LOVE

today the major thing that jumped out at me was love

1. that if we love our brother and sister, we live in the light. if we hate a brother or sister, we are still in darkness. (1 john 2:9-11) 

2. the greatest of all is LOVE (1 cor 13) - a very popular passage but reminded me once again, and kind of confirmed my thinking on how even if we have all the knowledge of the bible, but have not love, it is nothing. even if we have the most faith in the world but not love, it is nothing. and the pastor talked about how love in the world is all about how we feel and what we want, but love in the bible is a deep commitment to serving others, self-sacrificial acts of patience, kindness. I was reminded that if I say I love someone, it is such a big word. i think this is something i want to remind myself daily! 

                 "Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not  rude, it is  not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects,always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails" 

and most importantly, we can take comfort that Jesus has set the ultimate example of love for us. God is love, and His love is in us, if we abide in Him, if we look to Him, we can allow His love that has been poured out in our lives to overflow into the lives of others. not from myself, but from Him.

3. do not love the world or anything that is in the world (1 John 2:15-17) - sometimes i find this a struggle since we've living in this world, in this time and age and its so easy to get caught up with what we see before our eyes. caught up with temporal pleasures of this world. i dont think God is saying that we cant enjoy what he has blessed us with in this lifetime, but that we should not love it. we need to be able to let go and give it up, if we cant, then that shows that we love it too much. 

I'm thankful that I went to church today, it felt good to be part of a fellowship worshipping God even though people dont really talk to you. :/ im also thankful for all the girls in my life who has been such a huge support! special shoutout to rigel whose birthday is today (: happy birthday dear! talking to these girls have made me so thankful about this community i have back in bris, and how we encourage each other towards growing in God! <3 i am definitely blessed by their presence in my life and its something i need to remember daily! like how pb reminded me, to let this be something i remember everyday and not just be too easily swayed by my emotions. 

shall end off by saying i had a lovely morning trekking at cairns botanical gardens with monkey (: thank God for such beautiful greenery! 

a glimpse of the paths i took today, between many many trees!

there was this lookout where you could see cairns airport. we saw a few planes take off and land! pretty cool

cheese :D

under a huge leaf :D

lily lake? cant remember the name but! it had lillies. maybe lily pond. haha

i spent the afternoon in the kitchen preparing meals for the week and also baking (: i realise that being in the kitchen is extremely therapeutic for me! i would really enjoy being a housewife. i absolutely LOVE preparing yummy meals and baking especially for the people i care about! still got lots of room for improvement and i hope to be able to collate recipes which i like and compile them some day!

meals for the week - stir fry pasta with nasi goreng sauce mix, prawns, spam, carrots, brocolli, wombok and raisins (:

blueberry muffins for colleagues tmr (: out of a box mix but its still baking!

flags to top the muffins!

the finished product! check out the checkered muffin cases.

from another view

happy birthday rigel! and yes, i miss these two girls very very much (: i miss having dinners together and living in the same house together and sharing stories and being silly together. 2 more weeks!

 week 4 and 5 left of placements, press on(: