12Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.

This is the verse that's printed on the back of the shirt i'm currently wearing... When i read it i was pleasantly surprised. The shirt's an old shirt that i got from church when the youth ministry in my church sold it as part of the publicity of a christmas play they were going to do that christmas. Anyway i was pleasantly surprised and encouraged by it as i've recently made up my mind to live a more Christ-centered life where i would need to meditate more on the word of God and be more conscious and deliberate about the actions and thoughts i make. I somehow made this decision after God convicted me to do it through the new book i've been reading, through the SERVE program i've currently been attending and through my new position in my cell. Being in a new leadership position, i've been challenged and will be challenged to grow so much more in Christ and to take my relationship with God to greater heights. I would say that SERVE has blessed me by exposing me to the word of God daily and challenged some of my thoughts about life, traditions, the future, etc... Another aspect is that it has certainly made me reflect more about my actions and thoughts and also created opportunities to praise God and give thanks to God daily through the community praise and sharing of testimonies amongst the groups. Besides SERVE, i'd like to thank God for helping me in the tasks that i had to complete by yesterday. Actually i was quite swamped by a few things, one of them being my brother's video for his birthday party. Thankfully, by God's grace, i was able to finish both on time and was even on time for cell as well. (: I also learnt during cell yesterday(or was reminded more) about how as Christians we should decrease while Christ increases in our lives. By this, i mean about how much we think of ourselves and how much we think of God. By emulating Christ so much more than we think of our own needs and wants, we slowly become more like Him and our actions and words would be less self-serving. As our culture teaches us to be selfish, to care only about OUR needs causing us to become impatient, materialistic, overly ambitious, etc., we should be counter-culture and live for God and not for ourselves. If we put ourselves first before God and before others, we'll be violating the two most important commandments and that is to 1st love God with all our hearts, souls and minds and 2nd love our neighbours as ourselves. Yup. That's basically it. Hopefully this challenges your thoughts as well.