Students not required to wear uniforms - Sara

A girl tries on a school uniform at a stall in Commonwealth Market in this photo taken on July 13, 2022. PHOTO BY JOHN ORVEN VERDOTE

By Kaithreen Cruz, Manila Times

PUBLIC school students will not be required to wear school uniforms, Vice President and Education Secretary Sara Duterte-Carpio said on Monday.

She pointed out that it is not a strict requirement for public school students to wear uniforms even before the pandemic to avoid incurring additional costs.

"All the more that it will not be required this school year given the increasing prices and economic losses due to the pandemic," Duterte-Carpio said.

School Year 2022-2023 will open on August 22, with DepEd giving schools flexibility to utilize distance learning modalities, blended learning, or full face-to-face classes until October 31.

The Education department, through DepEd Order No. 34 s. 2022, mandated all public and private schools nationwide to hold five days of in-person learning starting November 2.

Philippines: Highest Risk for climate-changed disasters

PROTECTION – An elderly woman finds ample protection from the sun and rain under an umbrella as she barely fits herself on a stool while sleeping on the sidewalk in front of the Quirino Grandstand in Manila on Monday, July 18, 2022. (Ali Vicoy)
 

Finance Secretary Benjamin E. Diokno said the Philippines, as one of the countries at highest risk for climate-related disasters, was determined to be a world leader in the fight against the crisis. And part of this role would be its initiative to transition from coal to clean energy.

ECB goes on offensive as inflation pressure up

LEADING BANK This July 7, 2022 file photo shows the headquarters of the European Central Bank in Frankfurt, Germany. XINHUA PHOTO

By Agence France-Presse

FRANKFURT: The European Central Bank (ECB) will raise its interest rates on Thursday for the first time in over a decade, but the bank is already under pressure to do more amid record inflation.

The ECB has for months been preparing the end of the era of cheap money that supported the economy through a series of crises in recent years.

To try and counteract a steep rise in prices, the bank has said it intends to raise its interest rates by a quarter point, the first such move since 2011.

The ECB already stopped its bond-buying stimulus program at the beginning of July, as it laid the groundwork for the rise.

The liftoff in rates comes in response to an unprecedented surge in prices, driven higher by supply chain bottlenecks and rising energy costs following Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Inflation in the eurozone sat at 8.6 percent in June, the highest ever recorded for the currency club and well above the ECB's 2-percent target.

The Frankfurt-based institution continues playing catch up with its peers, like the Federal Reserve, which started hiking earlier and more aggressively.

The ECB deposit rate has been negative for the past eight years, with the key rate currently at -0.5 percent.

The punitive interest rate, which effectively charges banks to park their money with the ECB overnight, was designed to encourage more lending, more economic activity and higher inflation rates.

Rate hike won't cut energy prices – ECB

Stubbornly low for years, prices are now soaring as a result of scrambled supply chains from the coronavirus pandemic and the burst in the price of food and energy caused by the war in Ukraine.

The inflation surge caught central banks, not least the ECB, off guard.

Now the central bank is aiming to lift interest rates out of negative territory by the end of September as part of a "gradual but sustained" series of hikes, according to ECB President Christine Lagarde.

In hindsight, the "cautious normalization process the ECB started at the end of last year has simply been too slow and too late," said Carsten Brzeski, head of macro at ING.

ECB to end stimulus in prelude to rate hikes

With each new data release causing new consternation, the central bank's cautious quarter-point step could lead to a feeling of "disappointment," he added.

Some ECB policymakers may push for faster action, but "it will be a balancing act between the ECB's credibility as being predictable and its credibility as a determined inflation fighter," the ING officer said.

The ECB was faced with an "impossible equation to solve," said Frederik Ducrozet, head of macroeconomic research at Pictet Wealth Management.

'Taming inflation amid war harder'

Central bankers, he added, were determined to squash inflation while "the euro area economy is on the brink of recession," circumstances under which they would normally hesitate to raise interest rates.

The outlook for the economy was clouded by the war in Ukraine with eurozone members bracing for a winter in which energy could be scarce and planning to ration supplies if Russia halts gas deliveries to the continent.

Add a weak euro against the dollar, which touched parity recently for the first time in nearly 20 years, and a political crisis in Italy and the monetary calculations became even harder, Ducrozet said.

The withdrawal of a key party from former ECB chief and Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi's governing coalition has unnerved investors, sending borrowing costs up again.

The quickly rising strain in bond markets had already prompted the ECB to respond in mid-June by speeding up the design of an instrument to fight "fragmentation" in the eurozone.

The new tool was "critical" to avoid "excessive divergence" in the borrowing costs faced by different countries and make sure monetary policy moves were felt evenly across the eurozone, ECB Vice President Luis de Guindos said in early July.

But the idea has been met with skepticism by some governing council members.

Any crisis tool should only be used in "exceptional circumstances" and under strict conditions, warned Joachim Nagel, head of the traditionally conservative German Bundesbank.

After three years of distance learning, internship at this natural farm provides overdue field experience for agriculture students

by Jerome Sagcal, Manila Bulletin

Diane Cabusas is an incoming fourth year agricultural engineering student taking her internship in Sanctuario.

The current generation of college students will graduate, with more than half of their college life reduced to an online experience. There are plans to re-open schools within 2022, but should the COVD-19 pandemic have another resurgence in light of the new cases of Omicron subvariants, resumption of face-to-face classes might be put to a halt.

Diane Cabusas and her friends only have one year left in college before they graduate. They are incoming fourth year students studying agricultural and biosystems engineering in Cavite State University (CvSU) and are now taking up their internship as part of their summer semester. 

Since the number of reported COVID-19 cases had stabilized at relatively low figures until June, the country opened up, allowing more face-to-face activities such as physical internship programs. Perhaps spending the next few weeks of their internship in Santuario Nature Farms, a natural farm in Indang, Cavite, is what Diane and her friends need to make up for everything they did not experience during the pandemic.

Sanctuario Nature Farms is accredited by the Agricultural Training Institute as a learning site for agriculture. It is also a registered farm school under the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) for students aiming to take Organic Agriculture Production NCII. The farm covers an area of 2.5 hectares, all of it dedicated to natural farming. They grow lettuce, their main crop, and a vast assortment of medicinal and culinary herbs. They also raise pigs, goats, chickens, and rabbits.

“Parang nandito na lahat na pwede naming matutunan — may crops, livestock, and irrigation (It seems the farm has everything we need to learn. They have crops, livestock, and an irrigation system),” Diane said.

Diane’s three friends are also taking their internship in Sanctuario.

Diane took up a degree in agricultural engineering because of the influence of her family. “Noong elementary ako, sa farm nagwowork yung tatay ko. Then minsan sinasama kami sa farm. Nung nag-college yung kuya ko, sa agriculture din siya, nakita ko po yung mga papers niya. Medyo natuwa ako sa pagbabasa ng ganyan (When I was in elementary school, my father worked at a farm, where he also used to take us. When my older brother entered college, he also took agriculture. I saw his papers, which were fascinating to read),” Diane said.

Asked if she and her friends considered other places for their internship, she said that they could have worked for the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR). “Sa DENR po sana, kaso admin work. Okay sana doon kaso dahil required po sa amin mag-field, naghanap pa po kami ng iba na pwede. Kaya eto yung nakita nami. (We could have worked at DENR but it was only admin work. Our  internship requires field experience, so we tried looking for other places and found this farm),” Diane said.

“Expectations ko talaga ay marami akong matutunan dito kasi virtual kami natututo. Di naman kasi sa lahat ng oras sa virtual ay matatake-in ng utak kung paano ba talaga eto gawin, kung tama ba ginagawa ko. Through sa experience ko dito, malalman po namin yung tamang way and ano pa dapat yung kailangan malaman talaga (I expect to learn a lot here. It’s hard to absorb knowledge in virtual classes. I feel like I’m not doing things correctly. By taking my internship here, I’ll learn to do things the right way and understand the things we need to learn),” Diane said.

Sanctuario Nature Farms accepts students from any school. Other than CvSU, farm managers and couple Katherine Calingasan and Cliff Ballesteros said that the farm has taken students from De La Salle University Dasmariñas (DSLU-D) and has previously collaborated with University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB) and Central Luzon State University (CLSU).

Couple Katherine Calingasan and Cliff Ballesteros are the farm managers of Sanctuario Nature Farms.

The couple said that they want to tailor their student’s interning experience to fit what they need to learn, according to their specialization. Diane and her friends are taking up agricultural engineering. For this, Katherine and Cliff aim to get them exposed to the farm’s engineering infrastructure, particularly their drip irrigation system. 

On top of that, students will also get exposed to different aspects of farming. “Tinanong namin sila, ‘are you okay to try farm tourism, herbs?’ And they’re willing, kasi parang additional knowledge na yun (We asked them if they want to learn about farm tourism and herbs. They said they were willing because it is additional knowledge for them),” Katherine shared.

“e’re not like other companies na just to accomplish the 240 hours, we’ll let you do anything lang. Halimbawa linisin mo yan, okay na yan, tapos time out ka na — hindi. We’ll make sure na may matutunan (We’ not like other companies that have basic internship programs where students just do simple tasks. We will make sure that they will learn,” Katherine added. 

Sanctuario’s roots trace back to educating the youth

The farm’s inclination to support students goes way back to its past. The farm was founded in 2006 by a practicing Buddhist philanthropist. It is said that the farm was meant to be educational in nature. “Yung initial conception is just an educational farm kaya malapit sa CvSU. The former owner, gusto niya ma-elevate yung farmers… Gusto niyang ipakita sa mga bata na may other way of farming pala (The initial conception of the farm was to be educational, therefore the reason it’s near CvSU. The former owner wanted to elevate the life of farmers. He wanted to show the youth that there are other ways of farming),” a board director of Santcuario Nature Farms Corp said.

On top of allowing students to take their internship in the farm, students are encouraged to use the facilities of the farm for their research. They may use a plot of land and utilize other resources in the farm free of charge.

“Inencourage namin yung mga students to do their research here. Tapos kung magsusulat sila ng book o thesis, pwede nila isulat na Sanctuario as their research center, yung lang yung kapalit. Baka ma-fund pa sila ng Sanctuario (We encourage students to conduct their studies here. All they have to do in return is to indicate that they conducted their research here. The farm might even fund their study,” Cliff said.

Katherine added that students just need to send a project proposal to indicate what they need from the farm. They added that Sanctuario has helped not only college students, but also more experienced graduate students and even high school students.

After years of being a private farm that was mostly utilized as a research center, the farm was incorporated into Santcuario Nature Farms Corp in 2015, which was when the farm was opened to the public. 

The farm has a dedicated area for concoctions where they demonstrate how natural fertilizers are made.

The farm now offers guided farm tours where visitors can get to experience all sorts of various farming activities. They may interact with and feed farm animals such as pigs, goats, chickens, and rabbits. They may help in sowing seeds and in harvesting crops that they want to buy and take home. 

The farm also has a dedicated area for concoctions where they demonstrate how natural fertilizers such as fermented plant juice, fermented fruit juice, and oriental herb nutrients are made. Outside the concoction area is a pathway lined with different herbs. The tour guide would go through each of the herbs, explaining their use, while engaging the visitors by letting them taste the herbs on the spot.

Visitors may also learn about the several varieties of bamboo that grow in the farm. Other learning opportunities include the farm’s drip irrigation system and how the farm is able to sustainably nourish their soil through vegan vermiculture.

Visitors may take a longer stay in the farm by renting a dorm.

Farm tours are packaged with snacks and drinks but they may also order additional meals if they want to try rabbit meat, cochinillo, salad, and other dishes. For visitors looking to enjoy farming life for a longer period of time, they may rent a space in a dorm for a reasonable price of P3,500 per month.

3 storms may hit PH until end of July

By Arlie O. Calalo, Manila Times

THERE may be two to three tropical storms that will possibly enter the country within the month of July, according to weather specialist Benison Estareja of the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa).

A storm is a violent disturbance of the atmosphere with strong winds and usually rain or snow or thunder, among others.

The state-run weather agency will be closely monitoring the storms, Estareja said on Friday.

He also said the low pressure area (LPA) that stayed in the Philippine area of responsibility (PAR) for a couple of days has dissipated, and a generally fair-weather condition is expected until over the weekend.

The southwest monsoon or habagat will be experienced particularly in the western section of Northern Luzon and Central Luzon until the weekend, Estareja added.

"It's good news for us because we will have a generally fair weather condition as we are not expecting any storm or even an LPA that may enter PAR until over the weekend," Estareja said in an interview with The Manila Times.

Pagasa said the southwest monsoon is bringing cloudy skies with scattered rain showers and thunderstorms to Western Visayas.

Metro Manila and the rest of the country will likely have partly cloudy to cloudy skies with isolated rain showers or thunderstorms mostly in the western section of Luzon caused by the habagat and localized thunderstorms, the weather bureau added.

Heavy rains spawn floods

Workers clean up trash brought by floods in Araneta Ave. in Quezon City on Sunday,  July 17, 2022. The area was submerged by floods on Saturday night. PHOTO BY ISMAEL DE JUAN

By Francis Earl Cueto, Manila Times

Many areas in Metro Manila and other parts of the country were swamped with floods on Saturday night as heavy rains triggered by a localized thunderstorm pounded Luzon.

Areas that were chest-deep in floods included Maria Clara St., Araneta Avenue and Barangay Vasra in Quezon City.

Quezon Avenue, EDSA, E. Rodriguez Ave. and Ortigas Ave., Timog Ave. and EDSA Taft Rotonda were also flooded.

The Metropolitan Manila Development Authority said that floods subsided a few hours later.

The Marikina River swelled to 13.6 meters. Several streets in Providence Village were flooded.

All the floodgates of the Manggahan floodway were opened.

In Alabel Sarangani province, at least 200 families were evacuated due to flooding in two villages.

In Maitum, Sarangani, some houses were swept away when the river overflowed.

OFW remittances up in May – BSP

By Mayvelin U. Caraballo, Manila Times

July 16, 2022

THE amount of money sent home by overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) increased to its highest level in two months in May, according to data released on Friday by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP).

Personal remittances, or cash or kind transfers between families, reached $2.70 billion in the fifth month of 2022, up 1.27 percent from $2.67 billion in April and 1.99 percent from $2.65 billion in May 2021. Since the $2.88 billion sent in March of this year, this was the most OFs ever sent.

The expansion over a year ago in May was related to remittances from land-based employees with contracts lasting one year or more, as well as from sea- and land-based employees with short-term contracts.

The total amount of remittances for the first five months of the year was $14.02 billion, a pickup of 2.5 percent from $13.68 billion from January to May 2021, according to the latest numbers.

Cash remittances, meanwhile, totaled $2.42 billion in May, accelerating 1.25 percent from the month before and 1.80 percent from $2.38 billion a year earlier.

The central bank said the year-on-year expansion in April "attributed to remittances from land-based workers on one year or longer contracts, and from sea- and land-based workers on short-term contracts."

From January to May 2022, cash remittances saw an uptick of 2.5 percent to $12.59 billion from $12.28 billion in the previous year.

The growth in cash remittances from the United States, Saudi Arabia, Japan, Qatar and Singapore, the BSP pointed out, contributed significantly to the growth in remittances in the first five months of 2022.

The Bangko Sentral kept its outlook of a 4-percent rise in cash remittances this year, noting the sector's long-term growth trend, expanding deployment as a result of employers' renewed interest in hiring OFWs and rising usage of digital financial services among OFs and their dependents.

PH Covid cases keep climbing

By Red Mendoza  and Catherine S. Valente

CASES of coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) in the country continued to climb, breaching the 1,700 daily average mark over the past week.

In its Covid situationer issued on Friday, the Department of Health (DoH) said the national daily average jumped by 40 percent during the week of July 8 to 14, to 1,751 cases.

The National Capital Region or Metro Manila still has the steepest increase, with 748 daily cases, while Mindanao's numbers are also inching up.

Despite the rise, the risk classification remains to be low, along with average daily attack rates and health care utilization rates.

Severe and critical admissions are also low — 651 out of the total 7,629 cases in hospitals across the country.

The caseload is still a far cry from the record 39,004 cases on January 15, a surge driven by the highly infectious Omicron variant.

Experts constantly remind that Omicron and its subvariants have high rates of transmission and could skirt immunity from vaccines.

Majority of the Omicron cases, however, are mild, compared to the Delta variant.

The DoH also reported that 71.2 million individuals have been fully vaccinated for Covid-19 as of July 13, while 15.5 million have received booster doses.

NCR remains under Alert Level 2

During a TV interview on Friday, Health department Officer in Charge Maria Rosario Vergeire said vaccinations should not be a requirement for children attending in-person classes.

Full face-to-face classes are set to resume in November, and most parents are worried that vaccinated children may mingle with unvaccinated schoolmates.

Vergeire said that instead of mandating vaccinations, it is better to give incentives to parents who convince their children to get jabbed.

She said schoolchildren should not be deprived of education just because they are not vaccinated. "Education is a right, we cannot think of it into a mandate where they would not go to school because of this," Vergeire said.

Metro Manila remains under Alert Level 1

She said the DoH will set up vaccination sites in schools so that kids and their parents may be encouraged to get their shots.

Vergeire also said one of her plans as OIC is to speed up the release of benefits for health workers.

She said most of the issues encountered by hospitals in providing benefits to their staff were "transactional" in nature, such as non-signing of memoranda of agreement and liquidation of funds from some hospitals.

Alert Level 1 stays in Metro Manila, parts of PH

"We are planning to start discussing this with the health workers and looking at the challenges to facilitate the release of the benefits," Vergeire said.

She also said that one of her priorities is to work with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to hasten the approval of certificates of product registration (CPR) for Covid-19 vaccines.

Vergeire said the department will encourage manufacturers to apply for such a certificate to be able to use these vaccines once the state of public health emergency expires in September.

In a related development, Press Secretary Rose Beatrix "Trixie" Cruz-Angeles said the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases will continue to function under the administration of President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr.

Cruz-Angeles made the assurance as the current quarantine classification was set to lapse on July 15.

During a press briefing Friday, she said she has not been informed when the IATF will meet and submit its recommendations to the President on the new alert levels for the rest of the month.

She said the government is prepared to extend the present levels if necessary.

Aside from Metro Manila, provinces and cities under Alert Level 1 until July 15: Abra, Apayao, Baguio City, Kalinga, Mountain Province, Dagupan City, Ilocos Norte, Ilocos Sur, La Union, Pangasinan, Batanes, Cagayan, City of Santiago, Isabela, Nueva Vizcaya, Quirino, Angeles City, Aurora, Bataan, Bulacan, Nueva Ecija, Olongapo City, Pampanga, Tarlac, Zambales, Batangas, Cavite, Laguna, Lucena City, Rizal, Marinduque, Oriental Mindoro, Puerto Princesa City, Romblon, Albay, Catanduanes, Naga City, and Sorsogon.

Also under Alert Level 1 are Aklan, Bacolod City, Capiz, Guimaras, Iloilo province, Iloilo City, Cebu City, Lapu-Lapu City (Opon), Mandaue City, Siquijor, Biliran, Eastern Samar, Ormoc City, Southern Leyte, Tacloban City, Zamboanga City, Northern Mindanao: Bukidnon, Cagayan De Oro City, Camiguin, Iligan City, Misamis Occidental, Misamis Oriental, Davao City, Davao Oriental, South Cotabato, Butuan City, Surigao Del Sur, Agusan Del Norte, Agusan Del Sur and Cotabato City.

Under Alert Level 1, travel is allowed without regard to age and comorbidities.

Under Alert Level 2 are Benguet, Ifugao, Quezon, Occidental Mindoro, Palawan, Camarines Norte, Camarines Sur, Masbate, Antique, Negros Occidental, Bohol, Cebu, Negros Oriental, Leyte, Northern Samar, Samar, City of Isabela, Zamboanga Del Norte, Zamboanga Del Sur, Zamboanga Sibugay, Lanao Del Norte, Davao De Oro, Davao Del Norte, Davao Del Sur, Davao Occidental, Cotabato, General Santos City, Sarangani, Sultan Kudarat, Dinagat Islands, Surigao Del Norte, Basilan, Lanao Del Sur, Maguindanao, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi.

Everything should be prayer

By Fr. Roy Cimagala*

WE have to realize that prayer is the only thing necessary in our life. (cfr. Lk 10,38-42) We need it more than we need air to breathe, food to eat, water to drink. And that’s simply because it is our basic and indispensable way to keep in touch with God which is what is most important in our life.

Let’s remember that our life is supposed to be a life with and in God always, since we have been created in his image and likeness, children of his, and sharers of his divine life, not only in heaven in our definitive state, but also while here on earth.

It does not mean that just because we always have to pray, we do nothing other than pray and that we should not get involved in our temporal and earthly affairs. Let’s never forget that God has placed us in the world to test us, if what he wants us to be is also what we want to be for ourselves, that is, to be children of his.

We should therefore be actively involved in our temporal and earthly affairs, but doing so by converting everything in these affairs into some form of prayer, into some form of engaging ourselves with God.

To be sure, this is possible and doable, because praying does not even need a bodily organ for it to be done. It is a spiritual operation that can transcend the use of our bodily faculties. It’s a matter of attitude, of belief, which we can always have even if it is not expressly articulated.

As such, it can be done in any situation—while we are working, playing, resting, etc. But it would be good that we spend some time doing nothing other than praying, directly engaging God in a loving conversation, because that would help us to be prayerful in all our other activities and situations in life.

Thus, we have to be ready to do some vocal prayers and mental prayer. These are exercises that can build and fuel our life of prayer. With them, we engage God in a more direct way, and in a more loving way, giving him due worship and adoration. 

Besides, those moments of vocal prayer and mental prayer would be good moments to thank God for everything we have received, and also to ask for pardon for the mistakes and sins we have committed, as well as to ask for favors that we need.

But in our present human condition, we need to fight to be able to pray. We need to struggle. We have to exert great and abiding effort to convert everything we do into prayer. That’s because as our catechism puts it, we should pray as we live because we can only live properly as we pray. (cfr. Compendium 572)

      

The forces of good and evil are always in conflict not so much in some places outside or war arenas somewhere, as in our very own heart. The combat is more internal than external, more spiritual and moral than material and physical.

Besides, the battle of contention starts in some little matters, not in big issues, that are not promptly attended to and are made to fester for a while until they become a crisis or a conflagration.

   

We need to be always on guard, and the best way to do that is to pray, to be in constant conversation with God, our Father, whose wisdom and omnipotence he is willing to share with us, his children, created in his image and likeness.

* Chaplain Center for Industrial Technology and Enterprise (CITE), Talamban, Cebu City

Email: roycimagala@gmail.com

A MOST DOWN-TO-EARTH BOOK

Overall, “Down to Earth” is a beautiful middle-grade book that I think a person of any age would enjoy. “Down to Earth” is a fascinating, middle-grade adventure that makes you feel in awe of the Universe, and I loved reading it! There are many reasons why I adored reading this book.

Do you feel like you’re living life but missing the information necessary for true happiness and fulfillment? Do you feel like someone threw you into life without the user’s manual? It’s hard to play a game when you don’t know the rules—especially when it’s the game of life! 

When tragedy strikes, it's easy to harden our hearts and cry out, "God, why did you let this happen?" Maybe then, we started praying. Before, when everything went smoothly, we would not even think a minute about praying... .

"To be a Christian without prayer, "said Martin Luther, "is no more possible than to be alive without breathing." Prayer is the only way of becoming what God wants us to be. This is the reason why Jesus spent many hours praying.

Unquestionable, our needs bring us to a place of prayer. Confronted with danger or tragedies, as I mentioned earlier, we look for God's help. Difficult times always cause the hearts of men to turn to God into prayer.

Let me ask you: How long has it been since you've brought your burdens to God? Since you asked His forgiveness for your shortcomings?

In his very interesting book "People in Prayer", Dr. John White reminds us that prayer is a divine-human interaction and it is always God who takes the initiative. White writes: "God speaks and we respond. God is always speaking. To hear his voice is not usually a mystical experience. It consists merely of a willingness to pay heed to God who lays a claim to our lives."

Yes, God always speaks. It is up to us whether we will listen and respond to Him. Many think we are the ones who initiate prayer. But prayers begin and end with God.

There was a time, I wasn't in the mood to pray any more. It seemed that God didn't listen to my prayer any more. I didn't get what I prayed for. Of course, not... ! That's not the meaning of praying to God. Will all my wishes be granted? Heaven forbid!

Sometimes, after we have prayed, God's answers may puzzle us. But as time goes by and as events unfold we see God's purpose in his answers. We might get a larger vision, what HE likes. Not what WE like... .

Think about it for a moment" How does the idea that prayer begins and ends with God affect me now? Do I have the habit of listening to god? How do I respond to Him? How do I usually pray?

I confess that a long time ago I have been trying to persuade God to change other people in my surroundings or circumstances. Nothing changed. Of course not, what a fatal attraction? I got confused because God never granted my requests. Meanwhile I got God's answers to my prayers. Maybe very simple: I was willing to let God change me... .This is how each one of us should start. Happy endings. Because I prayed according to His will... .

Talking about prayer, we also have to mention the probably most down-earth book in the bible which is  Proverbs. Its education prepares you for the street and the marketplace, not the schoolroom. The book offers the warm advice you get by growing up in a good family. It covers small questions as well as large ones: talking too much, visiting neighbors too often, being unbearably cheerful too early in the morning. Proverbs simply tell how life works most of the time.

I always love to quote proverbs, which express the truth about life in an elegant, witty kernel. You should not hunt through it for proverbs you might like. You should study the whole book to get its overall point of view. This takes time, for Proverbs covers dozens of subjects in subtle detail.