Lack of consistent public disaster awareness program, insufficient funds for relief and evacuation, and lack of manpower and equipment for emergency situations make life miserable. This annual phenomenon can be attributed to the abuse of our natural resources.

How should we respond to this routine challenge when it strikes? First, include in curricular offerings of formal education a hands-on learning experience on disaster preparedness and awareness program. There is no substitute for educating our people in the reality of flood, landslide, soil erosion, and spread of diseases. To be forewarned is to be forearmed.

Second, decentralize the funding from the national government and empower local units to allocate ample amount for local disaster and calamity. If this calls for legislation, so be it.

Third, enlist every citizen in the campaign against abuses in our country’s natural resources. Each should be concerned in the conservation of our God-given resources. Personal accountability must not just be a departmental concern of the executive branch of government but our responsibility as well.

Fourth, the forced of law should be implemented to punish those who enrich themselves doing illegal logging and river quarrying as well as those who ignore the requirements of the approving agencies. No one is above the law. Let us show to the world that we are law-abiding citizens and are fearless in the mandate of the higher laws of nature. The choice is ours: to abuse and suffer or to conserve and enjoy the blessings of Mother Nature.      

Every once in a while we see coins lying on the street. A few are still shiny, but many are defaced by repeated trampling. Most are five and ten centavos, which the majority no longer values. “What can you buy with them?” some would even scornfully ask.

There are very few twenty-fives. People, too dignified to stoop down and pick them up, pass them by.

It’s rare to see a one-peso coin, but that, too, is often ignored for the same reason.

My husband laugh when I tell him I have picked up some coins from the street. Yes, I always retrieve them – even the lowliest one centavo!  And I have my reasons for doing so.

It’s more than my being a numismatist, a hobby I took up after my father. It’s greater than the fascination of coins. It’s also beyond mere agreeing to the “Respect the Centavo” campaign that the government had promoted a long, long time ago.

Each time I pick up a coin, I am reminded of what God thinks of me as shown by what He had done to me.

No matter how old and battered a coin, for so long as it is still recognizable, it can still be used for its intended purpose. I have used those coins as part of my payment of electric, phone, water, and grocery bills. Even in their marred conditions, their face value remains the same – a five centavo is still accepted as five. They only need to be used to be useful.

And that’s what I am. Sin-scarred, lying lost on the dirty street of worldliness, often trodden and rejected as worthless. There are “unworthy” kids, young adults, and even old folk out there. Out of circulation, they are useless unless given another chance. Their value is not lost; they only need to be put to use once more.

Will he be a cheerful and pleasant person? Will he be an asset or a liability in society? These are significant questions parents should consider in the training and development of their children.

I have heard some parents say: “Never mind he is still a child”. When some responsible adults meaningfully urge that a child be reprimanded for some mischief, the child’s doting mother would beg: “Be patient with him. He is still a baby”.

This is more often than not tragic because the child is growing without the parents realizing that he is developing into manhood. And because he has been treated like a child all along, even in his maturing years, he behaves like a child. This is one reason we have a lot of childish people around us.

Preparing the child for school is one of the important matters parents should be carefully aware of, for it is in school where most of his waking hours will be spent. They should never consider burdensome the time that they need to spend with the child to teach him values that will help him develop love, patience and obedience. Their home training should teach lessons that will inspire cheerful disposition and encourage resourcefulness and independence. These positive values are the most important wealth parents can bequeath to their children.

There are some parents who leave the home training of their child to the so-called tutor. They have no time for the child, and if they have, the moments that they spend with him usually and in trouble – the mother scolding and berating the child for being very slow in learning and the child feeling guilty and losing confidence in himself.   

Parents should direct their child training efforts to the development of self-respect in the child, particularly in his early childhood. How the child feels about himself influences not only his choice but also his decisions. How he will grope in or cope with the world around him will be reflected in his concept of himself. The standard and ideals that parents awaken in their children by way of their example determine, to a large extent, not only their future lifestyle but also how they will face the challenges that come their way.

As parents, we should take stock of our ways of dealing with our growing children. We should reexamine the direction to which we are leading them. What kind of future are we preparing them for? What preparation are we giving them for their future?

Watch your nonverbals. Research suggests that at the very most only 30 percent of what we communicate takes place verbally, with 70 percent or more occurring nonverbally. A simple look, gesture, or touch can speak volumes, communicating affirmation, acceptance, and approval, or their opposites. Never underestimate the power of your nonverbals to cultivate relationships.

Deal with conflicts directly. When a friend offends you, follow this ancient wisdom of Scripture: “Argue your case with your neighbor directly, and do not disclose another’s secret”. When you break a confidence and tell others behind a friend’s back about the trouble between the two of you, you lose credibility with your friend and with those you’ve told about it. Dealing directly with an offender isn’t easy at the time, but has the best chance of preserving friendships in the long run.

Forgive wrongs done against you. Nothing can paralyze a friendship like a hurt that’s not forgetten. 

Observe the golden rule. Every other relationship-building principle can be wrapped up in this one. When you can do to others what you would want them to do to you if you were in their place, you will be doing the best you can to assure yourself of relationships that have the power to keep you well.

Treasure close friends. In this book WHY AM I AFRAID TO TELL YOU WHO I AM? John Powell identofoed five levels of communication: stranger (communicating nonverbally and with cliches), acquaintance (reporting the facts), casual (sharing self-disclosure of feelings and emotions), and intimate (complete openness, in which you can share anything and feel your confidence will never be betrayed). Time availability and emotional capacities limit most people to 12-15 close friends and 3-5 intimate friends. If you have friends at the close or intimate levels, treasure them as among your greatest assets. Everyone can have at least one intimate, safe, friend in God.

Be an active listener. In the modern environment in which radios and TVs are often used to provide background noise, people are taught to tune out the human voice while they work on the other things. Unwittingly they thus train themsleves to tune out family members or friends who talk to them.

Dr. Ronald Nathan nad Marian Stuart point out in their book Coping Wth the Stressed-out People in your Life that we can think three to four times faster than most people talk. That makes it tempting to be preparing a response or even thinking of other things while someone is talking to you. It takes effort to concentrate on what someone is saying, trying to feel what they are feeling, asking questions for clarification, feeding backwhat you are hearing. But that’s the discipline of cultivating healthy relationships.

These precious lessons may be so simply taught as to be understood even by little children. The heart of the child is tender and easily impressed. When we learn the simplicity and gentleness and love of the Savior, we shall not find it difficult to touch the hearts of the little ones and teach them love’s ministry of healing.

From a worldly point of view, money is power. But from the Christian’s point of view, love is power. Genuine love has extraordinary worth to do well, and can do nothing but good. It thwarts disagreement and despair and conveys contentment. Affluence is frequently a weight to fraudulent and destroys, but genuineness and integrity are the possessions of untainted love. 

baby trained to attend church every saturday

The first child especially should be trained with great care, for he will educate the rest. Children grow according to the influence of those who surround them. If they are handled by those who are noisy and boisterous, they become noisy and almost unbearable. The gradual development of the plant from the seed is an object lesson in child training.

When children feel they are the strongest members of the family, its scary for them. They know they don’t have all the answers. Insecure children tend to feel that when they are in control, their environment is predictable and less threatening. Therefore, they try to control the people around them with anger, tantrums, threats, and defiance. You can easily see why parents who are not willing or able to stand up to their convictions and take a proactive role in disciplining their children have kids who are miserable to live with.

Sometimes you have to travel a rocky road for a short time to get to where you want to go. It’s the same with discipline. You sometimes have to stand firm in spite of conflict, anger, or resentment in order for your children to realize they can’t have their own way. When the obedience lesson is learned, children cease fighting, and you can more quickly get back to smooth relationshipsbased on mutual respect.

Obedience is the most important lesson a child must learn – so it’s absolutely necessary that you make the lesson easy. Make it enjoyable.

I have a friend that I admire their family so much. I thought she’s as pretentious as being polite to everybody, that she’s only doing so because she wants to gain more friends and more appreciation. But then, I am very big wrong, because one day she invited some of her friend including me for birthday celebration, when we got into their house, I notice her parents were very soft spoken, and also observed that every time they ask for something, there was always “please” at the end of each request. Their parent trained them to be that way since childhood until now that they are mature.

As a mother, I have fears that I couldn’t bring him in the right path that I might not be able to teach and train my little son while he still little. But I have faith in God and trust Him that every training, I made to my little one is training in accord to Him. I know that this little boy is a God trusted to me and with God’s help my husband and I would be able to educate this little one. Bravely and cheerfully we will carry this as a great responsibility to educate and train our son.