Jesus Knew

           Recently, Chubs and I have been getting into so many fights. On average, we'll get into 3-4 a week. Sigh... It would always frustrate me when Chubs and I get over a fight and becomes friends again. The only reason for this would be because once I've forgive her, my thinking is that she would try not to do whatever she did again. But of course, she does that certain thing again and that gets me angry. By the way, I'm not trying to bash her on my blog. I learned something very important at the end. I've done some pretty mean stuff to her too. Anyways, each argument we have takes a toll on my mind emotionally. I get sick of the cycle of feeling hurt, forgiving, and feeling crushed when it happens again. It drives me insane!!
          One day Chubs and I got into a fight about something I can't even remember today. After that, it was time to take a shower. As I was showering in anger, I kept asking myself "why should I forgive her, if I know she is going to do it all over again." Like I said before, the cycle is exhausting. I kept thinking and thinking of a reason why I should forgive her. Have you ever gotten the feeling of when you learn something in school, church, or from your friend that just sticks to you? It might be a saying someone said, a theme, or a statement that you chose not to forget. For me, my "theme" was to be like Jesus. Jesus was human just like us. Our everyday temptations that we just can't seem to say no to, Jesus did. In my mind, the idea of being like Jesus would always be in my head. So I asked myself a typical question. What would Jesus do?
          I tried thinking of a time that Jesus forgave. That was easy. When Jesus died on the cross, he took the death for our sins. He knew that we were sinners and he forgave us. I kept thinking about what was going on in Jesus' mind and then it hit me. As Jesus was dying on the cross, He didn't think 'everyone that just sinned, you are forgiven.' He thought 'everyone that has sinned, will sin, and is sinning is forgiven.' Basically, Jesus forgave us while having known that we were only going to sin again. In order to become more like Jesus, I had to forgive Chubs even though I knew she was going to do the same hurtful thing again. Having someone betray you, slander you, or hurt you over and over again is a painful thing. All this was on Jesus' shoulders the night he was crucified. Forgiveness isn't easy. If it was, any one can die on a cross.
 

Harvey Cedars

             Harvey Cedars is a retreat site that has a family week during the summer every year. My family and I have been going there for at least eight years! Every year, we got to meet new friends from different places. God has blessed my family each year by having us go on this retreat to reconcile ourselves with Him :)

              Around five years ago, Chubs and I met this little spunky blonde girl for the very first time. She was never afraid to do anything and was always filled with energy each day. The last time we saw her was two years ago but our week was cut short due to a storm. The year after that, my family went to Asia. AND a year after that, we reunited with the most outgoing and fun person ever! Haha look at Chubs floating in the background.

              Ant introduced us to this restaurant on the island. The place was a bit over rated and the wings were huge!! (mostly breading). Besides that, the food was delish! We had a great meal with some friends from church.

              A lot of people were flying kites which made Chubs have the sudden urge to fly one too. Of course, she chose a ducky kite (a.k.a Ducky.) We flew Ducky on the beach and he soared... for 15 minutes. Then, Ducky took a nose dive and did not cooperate ever since then. Note Ducky's fancy tail!

             

             Here we are all set up and ready to go kayaking in the bay. Mom and Chubs shared a kayak while Dad and I got our own! The experience was fun until Chubs got cranky :-/ 

                The best part of our retreat was seeing Ant!! I saw him in action monitoring the salad and making sure everyone was satisfied. After the lunch, we had to leave Ant. We'll be picking him up next week to keep him home forever!!! (or until summer comes again.) Do NOT note my meaty arms. It must be the camera angle. Heehee

                 This was the last night with our Harvey Cedar friends :( Who new the game of mafia would bring us all together? I hope I get to see all of them next summer :)