B.T.S. (Blue. Tooth. Speaker.)

      "It's almost Christmas!" I excitedly uttered to myself. This is the much awaited holiday of the year and everyone loves it! It's Christmas! What do you love most in Christmas? Is it the overflowing food in your Christmas table? The extravagant Christmas decorations in malls? Or is it the much awaited gifts we want to receive? A lot of people love receiving and opening gifts! Who wouldn't right? However, did you ever asked God for a specific gift, but instead got something different?

      Yesterday, my family and I went to my mom and dad's LifeGroup Christmas party. It was more like a swimming party hosted by one of their life group friends. It was amazing!  My brother and I were able to swim in the pool together with one of the child of our dad's friend. My mom and dad along with their couple friends also got the chance to do some relaxing in the hot springs pool. To top it off we indulge ourselves  with delicious food, like hot dogs, satay (Chicken on a stick), spaghetti, chicken joy, chips, fruits, cookies, rice cakes and overflowing drinks in the pantry table! It was really a Christmas feast! But the highlight for me and my brother, was when we did our exchanged gifts with other kids in the party! It was a mix of thrill and excitement while we wait for our turn to pick our number for the gift we would be getting. Unexplained joy upon opening the present that we have long been waiting for! Emotions Overload!!!

      Behind those cool experiences we had yesterday, there were unexpected lessons we learned:

a. God gives us gifts not necessarily always those things that we want but rather those things we need.

     During our kid's exchanged gift part at the Christmas Party, my brother would have wanted to really to receive a Lego set, however there were no Lego sets. My brother received a very nice Converse bag! I learned that He gives us the ones we need so that we can enjoy our lives. Not all that we think we want would be eventually good for us. When you get something different than you asked God for, you might be wondering "Why did God did not answer my prayer?" It's because God knows that the thing that you are asking for is not the one you really need at that moment. God knows we need a new bag!!! 

b. God would always exceed our expectations on the things we want as long as it's good for us.

     At the party, my mom and I were praying to God for a type of speaker that we wanted. During the  kid's exchanged gift, we picked a number which will be the gifts that I will get. The funny part was when it was my brother's turn to get his pick. Every time he got a number, it was number 1! That was the same present that we wanted. However, it was his own gift. He had to give to the other kid. When it was my turn to pick, I was hoping I could get number 1, but instead, I got number 3 gift. Guess what's inside number 3? When I opened up present number 3, I was so surprised! It was a B.T.S. ! Blue Tooth Speaker! It was not the one  I wanted but it was more better than the one I wanted before. There are times we insist on getting what we want and then later get frustrated if we didn't get it. However, God gives us gifts in an unexpected ways. Most especially, God might not give us what we want because He has something better in stored for us. So hang in there and just trust in Him!

"Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change."

James 1:17

-by Tim