What money cannot buy............

This week I came across a very beautiful woman who was nicely dressed. If she did not open her mouth to speak you would actually pray to have such a beautiful woman as wife. But when she opened her mouth to speak I almost cried. All I ended up doing was pray and pray. Today going back home I saw her again and I realized it is impossible to value sanity until we actually see those who have lost it. Beautiful people who are in a world of their own not knowing or recognizing life as we see it. Place much more value on the little things please because they matter. Little things like the ability to swallow, smell, feel, go to the loo, bath yourself, reason, etc are daily miracles and gifts from our maker who gives us a tune-up each day before we wake up. Wake up count your toes, fingers, speak and hear, touch and feel, brush your teeth and take your bath, go to the loo and do tha' thing. Open your eyes and behold the beauty of a new day! Recognize your siblings, husband, children, and home. Money will buy you cloths but not the skin to put it on, money will buy you shoes but not the feet its worn on, money will buy you books but not the eyes to read or mind to understand, money will buy you food but not the tongue to taste or the mouth to eat, money will buy you perfumes but not the nose to smell it, money will buy you a lot of things but then money will never buy you those things that we take for granted and which we sleep with and wake up having. That is not the end of it. Very few people who have an abundance of money do not have that which you wake up with; peace in your heart and home, joy that runs deep and a happiness that cannot be bought. The ability to think and create is a miracle, a special gift that everyone should have but not everyone does. We say common sense is not common, but do we know that money will not buy common sense? The ability to think and differentiate wrong from right, the ability to chose right in itself is a gift that we need not take for granted. Why? There are a lot of people out there who would love to be able to think straight and make the right choice but then they just end up making the wrong choices every step of the way. When we were asked to "count our blessings and name them one by one", the author of the song did not mean those things which we have worked for and bought with our hard earned money; those things that money can buy. The actual fact is that he meant those things which no amount of money can buy; those things that we wake up each day taking for granted. Our senses of sight, smell, hearing, taste, feel, or organs - the beating heart, functioning lungs, working kidney, our spleen, pancrease, bladder, brain; our limbs, even our natural clothing - our skin. Its so beautiful to have them and to have them working perfectly without any external use or aid. Learn to value those things in your life that money cannot buy, they matter a lot and the value of it cannot be quantified. God has made a perfect machine in us, one that cannot be replicated, duplicated or disengaged. That in itself is a miracle!

THE “EMBER” MONTHS OF REMEMBRANCE

As I grew up the "Ember" month was the count-down to Christmas. For children it was that time you began to sing the song “Christmas is coming, Papa buy shoe for me” and the joy of coming to the end of a year in one piece began. But as I grew older and began to understand the ways of the adult, I realized that the last four months of the year otherwise known as the “ember” months bring anxiety instead of anticipation. The adult become more careful (at least the ones I grew up with) more prayerful and more watchful. To them the “ember” months were those that played a lot of havoc and ones in which crimes are perpetuated. It’s funny though since the worrying of the adults did not change the names of the months and it most definitely did not make the months either bad or good. In fact the months just kept answering to its name. Now I prefer to call those months the “remember” months. It is during this period that we all remember those things we have left undone; we remember God’s promises that are yet to manifest, we also remember all our clients that are yet to pay for our services. However for me it is that time I began to count my blessings as I gradually write the last chapters of the year. We have 12 chapters each year, towards the end of the book you must ensure that the reader remains captivated so he can read to the end. Or else he will set the book aside and move on. I remember one of Gloria Estafan’s songs “remember me with love”. The “ember” months are those times when we remember with love the goodness of God and bless his name for life. Lastly just as it rightly says, the “ember” months are periods in which the dying flames (embers) of our hopes, faith and life are to be stocked so they can burn more fiercely. Remember what the bible says about Adam and the animals? It is the name we give to a thing that it will be called and it shall act in accordance to its name. That is why my people say “we look at the home before giving a child its name”. Therefore it is the name we give to these months they would answer to. Have a wonderful “EMBER” months as we round-off 2013!!!

My people suffer for lack of Knowledge

You know a few months ago someone told me that my issues don't come because I had enemies or not. He told me just one simple phrase. He said and I quote "You lack understanding". Truly I was insulted and a little angry, but because He was older and a man of God I kept quite. Plus the fact that my mum instilled in me that you listen while people talk. So I kept quite and listened to him talk. Truthfully, I had this believe that I might not be very knowledgeable but that as long as I had the internet nothing was far from me. But that one phrase really undid me and kept me thinking. Today I know for a fact the meaning of what God meant when he said "My people suffer for lack of knowledge". God's knowledge is not the same with ours. The knowledge he was speaking of is not the same that I was thinking of. It was not the knowledge of what I could read online, neither is it the knowledge of what I can read in the bible. Yeah! I know we are all wondering her what I mean by "not the knowledge of what we read in the bible. But the truth of the matter is that like me a lot of us just "read" the bible and not get to "know" God through the words. I know that sometimes I would read and just sleep off, other times its like reading the same novel all over again. It was so bad I had some passages I loved to read and some I dont bother to open. I would read the book of Esther, and jump past job, I would read Isaiah or Ezekiel and past Jeremiah and Lamentation. I rarely read Revelation but I would glance through first four books of the new testament. Then someone told me that I must read a chapter of the bible every day and I just said okay. I tried doing so mainly because he would ask me everyday if I read my bible and I could not tell him a lie that yes I did. But after the experience and time getting to know i my suffering because I did not know God as I should things changed. Now I really do want to know God and in knowing God I am becoming more confident and doing away with old habits one at a time. Now I know that those habits are there because because I let them stay. I gave them room and bed to sleep, but now they have had to vacate and the power of the Spirit of God and His word is working miracles. Its a good thing that this is happening now because it is God's perfect moment. I really don't know of this is making sense but I hope that just one person gets what I am saying. That knowledge of God and who He is helps us to know who we are and the power we hold. Now I know that when I dream of eating I remember God's word that "I would feed and lay down and I shall not be afraid". At times when somethings come to mind and thinks it can scare me I remember the words of Apostle Paul is Colossians 2 "He stripped all the spiritual tyrants in the universe of their sham authority at the Cross and marched them naked through the streets." So I know that their power has been taken from them and they are exposed. So I don't have anything to worry about, just let God do His bit while I do mine by believing all of his promises. Now there is no room for any kind of doubt not one. I am not there yet my friends. Don't get me wrong. I still stumble sometimes but just like a child is with her precious dad I just smile at my dad and look up because I know he would kiss the pain away and make it better. In all truth I never meant to write a note, I was going to put up a status update but knowledge I know is of God and the note is a way for me to say thank you. I heard from somewhere that a lot of times we never give testimonies for things in our lives. We don't have success stories either or we do but don't share it. Most of us are worried that if we share our success stories something bad would happen. Don't worry I used to think that way but no more. I am happy to shout the good of God in my life, but when I am facing challenges I also know I can't walk it alone and I would share that too. Let us learn like me to actually take time to know God and not be one of those that only "read" the bible.

A NEW BEGINNING

They were young in their teens, both Girl and boy
They were first love
They fell in love deeply with each other that it seems no one;
Even death will depart and leave them to enjoy their lives.
They dated for several years, knowing and loving one another
Each passing day.
Tending to one another emotionally, academically, and all you can think of
They seems to be inseparable as their feelings grows more and more
After several years, seven years of dating each other to be precise
They were forcefully separated, not by death though
But by obstacles beyond their control or understanding
Both went their separate ways
With pains and feeling of emptiness
On how life has treated them
But after several years,
Thirteen years exactly
They met again
Still in love.
LOVE!!!

This is a new beginning on another side of love

INSECURITY

I always told, Sandra Bullock was my student when she was younger, I always told her it's important that we hold on to our insecurity, the wisdom of insecurity.
Sally Kirkland

What you do to man
How far do you intend to go
And how long would you
Plague man
Looking back I behold so much destruction
And all along the way
I see bodies’ lying all around you
One man’s destruction and ruin
You have ruined many homes
Not to forget also many lives
From the beginning of time
The lack of believe in oneself
And the feeling that one can’t go on
Surely and gradually destroys
Until it is but a sure ruin
Once you are allowed in the door
Success will always flee away
And if it is attainable
Would never be enough
It gradually eats away and rots the soul
Widening the hole and causing a void
That cannot be breached
Unless will a strong will and determination
Man must find a way
We have found a suitable definition
We have tried to analyze
Categorize and validate
This great destroyer of mankind
But the bottom line we do not know
And as the void continues to widen
We become more venomous
Been destroyed and destroying
Not been able to hold back
We are like a driver
With all his weight on the brake
And find out that he can’t avoid
Hitting something or someone
And if we survive the crash
Will always bear the scars
But sometimes we find out that
Surely insecurities
Are shadows clouding life
And destroying it continually
It adds to your life inferiority
Flavoring it with sadness
And complicating the easiest things in life
Demeaning and ostracizing mankind
One from another

Life is worth a lot.

This morning I left my home for work, I was not very happy because I just got a disappointment. I was trying to push myself to point where nothing but God matters when suddenly.....................
The driver of the bus I had boarded started shouting, "that vehicle is going to turn over" over and over again. Before we knew what had happened a trailer and turned over on the express. We were in the bus and the driver did not bother to stop but this is what we saw.
The front wind screen of the trailer had crashed and the driver ran out with blood on his face, one of the passengers was lying on the road dead, while about two others were trapped under the vehicle. Its so sad that we have placed our quest and search for money even over the safety of our lives.
Why have I said this? Simply because the driver did not have a seat belt neither did the person sitting beside him. Then there is also the people riding with the trailer that sit in the section where the load is kept. They don’t even have any form of protection or safety.
Last year around December, another accident happened along Apapa-Oshodi express way that involved a heavy duty truck that belonged to a prominent company in Nigeria. Lives were lost, all because of carelessness and no value for life.
Is life so unimportant or of no much value and worth that we fail to protect it, even if it’s our life? Have we forgotten that it is only when we are alive that we can enjoy the money we struggle so hard to have? Do we not understand that the most important thing to us is the life that God has given us? What about the people we have left behind? How do they survive? How wicked can we be to ourselves?
Sometimes I harden my heart to situations like this, it’s so sad that a wonderful life that could end up been one of the greatest that Nigeria ever had was lost dues to carelessness. It’s a shame that today someone said goodbye to her son, or husband; a child said good bye to his or her dad with the hope of seeing him later in the day. The only thing they would hear today is the news of death, death of their loved one, the bread winner of the family and probably the only source of income. What they would be in search of now is not where the next meal will be coming from but how do we bury this man?
Please let us place more value on our lives if not for us then for those that love us and depend on us. Let us not give our families a pain which might never go away. Let us live our lives with the utmost care. We know that only God can protect, “but Folorunsho to figi ogede gun ope………” (he who says he has God and continues to put himself in danger…………) what will become of him?
Nigeria and your people need you alive, God needs you alive. Remember also that the good you do will speak for you on that day as well.
May God help us all!!