Dream House? I have a lot of dream houses.  I find my dream houses in the TV, the magazine and the internet. Every time I see  these beautiful houses, I can’t help but imagine how it would be like living in those posh and super swank houses. But realistically speaking, my Hubby and I haven’t started planning on building a house yet. I think one very obvious reason for that is because of the nature of our work where we temporarily live overseas and if we ever plan to settle down, we also haven’t decided where, since we are both from different countries.

But of course, I would opt to settle down in my own native land, the Philippines.. hehehe! There’s no place like home huh. But as said, our planning for settling down hasn’t come as far as that yet. And whenever that happens that will only happen when we are old and with our kids married and settled. Oh, I think I’m babbling too much now.

This is a repost from my other blog. This post was actually written last year when my li’l girl was only 4 years old. Now, that she’s 5, she has improved a lot in her prayers and use the ACTS ( Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving and Supplication) pattern in praying.

I’m not an expert here but one of the things that I’m so blessed about our Li’l 4 year old girl is that she knows how to pray and believes in the power of God when we pray. She prays publicly for other people like for example healing and immediately asks, “Are you Okay, now?” That’s the faith of a little child. We don’t have to remind her to pray before her meals but immediately bows down her head and thanks God for her food. There were times that I overheard her even pray and thank God for the candy she was about to eat.. so cute! Just today my Hubby and I were talking and my Hubby said he’s not feeling so well.. and immediately, she prayed for God to heal her Appa..and not only that she thanked God for having a handsome Appa! LOL!! Now that she’s older, she just kneels down and pray by herself before going to sleep.. her prayer would usually be..” forgive me Lord for doing bad things.. help me do good things..”

How to raise a prayerful child then? This is just based on our experience and you may add your own steps.

1) Prayer starts even before the baby is born. When I was still pregnant, my Hubby never fails to “talk” to our baby and pray with her. Children are God’s gifts and so everyday we must entrust them unto Him.

2) When they become toddlers, pray with them during meals and give them the ‘task’ to say AMEN. We did that with Tricia and she’ll be so excited to say “Amen”.. That was one of her first few words that she learned.. I think she was only 1 year and two months old that time.

3) Set an example for them by praying before meals, before going out of the house, before going to sleep and etc and at the same time teach them.

4) Read Bible Stories before they go to sleep. This will show them examples of people who prayed and showing them that God indeed answers when we pray.

5) As they grow older and when they are ready, ask them to lead the prayer before meals or before they sleep.

6) When God answers your prayers or their prayers, share this to them as a testimony that God indeed answers our prayers. And in our experience God has indeed answered our Li’l girls’ prayer countless of times.. even when she prayed to have a wonderwoman doll or a van for our center.

That’s all that I could think of now and I would just like to give Glory to God for His special gift to us and that is our daughter. DALAYGON ANG DIOS SA WALAY KATAPUSAN!

Are there any other things that you wish to share and add? Please do so..

This is a continuation of my previous post:

Smart Saving Tips for everyday Living

6. Opt for house brands instead of established brands as up to 20 %  savings can be made. – As for our family, we don’t buy all the house brands items, like industrial supplies and electronics since we don’t find the quality these house brands very good when it comes to these items. But if we opt for house brands for school and office supplies and other simple stuff that doesn’t really require the best quality.

7. Use Energy-saving bulb as they use 1/4 electricity and lasts four times longer than normal light bulb.- This is very true even if some energy saving bulbs are more expensive but it’ll turn out that you’ll have more savings in the long run.
8. Plan your purchasing by preparing a list of what you intend to buy. Stick to the list.- Is this easy to do for you? Not for me..heheh! since I end up buying things not on my list especially the food items.
9. Use basket instead of trolley. This will reduce your spending. – Practical if you’re doing weekly shopping but not practical for us who do monthly shopping so we’ll really need the trolley.
10. Pay cash rather than credit card. Always be cautious about using credit cards.- Very true. It’s easy to monitor our expenses when we use cash rather than the credit card.
11. Never allow yourself to be pressured into making immediate decisions, especially when purchasing expensive items.- Yes, some sales representatives are very good in convincing us to buy their products, NOW! But you can politely say , NO.
12. Buy locally grown food. They are cheaper and you will be supporting local farmers and producers.- Exactly!
13. Monitor your income and expenses. Always prepare a monthly budget and stick to it.- I need to improve on this aspect.
14. Save water. Collect rain water for gardening, washing vehicles or for use in the toilet.- Requires ‘work’ but it’s worth it
15. Plant your own vegetables and fruits around your home or in pots.- Would love to grow our own vegetables.
16. Spend some time to study goods or services before committing yourself.
17. Compare prices, quality, product reliability, after sales service and others before making decisions.
16. Make decisions only after acquiring complete information about products and services.

Source: Ministry of Domestic Trade, Co-operatives and Consumerism.

Italics added are my own comments