen captured shots plus some commentary. So, if you’re ready, let’s go…
Yup, that was a proud moment for me as a teacher, and we've been on a roll as it has been going on for the past several years now. I got a Christmas gift a bit early last year when I heard that about half of our current batch of seniors also did the same. Wow, how many schools do you know have around a 50% passing rate?
But then if you make great doctors, great lawyers, and great businessmen, but they all have lousy character, then it is all for naught, right? In fact, the part of my job that I take most seriously is the molding of their character. Honestly speaking, I don’t know any school (and this certainly included the school I graduated from in the US) that is so big in molding the overall person as the school I work for…and that’s why I so love my job.
For a little taste of what we do, I have made a video of what the students have done this past 2nd trimester.
You can check out the school’s website for more information (we have campuses here in CDO, in Davao, Cebu, and a couple in Manila).
Of course, I don’t literally drive a school bus, but I sure feel like a school bus driver. Last year, JZone CDO changed its name to Elevate CDO, but they still bring the same excellence to the young people in this city and in this country. (I will talk about Kids Church later)Elevate, where my daughter is very much a part of (and Mesoo will join later this year as soon as she graduates from elementary) is a youth movement where teenagers are mentored and molded into strong followers of Jesus Christ (followers, not just fans).
Here's Elevate's profile video. If you have fast eyes, you'll see my daughter for about a split second.
The Elevate team makes sure the teenagers have lots of fun, as worship should not be boring. They also have great events like Becoming His Girl, Wired summer camp, and iChange (with Francis Kong). Furthermore, and this is what I really like, there is accountability and genuine camaraderie. My daughter often invites her friends to join her (hence the “school bus ministry” post). Allow this to also serve as an invitation. If you have a teenage child, and you are concerned that maybe this world has too many traps and temptations while lacking in wholesome alternatives, then consider Elevate. If there is a CCF church in your city, then surely there’s an Elevate youth movement.
I so love this verse.
In fact, speaking of inviting, consider this as an invitation to try our church out. This is where I have grown tremendously as a Christian and as a person in general. In fact, most of what I share on this site has been learned through a CCF event.
What I really like about the church I go to is we’re so big in equipping our congregation. To this end, we often have parenting events like the recently concluded (not to mention awesome) ParenTEEN (with Francis Kong and Peter Tanchi), marriage retreats like the The Story Of Us with Dr. Harold Sala, movements for your young people (Elevate for teens, NxtGen for kids), and movements for singles, older people, single moms, etc.
Try us, even just for a Sunday. You may like how we do things here.
This was taken during the many months when we didn’t have a helper. The kiddos then did a lot of chores on their own, and it was great. Unfortunately, none of us can really find the time to cook, and so we endeavored to get househelps again. I am a little embarrassed that after we succeeded in said endeavor, the kiddos go back to being a bit nonchalant when it comes to labor.
I hate that.
One of our weaknesses as a people is that we have this nanny/yaya culture that can sometimes get in the way of our development. We keep forgetting that helpers are there to help, not replace.
Surely, one of my goals in 2014 is to raise my kids to be less dependent on their helpers. I should revisit an old post about chores.
I very rarely rant on Facebook (here’s why). In fact, one friend told me that she loves reading my status messages because they’re so positive and inspiring. Aw shucks…
But when I do, it is because of something that really, really irked me, and our carelessness when it comes to trash is surely that. In fact, I am shocked that even uptown subdivisions can have trash lined up on plants and sidewalks. It’s so nasty to look at…and it speaks even worse of us as a people.
Please, if you have a wrapper, throw it in the trash. If you there are no trash cans nearby, then please keep it in your pocket until you find one. It’s that simple. Then, hopefully, we can level up to recycling as a city.
Oh how I wish we can do this.
Speaking of ranting, here’s another one…
Trash is not limited to what we dump on plants and sidewalks, it can also come out of our mouths. If you ask me this could be even worse because it speaks of something darker than neglect.
The Bible nails it by saying, "for his mouth speaks from that which fills his heart." (Luke 6:45).
Jesus himself explains that "It's not what goes into your mouth that defiles you; you are defiled by the words that come out of your mouth." (Matthew 15:11)
I get shocked every time I walk into an internet café. It’s not only the older gamers who swear, but I even hear little kids as young as 6 or 7 dropping the expletives. Wow, where are their parents? Where are their churches?
Ravi Zacharias. Get his awesome books here.
What a great quote by one of today’s greatest authors and speakers. It was such a rare treat that he came to the Philippines, and in our Manila church no less, this past summer for a conference.Indeed, it is so strange that some of us consider men who have several women in their arms as great lovers. Men like those don’t love women, they just love the pursuit of women and sex (and perhaps are enslaved by said pursuit). This quote nails it that true lovers of women love and respect womankind so much that “the man who loves one has loved them all.”
On this note, I also like this quote by one of the Hollywood heartthrobs of yesteryear: “A great lover is not someone who goes from woman to woman, any dog can do that.” – Paul Newman
2013 was a break out year for my eldest daughter, Lynn, who got to sing in both SM and Centrio malls. In this video she sang one of the most popular songs of one today’s most popular Christian artists: Beautiful Day by the lovely Jamie Grace. Here's the video:
I do not know if you’re a fan of Contemporary Christian Music (CCM for short), but you should give it a try. At the very least, their songs have a positive vibe and often a lot of substance. At most, they put worship into a great sound. We’re fans of several great CCM artists (see this blog post for 10 of them), and it is our great wish that they come to CDO to perform someday.
Some are coming to Manila, though. Jimmy Needham is coming this April, while the Passion team (speaker extraordinaire Louie Giglio, and CCM artists Kristian Stanfill, and David Crowder) will come a bit earlier, at the end of March.
That said, I am not one of those parents who force their kids to listen to Christian music only. I allow my kids to listen to mainstream music too, but with a warning to be careful and listen intently to the lyrics, as many songs have lyrics that glorify and (often subconsciously) influence kids to imbibe some not too wholesome things. Of course, I encourage and steer them to listen to Lecrae, Britt Nicole, and Jamie Grace, among others.
Now for my two last posts, which are related:
2013 was a fantastic year in the ministry that I’ve given my heart and time to: Kids Church, which is the main activity of NxtGen, the children’s ministry of CCF. The team that I’ve had the pleasure of leading for the past year and a half is crazy good (as my post suggested).
This past Sunday, we once again had our turn to give the kiddos in our church a great lesson about the Love of Christ and have a lot of fun doing so (our turn is every 1st Sunday of the month).
Again, consider this as an invitation to give CCF, and NxtGen’s Kids Church a try, and if you do so on the first Sunday of the month, it will be yours truly and my team at the helm (that is, if you live in Cagayan de Oro and your child is between 7-12 years old…another team holds the younger kids).
Maybe the following videos will convince you more. The first is Lynn and her best friend, Grace leading the kids though dancing Jesus You’re My Superhero, and the rest are skits that we do.
So there you have it, my most popular Facebook status messages of 2013. I hope you like it, and may God bless all of us with a fantastic 2014.
(This blog site, Lessons Of A Dad is mostly about parenting, marriage, and other topics aimed to develop the reader’s mind, body, and soul. I’d consider it an honor if you’d follow or subscribe to this site. You can also go to my Facebook page here, and I’m also on Twitter at @lessonsofadad)
