to be thankful for Pt. 2

Because more good things have been making me smile and I wanted to share them with you..

When my friends wake up early to pray together and fight my battles with me,
When I am doubly assured that if I ever get together with anyone less than I deserve, that there would be 'about a hundred people kicking my butt',
When a girlfriend hugging me wants a longer hug because I smell nice,
When I get to see old ladies smile with joy from receiving a flower stalk each,
When the orchestra I expected to fall asleep in turned out so GOOD,
When my housemate forgives me for accidentally taking her lunch to school and kindly asks me to enjoy it,
When I make it through a long and tiring day, and know that tomorrow will be a new day..

I just know that God's always with me. :) And that's good enough a reason to rejoice.



Here's a song they sung today, one that reminded me to measure my life in love, and taught me a lesson in counting my time. <3

With as much love as always,
Dice

that bubbling joy

Joy has been a word commonly on my mind over the past few months. I like the way it sounds, and feels, and to some extent, I feel that my challenge is to remain joyful in every circumstance. Not like.. crazy happy, but that bubbling joy that presents differently in different times.


But really..
When someone you've never met before says "You make me smile" (and not in a creepy way)
When you get tagged in a video of some of your favourite uncles in the world singing
When the nice old man at the flower-shop gives you a huge rose as a present
When people like the blueberry muffins you made
When you have four crazy girls excited over Skype talk to you
When the friends you deeply cherish are winning in their personal battles
When unexpected people start rising up passionately to the call of God
When you receive textbooks from Malaysia sent by the AWESOMEST parents
When the PPeACE wall is getting too full to be contained
When you get to see a random stranger smile from getting to have the leftover food at urbs


When I've got more to type out here but sleepy eyes already..


Like.. how can I possibly keep from being joyful? How can I possibly keep from singing Your praise O God? :) You are so beautiful Lord, and I know that every bit of beauty I see here on earth is simply a small reflection of Your glorious beauty. :) 


Open your eyes real big and see how breathtaking life can be! :D


Be blessed dear reader! <3

So easily they stole my heart away

Took them less than 10 minutes to make me miss them and miss home so much now. 

one step closer

:)

in the presence of love

Because when you encounter the love of God, you'll never be the same again.

"Let my life be Your love song
Everyday sing to You
May my heart always please You
As a sweet offering
I am satisfied in You
Come be glorified in me
All of my life You’ve been faithful
My Savior my King and my Friend
All of my life I will lay down
To love You with all that I am"
- Lovesong, Desperation Band

in the presence of grace

As I walked home from uni today, I planned out the rest of my day. Go home, wash dishes, cook dinner, get stuff, come back to library to study. Then I remembered my assignment that needed completion, so.. go home, finish SPC, wash dishes etc. When I left home this morning, the sink was FULL of dishes, about half of which were mine. I felt so bad leaving them there like that, but didn't have time to wash them yesterday. So as I made my way back, I calculated how long it would take for me to finish washing them, dreading the task.

I came home and walked past the kitchen to my room, only to find that they were all washed. All cleaned, sparkly, and drying on the racks. I was so touched and amazed to see it all done, something that should have been my responsibility written off as settled. Moved, I learnt a lesson in grace.

Similarly, Jesus came to earth two thousand years ago to pay the price for my sins, my wrongdoings, my imperfections. It was something that should have been pinned on me, I should never have been able to be in such a close, intimate relationship with God now. I should have belonged to hell. But He came, and gave up what was most precious, His life to snatch us out of hell, that we may spend eternity with Him. God, who died on the cross for us, how crazy is that? Sometimes I get so used to the concept that I don't think twice about it anymore, but every now and then, it hits me again, God in all His holiness and perfection came down and paid a price He never needed to pay, the greatest price of all, to save us. To break the power of sin over us once and for all.

Upon seeing clean plates, I quickly inquired who was behind it, and hastened to meekly yet graciously say my thank you.

Upon knowing my sins are forgiven, and knowing the God who did it for me, what else can I possibly do but meekly say thank you as well? I can't possibly pay Him back, and I need this gift.

And to be in this relationship with Him, to have His mercies new every morning, to be a Christian simply because I'm thankful and I love Him, to have NOTHING asked of me to prove my worth to Him but to just love Him and love people, no good works to gain His affection or kind acts to earn my way into heaven, NOTHING of the sort, just accepting His innocent blood spilled as my ticket to heaven and understanding that He could never love me more than He already fully does.. that is the beauty of grace.

God's just holding His hand out to you saying, take it, take this salvation and live in the freedom I paid the price for.

Sometimes we may even feel like we don't deserve it. But what's done is done, and there is NOTHING we can ever give in return that could amount to the sacrifice He gave, and so we aim to simply give our lives for His, and live a life just loving Him every day.

How wonderful it is to be in the presence of His grace. Amazing grace, how sweet the sound indeed.

Blessed,
Candice

when your faith is hard to find, you can borrow mine

A good friend once told me, "When you feel weak, then it's time to let others be strong for you."

I've been going through some pretty rough storms lately, a lot of battling in my spirit, and I am getting quite sick of talking about it, but what I wanted to say today was that.. there have been people lending me their strength and cheering me on, and I am so so thankful for them.

I've had Ninny and Pearly reach out to me in the past few days, talk to me and get out all the mess in my mind, assure me that I was handling this well, praying for me too. But not just them, so many voices have been around me edifying, encouraging, holding my hand through it all. And I think, as I look back now and hear those words again, even prophetic words further down in my past, I find strength enough to go on. Just a bit more, just a bit more.

And that's just the people who have specifically been talking me through my issues. This morning as I was walking to uni, a man who was sweeping leaves in the car park wished me a good morning and offered small talk as I waited to cross the road. His joy was so infectious, that I caught myself smiling along, even after I walked away, and suddenly the frustrations of continually falling asleep through the night when work had to be done just didn't matter. The man was so happy that today was a beautiful day, and I now realize the difference in how we started our day, me with frustration and exhaustion and grumpiness, while he chose to be thankful for the sun. He lent me strength in the simplest of moments, and unknowingly too.

Teach me O Lord to keep running back to You with a thankful heart, because we both know that I have much to be thankful for every day. May I bless others the way that man blessed me today too. :)

And my lecturer today was this balding old-ish man who wore a suit with a bow tie. TOO CUTE I tell you. :)

Little things, but these are the things that matter. :)

"I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus."

- Ephesians 3:14

Love,
Candice

hidden beauty

Beautiful.

That may just be one of my favourite words, if you read this often enough, you would have probably seen me express many things such. There are so many things, and people around me that I fail to describe in much else but simply.. beautiful. Not because they look good, but because of the heart behind what I see when I look at them.

Today, on my way to the city, I passed Oakleigh station, for what may be near my hundredth time. And if you've been there before, you would have seen the drawings of people on the walls. I never thought twice of it, and in all my time here, simply wrote it off as street art. But today, as my seat stopped moving right next to description of the artwork, I read what the artist(s) had to say. And it caused me to see something I never saw before. The drawings were people on top, but as your eyes gaze downwards, you will find the story of their lives at the base of each person. And I was so amazed, how could I have not seen that before? I stared in pure wonder and joy even after the train began to pick up speed and move away, hungrily absorbing story after story before it left the station. One day, I want to get off there, and just spend some time mulling over each drawing. Just another thing to add to my list of 'one days'.

When you look closely, there is beauty in everything. Many times, we pass by these beautiful things because we're too busy, or because we have simply stopped bothering to look at all. Sometimes, it's the world that makes us skeptical. Other times, it's our pain that makes us hard. Maybe, there are just too many who have stopped believing in a world full of beauty.

Don't. Because the world IS still a beautiful place.

I love these moments I get, where I see the hidden beauty in things. The moment something clicks in my mind, and I go OHHH. Like lately, I've been around people who I feel, are just perfect for each other. Like ten people off the top of my head that I believe can make five really great couples. It clicked in me, but.. not just yet for them. ;) I can't wait for the day they find that hidden beauty that I see. But who knows, I could be wrong anyways. :)

I look around, and I see so much beauty. May I never stop looking. May you never stop either, because it would be such a pity to live through life and miss out on the astoundingly beautiful things that were right in front of our eyes all along.

Be blessed,
Candice :)

a year of promises

I'm believing O Lord. In Your promises, and in Your goodness.

I CHOOSE, to believe. I praise You for You are good and Your mercy endures forever. :)

You know there is something stirring when all the voices around you edifying are saying the same thing, preaching the same message of hope. You KNOW that God is up to something when there are prophecies over your life that overlap, and confirm one another. Even if you don't know it, I KNOW it. I FEEL it and I BELIEVE it.

I am getting more and even more excited for what is to come. Feeling so excited to give my friend a gift today, I imagined the excitement of my Heavenly Father as He is waiting to give me His gift, something unimaginable, and amazing beyond measure. I'll be honest and say that a part of me still stands afraid of what the enemy may do to me, I feel the oppression already as well, but I will keep proclaiming the truth, that GREATER is He who is in me than he who is in the world. Because I know that the enemy cringes at my faith and is crushed by the light of my Father's truth. Greater, is He who is in me than he who is in the world INDEED.

Lord, bring the rain I pray. Send the stormclouds. But above all, let Your incredible and indescribable will be done on earth as it is in heaven. I will trust in You.

Can't you feel that uprising of faith! This is truly, only the beginning. :)

With much love as always,
Candice

I can hear the sound of RAIN

Yet another breakthrough today! Yet another person reaching a check point in her life, praise God for His amazing grace upon my sister! :) She got like the perfect job today, a total this-HAS-to-be-God story. Blown away by His goodness to us all.

I'm really starting to believe for rain like never before. I see clouds the size of fists and something is stirring in my soul! I am SO EXCITED to see what else God has planned.

By faith I believe, that this is only the beginning! :)

Blessings,
Candice

joy, unspeakable joy

I should be studying now. But I just wanted to blog for a bit. :)

It's funny how some things work out, and others don't. But how God can use the broken pieces with the good fragments to create something absolutely beautiful. And looking back, I am reminded of how far I've come. How God pushed a bit there, and stretched a bit here, to mold us to where we are now. I see the things in my life that led me to this point, and I ponder the LONG journey Daddy's brought me on. There have been people, and desires I had to let go off, and new circumstances I had to embrace. I see the things that didn't work out in my past, and the hopes that came true, directing me slowly, occasionally painfully to the future He has intended for me. And right now, I find myself here. A place I never expected to be, with bigger dreams for my future than ever before.

A friend of mine recently got together with an incredible guy, the both of them lifting up their relationship to God faithfully. And I am filled with this deep, inner joy as I hear bits and pieces of the story, knowing that their love for one another is only strengthened by their mutual love for God. I've realized that there is such beauty in hitting a 'check point' in our lives, in being in the right moments God wants us in and finally experiencing the surprise He's been keeping for so long. It fills me with absolute amazement and.. JOY (for lack of another word) to see people I love achieving God's destiny for them. And I think now.. how much happier must He be, if imperfect, lacking me can feel such joy at moments like this, how much MORE must He feel for them? :) And it's not just them, I see other people that I've known from my past as well, some who have parted ways with me since, others who stuck with me all the way through. I don't see only my journey, I see all of theirs too, and I am blown away by how every story is unique. How every story took some pain, experience and loss to perfect. How God worked in mysterious ways, and is still working wonderfully in our lives. May I never forget the immense honour it is to walk alongside people in life and witness God move in and through them.

And the message He has for me?

This is only the beginning. :) There is even more beauty out there in my future to experience, and praise Him for. I can't wait to see what Daddy has in store for me. By faith I know they're amazazing though! :)

Thank You Daddy, for being such a good God, for being beautiful beyond measure. And thank you dear reader for reading my very disorganized thoughts at 2.12am. :P Good night!

Love heaps,
Candice

just a little tip

Find joy by bringing joy to someone.

Be blessed by being a blessing.

And receive way more than you ever imagined, by giving generously. :)

With much joy and love,
Dice