Today's sermon was really a word in season, and the touching thing was feeling God's tenderness and grace throughout the time Pst Tan was preaching. Indeed, His love is the greatest motivator that keeps us on this road.

I realise that in everyone's spirit, whether Christian or not, we love the ideals of honour, valour, love, courage, friendship, and truth. It's everywhere in the movies, in books, and in the number of non-christian fans. Everywhere in the world, there are people who have not given up hope on life but are waking up each day, seeking something out there that they don't know how to find, and really just trying their best.

Especially those who are really down and out. I'm always so humbled by people whom I see, like elderly cleaners cleaning the tables at hawker centres, or people who are disabled singing at MRT stations, or even people closer to us - our parents who work for decades at a single job, motivated by seeing us clothed, fed and happy.

Indeed, love is full of hope for people. Even though sometimes we feel disillusioned and disappointed with the human condition, this fallen nature, but don't forget that we are still here, we have redemptive value. If we focus on this, we'll see that there are signs of hope everywhere, from a teenage boy getting up to give a girl a seat in the MRT, or people who let way to you on the road.

On thursday last week, I was travelling alone on the MRT and I was thinking about what I'd read in a book by Joyce Meyer. I suddenly remembered what my ex-cgl once told me, that smiling ALL THE TIME is important. So I tried. My very best.

And all I can say is that I had a newfound respect for him. After 5 minutes, I really felt like my face was going to cramp and it was so painful because I felt like it wasn't genuine, and I was thinking whether I looked like a fool, smiling for no reason. I even thought of amusing stuff to make myself smile. Then I realised that I was laughing to myself, which was worst.

But seriously, it was only after this that I realised that so little people around me actually smiled at all. Everyone, in their unguarded natural moments had their facial muscles slack, because it really takes intentional, serious EFFORT to smile.

After going one big round, I think all I wanna say is to have hope, not only in other people that they've something good in them, but also in yourself. What Pst preached today about values, we might not have all of them, or even any in the quantity that we want, BUT God is committed to us. So commit to yourself, to love yourself and others around you - one of the ways of which is to show off those nice teeth more often like this: :D

Note: Statistics show that if you smile, you're 60% more likely to feel that emotion!