For sure winter is here, crisp cold mornings, sun shining (not really warming), time to take out the mufflers and mittens.  I simply love it.  God is good, all the time, in every season.

Hopefully all of you had a wonderful Thanksgiving, even if you did not eat turkey and mashed potatoes. I sincerely hope that you thanked God for the infinite goodness that he has bestowed upon you.  For some it might not have been so good, even then I hope you learnt to give thanks.  For that is what God asks of us. 

Wisdom.  To me this word means not just knowledge but a whole personality.  When you say someone is wise then the immediate reaction is a sense of awe, reverence and millions of questions are racing through your mind that you would like to address to this wise person. We want to seek the right answer and if someone is wise then what better could you ask for.  This is what came up when I typed the word in a popular site (oh! the joys of internet) “Wisdom is the ability, developed through experience, insight and reflection, to discern truth and exercise good judgment. Wisdom is sometimes conceptualized as an especially well developed form of common sense. Most psychologists regard wisdom as distinct from the cognitive abilities measured by standardized intelligence tests. Wisdom is often considered to be a trait that can be developed by experience, but not taught”.  Now that last sentence is a bit hard to digest.  I mean you get wiser with experience which means that there is a possibility of you committing many mistakes before you can embark on the road to wisdom.  However, there is a way wherein you can become wise overnight.  Aha! I can see those ears going up. Well God through his grace can bless us with infinite wisdom, but there is a condition! You have to submit to his will, not your will.  Now that is a bit hard to digest as well, Right?  No not really.  I have been inspired by Ecclesiastes of late. It is written by Solomon the great.  He is said to be the greatest, wisest king that walked on earth.  Yet we do not know what happened to him.  Well, at least nothing good happened to him in the end.  In this book he says that everything is vanity of vanities.  He was so wise, that he realized that his wisdom is nothing but fleeting. That is true wisdom, when you realize that you are nothing and all the knowledge you have is cipher. In fact, that wisdom was the death of him. I know it is too philosophical, but yet it is very simple.  He concluded the book with “ Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.”  The second you learn to do this you will be bestowed with the title “WISE”.  Now, I know how wonderful it feels to be called wise, but are we willing to take on that mantle? More importantly  are we seeking wisdom through OUR experiences or are we ready to Fear God and keep his commandments. 

So all of you out there cheer up, the season for wisdom is here, so put on obedient mufflers and mittens and follow the Lord and for sure you will be chosen to be H.E. WISE.

Autumn is finally here with cool mornings and a little nip in the air.  I love it. God is such a perfectionist that he made everything perfect, including me, but everyday I struggle to remain that way. Yet, it is so easy to be perfect; all you have to do is live according to his word. Now that might be a poser, to live according to God’s will.  

Perfection.  The word conjures up such wonderful images in my mind, excellence, flawlessness, rightness, beautiful, warm… and the list could go on. If you see creation around you, each and everything is perfect.  The little antennae on the beetle that signals to it when there is danger, can you imagine?, no technology there, just life, simple and divine. Now the beetle does not read the Gospel everyday and yet lives according to God’s will.  Now how is that?.  A mere insect, so tiny and yet such a big revelation, just perfect.  Would you call it faith without seeing? Nah, I think it is just simply being. Being what God made you to be.  However, humans!, now that is another story. WE, with our superior knowledge, try and become something entirely different. 

We are created perfect, I mean look at a newborn, they are perfect and beautiful. God pours out his grace on us and we just grow and grow to be stronger, smarter, faster and so on and so forth.   But the spiritual growth becomes lesser and lesser. As children, we learn to trust God but as adults we learn to trust ourselves. Now isn’t that perfect?. No, it is not! Perfection would be to trust in God, to live according to his will, not ours.  I know it is a daunting task, after all it took a lifetime to undo it, so don’t expect instant results. But if you persevere, with God’s abundant grace we can be perfect again.  After all, my babies were perfect to me and I was the perfect mother to them. They did not ask one thing to be changed in me, they accepted me as I am. Unconditional love is perfection, the sooner we learn to love, the closer we get to perfection. 

* Here is a little tidbit about beetles. Forty percent of all described insect species are beetles (about 350,000 species), and new species are regularly discovered. Estimates put the total number of species, described and undescribed, at between 5 and 8 million. This is why when J. B. S. Haldane, a Scottish geneticist, was asked what his studies of nature revealed about God, he replied, "An inordinate fondness for beetles".

So as I said earlier, I am going to be writing about random stuff for your and my benefit.  As we do not want to get bored. Right!. 

Perception. Its all about perception. You must have heard time and again, everything is about how you are perceived.  I am not always a casual, bubbly, life-is-a-breeze kind of person, but believe me that is how I am perceived by some people.  Perception is actually an insight, a discernment, which only someone who is close to you can get, and yet perceptions are based on external behavior.  Puzzling isn’t it?. Many times we see someone and form an opinion about that person, based on that one look.  Sad but true, and we justify this by saying that this is my view so please don’t go by that. But we do, we always hear someone say something about a third person based on their “perception” and we have already formed an opinion albeit we have not met this person.  Human nature we call it.  So we think this so called “perception business” should hold true most times.  No.  

When it comes to the Lord, no matter what you say to another person, it is very difficult to influence that person.  In this instance, your perception of God is just yours, and no one borrows from it, no one forms any opinion based on that, no one wants to believe it just because you said it.  However this time it is truly your perception of God and his mercies, goodness, and his grace, you are talking from experience, you genuinely have an insight, an honest observation about God.  WHY? Are we so convincing when it comes to judging humans and passing on our judgements to others for them to adopt your perceptions and to pass it further, but we are almost ineffective when it come to convincing people about Christ. 

I am sailing in the same boat, I can yak away to glory about many things.  But when it comes to the most important thing to yak about (the real purpose that you have been placed in high places for) I find myself with pursed lips, I seem almost scared to say something about God, lest I be perceived a zealot. Yet that is the perception I should be carving in others’ mind, being a zealot for God.   

I pray for abundant grace that I am able to change how I am perceived for God by others. I want to be perceptible as a testimony for Christ.

God bless.

Okay folks I am back from my lovely long vacation in India.  It was so good. I cannot even begin to explain.  Since I get bored easily I decided that I will start writing  about different things, so that I am motivated to post regular updates, to break the pattern of monotony.

God is good, in fact he is extra good (as bro. Jenkins from our church would say).  So this is what having a baby does.  You are so occupied with the little one that any free time you have you want to spend with the bundle of joy that God has provided.  Forgive me for the frequency of my updates.  But I am must reassure you all that all is hunky dory and I am doing good as always with the Grace of God.   

Now when I got the news of my being selected I almost choked. My husband, I and my son we knelt down prayed with tears in our eyes…whilst we were praying, I got another call from Washington DC and this was the same lady who had called earlier offering me the position at headquarters.  She says, read this carefully, “oh! and yes I forgot to mention that the unit that is hiring you is willing to pay for your and family’s airticket, and pay you two months rent”,  I was speechless at the miracle God was performing then and there in my life. 

We did not know how to thank God, I mean all words we had were not enough to praise God.  And then we went about winding up our act in New Delhi and getting on the next plane to Washington DC as I was asked to join soon.  So we decided that we will leave on August 29 as I had to join on September 3.  So till the afternoon of August 29 we had no tickets as all flights were full.  We did not know what we were going to do, cause we had packed and ready to leave.  But we were praying…

Miracles after miracles happen, so stay with me…

Here is my little baby all of 5 month old. He is bright eyed, little philosopher.

Gyaan (knowledge) for the Day: 

Praise God. I am back safe and hajaar (thousands in Hindi) pounds lighter.  Yay! God is so good, I still cannot believe that I have three kids, when I look back it seems like it was a breeze, and presto! I have three beautiful children.  Nowadays my earnest prayer is that God gives us (my husband and me) the grace to raise them as Godly children. 

Continuing from last year and last time, I wrote that I almost died and it was only God that kept me going…Amen to that.  Truly that period was one of the lowest ebb of my life and it is then that I in complete despair said to God, here take my life for I surrender completely to your will.

As I had mentioned that at work, there were talks of major reorganization, which meant that some of us were to lose our jobs.  My boss had made sure that I would be one of them, so it was announced that one should be prepared.  They even gave the option of a voluntary retirement scheme, wherein you would get some lumpsum money, but will never be able to apply for a job there.  The other option was to apply to vacancies at HQ (Washington DC) and see I got selected.  Now getting selected at DC was very difficult.

I said to God, you take charge of my life, I am going to apply to only 2 vacancies and lead me from there.  Now I thought what could happen, at the most I would have lost my job, but when I had submitted my will to the Lord, I did not care.

Then the miracle happened, I got selected for one of the positions, and they wanted me to join in 10 days.  10 days, now that is close.  We did not have even 10 Rupees, imagine four of us flying, I mean buying tickets, winding up etc.  Now when I got the news of my being selected I almost choked. My husband, I and my son we knelt down prayed with tears in our eyes.

The best was yet to come…stay tuned.

On another note, here is a picture of Abhishek all of 12 weeks old or young. Catch 22.  Anyway enjoy, knowing who your father is.

Gyaan (knowledge) for the Day: 

Now in this section, I am going post some delicious Indian recipes which are easy to make.

First one being Chicken de la Blah Blah Blah (yes it is that simple) with onion salad on the side.

Ingredients – Chicken – 1 lbs (boneless or otherwise both would do), Salt – ½  tsp, Butter – 2 tbsp, Cumin seeds – 1 tsp, Cilantro leaves and ginger strips for garnish.

Method –  If frozen thaw the chicken.  Clean and pat dry the chicken.  Poke the chicken pieces with a fork and marinate the chicken with a bit of salt for 10 mins.  Heat a saucepan and melt the butter for 5 mins.  Put in the cumin seeds until they are crisp but not burnt.  Add the chicken cover and cook until chicken is cooked.  Garnish with julienned ginger strips and cilantro leaves.

Onion Salad – Cut half a red onion into strips, pour some white vinegar on top of it, add some salt to taste and some red chilli powder, toss them together and enjoy eating.