Worry No More

 

Erma Bombeck once wrote, “Worry is like a rocking chair: it gives you something to do but never gets you anywhere.” Why should anyone spend valuable time on issues that are beyond one's control? And why worry over spilled milk? You may have lost a job or lost the love of your life! It could be anything but it's time one made up their mind to move forward and start afresh. Therefore, how can one stop worrying?

In this article, I will highlight 4 ways of dealing with worry I found interesting out of the 6 ways illustrated by Amy Morin, in an article written in Psychology Today titled” 6 Ways to Stop Worrying About Things You Can’t Change.

Determine What You Can Control; it is mare foolishness to think you can make the sun never go down and allow nighttime to come. Whether one likes it or not Day and Night will never cease. Generally in life, we may not be in control of what happens to us but we are in control of how we react to what happens to us

Focus on your influence; it is usually to wise to poke into other people’s business in which you have no authority to change or influence anything. One may be accused of trespassing. Let us focus on areas where we have 100% influence to make changes

Identify your fears; everyone is afraid of something like there are many people afraid of death. Well talking about death, it’s a well-known fact that no one will ever get out of life alive! It’s that simple. Some have the fear of failure. Identify your fears and accept them. Accepting your fears is the first step to begin to do something about them in order to move forward in life.

Develop healthy affirmations; worry is usually expressed in words through negative affirmations like “I know things will not work out like the last time”. However, why not develop positive affirmations “ I know things will work out for my good”, “I am blessed” “I will achieve success”, ”I am wonderfully and beautifully created” as the bible says in proverbs “ As Man thinks in his heart so is he”

Stop the Worry culture that is holding you back today

The Side of YOU, not even You knew existed!

" It doesn't matter where you are born, it could be in a Manger. But in God's mind, it is a setup for Christmas and not for you to become a Donkey" You are destined for Greatness

YOU are the kind that turns water into wine, the side that turns a moment of sorrow into springboards for greater exploits. The Kind that creates a table in the presence of thine enemies. The you that the Devil left with Marks of Triumph. The YOU who is wonderfully and beautifully made beyond anyone's wildest dreams. The YOU who can never be duplicated. The one with the Potential to do far above and beyond the imagination of what anyone in this life can fathom. The YOU who is God's best-kept secret until now. The You under whom life awaits instructions to carry out your wishes, the YOU with the tongue of authority that whatever you can declare in this life will come to pass

You are the one who was created self-contained that you don't even need an electric charger in order to live. You are the kind that is able to stand on two legs firmly without a third pillar to keep your posture.

MAN, WOMAN, the divine is waiting for your action to turn this world into a better place for all humanity.

Let no one cheat you that they know the details about your great because the Creator was so wise and He hid your bright future inside of YOU. And it is only you who can bring it out. Simple as that.

Be inspired today

If you can’t Convince them, Confuse them

 A letter to my grandchildren: African Ancestors did nothing wrong!

Africans for some time have been labeled backward people even after getting the education they prescribed for them. The prescribed education in fact only created employees and never employers. Therefore, we were trained to take care of other people’s possession and never to own anything. The Religion they brought to us managed to convince us that our African Ancestors committed high treason before the face of God and we are paying the price of their supposed sins hence, we are supposed to repent for those sins and iniquities on their behalf in order to see the perceived change and enjoy the prosperity that is idolized in certain parts of the world. Every week the African has continued to repent of these ancestral inequities with no sign of change in sight, the poor are still poor. Religion has even designed the picture of the devil with our black skin color while all the angels in the supposed presence of God are all white in color. Talk about killing the self-esteem of people at a deeper level with such an illustration. We walk as broken people under sin and have been hypnotized to the extent that we have even rejected our own traditional names and norms in preference for the ones recommended by our spiritual educators including their cultural norms hoping that will change our circumstances and in the process make the African look distinguished. But we are forgetting one truth that a Rose flower under any other name will still smell a rose flower.

If our African ancestors were as backward and evil as we have been made to believe, then let’s consider the facts. How did my ancestors manage to move from wherever they came from whether it is in the mountains of Cameroon in West Africa without shoes or clothes, braving the most hostile African jungles, unpredictable climatic conditions, crossing some of the most turbulent rivers, fighting off wild animals, providing child and maternal health services until they were able to settle in the various places that the white missionaries found them. If you ask me, our ancestors were true heroes and someone deliberately did not want the Africans to view their past in that positive light. Hence, make people be ashamed of their history

Well, let’s ask the question, who led our ancestors through their journeys and whose wisdom did they use to enable them to brave the difficult great treks that they undertook to the point where the African we see today was born and is alive fully formed. Is it the devil? Consider for a moment if the African migration and spiritual journey were well recorded in the same manner the Jewish history has been recorded in the Torah, wouldn’t we see the hand of a divine God somewhere in there? The fear-based religion that we have been exposed to, has truly made zombies out of some of our people today. One thing is true, Nobody can pray themselves into prosperity otherwise the Africans would have been the richest people on the face of the earth because they are true prayer warriors trying to kill the devil who is the supposed author of poverty. Except I don’t really know who gave Africans the idea that the devil is hiding in the mountains.

We have been asking our religious teachers to show us how to get to the abundance that God promised in various religious texts and the answer we normally get is so familiar, do not aspire for these worldly treasures as your true treasure awaits you in heaven. Wow! Can somebody remind them that nobody gets out of life alive! To get to heaven one has to die and be buried hallelujah.

The solutions to Africa’s economic problem actually lie in the problems themselves except that we have been trained always to look elsewhere first like an academic text book written in 1950! God in his divine wisdom prepacked solutions in the problems themselves like the maize crop is in the maize seed itself. For example, if we consider Africa’s agriculture problems, is the African arable land located only in Europe, Asia or America? Are the people who are supposed to farm the land only in Europe, Asia, or America? Many times the solutions are just as simple as that. But Africans are too educated and always believe it’s complicated to solve agricultural problems. Who knows maybe that’s the reason Jesus Christ did not attend any Earthly University so that he can uncomplicated life as we know it. Seriously can we for a moment unlearn things and get back to the basics.

Well at least I can finally declare as the Mexican proverb says “They tried to burry us, but they didn’t know we were seeds” Africa will wake up one day and take its destiny in its own hands and the liar will be exposed

When Yesterday is Gone

“Thank the past for all the lessons it taught you; anticipate the future for all the blessings it has in store for you.” ~ Matshona Dhliwayo

What is Yesterday doing in your present moment? What is the value of bringing up the horrors of Yesterday in your now moment? You may have made terrible mistakes yesterday or you could have been misunderstood and treated unfairly. The question of life you would consider is that are you sure you can travel back in time and undo what happened yesterday like one would do on a Computer? Unfortunately, it is an exercise in futility to try that impossible adventure. Many times the people who get stuck in the pains of yesterday look for sympathy from those around them. and they are not ready to move to the next adventure of life. Maybe they are scared of the changes that tomorrow or today require them to make to fit in. 

Yesterday is like torn pieces of paper that have been thrown into the air and have been dispersed by the fast blowing wind in different directions and cannot be regathered and pieced together again and its done. Therefore, why would someone waste time trying to cry over milk that has already been spilled? Look back and ask yourself the questions of life like "What is the lesson that was hidden in yesterday?" "What is the treasure that could have been wrapped up in yesterday?" You will discover that the greatest treasure in yesterday is that you are here alive today. The almighty God has hidden all your promises and blessings in time. Every minute ahead of you holds something of value to your future. Therefore, don't waste valuable energy getting stuck in the past. 

Charles E Hudson could not have been more clearer when he said “Don't let the pain from yesterday ruin the new day that's ahead of you.” However, it is Mehmet Murat ildan, who once said “If your yesterday was much better than your today, then today you will most probably walk around in your yesterday!” in essence we should not define today by yesterday's standards which may be outdated today otherwise we will never grow beyond yesterday's limits. Remember the Fax machines were relevant yesterday but today we have email. Yesterday we had Kodak photo cameras that needed a darkroom to develop images to get a photo, but today we have digital cameras and digital printers to achieve the same thing. Like one wise guy once said "Expectation is the Pillar of Life" Our today should always be filled with higher expectations than yesterday. Hope for tomorrow should always be the last thing we should ever lose no matter what we go through in life

Choose to live in the moment and enjoy life as it has been given to you by God. Life is what it is and you make it what you want it to be. Above all forgive everyone who has hurt you in the past. You have no business carrying the burden of unforgiveness instead of spending quality time creating your future. You are a creator and nothing else 

When Life hits you with a Low Blow

 "If You Accept the fragrance of a Rose, You must accept the thorns that it bears" ~ Isaac Hayes

Bret Michaels once said "My life is part humour, part roses and part Thorns. There comes a time in life when one goes through thorns of Life. A time when even those you think are close to you seems so far away when your cry is not loud enough for anyone to hear you. A time when one even thinks God has gone quiet on you. When it's daytime but you wish it was in the night when time simply stops and seems to take an eternity while your mind freezes. You can't even turn to the left or to the right with no place to lay your head in peace.

Is there a way out? Yes! Ask yourself the question, If it's not me then who? The thorns of life were divinely designed to keep you in motion. No one sits on thorns and never rises up to escape the pain of thorns. God never designed a perfect path for you lest you fail to grow in wisdom but He ensured that the devil was standing at every corner so that you don't ever stop moving towards your destiny. Therefore, make friends with the thorns of life and you will thank God. Every encounter with evil is replete with a valuable lesson to move you to the next best version of yourself for the prepared higher level. Remember the day when even the people you hope to encourage you, all of a sudden just develop amnesia and cant even remember that you exist.

When evil shows up like it has come to derail your journey, Thank God because its the signal you have been waiting for that the day of your rising is just on the horizon. Therefore, just make friends with the thorns you encounter in your journal. Life is not a mystery just flow with it with your eyes set on the goal.

Happy Women’s Day: Getting Your Inheritance Back

"The Men have held the instruments of power under false pretense”

The Case of the Daughters of Zelophehad vs the JEWISH LAW of inheritance (Num 27:1-8)

The Christian Bible records a story in the book of Numbers 27:1 – 8 where girls challenged the rigid Jewish tradition of passing family inheritance (in this case land) to boys only when a father dies.

The book of Numbers recounts a case of a Jewish family man Zelophehad who only had daughters and died without a son. Therefore, without a son in the family, the daughters were to forfeit the inheritance to another family there being no heir in Zelophehad’s family tree according to the prevailing law of the land. This was a Jewish traditional system of inheritance no matter how unfair it was that the people lived under for decades as a norm.

However, a day of reckoning came when the so called traditional norm of inheritance was challenged by Zelophehad's surviving daughters could not take that norm lying down and were determined to challenge the status core. Why? These women realized that without an inheritance (land) they will be destitute and without any land, their families will have no capital with which to attain any economic value for their families in that time which in essence meant they will be poor forever. Without an inheritance, the system suggested that they did not have the right to think but only look forward to a husband who should do the thinking for them and eventually provide for them

With this economic disadvantage in mind (Num 27: 3), the girls went and confronted the Jewish lawmakers through Moses and demanded for their inheritance from their father's estate. By this petition, the girls were asked Moses why girls should continually lose their father’s inheritance just because there was no son in the family at the death of a father. To cut the story short, it is reported that Moses went before the Lord to enquire on the matter and the Lord told him that the girls were right in their request and should be given the inheritance. That day the Jewish law was changed and girls become heirs also to their father’s inheritance just like boys.

Let’s break this down a little, this unfair Jewish law; was it God’s law or it was man’s creation designed to favor men for selfish reasons. I pose this question because when Moses goes before God to enquire, God says the girls are right in their demand and instructed Moses to give them their possession. This tells us that God was not the author of this law but it was the selfish man’s scheme to defraud girls of their future. Are you catching the drift here? This should also help us challenge some of the religious norms we believe are from God. Women should not do this or that and why should it be only women who should be at the receiving end. Are these laws from God or man anyway 

 

Let’s now bring the message home ladies, let’s travel back in time and enter the High Court where the daughters of Zelophehad have brought the case titled “The Men have held the instruments of power by false pretense” Claiming back the Inheritance:

The High Court judge his honor Moses asked the question of why the women have brought up a petition to challenge God’s law (the constitution) that does not give them the right to their father’s land if the family has no son as an heir according to the law. In other words why the ladies were demanding for equality with men.

And the girls opened their arguments and the following is the verbatim: Your honor this law that only allows boys to be heirs presupposes that all wisdom and intelligence is bestowed in sons or boys and are the ones who can turn the fortunes of a family into a prosperity of some sort. But can the law truly fathom the true extent of anyone’s ability, potential, or skill? The answer is No, laws are simply written texts with no intelligence of their own except in the mind of the drafter. Therefore, if the conceiver of the law is biased, then the law follows that path. But we put it to you that all you presiding judges are here today because there was a woman who gave birth to you and protected you from harm, she gave up her life and needs so that you can become Moses the great or the great men you consider yourselves to be. Should mothers become irrelevant or second-class human beings just because men become leaders, presidents or business owners? Why should the law talk about sons as if the sons simply drop from heaven without regard to the women who brought them forth into this world? Why should women be relegated to the kitchen as if their brains are made of pots, cooking sticks, and pans. If this were the case why would God allow Deborah to be a judge to lead the Israelites? Why would God choose Esther to be the conduit of help for Israel? Why would God allow Oprah Winfrey to have the wisdom to create jobs, why would God allow Angela Merkel to lead Germany, why would God allow Kamara Harris to be the Vice President of the USA the most powerful nation in the world? Why would God allow Inonge Wina to be the great Vice President of Zambia? Can anyone explain how a girls’ secondary school in Choma in the Southern province of Zambia, final year students obtained straight ‘A’s in the final exams beating the boys’ celebrated technical schools pants down? Is the court of tradition suggesting that these girls have modified brains? If the argument is that women talk too much! Who doesn’t? if society has a problem with women’s talk content, then send them to school so that the profession they gain forms the larger portion of their talk. But we submit to you that it’s not that women talk too much, they just have too much to share with others. If anything it's the talking gift that has enabled them to help children under their care to learn to talk and communicate while the fathers are 90% absent.

 

May the Court of Tradition be informed that the world is replete with women who have made a significant difference. Nancy Johnson invented the Ice maker in 1843, Ada Lovelace invented the Computer Algorithm 1843, Sarah Mather invented the Submarine lamp and telescope, Margaret A. Wilcox invented the Car heater, Stephanie Kwolek invented the Bullet-proof fiber in 1966, Hedy Lamarr invented Wireless Transmission Technology in 1941, Maria Telkes invented Thermoelectric power generator in 1947. The list goes on and on..

 

All the men reading this, I request that you look at the daughters under your care. Please they are not pieces of meat for sale. Groom your daughters to bring out the passion that God has invested in them by encouraging them to pursue and bring out their talents. Women are generally designed and equipped with the potential to carry others, hence, they are the only ones with the ability to carry a child through pregnancy and when everything goes down in life she will do everything to protect and support her children’s survival because she is able to feel their pain. When you look around, women are the majority trying to sell something for their children’s welfare. Probably you owe your success to such a resilient mother who never abandoned you. She may even have withstood both emotional and physical blows so that you can have a life you enjoy today. Women are our greatest heroes

Therefore, if tradition deprives the girl child a seat at the table of decision making and her equal inheritance, the tradition will be depriving the world of God’s deposit of Himself that he planned to manifest through women to impact society

You cannot pour from an empty cup

 “To fall in love with yourself is the first secret to happiness.” “Don't waste your energy trying to change opinions … Do your thing, and don't care if they like it.” “Owning our story and loving ourselves through that process is the bravest thing that we'll ever do.” Evan Hartzenberg

You try so hard to play the religious story of trying to love others more when you actually don't even love yourself in any way. You spend your time trying to make yourself to fit others' descriptions of perfection every day but you always end up with a photocopy you don't like. Hence, you try again the following day and in the process, you end up looking like a clown. 

Do you know the problem you have been trying to solve? It's called a lack of self-love. Oh, you need is to Love Yourself. Every day you need to shower yourself with lots of love. Loving everything about yourself and stopping to listen to other people's opinions of you. You will never satisfy people's curiosity because they will never be you and they will never walk in your shoes. You hate your face, you don't even like the color of your skin and even the size of your head and you wonder why other people keep talking ill of how you look. Stop abusing yourself and others will stop. be comfortable in your own skin and enjoy life effortlessly

If you don't love yourself, what love can you sincerely give to other people? You cannot pour from an empty cup. Fill your cup full of love and you will have enough to give to other people.

Be wise and rise above life's challenges