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LIVEtheLIFE Magazine is very proud to showcase an interview with Miss Teen Philippines 2006 Juliann Savard.
Juliann, a bright-eyed 14-year-old from Central Luzon, bested 39 other young ladies from all over the Philippines to emerge the new Miss Teen Philippines 2006 at the conclusion of the Miss Teen Philippines 2006 pageant held last June 1, 2006 at the University of the Philippines Theater in Diliman, Quezon City.
by Ganns Deen
Here’s something guaranteed: there will be days when you wish you’d just stayed in bed. You know how it starts. You wake up late, you have a bad hair day, and the school bus or family car has either left you behind. Your car won’t start. Then, it rains badly, and you have to commute. Then the teacher springs the surprise quiz, or your boss springs a new job on you. You get the point.
This can get frustrating. Makes you want to punch a wall.
Spare your knuckles. We’ve got great tips on how you can overcome failure.
Read the rest of this entry »
by Dante Gagelonia
Platinum-selling recording artist and solid Christian musician Kitchie Nadal has much to be thankful for, with a certified hit album, at least five hit radio singles, and sold-out concerts. How does she keep herself grounded? When does she find time to be with God? Is there a man in her life? Dante Gagelonia sits back, pulls up a chair, and shoots the breeze with Kitchie Nadal. Read the rest of this entry »
by Ganns Deen
Spanking the monkey. Choking the chicken. Teasing the trouser snake. Jacking off.
However you call it, if you are the average young Filipino, you have experimented, one way or the other, with masturbation, the dreaded M word that the parents of your parents’ parents were told was going to send them straight to hell. Or give them hairy palms. Or make them blind. What a laugh!
by Ganns Deen
Ah, faith, that misunderstood, over-interpreted, woefully underappreciated word. If only it were as simple as music: for persons who grew up in the 80s, faith meant George Michael in skintight jeans; persons in the 90s knew the Limp Bizkit version. Regardless, it’s funny how many people question a person’s faith in God, with evidence right in front of their noses, but don’t bat an eyelash when it comes to believing other hard-to-prove concepts, like life on other planets, or Bigfoot, or the Marcos wealth. Some of us are pretty easy to please. Others need the info banged into their heads with a shovel. (That last part’s a joke.)
Fact is, we use faith every day. For instance, we have faith that we’ll wake up the next morning, or faith that big coffee chains will continue to make overpriced coffee, or that one day Rachael Lampa will grant us an interview. In this regard, faith is as simple as trust, and we need it to interact with the real world, as Paul Little says in his book, Know Why You Believe (OMF Literature, P169.75).
Take Spiderman’s Peter Parker, for instance.
by Ganns Deen
You know the drill: you wake up in the morning and the first thing you do is reach for the pack of cigarettes on the table beside you and light up a stick. You finish three sticks before breakfast. You have a couple on the way to work or school; you find yourself whiling away the hours with an occasional puff; you set aside a portion of your budget on cigarettes.
Tobacco is an integral part of your lifestyle: you have ashtrays in every room in the house, consume at least half a pack of cigarettes a day, and are fully aware of the dangers of your habit. People have tried to get you to quit. You tell them a) it gives me pleasure and hurts no one else; b) it only hurts me and no one else; c) the Bible doesn’t say anything about smoking; d) I need to smoke because it calms my nerves; or e) I know someone who’s been smoking all his life and he’s not sick. Of course, none of these are really true.
You know that statistics show lung cancer is now of the top five killers in the world – next only to heart disease, AIDS, and diabetes. You know the stories of people who’ve succumbed to lung cancer, including painful tales of people who died as a result of second-hand smoke. You’ve seen the ads; you’ve heard the stories; you want to quit… but not really.
No amount of statistics or gross pictures is going to make you stop. No amount of Bible verse will help you quit if you don’t see the value of the Word, and prayer is, believe it or not, simply not enough. The fact is this: it’s not enough to pray 24 hours a day and allow that stick to end up in between your lips. It’s like holding a lit cigarette in your fingers and saying, “God, please give me strength to not smoke this stick.”
We know what you’re thinking: with God, all things are possible, right? But now you’re saying, God can’t help me quit? But I thought God was all-powerful! He can help me quit! Of course God can do anything! However, He has given you free will, and He will never take that away. So, even if He wants to help, if you won’t let Him help, then He’ll respect that.
I had a brother who died of complications from lung cancer that spread to his brain. My brother was a world champion in darts, and is highly respected in that field. Only in his 40s, he was one example of how cancer can rob you of the people you love – and how they inflicted the damage on themselves. Meanwhile, my father suffered two strokes in the matter of six months, also an indirect result of his five-ream-a-week smoking habit. Theirs was a journey – like yours – that ended in tragedy. Are you willing to make the same mistake?
The first and most important step in your journey is the decision you make to say, “Okay, God, I want to quit smoking. Please help me.” Once you’ve done that, read on. This piece isn’t for people who’ve been trying to quit, but can’t. This article is for people who want to quit, and are willing to take active steps towards making it happen.
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