Category: Philippine Star

Filipino brands must go beyond memory recall and should add relevance and significance if they want to stand out in an increasingly crowded market, according to leading data, insights and consulting firm Kantar.

In its latest 2026 Kantar BrandZ Spotlight report, Kantar said that Philippine brands that are ‘best positioned’ for growth are those that go beyond salience to build ‘meaningful difference.’

The consulting firm found three realities for brands operating in the Philippines today: salience without relevance is just noise, relevance evolves with meaningful value and relevance without difference stalls growth.

The market report noted that these realities come at a time when Filipino consumers have become more selective about the brands they choose and follow.

‘Growth is not just about being present. It’s about making deliberate choices – staying consistent in your positioning, responding to emerging opportunities and focusing resources on what really matters,’ Kantar chief client officer Jose Mari Villabroza said.

The brand report analyzed six categories to see how consumers’ preferences are changing in various product mixes.

In banking, for instance, changing expectations and the rise of digital challengers demonstrate how relevance could shift as consumers find new ways to manage their finances, according to Kantar.

Meanwhile, in the communication industry, the risk brands faced is not relevance but diminishing distinction as connectivity becomes an essential infrastructure to Filipinos, the report said.

‘The challenge is no longer to provide access, but to establish a uniquely valuable role in helping Filipinos progress,’ Kantar said.

In the general retail category, brands with meaningful different characteristics can disrupt established markets, whether they operate online or offline, the report said.

In automotive, being different must be coupled with consumer desire and trust, while the health supplement category shows how relevance, difference and desirability can work together to make brands feel ‘worth it’ to consumers, the report added.

Beer brands must continually earn their place in consumers’ lives today and must not be complacent with just brand familiarity, Kantar said.

‘All the learnings that we’ve gotten across those different categories is that relevance is essentially not owned. It is earned, it evolves and it is also distinguished,’ said Briggs Bondad, associate director and client partner at Kantar.

The brand report identified BDO, Shopee, Globe, Red Horse, Centrum and Toyota as Kantar BrandZ’s Most Meaningfully Different Brands for 2026 in their respective categories.

The brands were ranked based on demand power, a Kantar BrandZ metric reflecting consumer preference and predicting a brand’s potential market share based on consumer perceptions.

Kantar BrandZ also identified brands demonstrating significant potential for future growth.

Maya, TikTok and GAC were named Breakthrough Brands, based on their future power scores, which estimate their likelihood of growing value share in the future, according to Kantar.

‘Being different will get you noticed. Being meaningful will get you chosen,’ said Eva San Gabriel-Claravall, CX and brand leader and head of growth at Kantar.

‘So be placeable, not interchangeable because the middle is not a safe position. Earn your relevance, evolve it early from a position of strength and own your space completely,’ Gabriel-Claravall added.

Kantar BrandZ’s 2026 Philippine study surveyed 400 respondents in each of six categories: banking, general retailer, communication provider, beer, health care supplement and automotive.

The Bayan Family of Foundations (BFF) and De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde (DLS-CSB) entered into a strategic partnership geared toward inclusive education to empower deaf individuals, provide and create pathways for sustainable employment.

BFF is an ecosystem of development institutions committed to build positive social change by supporting social enterprises. Bayan Academy, one of its four core foundations, offers comprehensive entrepreneurship, management and education training programs.

The mutual pursuit was formalized through the signing of a memorandum of understanding between BFF and DLS-CSB. It seeks to foster entrepreneurship training and capacity-building programs for the School of Deaf Education and Applied Studies students, faculty, alumni and associates.

BFF president and CEO Carlo Sagun and Bayan Academy executive director Vivienne Leigh de Guzman represented the organization. DLS-CSB vice chancellor for Academics Angelo Marco Lacson and SDEAS Dean Marian Patricia Bea Francisco inked the deal for the college.

‘There is a saying that ‘Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach him how to fish and you feed him for a lifetime,” Francisco said.

‘This is the same principle why we are pushing for this partnership: to ensure we cultivate an environment where deaf students and graduates are equipped with the knowledge, skills and confidence to become entrepreneurs, professionals and leaders who contribute meaningfully to society,’ she said.

The initiative will explore enterprise prospects for both parties through experiential learning activities and immersion. BFF and Benilde likewise look forward to holding entrepreneurship and skills development workshops and seminars.

Knowledge exchange, cooperative research, institutional learning, joint project development and community programs for the deaf are among the other areas of collaboration the two institutions are considering.

The US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) recently issued a Policy Alert, warning people that USCIS may immediately deny any benefit request (a petition or application) if the applicant ‘fails to demonstrate eligibility for a benefit or fails to provide all required initial evidence when filing the application, without first issuing a Request for Evidence (RFE) or a Notice of Intent to Deny (NOID).’

This is important because now, if you are missing a required document, or perhaps filled out the form incorrectly, or checked the wrong box, USCIS may not give you the opportunity to provide additional documentation or information but instead will deny the case outright. Under Trump, it may also result in a person being placed in removal/deportation if, as a result of the denial, they are now out of status.

In the past, when a person filed a petition, application, request for work authorization, or other immigration benefit, and they did not submit all the required initial evidence (as listed on the USCIS’s website for the particular benefit), the USCIS would issue an RFE, requesting the applicant provide the additional or missing information or documentation within 87 days. If the person failed to do so, then USCIS would issue a denial.

Under this new policy, USCIS may no longer issue an RFE if documents or information are not initially provided. According to the Policy Alert, ‘USCIS has full discretion to deny the request without first issuing an RFE or NOID in various situations, including, but not limited to, when the benefit request has no legal basis for approval or when the requestor fails to provide required initial evidence.’

The Trump administration believes that many people are filing frivolous applications, with no legal basis, just to buy time, obtain a work authorization, etc. and take advantage of the case pending and work authorization while waiting for a decision on their case. In other words, a person might file a bogus petition or adjustment of status (for which they are not eligible) just to obtain a work authorization while the case was pending. According to USCIS, ‘this prior policy allowed frivolous or substantially incomplete filings to slow USCIS processing for others waiting in line.’

While it is true that some people try to ‘game the system’ by filing for immigration benefits to which they are not entitled, just to get a work authorization, there are many more people who are legitimately eligible for the immigration benefit and may have inadvertently overlooked including a particular document, such as a birth certificate or marriage contract, affidavit of support, etc. Now, these people risk denial and possible issuance of a notice to appear.

That is why, even if you are truly eligible for an immigration benefit, you may want to consult with or retain an attorney to help you fully package your application, to make sure all the required ‘initial evidence’ is included, that you are eligible for the benefit, and that the forms are properly filled out, which could greatly increase the chances for approval and, more importantly, reduce the risks of a denial in deportation.

Mary Jane Veloso was writing a poem in Filipino for a performance next Tuesday when cheers erupted inside the Correctional Institution for Women (CIW), as her fellow inmates celebrated the news that she had been granted an absolute pardon by President Marcos.

‘Nanay, fetch me here. I want to go home already,’ Veloso told her mother over the phone at 5 p.m. on Friday.

At 9 p.m., her parents, Celia and Cesar Veloso, and their relatives left their home in Cabanatuan City, Nueva Ecija, aboard a coaster to see Mary Jane again, this time as a free woman.

By 12:05 a.m. Saturday, the coaster carrying her family reached Correctional Road, where the CIW is located.

Upon seeing her parents, Mary Jane hugged them tightly for several minutes as tears flowed among them.

At 12:25 a.m., Veloso emerged from the CIW aboard the coaster but had to sign documents formally acknowledging her release.

She was already feeling nauseated because, in her words, ‘she hasn’t ridden a vehicle in years.’

‘I’m very, very happy,’ Mary Jane told reporters. ‘God bless. Thank you to all who monitored me.’

She then sat between Celia and Cesar, touched her mother’s face, put her arm around her shoulder and repeatedly kissed her.

By 12:30 a.m., the coaster departed for a hotel in Manila. After 16 years, Mary Jane was no longer in prison.

Her release ended a long legal ordeal that began with her arrest at Yogyakarta Airport in Indonesia on April 25, 2010.

Victimized by illegal recruiters, Veloso was arrested after authorities discovered 2.6 kilograms of heroin in her luggage. She was convicted later that year and eventually placed on death row.

After losing an appeal before the Supreme Court of Indonesia, Veloso was set to be executed by firing squad along with eight other prisoners on a secluded island in 2015.

The eight were executed that night, but Veloso’s life was spared less than 20 minutes before her scheduled execution following an 11th-hour appeal from former president Benigno Aquino III.

Veloso was transferred to the Philippines in 2024 after a landmark prisoner transfer agreement was made with the Indonesian government.

Reduced sentence

The agreement reduced her sentence from death to life imprisonment, and she had been held at the CIW since December 2024 following her repatriation from Indonesia.

After years of prayer vigils, petitions, protests and dialogues by Veloso’s team with different government institutions, she was finally reunited with her family.

On Friday, an emotional Veloso held a copy of the document confirming her absolute pardon as she sat beside Bureau of Corrections director general Gregorio Catapang Jr.

‘I am very, very thankful to President Bongbong Marcos Jr. because I know this wouldn’t happen if it wasn’t for him,’ she told reporters during her first press conference after receiving the pardon.

‘I know that God used the President as an instrument to clean my name because that’s the only thing I ever wanted. I just wanted to return to my family; I have nothing to ask for,’ she said. ‘My mother and father are now old, and I just want to take care of them, as well as my children.’

Veloso emphasized that she would be more present this time to guide her children, whom she left when she was incarcerated in 2010.

‘It’s difficult growing up without a mother to guide you, but I’m grateful that you became my mother. I’m so proud of you. I love you so much,’ said Mark Danielle Candelaria, 23, Veloso’s eldest son.

Veloso was separated from Mark Danielle when he was seven and from Mark Darren when he was just over a year old.

For Mark Darren, who had never celebrated his birthday with his mother, her release is a ‘huge gift’ as he turns 18 on Oct. 25.

‘I’m very happy. I have always prayed for my mother to be free to celebrate birthdays with me. Finally, it will happen now,’ Mark Darren said.

As Veloso begins her life outside prison, the Department of Migrant Workers (DMW) said it will provide full reintegration assistance following Marcos’ grant of absolute pardon.

Alex Eala will begin her quest for gold against a familiar foe in Thailand’s Patcharin Cheapchandej in Round 2 of the Achi-Nagoya Asian Games women’s tennis singles Monday at the Higashiyama Park Tennis Center in Japan.

Eala gained a first-round bye as the No. 1 seed for an extra day of practice upon landing in Japan from the WTA500 Singapore Open as Cheapchandej took care of her business in the opening round.

The Thai ace scored a 6-1, 6-1 victory in only 53 minutes of play against Pakistan’s Mahin Aftab Qureshi at Court 6 Sunday in the duel between unseeded squads.

Another Filipina bet Tenny Madis on the same day, however, was outclassed by No. 7 seed Himeno Sakatsume of Japan, 6-1, 6-0.

And so the nation’s only hope in the singles now falls on its strongest weapon.

Ranked No. 18 in the world, Eala boasts all the advantages not only against the WTA No. 510 Cheapchandej but also the entire field as the highest-ranked bet with the absence of Asia’s top guns led by reigning Asian Games and Olympic gold medalist Zheng Qinwen, World No. 1 Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan, as well as No. 17 and home bet Naomi Osaka.

Eala has also beaten the Thai rival in the past, scoring a 6-3, 6-4 win in the Round of 16 en route to a title conquest in the 2022 ITF W25 Chiang Rai in Thailand.

Still, the lefty stalwart is keen on not leaving a stone unturned by buckling down to work in an intense practice session with teammates Madis and Stefi Aludo yesterday just hours after arriving in Nagoya from Singapore.

Aside from the singles, Eala will also strut her stuff in the women’s doubles by partnering with Shaira Hope Rivera albeit the pair is unseeded.

They will battle Lai Ching Laam and Kallista Liu of Hong Kong in the first round. Winner gets to face the No. 3 seed pair of Xinyu Jiang and Zhaoxuan Yang of China.

Game time and court assignment for both the women’s singles and doubles are still to be determined as heavy downpour in Japan Sunday forced organizers to either postpone or move the other matches to indoor courts.

But Eala on the crest of her banner year that catapulted her to not only one of the world’s brightest stars in terms of following but also one of the best players in rankings is locked and loaded, regardless of who and what stands in the way.

Eala marches into her second Asian Games stint armed with all the motivations in the world, especially for a golden chance of earning a ticket in the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.

On top of a quick rebound bid from a second-round exit in the WTA500 Singapore Open last week on a 6-4, 5-7, 3-6 stunner defeat as the No. 3 seed to No. 180 Tatiana Prozorova, Eala guns to improve on her two-bronze-medal finish in the 2023 Hangzhou Games all before her meteoric rise.

Better, stronger and fiercer with higher ranking, more titles and experiences now, hopes are high for Eala to fulfill that mission and help Team Philippines add to its scarce medal tally so far with only two golds courtesy of gymnast Caloy Yulo.

For Bangsamoro regional officials and local executives, the reset to 2028 of this year’s supposed Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan Elections (BSKE) can boost multi-sector efforts of reuniting community leaders and their constituents fragmented by the September 14 parliamentary polls in the autonomous region.

Naguib Sinarimbo, spokesperson of the Bangsamoro Federalist Party, told reporters on Sunday, September 27, that the postponement by Congress of the 2026 BSKE elections will provide local executives and agencies of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao that have community peace and security programs enough time to address the partisan divides among barangay officials and their constituents caused by the recent BARMM electoral exercise.

The territory of BARMM encompasses three cities and more than a hundred towns in the provinces of Maguindanao del Norte, Maguindanao del Sur, Lanao del Sur, Basilan and Tawi-Tawi, some of which have clans that are locked in deep-seated political differences that have triggered deadly clashes.

‘We in our party are glad about the postponement of the Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan Elections because it will give us enough time to initiate the reconciliation of barangay officials and their followers who got separated by partisan activities related to the September 14 parliamentary elections,’ said Sinarimbo, who was elected as representative of the 2nd parliamentary district in Cotabato City during the September 14 BARMM polls.

Sinarimbo’s partymate, Zulfikar-Ali Bayam, one of the 16 members of the Bangsamoro Federalist Party elected as its bloc representative to the 80-seat parliament, said the resetting to November 13, 2028 of the BSKE elections augurs well with their planned peacebuilding programs in all of BARMM’s five provinces and three cities that they intend to implement as duly-mandated regional lawmakers.

‘We want to foster political and religious and cultural solidarity among all of the Muslim, Christian and indigenous non-Moro barangay officials in the autonomous region and now we have enough time to enforce that plan, something good for the national government’s peace overture with the Moro communities,’ Bayam said.

Lanao del Sur Gov. Mamintal Adiong Jr., a member of the BARMM Regional Peace and Order Council, had told reporters that the postponement of this year’s BSKE gave local executives, the police and the military at least two years to secure the surrender, via backchannel talks, of remnants of the now defunct Dawlah Islamiya and Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom fighters.

Adiong is one of the founders of the BARMM Grand Coalition Party that now has a bloc of six representatives to the regional parliament, elected during the September 14 elections.

It is known in BARMM that some rude politicians and barangay officials in the region use remaining members of the outlawed Dawlah Islamiya and BIFF, in exchange for money, to scare villagers supporting their rivals during electoral exercises.

‘The local government units, the police and military now have sufficient time to address that as part of the effort to ensure safe and clean local and national and barangay elections in 2028. We are optimistic of the surrender soon of more members of these two terror groups’ Adiong said.

The millennials coined a term called FOMO, or fear of missing out.

Today, mid- and senior-level managers, as well as more senior business owners, are now going through FOBO: Fear of being obsolete.

Because nobody wakes up one morning and discovers they have become irrelevant overnight.

Irrelevance is not a heart attack. It is high blood pressure: silent, gradual and ignored until something breaks.

Fast Company recently ran a piece by Featured.com, ’12 Signs You’re Becoming Irrelevant at Work.’ The executives and coaches each named a warning sign. Together they point to one uncomfortable conclusion.

Ekta Capoor of Amazing Workplaces said, ‘Relevance is rarely lost overnight. It fades when learning stops.’

Again, it fades when learning stops.

Not age. Not the younger hire. Not the new technology.

Those are just the moments that reveal the gap, a gap dug quietly over months and years by someone who stopped learning and never noticed.

And here is the part that stings. The people this happens to are almost never lazy.

They are busy. They are delivering. They are hitting deadlines, clearing inboxes, and doing exactly what made them valuable 10 years ago.

That is precisely the trap.

As one contributor put it, professionals who are becoming invisible are usually invisible to themselves first.

You can be working very hard and falling behind at the same time.

So how does the fading begin?

Let me borrow the article’s sharpest signals.

Executive coach Justin Key admitted he lived this himself. Running a tutoring company, he made himself so central to every answer that he stopped asking the questions that would have grown the business.

‘I had confused being needed with being effective,’ he wrote.

The company dissolved.

The lesson survived: the moment you stop being curious about your own work, you have already started falling behind.

Curiosity, he argues, is not a personality trait. It is a professional discipline.

And like any discipline, it can be practiced or neglected.

Another sign is that you tend to lean on what you did instead of what you can solve today.

Asked about your achievements, you answer with process: the meetings held, reports produced, assets launched, instead of results: revenue, savings, or risk reduced.

You protect your routine while the market quietly moves on.

So what do we do?

The article is refreshingly practical, and none of the fixes require a new title or a bigger budget.

They require humility.

Here are three I would put in front of every professional, young or seasoned.

First, for one week, ask more questions than you answer: in meetings, on calls, and in your own head before the standard reply.

Not performative questions, but genuine ones:

What am I assuming? What would I do differently if I were new here?

The leaders who course-correct, Key observed, got curious again before they got desperate.

Second, take on one stretch project every quarter. Something outside your comfort zone.

Perhaps a cross-functional initiative, an emerging tool, or a skill beyond your current role.

Relevance is built through adaptation, not tenure.

Third, feed your mind daily.

Ken Marshall of Meet Sona suggests finding the top five newsletters in your field, giving them ten to fifteen minutes each morning, then choosing one idea a month to go deeper on.

When you no longer recognize the headlines your peers discuss, that confusion is not small.

It is a signal.

I find all of this both convicting and hopeful.

Convicting, because I have trained and spoken for decades, and the temptation to coast on yesterday’s material is very real.

Last year’s applause is a terrible teacher. It tells you to repeat when the moment is asking you to grow.

Hopeful, because if relevance fades when learning stops, then it also returns when learning restarts.

This is not a life sentence. It is a thermostat you can reset.

I have said it before and I will keep saying it: the old world rewarded mastery.

The new world rewards learning agility.

Your degree, your title, your years of experience, these are what you knew. They are not proof of what you know now.

So here is the honest test. Look at the last 12 months. Not your calendar, but your curiosity.

What did you learn this year that you did not know last year? What idea changed how you work?

What question are you sitting with that you cannot yet answer? If the answers come easily, you are still growing.

Relevance is not your worry. If the answers do not come at all, do not panic.

But do not ignore it either. That is the high blood pressure talking, and now is the time to listen.

Stay curious.

Stay a student.

It is the surest way to stay in the room.

The program is in place. It is progressing. And more than anything, it is on the right path.

That’s the big picture emerging from Gilas Pilipinas 3×3’s showing in the 20th Asian Games here – a fourth-place finish for the men out of 18 teams and a breakthrough silver-medal feat for the women.

For Philippine 3×3 program director Ryan Gregorio and Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas executive director Erika Dy, that progress is what matters most. The ultimate target is the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.

‘The most important thing we’re seeing is progress in the program,’ said Gregorio.

‘It’s been a good year so far for the 3×3 program. We have shown tremendous progress in both the men’s and women’s category. The critical element is identifying the best talent, fast track their cohesion and compete until the final buzzer,’ he added.

The men’s team, which fell in the quarters in the last edition, went one big step further this time, making the semis after beating defending champion Chinese Taipei.

‘For the women’s team, it was a big achievement for us to be able to finish second place,’ said Gregorio. ‘We’re really hoping for a gold-medal finish but Japan played better than us in the final.’

Dy shared the same pride, pointing to how far the program has come.

‘We’re very proud. If you compare it to the previous Asian Games, malaki ang improvement. Women’s actually wasn’t able to compete in the previous edition; our men’s fell in the quarters. But this time around, we made the semifinals as we’re able to beat Chinese Taipei, the defending champion. Kaya lang medyo naubusan tayo pagdating sa semis and bronze-medal game. Just the same we’re proud of them,’ said Dy.

The silver, she admitted, left a bittersweet taste.

‘I’m not gonna lie, we’re disappointed as we really wanted the gold. But then we’re happy we’re able to contribute to the medal count,’ she said.

Dy said their results here speak volumes of the program, crediting coaches Patrick Fran and Anton Altamirano for the job they’re doing with each team.

This is already the third silver for the women’s team – in the Asia Cup, in the Asian Beach Games and now in the Asian Games.

‘The gold will come. We just have to keep trying, and we’ll win the gold someday,’ said Dy.

Now the work continues, with an eye on the bigger goal.

Echelon Volleyball, a Philippine club volleyball circuit and athlete development platform, on Sunday announced a partnership with Blusoar Education, naming Blusoar as Echelon’s official education and international pathway partner for volleyball in the Philippines.

The partnership will connect qualified Echelon athletes and their families with Blusoar’s private-school placement services in North America, providing a structured pathway for student-athletes interested in pursuing academic and volleyball opportunities abroad.

For qualified students, the pathway may also support longer-term opportunities with NCAA, NAIA and other collegiate programs, subject to their athletic development, eligibility and admission.

As part of the partnership’s broader roadmap, Echelon and Blusoar plan to develop co-branded athlete identification showcases that will draw on Echelon’s positional rankings and club network to help identify student-athletes who may be suited for the pathway. Details of any showcases will be agreed upon separately by the parties.

The pathway will be introduced to families for the first time at Echelon’s upcoming Stop 2 circuit event, scheduled for October 23, at the Valor Performance Institute in Pasig. Blusoar will share initial program information as part of Echelon’s ongoing circuit calendar.

‘We’re not interested in running events simply for the sake of running more events. We want every part of Echelon to create a meaningful next step for athletes and their families,’ said Brian Dacanay, CEO and co-founder of Echelon Volleyball. ‘Blusoar gives qualified student-athletes a credible way to explore education and volleyball opportunities abroad, while bringing those experiences and standards back into the Philippine volleyball community.’

‘Not every student-athlete needs the same pathway, and not every family will be the right fit for private boarding school,’ said Jason Benadretti, Director of Blusoar Education. ‘Our role is to assess each situation honestly and, for those who qualify, guide them through finding the right academic and athletic environment. Echelon gives us a strong way to reach serious volleyball families across the Philippines and introduce them to opportunities they may not otherwise know how to access.’

In our Gospel today, Jesus tells us the parable of two sons sent by their father to work in the vineyard. The first initially said no, but he later changed his mind and did as the father asked. The second said yes, but he never went.

Who is the first son? Our Gospel makes it clear: He represents the tax collectors and prostitutes who were following their own path, but after encountering John the Baptist, they repented of their former ways. There’s already a very valuable lesson here: God allows us to change-and hopefully, for the better.

Who is the second son? He stands for those the parable is addressed to: the chief priests and the elders of the people. They did not change for the better because they probably thought they had no need to change at all. They heard John the Baptist speak, but they did not heed his message. They might have thought themselves better than someone who ate locusts and dressed in camel hair.

What can prevent us from changing for the better? Our arrogance, our pride, our overblown self-image that deceives us into thinking we’re already better than most. Pause for a moment: Think of something in yourself that needs to change. If you can’t think of any trait or attitude beyond the trivial, maybe it’s time for some deeper self-examination.

What can help us change for the better? The lesson we mentioned above bears repeating: Knowing that God allows us to change should give us courage. Just like the vineyard owner from last week’s Gospel, the Lord comes to us at nine o’clock, noon, three o’clock-even five o’clock is not too late-just to invite us to the harvest. Remember that the chances he gives do not run out on the second, third, or fourth time; they go up to seventy-seven times.

What else keeps us from changing? I was talking with a teenager once who knew she had to be kinder and less masungit to her parents. She could see how much they loved her and had long ago lost count of all the sacrifices they had made for her. I asked her, ‘So what’s stopping you from changing how you treat them?’ In one word, inertia. She had been so masungit for so long that it would be so jarring if she suddenly became nicer. Plus, if she changed how she was with her parents, she would also need to change how she was with her siblings. One change, if it were truly sincere, would snowball into many other changes she would have to make. It was easier to just keep things the way they were.

She was also afraid her siblings would scoff, ‘What do you want this time? You can’t fool us.’ To change, we need to be surrounded by a community that will welcome growth without suspecting an ulterior motive. It would be amazing if we had this space, but even if we didn’t, maybe we can be that supportive space for someone else.

So far, I have been assuming that the change is for the better. But what if someone changes for the worse? A community can caution someone in the midst of change, but sometimes, we must also just let a person make a mistake. Sometimes, the best way to change is to fall down first. Hopefully, your community won’t just say ‘We told you so,’ but help you up, dust you off, and let you try again. That is, after all, what God does-a second time, a third time, until the seventy-seventh time.

Your prayer assignment this week:

The Internet is full of psychological tips on how to change. You can break down big goals into tiny tasks-like starting with a simple ‘Hi’ if you want to rebuild a relationship. Or you can visualize your future self to stay motivated.

Our faith offers a slightly different angle: Don’t just focus on who you want to become; remember who you already are. In the parable, whether the sons obeyed the father or not, the father still saw them as his children.

Knowing this helps, but it isn’t a magic fix. It won’t erase the uncertainty that comes with stepping out-the fear of the unknown that so often paralyzes us. Reflecting on Elsa’s song from Frozen II, ‘Into the Unknown’ might help bring this home.