Shalom! ส•́แดฅ•̀สใฃ I forgot that today is Divine Mercy Sunday, ww ^^; when it comes to celebrations in general, my mind doesn't remember until its the day which happened, ww. Divine Mercy Sunday is the day where it's a major feast day of the Octave of Easter which takes place on the Second sunday of Easter ❤️๐ฅ and not to mention too it's still Easter ݁ ˖แฒ๐ผ⋆♱ people think that Easter is a one-time thing to celebrate and that's it, when really in the Catholic faith Easter stills goes on through Holy Week, all the way to the Day of the Penecost which happens in May. Unfortunately this is what happens when Chrstian celebrations are secularized from by taking God out of the picture & overcommercializing them, however that's not going to stop me by celebrating the Passover when other people around me don't celebrate my Saviour's crucifixion, ressurection, and ascension †⛪︎† I also ask for your prayers during this time. I’m currently in a situation that has been heavy on my heart, where my boundaries have been violated and disrespected by someone else in real life for some time now. I'm discerning that this situation I am in is not from God, especially where there has been lack of respect for my boundaries and my own dignity. Please pray for me for peace, protection, and guidance as I navigate this difficult situation and for others who may be going through something similar, much more support is needed ♡.⋆♱ I also added a new feature not long ago on my blog where you guys can drop in your prayer requests so then I can intercede/pray for your behalf, so if you had anything you want me to pray for, you are more than welcome to add your request inside that dropbox and send it to me so then I can pray for you (●'◡'●) (please note you can would see it only on the desktop or tablet view, not on a phone view due to the responsive design of the device it's used to view my blog.)
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| Screenshot by me of the Prayer Requests Inbox that is on my blog for those who want to get an idea of what it looks like หแตห |
On one note, the weather was OK this morning except it was raining a lot & it was cloudy, which on a Sunday morning I don't mind it at all since to me, rainy days = cozy & chill days ๐งธ๐ง️ it wasn't raining too heavy which was a good thing, but rather it was raining lightly which didn't ruin my whole makeup, ww. When it comes to rain, I'm not too worried if it wet my hair since I have low porosity hair which takes a while to asorb in the water, & how my hair dries quickly compared to someone with a looser hair texture, www ๊(≧▽≦) this is why I love my God-given hair so much of how versetile & waterproof it is, www (´∀｀) but also too I misted waterproof setting spray so it does the work to not be messed up from the rain, ww. Anyways, today I went back to doing gyaru makeup however this time this time, I took the inspo from a completely different gyaru magazine. The model in which I took the main inspo from was the JELLY magazine & her name is Tonomi Otsuka, and I like how she done her make so I thought it would be nice for me to use that as my inspo for today ☺
I also forgot to mention how today marks my 1st anniversary of me being a gyaru แตแดแต I'm so proud of myself how I reached this milestone of figuring out my style! The main things I am mostly am proud of myself is I finally was able to figure out the kind of makeup styles in which suits my features! ̂แด̂ I'm so happy how much I've imporved and my mind is still opened to learning new things not just only for gyaru only, but for other things too in vintage fashion as well แตแดแต
I even forgot to show you guys another thing from a couple of days ago ๐
on Easter Monday, I decided to do a Easter manicure for the season ̤̮ The nail polish on my nails are already chipping & overgrown as I'm currently am writing, however my favourite part is that I added the silver glitter polish on all of them after I applied on the coloured nail polishes ˙แต˙
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| Easter-Themed Manicure I done myself ๐งบ๐ฃ๐ |
I decided to wear this same co*de again from last year from September, except again with my brown leggins because how chilly it is ¯\(◡‿◡✿) /¯ good thing it matches with my rest of my coord, so I would care less, ww. I wore my dark-blue floral dress which my uncle had bought for my in the store named ROSS when I visited the United States of America from 4 years ago (ห•͈ ◡ •͈ห) and I miss going in that store cuz there were a lot of nice dresses that were mostly on sale. And you guys already see how I'm wearing my favourite white cardigan again (˶แต แต แต˶) if you guys ask me where I got it from, I'm afraid I can't awnser you since I don't know nor remember where I got it from, but regardless & simply emjoyed the colour and how it was knitted even though it was made by machine เซฎ₍˶แต แต แต˶ ₎แ it would be so cool if I know how to knit or crochet, especially know how to knit my own clothes <(˶แตแตแต˶)>
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| This would be the same make inspo I would use again, ww |
This week's Mass, there was a relic of a Catholic saint of Blessed Micheal J. McGiveney & the Image of the Divine Mercy. I felt so relieved and felt peace during & after Mass right after I went to touch the relic & to ask the priest to give me peace & guidance of my current situation I'm navigating though. But on one note, there is no need to worry about that anymore because I allowed God to take care of it by giving it all up to His hands (◡ ‿ ◡ ✿)
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| Michael McGiveney c. 1890 |
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| Relic of Micheal McGiveney (not my photo!) |
Two days ago, I baked focaccia bread for the first time on my own and I just wanted to share how proud I was by baking the whole thing through scratch เดฆ്เดฆി ( แต แด แต ) the result of the bread tatse so good and it has a similiar tatse of pizza except more salty ๐ฒ(เนแต⤙แตเน) the dough I made it the day before and then allow it to rise inside the fridge for 20 hours, and then 2 days later I dimpled the dough & added in generous amounts of toppings of sea salt, rosemary, chopped yellow onions, and some beefsteak tomatoes (˶ แต ̫ แต ˶) ♡ I would definetly would bake this again sometime in the future & I can't wait to bake more pastries later in the future o( ˶^▾^˶ )o
Anywho, shifting my focus on these scriptures, let's talk about Matthew 10:34-39, because ever since I began to follow Christ my social life began to shift drastically. These verses mentions how when you follow Jesus, there is always going to be conflict of some way, shape, or form with your friends, family, aquantiances, and even strangers. And the reason this scripture means this way is because carrying your own cross for Chirst & overall just being a Christian isn't easy in today's modern world, especially how much persecution that is happening aganist Christians & how we are openly mocked by others or being ostrasized from a social group of people. Why I can connect myself into this scripture through reflection is because after I start to share my love to Jesus Christ online publicly online, I start to notice how people disengage with me online or choose to unfollow or block me for holding onto Christian values in which does challenges the world or certain social cricles. I don't surprigly experienced this with my family since I came from a Christian household, rather I mostly experienced this with a lof of my friends (some of which are no longer my friends anymore) or people who are just aquainted to me. When I express my own values I hold & beliefs, I ended up having a lot of pushback online & openly getting ciritized by other people, even sometimes in real life which results my faith to be challenged. There were things too in life where I did not partake in based on what other people are doing which did resulted me to lose friends or people gossiping about me or whatnot, and this has happened when God transformed me once I decided on taking my faith more seriously & allowed Him to be more present in my life. There were times too where I even questioned myself of why am I still being friends with these kinds of people or even interacting with them, and thats the thing once you become a new creation is that you start to feel uncomfortable of things that are sinful & pull you away from God once you accepted Him as the One. There were times I had stopped doing certain things or interacting with other people who aren't a good exmaple of me or how they are going to draw me into sin, and I know they are going to be people would say things about me and truth is, I do not care anymore if they do once I began to carry and sacrifice myself to my Saviour though obediance & love. There were times too where there was online drama though gossip and slander or how I want to conform with the worldy things that are happening, while most people choose to react to online puressure nd fear of feeling alone or different, I myself choose to diengage with it and also choosing self-control, self-respect, & my own boundaries. How? By simply ignoring it and move on & choosing to be set apart of the world around me. And I learned so much by doing that by not wasting my time on the drama since I know how valuable my time is, which happens to explain why I do not interact with certain communities such as the gyaru communities as for example & not worrying about being socially puressured internally & externally from other people. I remember times in my life where I stayed in toxic & abusive friend groups and people in my younger years in my life in order to feel valued and to be popular, which as a result, it always ended up leaving me to self-loathe in myself alongside anxiety & confusion. The same thing can apply too if your too fixated on changing your own personailty just to seek approval on engagement. After I've stop chasing all of these superficial things by valuing my own dignity, self-respect, direction, peace & spritiual grounding God has given me, I start to lose attention drastically from people both in real life & online, which can explain why I had people unfollow or even block me social media heck- even had people stop talking to me completely in person on for following Christ & to carry my own cross for Him. Sure, although I may have lost all those things, however the blessing in disguise is that I gain more peace & stability from the Lord after I began to stop worrying about all these things. Jesus Himself also made it clear to His own disiciples that if you folllow Him, you may be rejected because of your faith and values, even if you are being paceful and kind. I hear stories of people travelling to certain places around the world or certain kinds of people or social groups to preach the gospel gently & peacefully & face heavy amount of persecution in many forms, with even some of them being brutal. Or that people living in countries that have a small Christian minority & face a heavy amount of persection from others. The main focus that this scripture emphasizes on is your loyalty to God & how we shouldn't be compromising/trading our faith just to be socially accepted to others, but rather carry it in a way that reflects on Him, which is what I find beautiful of what the main message of this verse is.
John 15:19 talks about how when you live your life differently for following Christ, there's always going to be people who wouldn't like you for it, kind of similiar to the verse of John 15:18 (which I'll allow you guys to read and take a look at.) This is another peice of scripture which does reflect on me already similiar to Matthew 10:34-39, & that is how some people disliked me for me following Christ & how I set myself apart of the things they do. At my own school (or for adults workspaces or wherever), there are a lot of people in those kind of environment who engages in crude conversations or in things such as gossip or other forms of innapropiate conversations. I know for me, I do not engage in any of those stuff, which makes me as a target to other people who engage in those stuff which results to them saying whatever they want to me, even things that are imflammatory to the point it does hurt my feelings. Right now it really doesn't bother me anymore since I know as a Christian, I am here to set an exmaple of Christ & how He live & preached to others through spreading the Truth. I know if I ended up engaging in these sinful activities as a Chrsitian knowing that doing all of this is wrong, hence why I don't bother engaging in those kinds of thing even if people doing it claim their joking or their being overexaggerative or whatever the case may be. When I even surround myself with people who are non-Christian, I start to feel left out or the people there are aganist me because of how I chose to take my faith more seriously. On the internet too, this is where things get brutal- cuz' there are a lot of blasphemely & harsh words being said to Christians who publicy share their own boundaries, faith, & their own personal or moral convictions online. I know that there were some Christian women who were called from others online for having 'religous psychosis' or whatever that is, or telling them that they were being judgemental, delusional, or brainwashed (side note!; I had someone online who said to me in my DM's that I was brainwashed a couple of months ago for expressing my moral values, lol (แต́∀แต̀)ะป̵hahahahaha). And mind you, all of this happens because the lifestyle they've chose to live in being Christ-centered is what people would attack them for. The whole point of the message of this verse is that even if your lifestyle is different with humility & integrity for Christ, there's always going to be some people who would attack you for it or would simply reject you because you don't match with their own values, and I had people who hated me because I hold strong values for certain things, speaking out on things I believe it's wrong and sinful through what God says, & setting boundaries for myself to protect my peace. And as a result, this is what Jesus actually meant that there are going to be people who would reject you for having a lifestyle that is Christ-centered.
The last two scriptures Luke 9:23-24 talks about how choosing Christ is an active & daily descion to choose in our everyday lives instead of taking the easy-way out by acting on our own fleshy desires. This one I want to conclude despite how powerful this verse is, because how much it emphasizses on self-denial, sacrifice, and surrendering yourself to God by carrying your own cross for Him. Let me start with this, when He means to deny yourself, he doesn't meean to self-loathe or to have to personailty, but rather it's in a way that means to refuse our own desires and impluses which goes aganist of what it's right. An exmaple would be a group of people are making fun of someone by speading rumors that are false about them, and instead of you laughing along with the group of people and making fun of them too, you did the opposite of what the others were doing, because not only you got sick & tired of the feeling of fitting in, but also you did what is right. The same thing cam apply to online on social media whenever there is drama & rumors that are circulating online, you feel tempted to join along with the others but you didn't, cuz you chosen integrity by doing what is right, and sadly, this is what most people in today day of age struggle with whenever someone is getting exposed online or rumors or drama that is spreading. For me, my way of denying myself to Christ by doing the right thing is when someone texts or asks me innapropiate messages that are crude and too personal in which makes me uncomfortable (and yes, that did actually happened btw) and I felt puressured to go along with it or to not make it as awkward, but I didn't. Instead what I did is that I setted myself a boundary by telling this person to stop, reporting it, and not talking to them ever again by choosing to respect my own dignity & not choosing comfort, even if it's something someone is doing to me which makes me uncomfortable. When Christ states take your cross daily, He doesn't mean to take it once in your life and that's it, rather he says to take it daily with us in a way where it choosing what is right even if it costs you something. For me just recently, I get less attention online every since I stop engaging on things or people who do not lead or do not mentor me to Christ, and doing this is what looks like by taking my own cross daily while it did costs all of the engagement which I lost by doing this. This I know is a struggle for people who are well-known to the public, cuz I've been seeing a pattern where people stop engaging with an influencer or a celebertie or whoever once they;ve announced their walk with Jesus. I also had internal struggles where I had times where I felt lonely by wanting things to be easy, or to win approval from other human beings & to fit in with others, and that quiet struggle is what's apart of the cross I had to carry with me for Christ and this is what He truly means when this part of the verse is emphasize. The Last part where God had said lose your life to save it does sound confusing, but it simply means that if you live your life on things that are superficial such as fame, comfort, and popularity, then you may experienced feelings of being anxious or unstable. There are many stories of people who follow trends online or to constantly change themselves for engagement and reported of feeling their not being themselves & also feeling mentally drained. The same is reflected too for the who stay in toxic marriages, friendships, or even relationships afraid their going to have nothing if they are alone, and they've reported to feeling stress and experiencing self-loathing along with having loss of self-respect for themselves, and keep in mind, I use to be one of those people who stay in relationships that are manipulative, controlling, & that are abusive. When someone makes the right choice to vale themselves again by walking away from toxic environments which causes disrespect & pressure, at first it may seem lonely and you start to blame yourself why you left that group or to allow all these things to happen, but overtime you begin to gain more peace, clarity, and self-respect on yourself & your own dignity, which is what Jesus Himself is talking about though this part of this verse. And yes, I am slowly am recovering from those past traumatic experiences, this verse holds value to me as someone who reconnected myself to Christ & how I chose to follow Him by choosing what it is right, even when it's a hard thing to do depending on what situation your in or even when it makes your life harder, lonelier, and uncomfortable. Cuz at the end of the day, this verse emphasizes on intergity, not comfort, and this is what this verse is all about.
I don't know, I just thought it was interesting to talk about these scriptures since I've experienced a lot from the past & even right now as a believer, and it's not only being said as me to self-reflect, but rather to give encouragement to someone who needs to hear this (‘. • แต •. `) cuz at the end of the day, being a Christian isn't that easy, but it does lead us to our final reward which is having eternal life. And please feel free to share this whole blog or these scriptures to someone & my testimonies as well, cuz it makes me so happy when the gospel is being shared to plant a seed on someone & God communicates to all of individually, even though someone else or from a blog post like mine as for example („• ֊ •„) ✞
For those who've reached to end, thank you so much for taking this time to read though my today's blog post, & I'll see you guys on the next one! ๐๐พ Goodbye!
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