I am Daisy Celmar, a wife and a mother of 6 children. We are a poor family but, in Christ’s strength, we are united and blessed beyond all the challenges and difficulties we have faced in life. Way back when I did not know and believe in Christ, my life was filled with sinful activities, such as gambling, and difficult life events; I witnessed a lot of accidents involving my children. During this time, I tried many different businesses to sustain my family. However, I was not able to figure out the purpose of my hard work and difficulties, despite having believed in the Lord Jesus for my salvation years before. That first faith was all I did for Christ over the years. I went to a lot of different churches, but I could still not recognize and identify myself as part of that church and remained miserable in life.
the difficulties of life could be surpassed because I found Christ as my foundation of strength and found my purpose in him.
Finding strength
Everything fell into place when I met sister Teresita Bacariza; I could not forget the first time she introduced me to brother Geralde Mag-usara. After that interaction, everything in my life has changed. Through the help of brother Geralde, along with my brothers and sisters here in Churches of God in Catalunan Grande, my family copes and finds strength in Christ. There was a time when my family was kicked out of the house of my mother-in-law, where I thought of living in the province far away from the church, but God had heard it and rather we stayed at the church hall temporarily. A few years later, brother Garalde helped us find a place to live and comfort us with all our necessities to survive.
Although there are times that my family has had struggles in life, I always remind my family “dutdut rata sa Ginoo (we have to stick ourselves in the Lord)”, because there will always be answers to our prayers. As a Christian, trusting and obeying God’s will has strengthened my family and relationship with others. I always run to what Christ had stated in the book of Psalms 28:7, “The LORD is my strength and my shield; in him my heart trusts, and I am helped; my heart exults, and with my song I give thanks to him.” This scripture made me realize that the difficulties of life could be surpassed because I found Christ as my foundation of strength, and found my purpose in him. My brothers and sisters in Christ were used as instruments as my way of finding out the missing piece that Christ had brought into my life.
As a Christian, living our lives in the ways of the Lord will not be easy. But we can appreciate the people he has given to help us, and the strength that Christ provides to us, in every situation in our lives.
Daisy Celmar, Church of God in Malabog
