Gratefulness!

I have had a nice weekend! It was just what I've always wanted during school weeks. A nice weekend to recharge myself so that I will have sufficient energy to work through the whole week. And thankfully, all thanks to a Public Holiday that falls on a Sunday, I get another day off, Monday! Sunday was a public holiday for us folks in Brunei because it's our king, the Sultan's 66 birthday! Daulat Kebawah Duli Tuan Patik!! :D

Every year during our Sultan's birthday, the whole country gets a day off! How nice is it? I always enjoy my holiday and I enjoyed myself today. Even if I wasn't actually participating in the whole birthday celebrations myself, I do feel the whole festive mood the country was in. I slept in for the day but it was still really nice to catch some bits and pieces of the birthday celebration through the TV, the radio and other SNS (Social Networking Sites). For the day, there's the birthday procession at the Taman SOAS, the Sultan's Titah (Titah = the King's speech) and the dinner banquet at the Istana (Istana is the Sultan's palace).

After the Titah, there was this giving out of medals or bestowing honors to some of the people who have contributed to the country or something. (I know I'm really terrible for not knowing this but I'll try my best to understand the whole thing soon). Also, I've always wonder, every year during the Sultan's birthday, His Majesty is always giving other people especially His citizens something in all sorts of ways... but does anybody gives the king anything? It's like his birthday right? Haha! That's just my random thought. :)

I'm really grateful to be living in such a peaceful country where it's relatively safe everywhere if you're being careful. The Sultan has blessed the people Brunei A LOT! The citizens of Brunei receives FREE health care, FREE education, SUBSIDISED petrol, rice and oil and many other things. By His Majesty's grace, even I receive free education! I don't need to pay school fees in my college that I'm in. It's just wonderful. :D

On Saturday night in YF, we learned about being grateful and how we ought to be grateful. To our families, our friends, the people around us. Are you grateful? I know I am! In my previous blog posts, I have written about being thankful and grateful for so many things. Even though there's still some of the little things that I'm always taking granted for, I'm still learning. Learning to be grateful for many things and everything because EVERYTHING in this world is God's blessings to us. We should be grateful to God too for this! 

I've done some thinking and reflecting myself. I feel really good if other people praise me and thank me for the things that I have done. So, I should learn to praise others and thank them, be grateful to them for the things that they have done for me too, be it big or small. That way, they'll also feel appreciated right? Nobody would like to be taken for granted because I know how that feels and it SUCKS BIG TIME!! So, I MUST learn to be more thankful and grateful to others so they'll feel good too. (this is not sucking up!)

Apart from what I learnt in YF, today during my Bible Study lesson, I learned about David. How he's willing to admit that he's has done wrong by committing sins like adultery and murder even though he's a king. This lesson has impacted me. It suddenly hit me like, "Hey, if David who's a king can admit that he's wrong, I should be able to do the same right?". I mean like I'm just a normal person who does wrong in little ways or in big, obvious ways. I should learn how to apologize and repent for my wrongdoings, even if it means putting down my dignity. Wow! I think that this is going to be a hard lesson but I will have to do it.

Also, during bible study, I also learned that if we have sinned or done wrong, the person that hurts the most will be God because we are God's children but God will always forgive us because He loves us so much, just the way we are. One earthly example will be like if we have done something wrong, our parents will be hurt too right? This hit me once again. I hate seeing other people hurt or upset. It kinda kills me on the inside.. and that feeling is pretty horrible. So, I must try my best to become a more pleasant person so that I won't hurt others.

This is such a lengthy post. So much reflective words. I also don't really know why I've chose to post this up here but I feel that it might be helpful to the readers to read my post. Maybe it'll impact them too just like how the words impacted me yesterday and today. It was such a blessing for me and I hope that it will be a blessing to you too. 

I'm glad that I don't have school tomorrow so I can stay up later and sleep in. This week will be a rather relaxed week and there's another long weekend coming up for me. Will explain this in a later post. Have a nice week ahead!

With love and gratefulness,

Hannah