a perfect heart

One day a young man was standing in the middle of the town proclaiming
that he had the most beautiful heart in the whole valley. A large
crowd gathered and they all admired his heart for it was perfect.
There was not a mark or a flaw in it. Yes, they all agreed it truly
was the most beautiful heart they had ever seen. The young man was
very proud and boasted more loudly about his beautiful heart.

Suddenly, an old man appeared at the front of the crowd and said, "Why
your heart is not nearly as beautiful as mine." The crowd and the
young man looked at the old man's heart. It was beating strongly, but
full of scars, it had places where pieces had been removed and other
pieces put in, but they didn't fit quite right and there were several
jagged edges. In fact, in some places there were deep gouges where
whole pieces were missing.

The people stared -- how can he say his heart is more beautiful, they
thought? The young man looked at the old man's heart and saw its state
and laughed. "You must be joking," he said. "Compare your heart with
mine, mine is perfect and yours is a mess of scars and tears."

"Yes," said the old man, "yours is perfect looking but I would never
trade with you. You see, every scar represents a person to whom I have
given my love - I tear out a piece of my heart and give it to them,
and often they give me a piece of their heart which fits into the
empty place in my heart, but because the pieces aren't exact, I have
some rough edges, which I cherish, because they remind me of the love
we shared. Sometimes I have given pieces of my heart away, and the
other person hasn't returned a piece of his heart to me. These are the
empty gouges -- giving love is taking a chance. Although these gouges
are painful, they stay open, reminding me of the love I have for these
people too, and I hope someday they may return and fill the space I
have been waiting. So now do you see what true beauty is?"

The young man stood silently with tears running down his cheeks. He
walked up to the old man, reached into his perfect young and beautiful
heart, and ripped a piece out. He offered it to the old man with
trembling hands. The old man took his offering, placed it in his heart
and then took a piece from his old scarred heart and placed it in the
wound in the young man's heart. It fit, but not perfectly, as there
were some jagged edges. The young man looked at his heart, not perfect
anymore but more beautiful than ever, since love from the old man's
heart flowed into his. They embraced and walked away side by side.

PRAYER
"Lord, your love brings freedom and pardon. Fill me with your HolySpirit and set my heart free that nothing may make me lose my temper,ruffle my peace, take away my joy, nor make me bitter towards anyone"

....

"Ended, at an early hour, my first love! My virgin heart will always mourn the reckless step it took
on the flowered-deck abyss. My illusions will return, yes, but indifferent, uncertain, ready for the first
betrayal on the path of love."

the one that got away

In your life, you'll make note of a lot of people. Ones with whom you shared something special, ones who will always mean something. There's the one you first kissed, the one you first loved, the one you lost your virginity to, the one you put on a pedestal, the one you're with...and the one that got away.Who is the one that got away? I guess it's that person with who(m)everything was great, everything was perfect, but the timing was just wrong. There was no fault in the person, there was no flaw in the chemistry, but the cards just didn't fall the right way, I suppose.I believe in the fact that ending up with someone, finding a longtime partner that is, does not lie merely in the other person. I can actually argue that an equal part, or maybe even the greater part, has to do with the matter of timing. It has to do with you being ready to settle down and commit to someone in a way that goes beyond the little niceties of giddy romance.How often have you gone through it without even realizing it? When you're not ready to commit in that mature manner, it doesn't matter who(m) you're with, it just doesn't work. Small problems become big; inconsequentials become dealbreakers simply because you're not ready and it shows. It's not that you and the person you're with are no good; it's just that it's not yet right, and little things become the flashpoint of that fact.Then one day you're ready. You really are. And when this happens you'll be ready to settle down with someone. He or she may not be the most perfect,they might not be the brightest star of romance to ever have burned in your life, but it'll work because you're ready. It'll work because it's the right time and you'll make it work. And it'll make sense, it really will.So that day comes when you're finally making sense of things, and you find yourself to be a different person. Things are different, your approach is different, you finally understand who you are and what you want, and you've become ready because the time has truly arrived. And mind you, there's no telling when this day will come. Hopefully you're single but you could bein a long-term relationship, you could be married with three kids, it doesn't matter. All you know is that you've changed, and for some reason,the one that got away, is the first person you think about.You'll think about them because you'll wonder, "What if they were here today?" You'll wonder, "What if we were together now, with me as I am and not as I was?" That's what the one that got away is. The biggest "What if?" you'll have in your life.If you're married, you'll just have to accept the fact that the one that got away, got away. Believe me, no matter how fairy tale you think your marriage is, this can happen to the best of us. But hopefully you're mature enough to realize that you're already with the one you're with and this isjust another test of your commitment, one which will just strengthen your marriage when you get past it. Sure, you'll think about him/her every so often, but it's alright. It's never nice to live with a "might have been," but it happens.Maybe the one that got away is the one who's already married. In which case it's the same thing. You just have to accept and know that your memories of that person will probably bring a nice little smile to your lips in the future when you're old and gray and reminiscing.But if neither of that is the case, then it's different. What do you do if it's not yet too late? Simple...find him, find her. Because the very existence of a "one that got away" means that you'll always wonder, what if you got that one?Ask him out to coffee, ask her out to a movie, it doesn't matter if you've dropped in from out of nowhere. You'd be surprised, you just might be "the one that got away" as well for the person who is your "the one that got away."You might drop in from out of nowhere and it won't make a difference. If the timing is finally right, it'll all just fall into place somehow and you know, I'm thinking, it would be a great feeling, in the end, to be able to say to someone, "Hey you, you're the one that almost got away."

timing.. in God's time.

eto pa isa...

meron mga tao at pangyayaring dumadating sa buhay naten

na hindi naten gusto o kaya naman ay resulta na din ng

katigasan ng ating ulo...

ang tawag sa mga yun ay papel de liha or "sand paper"...

magaspang, matigas, masakit...

pero pagkatapos tayong padaanan sa papel de liha,

mas makinis, malambot, at maganda ang kakalabasan...

kaya, anuman ang pinagdadaanan mo, nililiha ka lang ni Lord...

para maging THE BEST para sa Kanya... =)

and i quote...

"It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye."

- The Fox, from The Little Prince

art din pala to...

THE ART OF FORGIVING

The most creative power given to the human spirit

is the power to heal the wounds of a past it cannot change.

We do our forgiving alone inside our hearts and minds;

what happens to the people we forgive

depends on them.

The first person to benefit from forgiving

is the one who does it.

Forgiving happens it three stages:

we rediscover the humanity of the person who wronged us;

we surrender our right to get even;

and we wish that person well.

Forgiving is a journey; the deeper the wound,

the longer the journey.

Forgiving does not require us to reunite with the

person who broke our trust.

We do not forgive because we are supposed to;

we forgive when we are ready to be healed.

Waiting for someone to repent before we forgive

is to surrender our future to the person who wronged us.

Forgiving is not a way to avoid pain but to heal the pain.

Forgiving someone who breaks a trust

does not mean that we give him his job back.

Forgiving is the only way to be fair to ourselves.

Forgivers are not doormats; to forgive a person is not a

signal that we are willing to put up with with what he does.

Forgiving is essential; talking about it is optional.

When we forgive, we set a prisoner free

and discover that the prisoner we set free is us.

When we forgive we walk in stride with the forgiving God.