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Sometime back while going through my bible I came across a story on the encounter between a blind man named bartimeaus and Jesus Christ. Going through the story I saw some amazing lessons that can be applied to everyday life and they are what I'm sharing below. 1. Blind Bartimeus just like every human being had a challenge, he was blind. Bartimeus was blind but interestingly he wasn't deaf or dumb which means all hope wasn't lost. This goes to show that no matter how bad your situation is, there is still something you have that can be useful to help get you out of your predicament. 2. He used his functional organs; his ears to hear about a solution to his problem, and when the opportunity came, that he heard Jesus was passing by, he used one of his other functional organs, his mouth to cry out for help. 3. The moment he began to cry out for help or a change of story those who had always known him with the predicament asked him to be quiet. They told him, he...

Someone said the scarcest form of love is self love and i agree. We tend to love others first and ourselves last.  The greatest commandment given to us by that Great Rabbi of all times Christ Himself hinges on self love, it says after loving God with all your heart and all, then you are to LOVE your NEIGHBOUR AS YOURSELF. This means giving your neighbor the same kind of love you can give to yourself . This goes to show that you can only truly love others from the springs and depths of self love you possess. In other words, you cannot effectively love others when you haven't loved yourself enough. And what does it mean to love yourself? It just means a healthy view and appreciation of the totality of who you are. You see yourself as a valuable person and a source of blessing go others and not neccessarily needing another human being to make you feel that way or help give you your worth. This self love essentially stems from a deep relationship with your Creator...

Poverty especially of material possession and the means to provide the basic necessities of life continues to be a social problem that is as old as man. The concept of wealth, abundance and surplus remains an illusion to so many people. Till today we have people asking questions like, ' why are some rich and some poor?' Could it be a predetermined fate or is there really something responsible for making one wealthy and what exactly is that thing and how can it be gotten or attained? Is it possible to move from the depth of perpetual lack and insufficiency to abundance and surplus? Well to begin with, wealth and poverty begin as concepts that are taught and to which the mind adheres to. If one is exposed to the possibility of being wealthy, that individual's mind picks that information and creates a belief system out of it that eventually determines the actions the person take which will ultimately lead him to wealth and abundance and so also it is for the poor. ...

Isn't it ironic that the time of the day we refer to as midnight is also the beginning of a new day?  We do not start to count a the 24 hour -day at the sunrise, we begin at MIDNIGHT. Most times in our lives we find ourselves at that point where it appears to be midnight or it really is midnight. Everything seems to just spiral out of control, it's a season of confusion, seeming unending problems and challenges and what little hope we have flies outta the window. At that point becomes difficult to even believe that something new and better can happen. That dark moment that all seems lost is the same moment a new day is born. The midnight is the womb that births a new day. Your dark and hopeless situations are the wombs that will birth your beautiful morning. Don't give up when it gets so dark, that's the signal for the dawn of a new day, so when you see challenges, brace  up because your good break is about to show up. Photo credit: Annenberg learner.

One of the rising tides of our times is the issue of envy. There is so much of it in our atmosphere today. Lots of people find it very hard to be happy for the successes of those around them, be it family, friends, co workers or whatever. It is a big cankerworm eating us up. Envy most times stems from a feeling of inadequacy or insecurity or a sense of scarcity. The moment someone begins to rise in that area you feel so low, it tends to awaken more clearly to you your need for that particular thing. That awakening in itself isn't a bad thing, the problem starts with how we most times respond to that awakening. Most people begin the cycle of hatred towards such successful individual(s) instead of gearing up to find out how he or she also got there and do likewise. Envy is choosing the easy way out in dealing with your challenges. It empowers you to make excuses for your failures, to remain stagnated and possibly retrogress in the long run. Envy is the approach of cowards to...

Do you know that no matter where you find the dark skin if you trace it back you will find that it has its root in Africa? Do you know we are the only race in this whole wide world created with this unique skin color? Do you know that our skin color is the only one that can hardly be 'chemically' created? Even those who chemically alter theirs to other colors eventually come back to the original. That is how powerful the African color is. All others are common, the African skin is the only unique and distinct type in the whole universe. This alone should make us proud and confident. Interestingly the name Africa according to some historians is a gotten from the word 'Afru-ika' meaning the 'birthplace' or Motherland.  We were singled out to be unique and so is our collective destiny. Inspite of all that has happened to us and has been associated with us, our uniqueness and greatness will sprout again. Let's  do what we can to bring back the glory of t...

A few days back I was trying to heat up some water for tea and at some point I got impatient waiting for the water to boil and decided to increase the flame the more but I noticed that no matter what I did, the water was only hot and making some sound but wasn't boiling and at a point I gave up trying to fast forward the process. After a few minutes it suddenly began to boil and I was able to make my tea. While busy trying to fast forward the process of making the water boil at my own timing , a thought flashed through my mind that water does have a specific boiling point and if the temperature doesn't reach that specific point it would not boil no matter what I did. It became a food for thought for me a I drank that tea. Life generally is  divided into times and seasons and no matter what you do, you cannot jump or try to 'cheat on' the process of going from one season to the next. You have to go through it. Sometimes we try to do all we can to fast forward our ...

A few years back when I was much younger,  I came across a very popular devotional 'Everyday with Jesus'  authored by Late Selywn Hughes. In one of the daily write ups I read he addressed a very important issue which helped change my life in a very profound way. He spoke about  how to handle pain, which is what I want to share in this post In life we know that because we live in an imperfect world, we are bound to experience pain from time to time. Sometimes it could be physical and at times psychological which is where my emphasis will lie. Since pain is something we can't wish or pray away  how do we handle it when it happens? -The first thing you must do is acknowledge that pain. Come to terms with the fact that it has happened.  We live in a society especially here in Nigeria where we have a culture of covering up a lot. We act as though all is well, when it is not. Our cultures and even some religious inclinations encourage us to live in denial, cal...

While working one day, I noticed the baby in the womb of the woman I was scanning was dead and one of the signs apart from the heart beat being absent was the fact that the skull bones began to fall apart and that sparked up this thought in me that for anything to function optimally, life must be present. Life is indeed a gift. It makes everything come  alive and beautiful. Anywhere life is missing, all we begin to see is decay and the falling apart of things. Are you grateful that you have life surging through your entire body? It's the gift of God to you. It's the currency you have to make things work and come alive with beauty and splendor around you. Don't waste it, use it profitability.    Photo credit: whattoexpect.com

From a boy born to the Thembu tribe, he went ahead to become a freedom fighter, a movement and an ideology. Mandela is indeed one of the best Africa has produced and exported to the world. Here was a man who sowed his life as a seed to see to the end of an oppressive and enslaving system that held his country by the jugular. In him we see a perfect amalgam of courage, determination and doggedness. Above all we see his spirit of forgiveness when victory was achieved. Mandela went ahead to model for us the future kind of leadership that Africa will need, the Servant leadership. Today the world celebrates a man because he dared to fight against the odds and succeeded. He is a testament to the fact that good can come out of Africa in terms of leadership. As we celebrate him, we remember and reflect on his legacies and his sacrifice and draw our life lessons as offsprings of this great continent. I've been able to get some of his most outstanding quotes and penned them below ...

In  the process of forming and storing memories, the human brain has a mechanism in place that helps 'classify' information according to their level of importance for onward storage. Information that isn't relevant or of utmost importance are simply ignored and consequently not stored. What does this teach us? It means that as an individual, there are things you should ignore really. Not everything is worth your time and attention. Always give priority only to what really matters so that your mind's 'disc space' doesn't get filled up with irrelevant opinions of people about you. Photo Credit: bioedge.org

I watched one of those Nat Geo wild videos on lions and one particular scene stood out for me. The mother lion went out and caught a game for her cubs to eat and got them to the place here she kept the game. On getting there the cubs pounced on the game and all of a sudden the animal  began to move and fight for its dear life meaning it wasn't completely dead. The mother lion saw what was happening but simply sat there watching the Cubs struggle to kill the animal and never lent a helping hand. The cubs had to eventually kill the animal and then have their meal. That scene for me was quite instructive and I tell you why. The mother lion I believe deliberately refused to completely kill that game before bringing it Cubs for a reason; it was time they also learnt how to kill game for their own meals too. This is why  even when the animal began to struggle and fight she refused to move but rather allowed the Cubs to learn, make their own mistakes and develop their hunting s...

Each day you turn over on your bed, open your eyes and draw that sleepy, long breath it's just the benevolence of God telling you, you have been rewarded with another gift of a new day and a chance to re-write the history of your life the way you would want it read long after you're gone. So what is it you'll want the unborn generation hear or read about you?The gift of everyday offers you that rare opportunity to do it. Now rise and do it. Welcome to July. Photo  credit: Kevinwreaves.com

Did you know that the earth was designed the way it is because YOU were going to inhabit it?Every morning you wake up and see the sun shining in the sky or the the plants all around, your beautiful dog remember they were all created for your sake, because you would be here. You are not a biological accident, you were prepared for, God had your life plan mapped out long before you showed up. You're not part of a statistics, you are a specific individual with a specific mission. Throw away that smallness. Be cured of that low self esteem.

The jpm reloaded blog wishes all our Muslim brothers all across the globe a happy sallah celebration.    Photo credit: dailysmscollection.in

Yesterday i found myself watching that old legendary movie once again, I'm talking about  'Home Alone'. Ita was such a good time for me remembering those childhood days once again. I'm sure I've watched that movie like ten times or more sef. Well while watching it this time with eyes of an adult 😁, there was something I picked. You remember very well for those conversant with that movie that it was about a young boy who was mistakenly left at home by his family in their hyper excitement of going for Christmas. By the time the mother realized she had left her son back home she became so upset and so worried about leaving her little boy alone with no one to look after him and help him out, since probably in her own assessment there were lots of things he wouldn't be able to do. Fast forward to the boy himself, when he realized he was alone, he kind of braced up after the initial shock and took responsibility. We saw him able to understand that some thie...

A few years ago after taking a shot at one or two relationships that sank into the sea of life i decided to do a 360° turn and build my life. I looked at all my gifts i had allowed to be overgrown with 'weeds and spirogyras' of neglect and decided to go to work. I began taking a step to join the press unit in my local church and fortunately for me they were working on a magazine and were in need of articles and i submitted one on a medical issue and got such encouragements and accolades, that was how my abandoned writing skill was woken up ( i had last written any serious writing since my university days) and the rest is history today. I brought up this story just to challenge especially those of us who are single and faced woth the temptation of putting a hold on our life pursuits because of that SHIP of relating with another on an intimate level. While it's a legitimate and normal desire inbuilt in all of us as humans yet it it wisdom to know how not to allow that put ...

Yesterday evening I went out for a stroll with some friends and while walking and talking I began to notice some hidden beauty in that area I hadn't before. I Ias awed and wowed by what I saw, I've been working in that community for about two years now and never really took note of the hidden beauty there, it's always been work most of the time. This is how it is with our daily lives, sometimes we get carried away by the hustles and bustles of life, the unpaid bills, the sickness, the delayed salaries, the selfish leadership, the various challenges of life.  These qthings have the capacity to blindfold us to the beauty around us. . Sometimes just forget the pain and look at the sunset, walk in the green fields and just allow God's creation release some healing almost into your troubled soul. Below is a picture of the sunset I captured on camera.