Still of the Day
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“Am I still a child of the King?”
After some discussion, for Em’s 5th birthday, Perze and I bought her a crown pendant. I explained to her that no matter what or how she feels, she can hold that pendent on her necklace and know that she is the child of the King, that she will always be loved and forgiven.
Today, my five year old, Emma did a little naughty act of biting her crown pendant, thus deforming an innocent prong on her beloved Tiffany’s charm. Having caught her in the act, I calmly took it from her and told her she lost her privilege of wearing it. Then you could see in her face, the swelling of emotion floodgates trying to hold in the tears, until they spewed out, down to her chin, as she mumbled sincere apologies. I explained that this wasn’t an isolated instance, but that it was to be added to the perpetual acts when she had not taken care of it. That led to a very difficult task of closing the watery floodgates of her tears.
Determined to be immovable with my decision, I walked with her and Zienne as we window shopped. Emma remained very unusually quiet, seemingly surrendered to my conditions. Minutes passed as we finally made a stop in some store, and as I was sliding hangers one by one, she raised her voice from mute mode and asked, “Mamam, am I still a child of the King?”
It surprised me.
It humbled me.
So I said, “Emma, you will ALWAYS be a child of the King.”
Ambivalently, with both remorse and relief, she held back her tears, and almost stumbled on her response, “thank you, mamam.” After that, she felt so more at ease, as if the assurance was also forgiveness.
Romans 8:14-17 explains, “14 For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. 15 For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father.” 16 The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, 17 and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together.”
Thinking back at such a simple question, I’m wracked with how enormous that reality can be, to be a child of the King. No matter the precious a gift has been given to us, tangible blessings from the Father, treasures of great worth that we end up toying with, whether with indifference or irresponsibility, we can hand it to Him, deformed or destroyed, and He still will call us His. The relationship of child and Father, yes, is a great deal of messiness, because we, as sinners, are messy; we can take the beautiful and the sacred, and profane them. But the same relationship offers us an openness with our Father, one that allows us the freedom to cry out to Him.
And yes, God has given His ultimate precious gift to the world, His Son, Jesus, because the sin of man needed a blameless sacrifice. He was deformed and even suffered and died, but never destroyed. And with His resurrection, to all who believe Him as their savior and Lord, living a life that reflects our spoken devotion, we enter into that familial relationship with Him. And despite our perpetual acts of disobedience, bouts of pride, innumerable shameful perverseness, possessive habits of sin, grace abounds and forgiveness is intertwined, without lines, within His love. We can give Him the beauty He has given us, deformed by our careless hearts and hands, and He will still call us His. This does not give us authority to abuse His grace, because He pierces through each heart for the truth in the relationship. But once a child of the King, what can truly sever that exceptional bond? For it says, “neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons,[a] neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:38:39).
Sometimes, we hold on to those deformities for so long, wrapped tightly in our guilt, feeling as if it weighs down our worth to walk with the Lord again. But if you are led by the Spirit of God, you are a child of God. And you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom you can cry out, ‘Abba, Father’ (Rom.8:14-15). We have the freedom to cry out to God and call Him Father. Renew your relationship with Him. You will always be a child of the King!
Thank You Lord!
a conversation with zienne
my conversation with zienne went like this:
When Zienne woke up, she smiled at me and said, “Mamam”
I smiled and said, “Hi”
She smiled and said, “Hi”
Then she put her face up to mine and kissed me.
Everything in me lit up and I said, “Wow!”
Then she said, “Wow!’
One Plus Five Equals Six Recap
I finally put up the pictures of One Plus Five Equals Six Party up on the gallery, having collected tons of pictures from other people’s cameras. woot.
Looking back, we were very fortunate to have had GREAT weather, esp. since the forecast was supposedly rain. Thank the Lord the clouds pushed down and didn’t touch our area. Instead, it was a sunny day in its high 80s, sunny enough for mingling and running outside. We rented a big canopy which was enough to cover the six tables and some walking room. We also rented a moonbounce, like we did at Emma’s first bday. Everyone enjoyed it, mostly the kids, and even the grown up kids, including my sisters and I, my friends from college, and some courageous few. There should always be room in one’s life to jump.
I think the scariest part was the slide. Why is it that as you get older, the slide gets scarier?
I was telling some friends that although a lot of my close friends couldn’t come, I was REALLY excited to know that people who I wasn’t extremely close with were coming because it DID allow me a chance to get to know those people MORE. It was an opportunity to become closer friends to good friends, and good friends from those I didn’t really know. Towards the end, I was able to have some really choice conversations with people I wasn’t too acquainted with, like the guys who are doing missions in our church this summer, or some of my old college friends who I haven’t had the chance to converse with over the years. YA, that day, I gained an appreciation to expand my conversation circle of familiarity, and hopefully will continue to foster from now on. God definitely has a purpose for everything.
The girls REALLY enjoyed their day. That was the important thing. I made sure, despite the busyness of the day, I made time to laugh and hug Emma, to encourage her play without too many restrictions. I also made sure I made some quiet time walking around with Zi, talking with her about our surroundings, because at this stage, she’s not keen on crowds. At the end of the day, Emma was telling me stories about her friends, about her play, and Zi was still excited to finish her day by opening the plethora of gifts. My heart was full because I knew Em would remember it.
The only thing missing was that Perze’s side of the family was not there. I am always so saddened over this reality and sacrifice. But we NEVER go through a milestone without them. They are always at the forefront of our thoughts during these times and are just as appreciative with their support and every present love and prayers for us and the girls. Thank you Nay and Tatay, and the rest!
Additionally, we are extremely grateful for my side of the family who always help out, not just at these big parties, but in the everyday. My parents always make sacrifices for them as well, and really continue to show endless love. Thank you Ma and Pa, and of course Ate, Kuya Sam, Kris, and even Tito who was far away, but who had cake ordered for the girls to blow out their candles.
I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves, depicting all the activities and games we played, decorations, and giveaways. They’re all in the photo gallery under One Plus Five Equals Six.
Thank you Lord most of all, most of all, most of all, Jesus, for loving our girls. Every year, we wish them You, to grow in You. We praise you every day for the breath you give them. They are an immense joy to us and to those around them.
twelvesixteen photo gallery updated
phew. I was able to finally update our twelvesixteen gallery. It’s not completely updated, but I set priorities on the albums, and was able to compile all the photos from the ONE PLUS FIVE EQUALS SIX party, Zem’s 5th Birthday, and Zi’s 1st Birthday.
I was also able to put in some additions to their individual yearly albums.
It’s so difficult keeping our archives updated, but I always feel guilty if I don’t. I always feel like something will happen and I’ll regret having done tedious work, knowing somehow, in the distant future, I’ll be glad I did it.
I was also able to finally upload ALL my photos from my iPhone to our Flickr site. I had over two thousand photos. man o man.
The Christian Athiest. Reading my first chapter.
Perze got me two books for mother’s day, but RZacharias’ newest book didn’t hit stores until July 1st, which delayed its arrival. I finally received it a couple days ago and started reading them yesterday. Yes, I am reading them simultaneously, taking turns one chapter then another, hoping to catch some relevance between them, and surely enough, I couldn’t have made a better choice.
The red book is entitled, “The Christian Athiest” which deals with issues Christians face in their faith, almost categorizing their behavior as those who do not believe in God, yet professes Christianity. I jumped to the chapter “I believe in God, but I don’t believe in the church.” I believe the best line that best summarizes all its pages is the idea that we should not merely “go” to church, but we should better “be” the church! It was a simple yet amazing statement that he expounded on, claiming that if we only were truly God’s hands and feet, instead of complaining what ought to be done, we could fulfill what the church in the book of Acts accomplished. The greatest tragedy in our churches today is the skewed perspective that we get OUR needs met first, or the church is an obligatory ritual that supports the definition of our faith. But if we came to church to truly LOVE God and LOVE those we can minister to in the church, it fulfills God’s greatest two commandments which cover all. It would truly be an exciting idea to have a mobilized church for God’s glory, and not our own, not fulfill our criteria of feeling better, feeling whole, which ironically is never satiated unless we go to church to wait on God, to serve Him, and to go to church for God and not for us.
I’ll write more about Ravi’s book and how these two books relate some other time…when I have some quiet time. But I wish there was an avenue to discuss books like these, books that challenge the christian life.
Zi, ‘Mano Po’
We started teaching Zi how to “mano po” months ago, but I haven’t really noticed how well she’s mastered it until now. Every day after Perze gets home, Zi will run to him and “mano po” after Perze extends his hand and says, “bless.”
So proud of her. Just the same age as when Emma started blessing.
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