Category: Spiritual Reflections

The Envy Trap

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Aside from pride that can ever so subtly creep into our hearts and our best motives, another thing we should be watching out for is ENVY. 😳 Recognize it. Confess it to God. Ask for His help and forgiveness. Having fallen into the envy trap for many years made me realize how it can be so damaging to one’s soul and can corrupt relationships.
👹 Have you ever felt intense anger for someone even if the person hasn’t done anything to you directly? Check your heart. That might be ENVY.
🤬 Have you been excessively critical of people and have nothing but bad things to say about them? Check your heart. Aside from ENVY, there’s also the presence of PRIDE.
😡 Do you notice a change in your behavior and countenance when one of your peers achieves something? Check your heart. Aside from ENVY, there might be DISCONTENT.
🙏As we go to the Lord each day in prayer, let’s not forget to ask Him to search our hearts. When He reveals impurities, it isn’t always pleasant. It’s a humbling experience to be shown that we nurture and “baby” certain sins, even if we look good and noble on the outside.
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Is it wrong for Christians to desire fame?

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fame and the christian

Is the desire to be famous wrong for Christians to have?

What does it say about our hearts?

“I want to be famous so that I can use MY INFLUENCE for the Lord.”

This sounds good and noble on the onset but focus on the statement “so I can use MY INFLUENCE for the Lord.”

It is not wrong to use one’s influence for kingdom purposes but desires like these need to be filtered at the heart level. Are we really bent on making the Lord known or are we merely using Him as a vehicle for us to be known? Are we forgetting the fact that God is God and if He wants to MAKE HIMSELF KNOWN, He can do so? He can use people like you and me, but that is His discretion. We cannot command Him and say “God, MAKE ME FAMOUS, so I can make you known.”

Who are we to dictate upon God, OUR STRATEGY? Is He not God who can do all things and knows all things?

Taboo Topics

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Sometimes, the atmosphere in a social gathering can be ruined just because of conversation topics that are considered taboo, off-limits or too intrusive. Asking about a person’s salary, talking about someone’s sex life, poking fun at religion or bullying people because of it… it may seem like others have accepted this as a norm, but it’s good to be reminded about manners, respect & courtesy.

Post-Wedding Reflections

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If you asked Ingrid three years ago if she envisioned herself tying the knot, she would outright tell you–NO. It’s been an interesting journey from being a lovestruck teenager who couldn’t wait to find true love, getting my heart broken, being made to hope and then finally surrendering to God in the area of relationships. I settled into my single life, enjoying and living every moment of it. I wore the NBSB (No Boyfriend Since Birth) tag like a badge of honor, thinking “No man has ever come close and all the others who tried were just not serious.” I envisioned myself devoting my life to media and ministry, traveling the world and just living the single life to the hilt AND THEN DAVE HAPPENED. If you watched these videos, I talked about how I came to a point of confusion. How I was already happy as a single but then I began developing feelings for Dave. I asked God if I was sinning and during my plane ride to Singapore then, I felt the Lord assure me that it was okay. That Dave was from Him. Some people thought our romance was a whirlwind: We became a couple in October 2017, Dave proposed in January and we tied the knot on the exact day of our first year together.

Looking back, I really saw God’s involvement in everything: from the schedules, to the suppliers, the venue, financial provision and the availability of people we chose to be a part of our wedding day. The wedding planning was also an avenue for God to teach us about the essentials of the covenant of marriage. See, we had a very intimate wedding of just 80 guests. Of course it was daunting to put the guest list together. “Baka sumama loob nito pag di natin siya ininvite.” “Should we include him/her? Kilala ba niya tayo talaga or baka acquaintance lang?” Dave and I both are practical with our finances. We could have gone with a 250-person guest list but how would that affect our life after the celebration was over? We wanted to cover our bases, meaning after ng wedding, kailangan sigurado na may pambayad kami ng housing and utilities namin, our transportation, basic needs and the other things for us to build our home. There is nothing wrong with those who choose to splurge on their wedding day–that is your wedding, this is ours. That is your budget, we also have ours. 🙂

I guess through this whole process, one thing I can impart to fellow brides (and grooms) is to not be pressured to mount an extravagant wedding just because someone you know did so. Do not be pressured to avail of all the wedding trends just because a lot of couples have been getting them too. One question that I found very helpful every time I was tempted to avail of a wedding add-on was this: “Will the wedding not push through, if this were not included?” (Hindi ba matutuloy ang kasal kung wala yan?)

It’s been several weeks since we said our vows. As we joyfully build our home together, we’ve been affirmed that we made the right choice to prioritize our life after the wedding day, without any fear of huge debts or the fear of not having enough to sustain our daily living.

 

Married Life: Chores, Routines, Big vs. Small House

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Settling into our new routine as husband and wife has been both a joy and a challenge. My former radio partner Chloe was right when she said that it can be daunting to realize that you’re no longer living alone (as a single woman) and you spend each and every waking day with a person you vowed to be with for the rest of your life. Things aren’t always peachy; there are times when I catch myself chomping on the fact that my husband and I cook and wash the dishes differently. We don’t fight about it, we just have to talk about the most efficient manner that would benefit us both. In the video below, I share the routine we’ve established so far, the chores we’ve come to enjoy doing together and my thoughts on having a big vs. small house.

Backstory: When I was younger, I really wanted a big house. Whenever my family would visit relatives or friends in subdivisions, I always enjoyed looking out the window and appreciating the architecture and design of big houses. I even told myself that even if I don’t get married, okay lang ako living in a big house all to myself. But then, things change. As I grew older, my faith and view on finances shifted my desire to live in a big house.

Our Wedding Day Vlog

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I thought it was highly possible for me to vlog the whole wedding day. I needed help! I’m thankful that our wedding photographers, my bridesmaids and maid of honor were more than happy to step in and tell the story of our wedding day.

Things I learned?

  • Matagal pala talaga yung prep shoot. Of course it looks so easy and fast when the photos are put together na for the SDE but… haha let me tell you NO. With all due respect to our photographers, they really did a great job and I know they wanted to get a lot of amazing shots because this is their craft. I guess I just had to properly psyche myself. Hindi kasi professional mowdel si Ingrid. :p
  • EAT. AS IN. It’s bound to be a long day.
  • We should have taken pictures with our family and other guests in our photobooth. 😦 I’m thankful that our supplier Photomocoh extended their hours just to make sure that Dave and I had shots of ourselves at the photobooth. That was very nice of them.
  • Even if you think you’ve planned everything, you have to learn to let go and entrust the execution to the coordinators and people involved. Yes, there will be things that won’t go according to the outline but you just have to let go and ENJOY EVERY SINGLE MOMENT because the time just zooms through so quickly.

Enjoy our wedding vlog!