Affirmation VS Correction

I realised what a negative creature i am. I never fail to see the negative and the bad points quicker than i see the good and positive.

Yesterday morning i met up with one of my girls before service and i greeted her not with a "Good morning", "Good to see you", "You look wonderful today", or even a "Hi". I greeted her with "Your skirt today very short hor?" It's another one of my "oops, what did i say, what did i do?" moments. It's one of those times when the words just fly out of my mouth faster than my brain can process them. Immediately after i said those words i was like "argh, peh han, must you be so critical, must you spot her bad point a thousand miles away?" Her skirt indeed is short and i'm not wrong in telling her that she should not be wearing such a short skirt but why can't the first thing that comes to my mind be a praise and affirmation?

This reminds me of another one of those "oops, what did i say, what did i do?" moments that i had. I was giving Maths tuition to 2 girls, so i asked them how did they do for their exams. One of them scored higher than the other so i said to the one who scored higher, "So you are the better one." I tried to grab the words and stuff them back into my mouth but i failed, they travelled at 330 metres per second. I was like, "peh han, what have you done again? Thanks for battering the self-esteem of the other girl and making her feel inferior." I am a priest of those i lead and i'd better bless and not curse, lift up and not put down.

How many of us have been reprimanded in our lives for not taking the trash out, for not washing the dishes, for not tidying our room, for not handing in work on time? Most of us i guessed, but how many of us have received praise for doing the right things? We will say that it's only their duty and responsibility to do right so no praise and commendation is needed. We never fail to criticise, correct, rebuke, discipline for the wrong that people do but we don't praise them for the right that they do. I have discovered that if we praise and affirm ten, even a hundred times for every correction, rebuke, disciplining we dish out, that single correction, rebuke and disciplining will be treasured and received much, much more.

I remember growing up as a believer even until today, those times when i come to church with issues in my life, areas in which i have fallen, completely sure that anyone with just a drop of prophetic gifting in their lives will tell me how displeased God is with me, how much much i need to change etc etc. However, each time when i feel like i have 10000 areas in my life i need to change, He surprised me by telling me how much He loves me, giving me words about the greatness of my destiny, giving me words of the great things He will use me to do. Maybe God is not like us negative creatures at all...

Ho Chi Minh City Day 5

Our last few hours in Vietnam, we had breakfast at the hotel then went shopping for a while, went back to the room to take a rest then checked out and left for the airport. I must admit i'm very impressed by how nice the airport is. We had lunch at this food outlet that serves Singaporean food, then went to a cafe for 'illy' coffee.


i'm back and raring to go...

Ho Chi Minh City Day 4

Our fourth day in Ho Chi Minh City or Saigon as the locals call it. We went to a place they call "fashion street" to shop. Basically today we just shopped, ate, shopped, ate..i'm amazed at how developed this city is. They have KFC, Pizza Hut, Gloria Jeans coffee, Gucci, Louis Vuitton, Mango, Bossini, Giordano, Adidas, Nike, Kappa, etc, etc, stores here. The shopping malls are nice and there nice big cars on the roads. What a big difference in affluence levels here and a neighbouring country not far away. I guessed it's Vietnam's open-door policy that made the difference. The people here seemed happy, carefree and surprisingly trendy. On the other hand, i realised that the young people here are more exposed to the worldly and materialistic culture...

Ho Chi Minh City Day 3

We went to the Mekong River today, enjoy the photos. As a sidenote, there are 4.5 million motorcycles in Ho Chi Minh City, as many motorcycles as there are people in Singapore!

Ho Chi Minh City Day 2

We went to the Central Post Office, Notredame Cathedral, Reunification Palace, Ben Thanh Market and American War Museum, lots of photos so i'm just posting a few..

Ho Chi Minh City Day 1

First day in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam...ate my first bowl of Pho, shopped a little. Some snapshots..

Traffic is scary and coffee is superb! haha!