I Take Off The Mask! -Devotionals, Quotes, Prayers, Poems, Grief and Healing

A Christmas Carol

Merry Christmas everyone! 🙂 I do hope you’ve enjoyed this season, especially the gifts, hehe. This morning I would like to talk with you about one of my most favorite stories. Charles Dickens’ A CHRISTMAS CAROL. And of course, about the most remarkable character in the story, SCROOGE.

By the way, if you would like to download a FREE COPY of the story, CLICK HERE. For a FREE audio book of the story, CLICK HERE.

The jocund travellers came on; and as they came, Scrooge
knew and named them every one. Why was he rejoiced beyond
all bounds to see them! Why did his cold eye glisten, and
his heart leap up as they went past! Why was he filled
with gladness when he heard them give each other Merry
Christmas, as they parted at cross-roads and bye-ways, for
their several homes! What was merry Christmas to Scrooge?
Out upon merry Christmas! What good had it ever done
to him?

Scrooge was the fellow who doesn’t believe in Christmas, who considers it a “humbug!” and a waste of his hardly earned money. There wasn’t much to be liked about him, being the old grouch and all. And because of that, he was visited by the ghosts of Christmas for him to change his ways.

He did change his ways in the end, and became this generous and happy person everybody really liked. Happy ending and quite predictable, wasn’t it? But what struck me most was this. The ghosts of christmas did not visit him only for the sake of making him a pleasant guy, or for the sake of the other people who were annoyed of him. The ghosts of christmas visited him because they saw through him, they saw the person behind the mask, behind the pretense of being strong.

The ghosts of christmas saw a lonely person, one who was burdened by his past and cannot enjoy his present christmas, nor the future ones.

There are many times when we tend to judge an unpleasant person. We scoff at him and treat him as an outcast and think of ourselves as righteous and better people. We think that people would prefer to be evil rather than be good if they can help it. But the truth is, people often can’t help themselves. People put up all these defense mechanisms so people won’t see how afraid they really are, and how sad they are inside. They cannot reach out to other people. And people don’t reach out to them.

Is this the meaning of Christmas? Not at all. Christmas is that sacred and most blessed hour when God came down to live amongst men, to become human and frail as we are, so that He can reach out to us and save us. God knew all along that no matter how hard we try, we can’t help ourselves, we can’t save our souls.

Saving souls is much like saving Scrooge. It is putting Christmas back into our hearts. It is being a child again, believing in our dreams again and knowing that with God’s help, our dreams could still be ours 🙂

relationships

Allowing Love…

As I proceed with my 21 days of consciously improving my relationship to myself, of loving myself so I could later on love others more, I became aware of one reason that causes many of our heartaches.

I’ve realized that we are not allowing love in our lives, and for that reason, we are so often lacking in love. This is however not a conscious choice, but a subconscious response that we do, and unaware of what we do, we are in truth blocking the inward flow of love into our lives. How so?

By virtue of expectations. By experience or lessons taught us by other people, we have developed certain expectations on how we should be loved. And if these expectations are not met, we immediately conclude that we are not loved.

But the truth is that we may be loved. Maybe not in ways we wanted to. Not in ways we’ve learned or were taught us, but in ways that person knew best how to love.

The same is true as regards allowing God’s love into our lives. We have certain expectations. A lot of expectations! God should do this. God should be that. He is All-Powerful and All-Knowing isn’t He? So He should do this if He loves me.

But what if He doesn’t do exactly what we want Him to do? Does it mean He doesn’t love us? But how can we measure His love in the first place? Are we All-Knowing as He is?

Because of our expectations, we block so much love that should have flowed into our lives. If we desire to love ourselves more, let us be kinder to ourselves. Let us allow more love to flow in our hearts.

And if a person expresses love differently, say he is able to show more in deeds than in words, let us extend our understanding and our appreciation. We are loved! And that’s what really counts 🙂

Tags love, quote being loved, receiving love

relationships

Simple Stress Relievers

SIMPLE STRESS RELIEVERS

I felt stressed since yesterday. Ideas for my website and for topics of articles I could write about seemed to race in my mind and couldn’t stop them. There were two things though, that I did today that helped me relieve that stress.

1. SING YOUR HEART OUT BABY!

It was good that my friend invited me after office hours to sing at a nearby Videoke bar. Being able to sing out loud and breathe really deeply, not to mention being a bit “senti” (sentimental), a lot of that stress have really been brushed off. Definitely recommended as a good stress reliever.

2. PLAY LIKE CRAZY

Arriving at home, I saw my sister playing an interesting computer game called “Everest”. It’s a kind of game where you have to look for many objects amidst a bunch of mess. Nice ha! What happened was that I helped at first, glad to identify some hidden objects in that mess. Then I got to the point when I got hooked and so engrossed myself that I forgot all about my stress!

Being engrossed. PLAYING. Such things help relieve our stress. Such things help us LOVE OURSELVES MORE.

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What Do I Love About Me?

WHAT DO I LOVE ABOUT ME

When I first started my 21 days of loving myself, I thought it would be easy. But as the days went on, the more I realized how much reprogramming has to be made. It took years building my current relationship with myself, and it will not easily be rebuilt in a matter of days. It can start from here though, growth has to start somewhere, and it is good to start right and strong.

During this time of reflection, I’ve learned that I not only lacked love for myself. I’ve learned a shocking truth – that I’ve hated myself all these years. That was the reason I’ve found it easier to love other people. Because they were not as unlovable as me. But if I were to start out as a person apart from my current self, how do I become a friend to this person? What are the things I would appreciate in her? What do I love about me?

Without boasting or being affected by false humility I listed down the following things:

1.Her love for coffee. Coffee is not a mere upper, but a passion to her. She even put up a coffee shop, got net loss from the business and yet carries with her only good memories of her passion. Coffee is a symbol of home for her, of friendship, of good yet practical ideas shared by people who care for each other. I’d love her love for coffee.

2.Her being childlike. Up to now, she still enjoys toys and enjoys receiving and unwrapping gifts. It wouldn’t take much to make her happy. Yet few people realize this, how easy it would have been to put a big smile on her face.

3.Her love for books. Books give her a tremendous amount of understanding and exposure to things and places she has never been to in the physical plane. Being like a sponge however, she is able to absorb all her experiences reading as though it were real.

4.Her simplicity. Given the chance, she wouldn’t wear anything but a white shirt and a pair of jeans. She doesn’t like uniforms. She isn’t even fond of gowns, though she could definitely carry one when the occasion calls for it. She’s a homey person, you wouldn’t feel out of place in her presence.

5.Her empathy. It may not look it, but she is crying with you within in your hour of sadness. She can reach your darkest darkness, would listen and would try her very best to get you both out of that darkness.

6.Her fiery spirit. Sometimes she has quite a temper that would just burst if she feel she or someone else she loves is aggrieved.

7.Her love for gadgets. Gadgets and tools are definitely her thing. She can tinker on things here and there and come up with the next great invention to make life easier for all of us.

8.Her thoughtfulness. If you think everybody else has forgotten you, think again because she remembers. She will greet you on your birthday and give you a surprise gift. She would make you feel important, that you belong. You are being thought of, and that is very important these days when people are just too busy to care.

cartoon by engy