https://anchor.fm/ade-ade78/episodes/Relationship-Wise-1-It-Begins-With-You-e1kghhd
Tag: Prayer
Survive and Thrive: The New Resolve…
Happy New Year to you wherever you are!
I know many of us entered this year with tentative hope that there will be a break from last year’s happenings. As we try not to think that the other shoe might drop.
Ironic how many are just grateful they made it. So grateful in fact, that I haven’t heard the popular narratives of “New Year Resolutions”.
Maybe because, people just want a break. And you don’t need a special list for that.
I think people have also come to learn the hard way, that plans can fail, in the most unexpected way anyone can imagine.
I guess, it’s safe to assume that the plan for this year is one word : Survive.
I feel, should anyone mention New Year Resolution, people might actually recoil in angry fear.
This wasn’t the case, for many years until last year’s events reset everything.
It was fashionable to talk about Resolutions as one year closes and another begins.
Now, New Year Resolution is the new elephant in the room, threatening the tentative peace of many. How times have changed!
I will like to say, for many, we have learnt…well, re-learnt honesty, empathy, careful living — rather than the carefree exuberance that has plagued humanity for so long.
I suspect, that we are in some sort of purgatory, naughty corner and whatever it is called in High School.
And until, we get our acts together and acknowledge God as our God and seek righteousness, many will stay in that naughty corner.
The earlier you are repentant the sooner you are released from the naughty corner, leaving behind those who stubbornly want to hold on to there selfish careless inclination to life.
Just in case you’re wondering what the naughty corner is; it’s the virus with it’s different strains and no globally acceptable cure in sight. Rather, vaccines whose side effects make you wonder if there’s any difference between the virus and the vaccine.
If I were you, I would just healthily eat my way into an immune system boost. Further research, in this way of thought will show you what I believe are preventive measures to take.
However, if you trust what organisations of the world are saying than what is right in front of you, then once again, you won’t see nutrition as the way out. Because, it’s not globally recognised.
Well, pray without ceasing. Seek God’s presence and live according to God’s standard. If you still think you don’t have to do that, you have no idea how alone you are.
If you really want to survive and thrive, the Living God through Jesus Christ is the Answer for you and the world today.
Once again, Happy New Year!
January 2021 Writing Prompts
Moving On
“I’m leaving Brad”, NiAnn said with quiet conviction.
“Praise the Lord”, Ximena declared looking like the true follower of Christ she was, howbeit a little dramatic.
Zoe rolled her eyes. “Come on Ximena. Like seriously?”
“What”, Ximena asked the glaring NiAnn with wide eyed innocence. “Isn’t it good to praise the Lord?”
NiAnn huffed and looked away.
“Well yes, it’s good to praise the Lord”, Zoe replied with a look on face that says I can’t believe I’m having this ridiculous argument with you. “But now isn’t the time to say it out loud!”
Ximena was relishing her cup of herbal tea, as she peered at her fav peers with muted mischief in her sparkling cinnamon eyes. This was an answer to prayer. And she had praised God for granting her request of detoxifying her friend’s life of toxic people. And Brad was one of them. She most certainly wouldn’t mourn about it.
She swallowed her witty comeback with her tea, so NiAnn can spill the tea on what happened.
“So. What happened?” Zoe asked
“Freda is pregnant and Brad’s the father.” NiAnn rubbed her elbow like she normally did when she was upset.
Zoe gasped, “What? Again?”
Ximena merely raised her brows, as she kept sipping her tea. How extraordinary, she thought sarcastically.
“I thought he promised you he was done with her?” Zoe queried.
“He changed his mind again.” NiAnn looked sad but with a new strength that says she would be okay.
Praise God. Ximena thought, as she kept observing her friend.
“I was beginning to feel like the interloper. He may have divorced Freda on paper, but I wish it didn’t take me this long to realize, he’s still married to her in his heart.”
“I’m so sorry, NiA”, a concerned Zoe tried to console her.
“That or he’s just doesn’t want to fully committ to anyone. Be it Freda, me or anyone.” NiAnn continued in quiet contemplation.
“You were right, Ximena. I was his, but he was never mine.”
Ximena softened, “Hey. You know I love you too much to want to be right about something like this. You just need to learn to stay away from complicated people and trying to rescue them.”
“Perhaps you should pursue a career as a Fire Fighter. I hear the men there are hot.” Zoe winked
They laughed.
“Speaking of careers. My e-commerce website has picked up speed. I closed five very profitable deals last night!” NiAnn bounced in her seat with barely concealed excitement, a huge smile on her face and a sparkle in her hazel eyes.
“Praise the Lord!“, Zoe declared in happiness for her friend’s success.
“Hallelujah!” The girls chorused
Three cups click in the air in celebration as the three friends laughed. The laughter of reassurance that where life is, hope abides.
Are we Humane Beings?
I was on youtube watching “Conversations with America”. Bishop T.D. Jakes was the host featuring a group of senior police officers, retired police officers and a psychologist who works with the army on mental health.
The topic was Police Brutality. And the Bishop was asking a lot of questions to understand why it happens and what causes it.
One of the officers said they are not always taught to be human, but to just get the job done.
And the psychologist said, “If you need to be taught to be human, you shouldn’t be hired at all.”
Someone in the comment section highlighted that statement and this response just hit me. I just kept writing. Here it is:
Unfortunately, we all have to “become” human beings. Remember the story of the “Good Samaritan”? All those who ought to know better walked past the wounded man. How many times have we as individuals “walked past”?
There are people who wouldn’t have joined the protest if they still had to go to work or identify with some “fraternity”. But priorities have narrowed down to food, shelter, health and security. Fear of “it could have been me” got many to rush out realising what they have probably been ignoring or not paying adequate attention to and not taking practical steps, toward a society of equity.
That’s why being born again prevails over just being okay, with being a “good person”.
It takes courage and a certain level of God’s anointing to do the right thing, ALWAYS. Especially, when it’s “dangerous”, inconvenient, or when we’re at risk of losing something of value.
Becoming humane is a journey we all need to take with love for the service of God and humanity.
What do you think?
Wait….
What to do
Without understanding
A risky business
Froth by desperation
To do something
Anything for the sake of busyness
For to do nothing
While waiting out obscurity
Is unthinkable
At times, we run
From the past
Or the present
And at times
Ourselves
Addicted to action
Work, busyness
To escape
What may be living with us
As a haunting shadow
But if we wait
And brave the quiet
To confront our thoughts
Our deeds
We would begin
To see
To experience
Through the troubled waters
Of life or our soul
Our true expression
Our true shape and state
Becomes clearer
And then…
Calmness
Through the clarity
After the storm
I want to stop running
From myself
So I can be free
From the storm within
What if I drown
But what if I don’t
As long as I have Jesus
As my anchor
I cannot sink
With Christ in my vessel
I smile
With peace
At the storm
My Redeemer Lives
Another year is gone
I’m still all alone
Says a popular song
Alone
Without the family I crave
The life I prayed for
Is not what I have
Despair struggles to get in,
While I barely can shut it out
Hope deferred,
Makes the heart weary
I’m not afraid of getting older
But I feel shame for not having
My dream fulfilled
Yet
When will my reflection show
Who I’m inside
Restlessness fuels
My movement
Feeling too weak
To be frustrated
Feeling too tired to be tired
But my Redeemer is strong
The Lord of hosts
Is His name
And I know He’s fighting for me
To hold my peace
Is all I’m required
Even that
Seems like a chore
Heal me Oh Lord
And I shall be healed
Safe me and I shall be saved
Courage for Today.
Hi Beautiful People.
I feel tired and overwhelmed and restless.
I feel tired of being too tired to be who I wanted to be — who I want to be.
Having plans sometimes is like setting oneself up to fail.
I mean tell me:
What do I do when I make plans and things don’t fall into place because the obstacles were much?
Well, I reverted back to prayers.
Of course, I have always prayed. But there’s praying and there’s praying.
There’s praying in your head and there’s my-heart-is-bleeding-I-can’t-take-this-anymore praying.
Praying with a bleeding heart, is like trying to burst a boil at maturity. It’s painful to touch, much less squeeze and it throbs painfully without being touched.
To leave it on it’s own is not an option, because the pain increases to the point of insomnia.
So you have to clench your teeth against the pain and burst the boil. Once you do, you feel better and relieved.
Sometimes until the pain of where we are stuck in, is greater than the pain of breaking free, we might not pursue true liberty –Paraphrased from the novel “The Last Ten Percent” by Michelle McKinney Hammond
Breaking free can be a Herculean task, but it’s not impossible.
Speaking of Herculean tasks, I recall — not that I have been able to forget — the movie “Hercules” whose lead actor is Dwayne Johnson (I think I might watch it again).
I don’t know if I have written this before, but I believe Dwayne found his true calling in acting. He may have wanted to be a sports man, but his size and skills makes him a better actor as warrior in period/medieval movies.
Back to Hercules.
There are lots of lessons to glean from the movie, but the one that relates most to this particular “muse-ticle” on the issue of pain, is best described by my latest finding on this popular quote:
What doesn’t kill you……
Had. Better. Run!!!!
If you are going through pain I recommend Hercules the movie, featuring Dwayne Johnson — I had to add that, because I don’t know if there are other movie versions.
Hercules had lost enough to kill a man, but when he found the truth about his painful past under …less than congenial circumstances, the truth set him free. And in setting himself free others also gained their freedom right along with him.
No wonder, Jesus Christ said and I quote:
Ye shall know the truth and the truth will make you free.
End quote.
A pastor recently said the word make in that scripture is deliberate and has it’s meaning to the text, but we will talk about that in other muse-letters.
Hercules was legendary for his brute strength and his long strings of victory, but he was running away from a memory.
Which brings me to another point:
To be free from a pain you must gather the courage exclusive for it, because you can’t borrow courage from another experience or victory. You need to begin courage or encourage yourself all over again. Therefore, courage is exclusive.
That’s why we see that many of us are fearless in so many aspects, yet have deep seated phobias in one or more areas of our lives. Phobias we choose to ignore, but they are there waiting — waiting to spring unpleasant surprises on us in our most vulnerable moments.
I wish courage was all encompassing. I really do, because it makes the business of living much easier.
But unfortunately or fortunately, depending on how you see it, courage or encouragement does not work that. And I’m learning that the hard way.
This reminds me of the prophet Elijah — the prophet who called down fire more than once in his day. The prophet who never tasted death. Went straight to heaven alive in heavenly escort of horses and chariots of fire.
I mean, that was some serious wonderment that amazes me every time I think about it.
Yet, the same man who stopped rain and called it down when it suited him. Who escaped arrest many times just by disappearing and appearing wherever and whenever he wanted;
Ran away….. ran away, when a witch threatened him!
Some say God had to call him home earlier than planned, because he allowed himself to be frightened by something less than what he had crushed in the past.
The explanation I have for that is: his courage failed him or he lost courage.
This leads me to believe that courage is food we need to injest daily, to be able to withstand unforseen threats that may distabilize us.
Courage is food we need to learn how to feed ourselves with i.e personal encouragement.
We can’t leave our encouragement in the hands of others. Because it’s not always, we can have someone around us to encourage us. Like Dwayne Johnson’s character in Hercules had.
When we depend on yesterday’s meal to sustain us, we would soon faint.
The same applies to courage.
Shalom🌿💚🌴
Delayed?
In one of my previous posts, I talked about getting older and age being, not just a number.
Since belated is used with birthdays, I decided to talk about birthdays — that was until I checked the definition and I was embarrassed at how I have abused that word.
It means “delayed”.
So all the times I thought I was doing something extra by adding belated to birthday 🎊 messages, I have in essence being saying “Happy delayed birthday” ?!😳🙄
I know I’m a character. But this? I don’t know what to think. (Lord, let it not be aging. Amen. )
In my defence though, belated sounds cute. Like an extra, double whammy happy, to a birthday.
Speaking of birthdays. Having birthdays was fun, when we were adolescents and early teens.
We couldn’t wait to be grownups. Now we are, and some of us wish we weren’t. Because there are lots of things that are still belated, in goals and achievements.
Some of us could do without the reminder of one more year gone by, without something befitting our age, to boast of.
Quite disheartening.
I felt bad when someone asked me when, I was going to have a birthday party. I felt bad but I tried to laugh it off. I spoke a word of faith concerning the matter. And I’m believing God for a miracle.
What are your delays and what are you doing about them?
One of mine is using this blog as my voice, since I don’t seem to have many people seeking my opinion. I wish I had began earlier.
So many things that could have been done earlier, but haven’t began.
But with God nothing shall be impossible.
I believe that word.
Shalom. 🌎
Wrinkle the Wrinkles
Hello again beautiful people!🎆 I hope your weekend is going well. I need to hurry with this post, so I can get prepared to go grocery shopping. And I have to do some trekking. Oh well. Walking is supposed to be good exercise — not my favourite exercise but I will try to enjoy it. And since it’s still morning, maybe I can load up on some Vitamin D and hopefully without the harmful sun rays.
So I decided to explore the full meaning of ‘wrinkle’, and I got some interesting insights.
A wrinkle is also a difficulty, albeit in the minor. So we might not have skin wrinkles, but there can be wrinkles of the soul (emotional inadequacies); wrinkles in the spirit (less connection and fellowship with God, struggle with faith and purpose); there could be financial wrinkles (struggling to make ends meet or poor spending habits); marital wrinkles (not able to communicate with or accomodate your spouse, lack of understanding in one aspect or the other); career wrinkle (unable to have a healthy grip of competition, colleagues and superiors in the work place).
Whatever and wherever our wrinkles may be, the good news is that there’s a solution, that could even be found in the problem. We have to be willing to think outside the box. Talk to others, sample opinions, study the problem, gain knowledge and understanding of the wrinkle in other to gain a inventive and skilled method to smooth out the crease of any situation.
Knowledge is power. Understanding how to apply knowledge is also key to avoiding unnecessary stress and difficulties. Prayer is however the master key 🔑. Use it always. It helps smooth out rumpled situations better. It is well. 😊
Shalom. 🎊
Musings of a Sanguine Christian Woman 