Truly Rich and Blessed

One Verse, One Word, One Saint for 2014

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In my previous post, I listed five simple things we could all do to make this year one of our most blessed yet. The first two were about choosing one Bible verse for the year, and choosing one word based on that verse. It took me a while to pray about my own verse and word, but I finally chose them yesterday morning, after writing my New Year’s Day post.

The past year, 2013, was a very blessed year for us, though it was certainly one of the most challenging years for our family so far. We welcomed a new Pope in the midst of great sorrow, while grieving the death of my father-in-law. A month later, we had a new baby but underwent Refiner’s fire during the first few months of her life. This prompted my husband and I to pray and think about our family’s situation, and in September, we embraced a new season in our lives — I officially became a fulltime work-at-home, homeschooling mom.

We also decided to try living without a helper — something that’s not so common here in the Philippines BUT is becoming more common nowadays, with the Kasambahay Law and all. By God’s grace, we’re doing OK so far — it’s been six months. Thank God for our support systems, or “village.” They help keep me sane. And thank God for YOU, dear friends — your prayers and support, especially during our times of trial and testing, really helped me a lot! You are all such blessings to me and my family! 🙂

Everything that happened last year found me reflecting on what my family and I need more of this year. Which is why my one word for 2014 is Health.

OneWord2014tina.png

Thank you to Melanie of Only A Breath for the 1 word template she offered to her blog readers! 🙂

Why Health? [Read more…]

One Word for 2013: {In} Courage

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I’m linking up with {the awesome and inspiring} Melanie of Only a Breath
and the One Word 365 Community.
(Thank you, Melanie, for your awesome artwork!)

Remember how I said in my New Year’s eve post that 2013 is a year for bigger, better and brighter things? Well, it’s only the tenth day of the New Year, and already, God has been amazing me with His blessings and grace, especially for our family (more on that in another post — soon!).

Needless to say, choosing my one word for this year was really tough. At first, I was deciding between “abundant giving” (OK, I know, that’s TWO words! Bear with me, ok?) and “courage.”

But after some more prayer, reflection, getting to know a little bit more about my companion saint for 2013 (thanks again to Allison for her help and inspiration!), and writing my 2014 reflections for one of our daily devotional guides, Didache, I felt God impress this word in my heart:

{IN} COURAGE
The term is not originally mine to claim. There’s actually a women’s daily devotional site by the same name: (in)courage: home for the hearts of women. (Do check it out — it’s very inspiring!)
So anyway… back to my one word. Why {IN} COURAGE?
Looking back at 2012, I realize that the reason why there were so many times when I failed and faltered, stumbled and fell, and showed my broken, imperfect, “ugly” side is that I did not take the time to regularly dwell in God’s presence. I was not that intentional about spending time with Him, so even if I meant to be more intentional in loving my family, I failed miserably a lot of times.
So… this year, I want to dwell more deeply in God’s embrace.
A play on the word “encourage,” {IN} COURAGE draws its roots from Romans 8:37-39. 
Source: New American Bible on the USCCB website
{IN} reminds me that I have to remain in Jesus at all times, so that I will have the COURAGE to do what He wants me to do. This includes being brave and claiming in faith that our baby‘s future and health is in God’s hands. It also includes having the courage to achieve all my life dreams for this year (material for another post!), and the courage to dream and claim in faith that God will use me powerfully this year, even through this little blog.
 
{IN} COURAGE as a whole reminds me that God also calls me to be a source of inspiration and courage to others — to encourage others to live their best lives, according to God’s plan. I also believe that God is calling me to encourage more people to explore the homeschooling lifestyle and to choose a specific advocacy where He can use me to the fullest. 
{IN} COURAGE also reminds me that as long as I have Christ in me, I need not be afraid of what happens “outside.” No matter what happens, as long as I have Jesus, I will stand strong. (The same goes for you, dear friend.) 

 
By the end of 2013, I want to be able to say that I have grown deeper in love with Jesus, and that the fruits of abiding in Him can be seen in my relationships with others, especially my husband and children. I want to be able to say that I have let Him use me this year to inspire and encourage others, in every little thing I do, say and, yes, write. I want to be able to say that I have grown braver, and have really witnessed and experienced the bigger, better and brighter things God has in store for me this year.
 
How about you, dear friend? What’s your one word for 2013?

Truly Rich Tips: Lessons from The Feast (How to Deal with Difficult People)

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I’m writing a quick post just to share with you all what I learned (or relearned) from yesterday. We were so blessed to be able to attend the 10.45 am session with the kids. 🙂

We didn’t stay for the Mass as we were going to attend Mass with my dad and siblings (it was my Papa’s 65th birthday). Usually, Holy Mass is celebrated BEFORE everything else, but yesterday they did the worship and talk by Bro. Bo Sanchez first, as the priest who was to say the Mass got stuck in traffic.

So anyway, the talk yesterday was the last of a series titled, “Vampires: How to Deal with Difficult People,” and focused on “.”

Photo from

It’s a pity we weren’t able to attend the previous sessions, but I still learned a lot! 🙂 (I asked six-year-old Tim if he learned anything from Tito Bo Sanchez {that’s what he and Rysse call him, since they’ve met him in person} and he said, “Umm… I don’t know. But I did enjoy the stories!” Ha, ha!)

Anthony and I were pleasantly surprised at how attentive Tim was! 🙂 And responsive too! 🙂
I realized even more that I have not been the parent I should be when Tim’s answer to Bro. Bo’s question,
“Do you have difficult people in your lives?” was, “Yes! (then he pointed to me!) Mama!” Waaahhh!
Rysse was attentive too — on and off — though I had to (gasp!) “bribe” her with candy at one point
because she kept telling us she wanted to “go outside already.” LOL! 🙂
For more photos of our Sunday morning at The Feast PICC, please click .

Anyway, I’d like to share with you a few quick tips for dealing with difficult people (based on what I can remember from the talk and my own insights):

1. Acknowledge first that you are, or sometimes can be, a difficult person yourself. 🙂 (Oh yes, I am indeed!)

2. Difficult people are not our enemies, but are people who can help us be better versions of ourselves.

3. Respect yourself and set some distance or space between yourself and that difficult person in your life, while maintaining your respect for that person as an equal, i.e. as a fellow child of God.

4. If the difficult person in your life is causing you harm or abusing you, many times it’s best to just “run” and leave the relationship. BUT don’t stop praying for that person.

5. Tell that difficult person the Truth, and not what is true. Tell him/her that he/she is special, unique, a child of God and not that he/she is difficult to be with, overbearing, critical, etc.

6. Usually that person is being difficult because he/she has some sort of brokenness that needs healing.

Photo from 

6. People live up to our expectations of them. This applies ESPECIALLY to our children. So instead of telling them, “You know, you’re so lazy. You’re so disobedient. You never listen. You won’t amount to anything, etc,” say, “You are special. You’re unique. You’re God’s child. You’re a prince/princess of the Kingdom.” More than just saying it, our kids need to see that we MEAN what we say, they need to see it in our eyes. (*gulps* Guilty of doing the former rather than the latter many, many times! Sorry, Lord!)

7. The best way to transform a “vampire” is to love him/her. “At the end of the day, only love changes people.” — Bo Sanchez

Right from the very beginning of the session, during the opening worship songs by Emmanuel Worship, I was already in tears. I was crying because (1) I was grateful to be there with my family and (2) I felt guilty for not being the “best” mom (again! Hay!) to my kids lately. Thank You, Lord, for reminding me about second chances and that I need You to heal my brokenness! 🙂

Photo from 

And to you, dear reader out there, I hope these tips help you somehow — whether you’re dealing with difficult people in your life right now or are struggling with the things that are making you a difficult person for other people — remember this Truth: YOU ARE SPECIAL. YOU ARE LOVED. YOU ARE HERE FOR A PURPOSE — GOD’S PURPOSE. 🙂

Be truly rich and blessed always! 🙂

P.S. Do you want to be blessed by The Feast too? 🙂 Just go to KerygmaFamily.com to see the schedule of Feasts in different locations. You can watch The Feast PICC live every Sunday here. This weekend though, November 24 and 25, is very special — it’s the annual Kergyma Conference!

Be blessed in oh so many ways! 🙂 For more details, please log on to www.kerygmaconference.com. Anthony and I will be there, and I hope to see you too! 🙂

Thankful Thursdays: Just When You Want to Give Up

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I realize I haven’t been made a “gratitude” Thankful Thursdays post in ages! There are actually SO many things to blog about… but I always feel like there’s so little time! *sighs* So, if you’ve contacted me before about blogging about this or that, or I haven’t even replied to you, please forgive me.

Anyway, this Thankful Thursday post is inspired by an online chat I had with a good friend and fellow homeschool mom blogger, Mariel of The Learning Basket (oh, please do check out her blog here for oodles of fun literature-inspired learning activities for your kid, and so much more!). We were chatting yesterday about a couple of things, one of which was the messages we’ve been getting from people because of our blogs.

Like I said in and on this blog post, I love blogging, but I haven’t been blogging as often as I’d like to. However, there are many, many times when I feel like stopping.

Photo by Stuart Miles from FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Yes, you read that right. Sometimes, I just want to give up on blogging altogether. I want to stop having to deal with thoughts of how to make time for writing regular posts, of the “hassle” of updating and , of replying to emails and messages from businesses and PR agencies and readers (oh, please forgive me!).

I actually chatted with another friend and fellow mom blogger (and “mentor-of-sorts”), Martine of Dainty Mom, about this same topic just last week… I told her what I said above and she encouraged me to keep at it and to just do my best (thanks, Marts, for always being so supportive! So excited to see you and the other ladies at the WAHMderful Life Workshop on October 27!).

Then, there are messages and comments like these, that truly warm my heart, uplift my spirits and encourage me… They also humble me and remind me why I started this blog in the first place — because I want to reach out to other people, especially to other moms… and to share what is good. I hope that, by blogging, I am able to inspire others to live their best lives… to live out God’s mission for their lives… even as I am still striving (and sometimes, failing) to do the same…

(This was sent to me through my Contact Me page. I didn’t include the mom’s name in case she wants to remain anonymous. Thanks just the same, Mommy A.!)

 (This was a comment left on one of my earlier blog posts, about the Blissful Babes Warehouse Sale.)

I know to some people/bloggers, messages such as those above may be very common and admittedly, there are more “famous,” more inspiring bloggers out there. But to li’l ol’ me… they mean a lot. In this case, they are quite encouraging and provide me the motivation to keep on writing/blogging.

Thank you, dear readers. Thank you to everyone who’s dropped by and visited this blog at one point or another. Thank you for your messages, emails, comments, Tweets, Facebook posts, and more!

This Thursday, I thank the Lord especially for each and every one of you. 🙂 May God bless you and yours abundantly! 🙂

Photo by Stuart Miles from FreeDigitalPhotos.net

My Birthday-Celebrating-God’s-Amazing-Grace-I-Just-Want-To-Share-My-Blessings Giveaway! :)

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I turned 32 yesterday (yes, I am quite open about my age, haha!) and reading everyone’s greetings on Facebook, Twitter, text, email has left me very humbled and grateful. I do not deserve all the love, support, prayers and “thank you for inspiring us” messages because Lord knows I am still a long way from being the person I hope to be! I fail, fumble and fall A LOT and I am definitely not the ideal wife and supermom this blog may have deceived you into thinking that I am (OK, am I still being grammatically correct here?! Haha!)!

Still, I am who I am by God’s amazing grace, and because of the amazing support of everyone around me — including you dear readers! 🙂

So, to celebrate my birthday, I want to share my blessings with you all. One of the “perks” of my job at Shepherd’s Voice is that I get to read so much inspirational material almost every day — books, magazines, lesson plans (for the magazines Kerygma and FiSh), daily reading guides — so there are always “reminders” and tips on how to live an inspiring and inspired, blessed and bountiful life. There are even practical tips for investing in the stock market, too, plus loads of other stuff!

And because I believe in “paying it forward,” this is what I’m going to give away, as part of my “sharing my blessings.”

Bo Sanchez’s latest book 
“How to Be a Blessing Magnet”
8 Simple Steps to Attract the Miracles You Need Every Day

Here’s a brief description of the book (from its back cover):

“There’s no shortage of blessings in God’s universe.”

That’s why Bo Sanchez, bestselling author and spiritual teacher, believes there’s no reason why you should have a blessing shortage in your life. 

The purpose of this book is simple: Bo wants to teach you how to be a Blessing Magnet.

By the way, this isn’t just for you. You’ll learn how to attract blessings not for yourself only, but also share these blessings with everyone around you.

In these pages, Bo will share with you eight powerful ways to become a Blessing Magnet.

Step 1: Be Grateful for Past and Future Blessings
Step 2: Find Your Wound to Find Your Wish
Step 3: Be Clear with What You Want
Step 4: Manufacture Your Miracles
Step 5: Believe That All Things Will Work Out
Step 6: See Failure Not as Rejection But as Redirection
Step 7: Keep Moving Forward
Step 8: Expect Your Future to Be Beautiful

You’ll be radically blessed by this extraordinary book.

Turn the page and get ready to be transformed.

🙂 I have read this book myself and it provides great practical inspiration and wisdom! 🙂 Kuya (Brother) Bo (haha! feeling close!) really wrote a great book here!

So here’s how YOU can get a chance to get this book. Just follow the Rafflecopter instructions below. 🙂 Thanks again for sharing in my birthday “celebration”! 🙂 God bless you abundantly!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

P.S. If you can’t wait for the giveaway to end, and want to buy your own copy of this book, you can get in touch with me through or send me an email to . 🙂

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