Anchored forever

Monday, January 4, 2016

AFTER

Life is more than what you think. To a happy 2016!

After rain there's a rainbow,

After a storm there's calm,

After the night there's a morning,

After an ending there's a new beginning

After valley there's a mountain,

After the fall there's rise,

After a decrease there's increase,

After the war there's peace

After low there's a high,

After sadness there's happiness,

After ashes there's beauty,

After mourning there's joy

After a question there's an answer,

After the battle there's victory,

After the sickness there's healing,

After hate there's love

After the unbelief there's faith,

After darkness there's light

After fear there's freedom

After despair there's hope

After the mess there's a message,

After the past there's a future,

After the mistake there's a miracle,

After the worst there's a best

After failure there's success

After the flood there's sunshine

After the famine there's harvest

After death there's life

- Grace Xavier

I used to commute to work by bike. Dad always enforces the helmet rule on me. However I dislike to wear an helmet since it spoils my hairstyle ;). I was unhappy about this, until the day I fell off my bike and hit my head. But since I had my helmet on, it didn't even hurt. Dad's rule rules! That "terrible" rule has helped me.

It reminds me of God and His rules. God has certain rules for us to help us. They keep us from getting hurt, just like the helmet rule.

One mark of loving God is to keep his commandments which means to follow His rules. My dad loves me so much that he can't bear the thought that I might get hurt. And that's exactly why God gives us His rules too.

Last Sunday at Church we read from John 14:15 which says, "If you love Me, you will keep My commandments." And I almost forgot about it. Just like every-other day I opened the Bible Gateway to read the scripture portion yesterday. It was from John 14. It was like God was reminding me the same verse again.

My husband and I decided to read a portion from the daily devotion before going to bed last night. The verse was from 1 John 5:13 and it said, "Loving God means keeping His commandments". I was surprised! God was speaking to me. This made me question myself. In which area am I not obeying God?

God was gently reminding me by saying, "Obey My rules and I will keep you from getting hurt!"
And now I never forget to wear my helmet whenever I ride my bike :P

Top Left: The cover of my daily devotional book. Top Right: Notes that I wrote down at church
Bottom: The verse from the devotional

THE GIFT OF FORGETTING

My aunt met with an accident few days ago and she was telling how she is unable to remember certain things in life after the accident. Immediately my dad told her that even forgetting is a gift of God. This made me think of how forgetting could be a gift.

FORGETTING SAVES FROM DEPRESSION

People possessing extremely detailed photographic memory are called hyperthymesiacs. At first glance, it seems cool to recall every bit of your history! But on second thought, this would be a recipe for depression: whereas great memories will pop up, bad ones will be stuck on the replay button forever with the erase button jammed. You’ll be caught in an endless rewind play of a certain scene. Years will slip by and plenty of “now” moments will be missed… haunted by regrets rather than paying attention to the present. Isaiah 43:18-19 says, “Remember ye not the former things, neither consider the things of old”. This is why the human ability to forget is a staggering gift that can save from depression.

FORGETTING HELPS TO MOVE FORWARD

On my way home from work, I started thinking about something which I regret doing few years ago... how things should have been different etc. I have to say sometimes I go over things that have occurred in the past and keep thinking and thinking about the rather than leaving them in the past and move on. Even the scriptures says in Philippians 3 vs 13 “Forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward…” Forgetting makes me to move forward. I must always remember to move on from the 'scarred tissue'. We don’t usually consider it a gift, but think of the consequences if we don’t forget. We don’t want to be stuck in this journey of life but move forward.

FORGETTING AIDES THE FORGIVENESS PROCESS

Looking back at my life, I have gone through a lot and accumulated things I no longer want to remember; both things done to me and things I have done to others. With each day, the distance generated has given me time to grieve, heal, forget and forgive. If I had to remember everything bad that people have done to me, I’m sure that I would not be talking to most of the friends & relatives. It’s through this that I’ve realized that the ability to forget is another expression of the grace of God to me. Even God forgives and forgets. Hebrews 8:12 says “For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more." I thank God for the gift of forgetting. It gives time for us to heal and it aides the forgiveness process.

God has blessed human beings with many Gifts, and one of the most important amongst them is the Gift of Forgetting. Hope you and I will embrace this gift!

GOD HEARS! GOD ANSWERS!

"I STILL REMEMBER THE DAYS I PRAYED FOR THE THINGS I HAVE NOW".

I read this quote somewhere and couldn’t help but ponder on how true this has been in my own life. When I see how far I have reached, I reflect on those heart felt prayers where I'd ask God for some specific things in life. God is a prayer answering God. HE HEARS. HE ANSWERS. He is alive! There have been season of silence from God where I have thought to myself if God has even heard my prayers. But now I’m 100% sure that he hears every one of them. He even knows that small desire in my heart.

I remember praying for my prince charming for a very long time. I know the number of times I cried out to God that I want someone who will love me. And when I see how loving my husband is, I feel so in awe of how good God is to me.

I also remember praying for a job in a good company. As I joined Ericsson, last week I see how God has been so faithful to me in providing me a great job in this awesome company. He is a provider. He longs to surprise His children with blessings!

Even the smallest desire of my heart has been heard by God. Few months ago, I wanted to buy an iPhone for my dad. But it was just beyond my budget. When I nearly forgot about it, God didn't. Last month someone gifted my dad an iPhone 6 plus! Wow! Can you imagine that! I could never think of buying such an expensive phone for my dad but I did have the desire. God fulfilled my desire! He is just so awesome!

AND NOW I STILL REMEMBER THE PRAYERS I PRAYED FOR THE THINGS I HAVE NOW...

HE STILL HEARS...HE STILL ANSWERS!

What have you been praying for?

ANCHOR

Breezy and cold is the night

The land is way out of sight

As thunderstorm hits the sea

This little ship is holding me

Rushing waves soar high

As I'm tossed around I cry

Cold water chills my spine

Holding on tight to the twine

The salt burns my wound

When no help can be found

Fears of drowning prevails

As my weak little ship sails

Then I hear a still small voice

“I am the Anchor”, in the noise

“I will never let you sink”

Amidst the storm, just cling!

The sea calmed while I sailed

The Anchor with me never failed

My ship did make it to land

Now on solid ground I stand

- Grace Chelladurai Xavier

DIY - HOW TO GET VINTAGE EFFECT IN PHOTOSHOP

In this tutorial I'll show you how you can achieve an old analogue camera style vintage effect in Photoshop.

First open up your photo in Photoshop.

Click on the adjustment layer button at the bottom of the layers panel, and choose Curves. Choose Green form the dropdown box, and move the green line to a horizontal position as shown below.

Then choose Blue, and move the blue line to a diagonal position as shown above (the red line can stay as it is).

Your picture would look somewhat like this. Don't worry.

Now change this layer's blending mode to Soft Light.

Next add a Solid Color adjustment layer, and set the colour to 927cff (Ting of lavender)

Change this layer's blending mode to Screen and it's Opacity to 25%.

Now add a Gradient adjustment layer. Set the Gradient as white to transparent and scale it to 150%. The Angle depends on what looks best for your image, I set mine to 45 degrees.

Set this layer's blending mode to Soft Light, and it's Opacity to 75%.

Next add another Solid Color layer this time using the colour ffdc7f (Ting of yellow)

Set the blending mode to Soft Light, and the Opacity to 50%.

Finally we'll add some artificial light leaking using another Curves adjustment layer.

Grab the RGB line and drag it upwards to the position shown above, then do the same with the Red line. Then drag the Green and Blue lines downwards.

This will have burned out the whole image, so use the paint bucket tool to fill the layer with black, masking out the effect.

Set the Opacity to 60%, and use a large soft Eraser to paint areas of the light leak back onto the image.

Your layers panel should end up looking something like this. And that's it!

And here's the final outcome.

Compare the changes before and after editing:

Happy editing! :)

HIDE n' SEEK with GOD

Sometimes I feel my relationship with God has grown cold. I get consumed on thinking I need to do more-volunteering, bible studies, worship, quite time etc. I thought to myself, have I lost my focus? Why is it sometimes I feel so empty and fruitless. In the deepest depair of my heart I prayed, "Lord point out anything you find in me that makes you sad. Speak to me dear Lord". God has His own way of pointing out my weakness!

Last week dad was on the phone wishing a person celebrating his birthday. Before hanging up the phone call, dad told him to read Jeremiah 29:13. I overheard the conversation and was eager to find out the verse. Immediately I looked up and read it. It said, "You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart." It just passed by my memory.

Later that Sunday we had a Sword-Drill in a Bible Study and the last Sword-Drill verse was "Jeremiah 29:13". I was baffled. I asked myself, "Lord, are you trying to say something to me?"

Few minutes later my eyes fell on the cover of my journal and to my surprise the verse was from "Jeremiah 29:13"! It was the third confirmation that God was trying to get my attention. He was trying to speak to me that I just needed to pursue after Him with ALL my heart. Not just seek Him with a part of my heart. God wants me. All of me!

That moment when I loose something precious and I search and search till I find it.The happiness of finding a precious thing that was lost is irreplaceable. God doesn’t hide where He can’t be found, but invites us to look for Him and find Him. That's what God was saying to me that He wants me to seek Him by having a deeper relationship with Him. He is longing to show His love. If I could just set aside time for Him and make Him my priority, He would be delighted to reveal Himself to me.

I realized that there is nothing more important than seeking God in my ways. When I go about my day, I want to keep him on my mind. Talk to Him and ask for His direction.

Remember, if you seek for Him in your everyday, you may become breathless with how frequently He twirls you around.

MY LOVE FOR GOWNS

My love for gowns started ever since I was a lil' girl watching cartoons of Snow White and Cinderella wearing those beautiful gowns. It literally took me off to a fairy land. I dreamt often wearing gowns and a prince would come and sweep me off my feet. Unfortunately I didn't find my Prince Charming in my dream world. But glad I found him now ;) Anyways I was thinking if ever I become a designer I would love to make few of these :) These are my inspirational designer gowns. I love the colors. So elegant and graceful! Happy viewing! :P

Verse for today: