Month: April 2018

I Did It!

On Wednesday this week, I started outdoor running again. I thoroughly enjoy outdoor running, the breeze, beautiful views, people to say hello to are amongst the many reasons I love it. I however stopped running about six months ago. I put it down to the weather and decided to continue with the exercise classes I attend weekly as well as running on the treadmill whenever I can. That’s however not the same!

Stopping my outdoor run, despite my church’s running club still going is very unlike me. I tend to be quite consistent at anything I choose to do, so that was a bit out of character and I hadn’t even had time to look closely at my reasons for stopping. I just easily put it down to the change of weather. But after going for my first outdoor run in a while I decided to look closely at why I stopped initially. I realised that I could trace it back to the day I had a fall.

While running the last lap on my way home one morning, I fell badly and bruised my knees and twisted my wrist. The fall was very bad and it took me a short while to heal, but what was much more was the fact that I had developed a psychological barrier towards outdoor running and that led to me developing unending excuses why I couldn’t do it in a particular week, which then rolled into weeks and months. As I discussed my limitations with one of my daughters yesterday, she just said, ‘well, what’s the worst that can happen if you don’t finish the run?’ I thought… ‘nothing, I’ll just go back home.’ That little self talk made me choose to take action and break the mental barrier today. I woke up on time, went out for the run, enjoyed all I’ve ever loved about running outdoors, saw a few people I said hello to on the way, a few regular dog walkers, as well as enjoyed the freshness of the outdoors.

As I finished the run, I remembered the scripture that says;

‘I can do all things through Christ that strengthens me’ Phil 4:13

Mental barriers are designed to stop us from achieving our goals and they need to be broken if you ever want to achieve anything of value in life. There is nothing we set our minds to that we cannot do, if only we just start by taking the first step in acting on our plans/goals. There may be physical and genuine barriers on the way, but the wisdom and strength to overcome them will never come until we get going. My run was tough; there was exhaustion but I kept at it and finished the race. As I finished, I checked my time and realised it was a minute better than my previous target timing. I couldn’t even see that when I strayed. I was expecting to have gone over my last timing by at least 5 minute.

Always remember that you can do anything you set your heart to do, so stop focusing on the real or imagined obstacles. Go for your dream, goals or plans. Don’t just dream them, do them because you really can do it; so JUST DO IT!

God is on your side

Inspiration

I Don’t Understand

I had a fiftieth birthday party thrown for me last weekend and it was such a beautiful party with so many happy people in the Hall. It was such fun and towards the end of this great event was dancing time.

We started out dancing and one of my secondary school mates decided to do something myself nor team were familiar with. She decided to stamp some money on my forehead. I was in shock but kept dancing. Just to lighten the moment, I looked to one of my sons and jokingly said- ‘you should have been giving me money that way.’ Then he said, ‘sure mum!’- the next thing I noticed, he dipped his fingers into the lady’s open bag, about to take out some notes to put on my forehead as well. I was surprised and reprimanded him by shouting..’What are you doing? How could you dip your fingers into another persons purse…’ to which he said; ‘oh, I don’t understand… I thought you told me to. Sorry!!’

The young man just didn’t understand the African/ Nigerian culture of spraying money, he probably thought I put the money in the woman’s purse where anyone can just take it and stamp it on my forehead. I apologised to the lady and we all laughed it off. It then made me realise that there was a lot of assumption of understandings.

As I thought and laughed about this situation, I reflected on the lesson I drew from this incident, it is possible to see someone who has been born into a Christian home, hang around Christians to not even understand the details of Christianity and how it works if we don’t take time to teach and explain things to them. It is even possible to have spent decades in faith and still not get all that Christianity stands for.

Gods word makes us understand that we should be continuous students learning all it takes to be an effective believer enjoying all the benefits of Christianity. We are translated from one kingdom to the other, so need to continuously learn the rules of this new one and live by them. Gods word says;

‘For once you were full of darkness, but now you have light from the Lord. So live as people of light!’ Ephesians 5:8

The best in Christ will be revealed in us if we choose to live according to the rules of the kingdom we are in now. Not making any assumptions, but living as children of light. Just as the word of God requested. We therefore need to understand Gods mind, rules and ways.

You’re now in a place that has its own set of rules and culture, find out what they are and live by them. Don’t just tag along, choose to understand as you hear the rules (in the bible and sermons), know the rules (familiarise yourself with Gods word on your situation) and live the rules..then you’ll enjoy the blessings of this new kingdom.

God is on your side!

PS: I’ll love to say a huge THANK YOU to you all for all the 50th birthday greetings, prayers and gifts sent to me as we celebrated my jubilee year together. Thank you!

Leadership

You Made The List!

This has been an amazing week for me. I turned 50 on the 11th April and the celebration has been beyond my imagination. The 11th saw me celebrating Gods goodness in my life with friends and family, but the 10th of April saw me doing a list which I want to tell you about today.

I did a list on the of ‘50 things I am grateful for over the last 50 years.‘ It took me only 20 minutes to finish the list and you made the list!

I am grateful to God who made it possible for our paths to cross one way or the other. I have been writing these blogs for over 10 years and in that period youve been reading them and also sending me feedback and write ups of how you’ve applied what youve learnt or how the blog have helped you. I want to say a huge ‘THANK YOU’ for that.

Someone used to say to me ‘Who encourages the encourager?’ Now I am one of those people who believes that I do not need any encouragement to do the things God has asked me to do – but I realised that I get more inspired and encouraged every time you send me your testimonies and responses. A big thank you for being you and for reading and responding to my write ups.

At the top of my list is Salvation; I am extremely grateful that Jesus introduced Himself to me over 35 years ago and He has been revealing more and more of Himself to me every day since then unfailingly. How beautiful this has made my life. This is genuinely the singular most amazing game changer of my life and I couldn’t have planned how my life would has turned out if I hadn’t taken that decision of submitting to Him.

Jesus made all the difference and He still does in the lives of many people today, if we allow Him take charge and be in the driving seat of our lives.

The bible verse for today which is one of my anchor scripture is:

‘Bless the Lord, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless his holy name.

²Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits.’ Psalm 103:1-2

Also at the top of my list is my family. I am so grateful and thankful for the benefit of my family, I could never have asked for better; my church , Gateway Chapel; my christian journey to date and my future as planned by God.

Thank you so much for making the list and being part of my story. Do not cease to make Godly decisions and celebrate Gods faithfulness in your life. I genuinely appreciate YOU & always remember that whatever youre going through or have gone through….

God is on your side!

Inspiration

Four Percent – Create The Life You want

Post author By Eddie Iduoze
Post date April 6, 2018
No Comments on Four Percent – Create The Life You want

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Inspiration

Don’t Ignore It

PE shared one of his childhood stories where he had problem with a tooth. He said he went to brush his teeth as a six-year-old boy and then saw a little black mark on one of his molars. According to him, he attempted to get rid of the mark and there was no change, so he decided to forget about it since it was nothing that could be seen by anyone else.

What however happened was that as time went on, the small mark became bigger and bigger, which then became a major tooth problem that caused him many sleepless nights and an immense amount of pain. A few decades later, the pain became unbearable and Eddie had to visit the dentist to have an extraction. As he said, ‘if I had known that the little black dot was going to cause me so much pain in the future, I would have dealt with it when it was only small’

There are many things that seems so harmless and many of us would rather keep them since they don’t seem harmful or noticeable. Those kind of situations however seldom turn out as innocent as they look after a while. They end up becoming major issues that we then have to spend a lot more time and resources to deal with.

As Eddie shared his story and encouraged the listeners not to ignore the little things they observe, I remembered the bible verse that says,

‘Catch for us the foxes the little foxes that ruin the vineyards, our vineyards that are in bloom.’ Song of Solomon 2:15

It only takes little foxes to destroy the vineyard full of bloom. I would know this because when Eddie and I were staying in Cyprus, we were living in a cow farm and our farm owner had a citrus farm. Right after planting the seeds, the farmers go through a lot of trouble to secure the farm and create scarecrows mainly to ensure foxes and many other little animals do not come into the field to uproot the seeds. A farmers hard work might not get them any reward if this little action is not embarked upon. It is as important as clearing the field and planting the seeds if a farmer wants to be guaranteed great harvest.

The lesson is that the little seemingly insignificant things can cause grossly disproportionate damage. Unless we are aware of this great lesson, we will not guard ourselves against things that do great damage in our lives and that means loss of time, finances or even more dangerous losses like loss of health.

Do not ignore the little hidden issues at the moment because if they are allowed to fester, they could also end up becoming public issues that cause great embarrassment. So, don’t just ignore it. God is on your side!