NIGERIA CAN ACTUALLY WORK

Nigeria can actually work.
So here I am in a private hospital waiting to see the Pediatrician. We just got registered and had to wait 30 minutes in the lobby for him to come ( I even begin to complain to my husband that he's taking time probably because he is coming from a public hospital). He walks in and I realise the same person I had met in the public hospital barely 2 weeks ago was the same person was meeting in a private hospital and the treatment was different.
I was being spoken to politely.
I'm told what is wrong with my kid, but when I was in the public hospitals two weeks ago he sparsely spoke to me, he mostly wrote.
The kind of drugs we were given. 
It was just different ...
So here I am left wondering, what is going on different work environments (the public and the private spaces).
What is required in the public space is different from the private space.
The work load even on our public servants is overwhelming, it affects they way they handle us.
Our public spaces aren't palatable for people to go, they often leave feeling treated like trash.

I think that we need to organise this nation make things work in both the public and private sectors. The standards of what is expected of people should be high and the same in both sectors. This is the only way we can grow as a nation.

YOUR STEADFAST LOVE ENDURES

The songwriter once sang: Your steadfast love endures to the heavens, your faithfulness reaches to the skies... I think I now understand those lines. As I interact with people I have realized that my endurance level with any man/woman is very limited. We may have struck an excellent friendship from the moment we first met or it developed over time. Whatever the scenario, I have understood that as time goes on and either distance or human frailties set in our patience begins to wear thin. Those exciting feelings we had towards this individual when that chord of friendship first struck begins to fade away. We begin to see clearly that no one is perfect and then we make the choice whether to continue this path of friendship or to go out separate ways. We then begin to see how limited we are as humans to endure with anyone for a lifetime. On the other hand is God Almighty, who created us. One would think, He is Almighty, He loses nothing whether or not He is in a relationship with any man because He is sufficient in Himself but He stoops to relate with each man/woman He creates and follows us daily, steadfastly till He gets our attention. He works at pruning us (though the changes in our lives are dependent on our cooperation with Him) to look more like Him. For me the character of God that will forever amaze and blow my mind is His steadfastness. I give up on my fellow human especially when those inconsistencies begin to surface but He doesn't. He follows us till we take our dying breath. What better show of love? Truly, Your love indeed extends to the heavens...

Frailty of life

In the last one week, I have had the priviledge of seeing life from a different perspective. It suddenly occurred to me that whatsoever we acquire, incur, we boast about in this life we leave behind.
It is only the things we invest in the lives of people whether for good or bad that remain in their hearts when we are gone. Whether or not people will truly sorrow is dependent on the kind of investment we made in their lives.
The question to me and you today is:

Do the investments in the lives of people you are living with, meeting, relating with have eternal significance?

Do you invest your time, attention, resources, emotions into the relationships you have?

Or do you emotionally drain those around you, till they are almost dead?

It calls for deep reflection...

SUFFERING

The concept of suffering is not a foreign one in the broken world we live in. In different ways we experience it whether through our wrong actions that bring about natural consequences, other people's actions or inactions that bring painful hurt, natural disasters, diseases etc. The list is endless! As I think more about it, it drives me to ask what stance do you and I take when we suffer? This is because it goes a long way to determine whether we'll come out refined by our sufferings or bitter. I don't want to even talk about the issue of denying that suffering is part of our daily living (subject for another day). Do I chose to ask questions categorizing the suffering or asking God what do you want me to learn in this process? Suffering is in our lives to refine and purify us; to grow us so much that we can extend the grace we received through our experience to others. I beg to say that suffering is not painful and meaningless but can be used by God for our greatest good.

JOURNEY OF FAITH

It's easy to say you know God but having an experiential knowledge of Him is totally different. To say you know the President of Nigeria is a tenable fact, at least one can claim to have almost all the statistics of him but that doesn't mean he has a personal relationship with you enough to call you up at anytime to discuss pertinent issues. Same with the Lord, it all begins with a personal relationship that you and I must establish by an act of our wills then the relationship grows by the day and the depth and level of that growth is dependent on how much am willing to let him control my life.

In the last 2 weeks, work for me has been quite tedious, at the same time the Lord was stretching my faith in an area where I wouldn't complain except there's a deadline. I had thought through and through WHY LORD? Can't you just help me through? I know you can, so what do you intend to do by stretching me? At first I prayed, then I began to ask questions, then I became angry with the Lord because I wanted to know why? In His sovereignty I've learned that it was just a test of my faithfulness to him, not so much the volume of work I did but by how much I was willing for Him to work through me. It hit me so hard that just a day to the deadline, He showed up beyond my expectation. 

Through this I've learned that the next time the Lord decides to stretch me, it is to test my faithfulness to him, whether my faith was truly in him or men.

WHAT REALLY IS MINISTERING?

The more I think about this issue, the more I discover new things about it. My thoughts on this subject are not exhaustive and some of us may not agree about them but I'll share them.
This week has really been a stretching one for me because I've had to undergo a training on Sharpening Your Interpersonal Skills. As I sit with my colleagues,  contemporaries, superiors and people from cultures different from mine, especially those from the West. I realize how aggressive the average Nigerian is. Not necessarily in behavior but in approach to life and taking what we think is rightfully ours. I've tried to explain it to be that since we were once colonized, we don't want to feel like we are dependent so it possibly affects our approach to life.
I realize how many people are NOT AT PEACE with themselves as touching phase of life, financial, marital status and other vital areas of life. On the contrary I really don't want to be CONVENTIONAL am probably willing to be content with what I consider to be just enough to go by, meaning having my basic needs met; being in the position where I may not be noticed because my focus is on building the' little human beings' God has blessed me with, so I can be available to watch them grow, help shape their world view because of how impressionable they are at this stage of life.
Have I given up on life? Have I become sedate or laid back? I doubt because of the intensity of my tasks, I also have my hands lightly on my job so I don't completely lose touch (thank God for my kind of job I have and the amazing support of my husband). I have come to a point where I consider what I do as ministering, whether it is washing the dishes, cleaning a mucour filled nose or speaking at a seminar, it is ministering. Whether to my husband or little children or to an audience, it is ministering. So if I do it whole heartedly and as unto the Lord, my rewards know no bounds both here on earth and in heaven.

All hail Full time Mums'

The more I think of it and as I see the society decay by the day, I know it will take the intervention of God and Mums who are willing to sacrifice. To all my friends who currently aren't holding formal jobs but are full time Mum's and wives, I HAIL THEE. It's a lost art that if more Mums did our society may not have these many vices because you are there to watch the child grow, caution him when he makes poor choices, be with him and just love him.
For me I work in an organization that prioritizes family so I have the privilege of caring for my family and working in the evenings. This is quite challenging because I do the chores, care for the kids and head for work when my husband returns but I consider it worthwhile spending that much time with my children. I get to see them hit their milestones, say funny stuff, apply the values I desire to see in their lives and that makes me fulfilled. My prayer today is that we Mums will make more sacrifices to be with our children and create a better society.