Stepping Stones

My take on things: Excellence is the best revenge. Whatever obstacle you face today, don't moan about it. Make it a stepping stone. Improve yourself and be the very best you can be. At some point, they'll open the door and roll out the red carpet. Then you can choose: to walk in through that door...or to stroll on by.

Is Your Blessing Bigger than Mine?

"My blessing is bigger than yours".

That statement has no place in the Body of Christ. Here are my thoughts:

1. It stems from the place of ignorance: How do you know how big anyone's blessing is? How does any reasonable person quantify "blessings"?

 2. It stems from a place of pride: Even if it's true that your blessing is "bigger" than mine, is it in the Christian spirit to say that to me?

3. It engenders the wrong spirit and attitude: greed and competition. If you say yours is bigger than mine, I will also say mine is bigger than yours.

4. It comes from a place of foolishness: Nobody ever boasts about something they got for free. If it's a blessing, it's a gift. A gift says more about the Giver than the receiver. Whereof then do you boast?

5. It is antithetical to everything the concept of a "Body" represents: Will the eye say to the feet: " I have cool sunglasses, and you don't"?

Will one wrist say to another: "I have a watch and you don't, so, my blessing is bigger than yours"?

6. If indeed God has blessed you more than He has me, you are then required to do more than me. After all, to whom much is given, much is expected. Think about that.

Remember the story of the talents? May it not come back and bite you in the rear-end, when you have to give an account of what you did with all these blessings of which you've been boasting.

The right spirit is that exhibited by the Early Church in the Acts of the Apostles.

Let us encourage one another towards the true work of the Kingdom, and discontinue this fixation with Mammon.

Das all.

Don't Refer to Your Husband as One of Your Children!

People say: Your husband will always be your biggest and oldest child that requires the most adult supervision"

I say:
Not so! Call a man a child, he will act like one. When women refer to their husbands as children, it diminishes the role of a husband. It also invariably has a psychological effect on the man in that he fails to behave in the way a husband should. He abdicates his role and responsibility as a grown man with a wife and counts on you for the things he got from his mother, and that is why he needs your supervision.

If you call your husband a child, you miss the very essence of who a husband is supposed to be in your life. If your husband is your child, it affects the way you talk to him, think of him, and deal with him. If your husband is your child, who then is your husband? Who then is your friend, provider, protector, cheerleader, confidant, and lover? All of which your husband should be.

The roles are different, and every woman deserves a real man... providing, protecting, praying, and applauding. Our children are to be raised, corrected, and molded. 

Ladies! stop it! Even if he starts off acting like a child, you must gently help him recognize that that is not his role in your life. 

Let's not teach this error to our daughters. They will not know how to differentiate between grown boys and real men.

Calling your husband a child emasculates him and short changes you.
It's a lose-lose situation.

Das all.

CEOs, not Pastors

The reason many "pastors" today as far from their congregation, the reason why they are so "high and mighty", so unapproachable, is because they are really not pastors. 

Truth be told, they are CEOs of their companies, disguised as churches. Their Jesus Limited Liability Companies, raking in the funds through Human Resources who are non-paid. They rule over their kingdoms accountable to no one, deliver nutrition-free sermonettes every now and then from the pulpit, and carefully craft a succession plan that leaves their massive wealth and acquisitions as inheritance for their children. 

They lull their congregants to sleep by "decreeing" all kinds of "blessings", as if THEY got their wealth by decree. And the "employees" say "Aaaaamen" and work harder for their Jesus PLC. 

True pastors are shepherds, caring tenderly for their flock.

Today, the wolves are not coming for the sheep from outside. Rather, they have done away with the Shepherd have hypnotized the sheep, and are now in charge of the coral. 

And the sheep are too happy to be fleeced, saying a loud "Aaamen" every time the CEO "decrees" some "blessings" into their lives. They don't stop to think, that the CEO did not get his/her blessings by decree or by abracadabra. If the decrees work so well, "pastor" will not preach anymore, he will just stay home everyday decreeing all kinds of things for himself. 

It's a good racket. 1. The people work for them for free. 2. The people bring them their hard-earned money. In exchange, the people get a few pronouncements, I decree this, I decree that. That's usually enough to keep the congregation happy. 

Maranatha!

Political Peer Pressure

Peer Pressure.
We often think about peer pressure in the negative and usually as it concerns teenagers and young people. Well, there's positive peer pressure too, and it exists amongst adults and in the business arena also.

As I think about the forthcoming elections in Nigeria, I am counting on peer pressure, positive peer pressure to be a factor in the performance of the APC team at the Centre.

I have looked at PDP, and really cannot tell who PDP is except a parade of people whose effect on one another is to pressure one another into buying jets and living high.

I have hope, that the Fasolas of APC and other performing governors and citizens, if working at the Centre, will constitute positive peer pressure to encourage and challenge one another to actually work for the people. So, you see, it's not just about Buhari and Osinbajo. It's about the atmosphere, the mindset, and the work ethic.

We need a new kind of competition, a bench marking against the best, not the worst, against the savers, not the spendthrift. We need a new normal.

Show me your friends...

One of my nieces asked the other day, "What is Change?" This in relation to the ongoing election campaign in Nigeria. Here's my response to her.

Change is when an administration does not spend 6 years only to point to one thing here, one thing there, as its accomplishments, at a time when the world is moving at break neck speed in every direction. 

Change is when a government's policies touch people everyday. 

Change is when I go to Lagos and say...I didn't know Lagos could change this much. 

Change is when teachers are provided professional development that they need. 

Change is a government that ensures all its citizens enjoy good health care, education, shelter, and boundless opportunities. 

Change is when everyone is accountable for their actions. 

Change is when looters are brought to justice. 

Change is when a team of brilliant people are selected to do the work they're qualified for, and not political operatives that speak without applying much thought. 

Change is when Nigerians do not have go abroad for adequate health care. 

Change is when we are not hustling to obtain other nations' citizenship. 

Change is when I don't have to read or hear horribly grammar from graduates of Nigerian universities. 

Change is when our leaders recognize that something is wrong without expecting to be patted on the back because they stayed in Nigeria or their children schooled in Nigeria.

Change is a government that is not satisfied with the status quo. 

Change is when our officials and their wives are no longer the laughing stock of the entire world. 

Change is when our president cares more about Nigeria than Paris.

Change is a team that has a desire to wipe the shame of corruption off our faces.

Change is when university graduates don't have to languish for years without finding employment or the wherewithal to start their own business. 

Change is when we will be proud once again to say we graduated from a Nigerian university. 

Change is when the electorate demands that candidates declare a manifesto. 

Change is when we can all say, with confidence: "Proudly Nigerian."

When God is in the Land

I have just read the account of someone's revelation, the conclusion of which was that God told him the President Jonathan is His man and that God is with Him. Not wanting to be dismissive of what might be a true revelation, also knowing that I had to align every revelation with scripture, I thought about men of God in the Bible who were in political office: Joseph, Daniel, King David.

God was with them and a veritable sign of that was that the people prospered under them and The mighty hand of God was shown in His involvement with these people. In the case of Joseph, God used him to prevent what would have been the disastrous results of a famine. David was used militarily to bring peace to the people. Daniel's life and his encounter with the lions left the people in awe.

I do not see a correlation here with the case of Nigeria. The people continue to suffer. Death has invaded the land. Our citizens began to consume our female children and God has not shown Himself to our leader, like He did in time of old?

Instead of showing our leader how to secure and create provision for the future of Nigeria as He did with Joseph, the opposite has happened here.

Instead of investing in building the foundations (Nehemiah style) that have been destroyed: education, health care, roads, shelter, electricity, we continue to enrich other nations by our patronage and our contracts. It seems to be that our treasury is just for a few people.

On the other hand, I also thought about kings that God had used for His own purpose. Kings who were non- Jews. We should all spend time in the Book of Ezra and see what conclusions we draw.

I have decided to set that 'revelation' aside only because I could not align it with scripture.

The other interpretation of the revelation is that the reason things are getting worse is because God is angry with Nigeria. Could it be that He is with the president but that the nation itself is under judgment?

Hmmmn. I have to research that.

That's my vantage point of view.