Count Your Blessings

The year 2012 is almost over and all I can say is Wow!

I must confess, this year is almost indescribable for me. The Lord has done so much and the devil also tried but to the glory of God, I can boldly say that my testimonies far outnumber my tests. God has been faithful and I have so much to be thankful for. Though there were times when I had it really rough and I almost gave up, God gave me the strength I never knew I had to pull through.

The gift or the Giver?

One thing I've learnt to do is to observe and learn from other peoples actions/inactions, and funny enough, a lot of my lessons recently have been from kids.

Just the other day, I called a three year old three times but got no response from her, unknown to me, she heard me all along but refused to respond for two reasons: one, she was watching a program on the television and two, she thought I wanted to tell her to clean up a mess she made earlier. Unknown to her, I got her favorite yoghurt and wanted to give it to her. Can you believe my young sweetheart ignored my calls (despite the fact that I shouted her name several times)? However, as soon as I showed her the yoghurt, she came running to me with the biggest grin ever, took the yoghurt and left as fast as she came, barely mumbling "thank you".

Change It

I found this picture and thought to share with you. Although it's a blunt message, it is a very good advice and we all need a bit of blunt but wise words every now and then.

Where is the Christ in Christianity?

For quite a long time, I was of the opinion that asking if people are “born-again Christians” is a wrong question, to me, you are either a Christian or not. But, I thank God for the wise people He has placed in my life, I was discussing with one of my sisters the other day, and I told her about my view, she explained to me that there are all sorts of “Christians” now hence, the need to ascertain what makes someone a born-again. To confirm this, I read on BBC’s website (Read it here) that 42 million Britons see themselves as nominally Christian, and there are 6 million who are actively practicing. Can you believe that? Is there supposed to be such a thing as being a nominal Christian? And to think that we have more ‘’nominal” than active ones is so disheartening.

I would also like to mention the fact that of these so called “active” Christians, quite a number don’t seem to have a real understanding of what it is to be a follower of Christ. I know I’m not a perfect Christian, but believe me when I say the actions and speeches of some Christians do get me wondering if they are true believers. You find that people in the church are amongst several things, quick to judge (when the Bible clearly states that we are not to judge. Matthew 7:1); Don’t “do to others what they would have them do to them, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets” Matthew 7:12 NIV; Unforgiving (“But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father who is in heaven forgive your sins” Mark 11: 26); Love only those who love them unlike the commandment to (“Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous" Matthew 5:43-45); and most importantly, don’t "seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness” Matthew 6:33.

The Encourager

Often times, people turn to me for words of encouragement and I must confess that a lot of times, I feel like some people only remember me when they need to be encouraged this makes me ask myself over and over again "am I being used?", I have even asked some people whose opinion I respect so much and trust me, I have gotten different responses. Some of them think it is a good thing that my name comes to mind whenever people need to be encouraged while others said I needed to stop people from 'using me'.

Someone very dear to me, whose opinion I totally respect because she has proven to be wise and Godly told me about John Ploughman. He was a man who many people say had a gift for presenting Christian truth in a way that captured the imagination. He said, "Do not be all sugar, or the world will suck you down; but do not be all vinegar or the world will spit you out." (read it here). I also celebrated my birthday recently, and quite a number of people told me how much of a blessing I have been to them and a lot of them prayed that I would continue to be a source of blessing; very few prayed that others would bless me in return. This made me to more than ever, desire to find a balance between using my God-given gift and being taken for granted by people.

Dehumanizing fashion

As human beings, it is natural for us to have a strong desire to fit in, to be validated, we try so hard to connect with "important" people. I have noticed that one quick way to get noticed is to dress well and that brings us to the message for today. In these modern times, what exactly does it mean to be well dressed?

A few weeks back, I saw a picture of Kim Kardashian dressed in a sheer skirt with no underwear and then I wondered, what has fashion become? I am not in any way judging anyone, I just want to drive home my point. In my opinion, you don't have to expose your body to look good but a lot of "celebrities" are making us believe that the only way to show that you have a good dress sense is by showing off your body and the clothing designers are not making it easy either.Living in this culture of endless clothing choices and with the internet, television and fashion magazines all affecting our choices, we do need to stop and think before choosing the set of clothes and even accesories before we pay for them.