Wednesday 25 June 2014

GRATITUDE

Good Morning my sweet friends and family, trust you all have been doing very well since the last time we interacted on this platform. I know it’s been a while and I apologize for the long silence, life has been happening lol.

Talking about life, I read something this morning that inspired me to write this.

I was driving to work this morning and for some reason I just began to thank God out loud for everything. For my family, my friends, colleagues, job, ministry, my FiancĂ©e (soon to be wife #winks) for everything especially my family. Most of you don’t know this, but I lost my dad a little over 5 years ago and truth is, I am a witness to the fact that God is the Father of the fatherless and a Husband to the widow. My dad was one of those super dads that made sure you lacked nothing as in nothing. We had the best of everything life could offer and he ensured that that remained the standard despite the fact that he had to on so many occasions, go without some basics that was obvious to us that he needed. He was a super dad like that. There were the once in a while ups and down that is synonymous with life, but on a scale of 1 to 10, I had a 9.7 childhood, leaving the 0.3 for all the spanking that is forever engraved in my mind lol.

It got me thinking about those not so great times growing up, and how we would be at home with nothing to eat except pap and buns and someone would walk in with their problems and pour everything out on my dad expecting that they have come to the one man that could solve the problems of all his extended family members. I would scuff in my mind and walk away. But somehow, after he is done with them, they are all smiles and might even join in on the almost nothing that we had (that was very annoying, don’t know how my mum copped #I’mnotwicked #justsaying lol).

We read about the successes of people on the pages of newspapers, we see their glam pictures on glossy magazines and this leaves us wanting and desiring to be successful (which is a very good thing). When we get to church, the bombardment continues. Everyone or almost everyone looks so prim & proper, the car parks are a sight to behold, everything and everyone literarily glitters and you are left amazed. There is barely any channel of the television that you flip to that doesn’t throw glamorous, well photo-shopped & packaged people at us, but what those well groomed folks in church, pictures, magazines and channels don’t show us is the low moments that these people go through.

Let me ask you this question; does it ever cross your mind that everyone, I mean everybody has their low times?

We may not come out to broadcast it to the entire world, but everyone does have their low times. What do you think leads people to indulge in vices like drug abuse, domestic violence etc?

So as I thanked God this morning, it hit me real hard that I am not where I am today because I am the most priviledged or most endowed person. I have had my fair share of hardships and lives issues. My mum, my siblings and I have been through experiences that most families may not have been able to withstand and I have realized that it is only the grace and mercies of God that has brought us through it all.

We are where we are today, I am where I am today because I have God by my side in my ship with me all the way on this journey. Jesus said “I will never leave nor forsake you” and He sure has kept that promise to me and my family.

So I will like to ask you a simple, life changing question; Do you have Jesus as the captain of your ship? Have you made Him the Lord and Master of your life?

If you have, I want to congratulate you and encourage you to hold steadfastly to Him, He has never disappointed anyone that I know, He is not about to start with you.

If you haven’t, I would like you to take a step of faith today and invite Jesus into your life as your Lord and personal Saviour. Just say this short prayer with me; Lord Jesus, I come to you this day accepting that I am a sinner and that you died on the cross for me. I confess my sins to you and invite you into my heart today asking that you be the Lord and Master of my life. Thank you for accepting me Lord, in Jesus’ mighty name I pray, Amen!

I want to congratulate you for taking this step and I know your life will never remain the same. Kindly seek a bible believing church near you and actively participate in the church’s activities.

You can also follow me on twitter @IamOluwaObinna.

I am committed to your Peak Performance.

Have a Blessed day.

Monday 2 June 2014

ISSUES...


A few days ago, I experienced a rush of emotions that was alien to me. Thinking about it now, I know what the root cause was, but I also think that I could have handled it better. Anyways, I learnt my lessons and I want to share that with you.

We are emotional beings and that means that once in a while, emotions kick in and we behave or respond in a manner that is not consistent with our character. I learnt this week that it is very important that you have a good grip of your emotions and don’t let them control you.

I have been very stressed for a few weeks now jostling a lot of things together at once and just when I thought I had everything under control, all hell broke loose and things went south all at once. Inside, I was a mess but outside, I maintained a calm exterior while trying to resolve the many issues that were arising almost on a per minute basis each of them requiring urgent attention.

I picked Madam up after work this faithful day to attend our counseling session which has been running every week for a while now, and I can’t remember for sure what triggered it, but I just sunk into a mood which gradually drained the smile from me and made me suddenly angry. Madam noticed and was trying to draw me out of it and instead of taking the outlet she was offering me, I allowed myself sink deeper into the bad mood. As if in response, my car started to misbehave in the middle of the road and that triggered more anger because the car just returned from servicing and should be in a great condition (I think that’s why we spend so much to service them so that they would serve us better right?) well, that wasn’t the case for me.

I was to host an online service on Twitter, and we had agreed that when it was time, Madam would drive so that I could tweet. She took the wheels and just at that very moment, my network provider that claims to be everywhere you go decided to depart from my car and my tweets weren’t going through. All that could go wrong was going wrong at the same time and somehow I knew I had the power to stop it all but I just couldn’t get myself to snap out of it.

I still can’t explain how Kamsi had the patience to just keep turning the ignition each time the car went off which was like every other minute and she just carried on as if it wasn’t a big deal. Bottom line, I was very vexed but also, I knew that my anger wasn’t towards any of the petty things that were going on; it was more deep seated than that so I just kept quiet and tried to blank out.

We got to my Pastor’s place, and while we were waiting, I heard that Still Small voice say to me; “Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden and I will give you rest”.

That was exactly what I needed cos I realized that I had been so pre-occupied trying to figure out how to resolve all the issues ahead of me and in front of me that I forgot to be grateful for ALL He has done and there I was making effort on my own, exerting energy, forming super-man when all I needed to do was go to Him in with all my worries.

Are you in that spot where nothing seems to be working? You don’t have a clue where your next help will come from? Are businesses that were doing exceptionally well all of a sudden disintegrating right before your eyes? The relationship that was rock solid, all of a sudden isn’t working out? I want to assure you that there is hope.

 I don’t know what the issue may be that has gotten you so down trodden and heavy hearted. Sleepless nights may have become a norm for you and maybe it has even made your blood pressure to shoot up, I have good news for you, Christ is calling you today to lay it all down at His feet and draw near unto Him. Believe in Him and trust Him enough to come through for you. My God will come through for you if you believe.

It may not make logical sense and trust me, most times it doesn’t. but all God is asking of you is to trust Him enough to hand over your worries to Him.

The moment I calmed down, handed everything over to Him in prayer and apologized to Madam, as we were leaving the venue of the meeting, the same car that was giving issues while we were coming, did not disturb me through that long journey. Network returned to the phone and all was well again.

I learnt the huge lesson never to let my emotions get the better of me rather in everything through prayers and supplications, I should make my worries known unto God and that is the model I have adopted.

What about you?

Remember how He asked if any of us by worrying have been able to add a cubic centimeter to our hair? Well, I am yet to meet a man who can say that worry did him/her good.

So like the saying goes; why worry when you can pray…

 

@IamOluwaObinna and I am committed to your Peak Performance.