14th of February...

First of all, a blessed and happy Chinese New Year of the Tiger to all...yea its the time of the year where we celebrate the New Year for a second time, with the visiting relatives, receving of Hong Baos, wearing new clothes, eating good food and celebrations. And, of course a time where we can thank God for the many blessings bestowed upon us by God.

And, now then, of course Happy Valentine's Day!

Yea, so before I go into the stuff I wanna say about CNY and Valentine's Day...this is another I've been hearing...thought it was pretty appropriate for Valentine's Day and anyway, Justin Bieber is like such a youtube sensation right now...

One Less Lonely Girl by Justin Bieber

There's gonna be one less lonely girl
One less lonely girl
There's gonna be one less lonely girl
One less lonely girl

How many I told you's
And start overs and shoulders
Have you cried on before
How many promises be honest girl
How many tears you let hit the floor
How many bags you'd packed
Just to take'em back, tell me that
How many either or's
But no more,
If you let me inside of your world
There'll be one less lonely girl

Oh oh
I saw so many pretty faces
Before I saw you, you
Now all I see is you
I'm coming for you
No no
Don't need these other pretty faces
Like I need you
And when your mine in the world

There's gonna be one less lonely girl
One less lonely girl
One less lonely girl
One less lonely girl
There's gonna be one less lonely girl
I'm gonna put you first
I'll show you what you're worth
If you let me inside your world
There's gonna be one less lonely girl

Christmas wasn't merry, 14th of February
Not one of'em spent with you
How many dinner dates, set dinner plates
And he didn't even touch his food
How many torn photographs are you taping back
Tell me that you couldn't see an open door
But no more,
If you let me inside of your world
There'll be one less lonely girl

Oh oh
I saw so many pretty faces
Before I saw you, you
Now all I see is you
I'm coming for you
No no
Don't need these other pretty faces
Like I need you
And when your mine in this world

There's gonna be one less lonely girl
One less lonely girl
One less lonely girl
One less lonely girl
There's gonna be one less lonely girl
I'm gonna put you first
I'll show you what you're worth
If you let me inside your world
There's gonna be one less lonely girl

I can fix up your broken heart
I can give you a brand new start
I can make you believe
I just wanna set one girl free to fall (free to fall)
She's free to fall (fall in love)
With me
My hearts locked and nowhere that I got the key
I'll take her and leave the world
With one less lonely girl

There's gonna be one less lonely girl
One less lonely girl
There's gonna be one less lonely girl
One less lonely girl
One less lonely girl
One less lonely girl
One less lonely girl
There's gonna be one less lonely girl
I'm gonna put you first
I'll show you what you're worth
If you let me inside your world

There's gonna be one less lonely girl
One less lonely girl
One less lonely girl
One less lonely girl
There's gonna be one less lonely girl
I'm gonna put you first
I'll show you what you're worth
If you let me inside your world
There's gonna be one less lonely girl
Only you shawty

Yea, so about Valentines Day, in this world today where there are so many different takes on what love it is, but it is good to remind ourselves what the Bible says about what love is...

1 Corinthians 13

Love

1If I speak in the tongues[a] of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames,[b] but have not love, I gain nothing.

4Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

8Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 9For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. 11When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. 12Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

13And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

However, I'm not going say more about this verse, truly it speaks for itself what God wants to tell us is love. Love as in the unconditional love. We always turn to 1 Corithians 13 about love, but there is another way that the Bible talks about love in relationships and more specifically marriages. And, that is about the comparison between the love God has for the Church. We are to love as Christ loves the Church. It is the sacrificial, agape love that we're talking about. It is a love that puts other first...

And, just the other day watching the Korean Drama, in which one of the characters realised that by forcing someone she loved but who loved someone else to love her, she was not actually loving the person and instead was loving herself. And, now linking it to the song by Justin Bieber called one less lonely girl, one part of the song strikes me, that is the part that says, "I'm gonna put you first, I'll show you what you're worth..." That is the kind of love I want to write about here...Love is having the happiness of the other person at heart. It is to want the other person to be happy. But, one might then ask, is it wrong to want happiness for one's self? I guess it isn't wrong to be happy, every should want to be happy. However, that isn't love, love is about putting the other person first. And, there also is no happiness in something so one-sided and so selfish, it is the love of oneself. Of course, when you love someone, you want to be with the person and it is a natural progression if the other party feels the same way. The thing is that it is about putting the other person's happiness before your own, that we love the person, be it in being together with a person or giving up on unrequited love.

Also, I feel this can be applied to knowing whether we truly love a person or not, and that is if we care about the needs of the other person and that the other person is happy, then that is love. And, really that sparked me into reflection...like in a broader sense shouldn't we love others in this same way, to have the welfare of society at heart. I used to feel so strongly about altruism and somehow I don't know but I lost a little bit of the fervour in that aspect. Of course, now I still believe in that, like we should be altrusitic in the things we do and not do do things for personal gain, for in that way it makes the world a better place. I mean, I always see it that we should want to do good because it is good, and it should be the starting point. Like, we have a responsiblity to society and it should be our desire to make it a better place.

As for Chinese New Year then, well it's great and it is part of our culture and tradition as Chinese. It's a wonderful time to reunite with family and enjoy all the festivities. But, was in some ways a unique one this year, like the first day of CNY was also like Valentine's Day and was also on a Sunday. The point about it was that even as we celebrate Chinese New Year it is merely a tradition, but still Christ comes first. And, in fact the occasion is also an opportunity to share the gospel and thank God for His many blessings, which in a way is glorifying God. It is really epitomised by the Christian banners they have for Chinese New Year, the one that says glory to God. The point it was Christ first, as we began the day focussing on God first, and there is a difference between tradition and our beliefs, but even in this occasion we can glorify God.

Finally, about how I've been spending this Chinese New Year Holiday...So yea, had reunion dinner on the eve of Chinese New Year with just the immediate family which was great i guess. And, then on the first day of Chinese New Year, after receving our Hong Baos from our parents haha, we went to Church. Thereafter, we went to the airport for lunch, a little bit extreme, but was to avoid crowds and to be sure it wasn't close. Lastly, we went to our maternal grandmother's house for dinner with our relatives from the maternal side. As for anything remotely Valentine's Day, there really wasn't anything, I almost didn't feel like it was Valentine's Day. I do agree with the point of view that there really Valentine's Day is really just all a hype and that in dating everyday can feel like a Valentine's Day. But, it is a sweet reminder for those in relationships. It would definitely have been great to be able to celebrate it too but oh well maybe in the future haha.

So that's about it for the 14 of February...

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