Memories

What do you feel when you remember the loss/losses you've suffered? Do you feel sad and helpless? Does remembering rekindles the pain?
Losses of any kind are painful, be it the loss of a child, a parent, a sibling, a job, business or a house, whatever, losses are not pleasant.
But after a while, the pain of the loss/losses passes (I hope), and is replaced with only memories of what we suffered and how we to pulled through.

A year ago I suffered a couple of losses one of which is the loss of my dad, looking back now I remembered the pain of those losses and marvel at how I pulled through. one year on the pain has been replaced with fond memories of my loving dad. The pain was painful (if there's a phrase like that), it was horrible, but that was then. Pain are for a season, we are build to feel pain, sorrow and sadness, but we are not expected to stay in the place of pain and dwell in the land of questions like why me, what next, when Lord?

We are meant to bounce back stronger and better than we were before our losses.

So have you suffered a loss?
Does the pain become real again on the anniversary of the loss?
Do you still feel sorrowful?

Sad as your loss was or is, you are meant to bounce back and not remain in the place of pain.
Do whatever you have to do to bounce back, go for counselling, do something to move pass the place of pain into the place where you can remember not with pain, or sorrow but with a sense of gratitude that you pulled through.

We cannot erase the past, but we can look on the past and smile at our resilience and our ability to weather the storms of our past demise.

So straight from my heart is this piece to encouraging you to move on purposefully to a place were memories become spring board to hope and dream again.

Start Nurturing

It’s been a while since I updated you on my veggies. I am so amazed at the rate of growth and the produce so far. Really this whole growing thing has got me looking forward to next growing season.
The beauty of it all is the finished produce. I must say the taste of my peas and spinach is compared to nothing. My tomatoes have started sprouting and gosh! The size of it!

It was only a couple of months ago we got to work, sowing the seeds, watering and feeding. At some point I was tired of carrying on. Each evening after a hard day’s work I am out there tendering. To put it in biblical terms I sowed in tears and now am ripping in joy!

This got me thinking about a lot of the things we are involved in on a daily basis, our relationships, our jobs, our character, what are we sowing? Are we expecting to reap where we’ve not sown? To have a good harvest, be it good friends, well groomed kids, beautiful garden, not only must we sow the seeds, we must tend to it, we must modify our character, taking stock daily of areas we need to improve on. We must put the needed hours on the job to get the recognition. We must sweat it out at the beginning, through the middle and right to the end till our produce bring forth fruit worthy of harvest.

At one stage some of my plants weren’t doing well, I was sad, I didn’t know what was happening, I had to researched what the problem could be and apply the necessary treatment to restore them to healthy state.

If things are not working in some areas of your life, find out why, look within and without, are you doing enough, is there something you’ve neglected to do? Only when you’ve given your best at any task or call can you rest.
We can work it out all on our own and succeed, but sometimes with our best effort things may still go pear shape, just like the time I had to lay hands on my crop one morning when they all appeared dead, I must say God intervened whether you believe it or not! But I didn’t give up on them.

So don’t sweat it out all on your own, involved the master who gives us the power to make wealth. Equipped with his strength we can do all things!

So straight from my heart, is this encouragement to you to being to sow today, begin now, where you are, wait no more, depose the handicap call excuses and be on your way to Nurturing that dream, birth within you a reality too powerful to fail. With unwavering faith, propel your being into all you’ve been created to be and watch as you sprout and soar like a giant, conquering and winning all the way.

Joyful Always

I recently spent a few days with one of my good friends, we did many things together, we went out we joked, we played, and we prayed, we ate, we talked, it was awesome. I didn’t want to leave after the weekend we had. I enjoy times like this spent with VGFs. (very good friends)
Days after I returned, I was full of life, happy, and just generally felt good about myself, partly due to the fact that I was away for a couple of days and spent time relaxing with someone whose company I enjoy.

This got me thinking: Can it be this way always! Can I be joyful, happy and relax always? Maybe it can, maybe I can. Why can’t it be, if I spend time with my best friend in the whole world, my best friend who is also my dad, my help, my all in all: God my Father? Now imagine what it will be like to always talk with him, walk with him, share jokes with him, giggle with him, listen to him, cry to him, and unburden your heart to him: imagine what that will do to and for you. We can be joyful every minute of every day. It is possible, why? Because we will never leave his presence and in his presence there is fullness of Joy! He said his presence will go with us and he will give us rest.

I came away from the presence of my friend refreshed, this lasted for a couple of days (as all holiday does). Imagine, if I don’t have to leave the presence of the Joy Giver, it means I’ll be Joyful Always! I know, we cannot be happy, hippy all the time, that’s what we’ve been told and we’ve come to believe it. The main reason we are not always joyful is because we leave his presence and pursue our own agenda. We feel a temporal high from being with him and then we leave.

We associate our special prayer times and places of prayer with the presence of God. Often, we finishe praying, get up and carry on as usual, there’s subtle unconsciousness of we’ve finished, “now we can go about our business”, “we are leaving the presence” till our next “prayer time”. The presence of God should be with us everywhere we go, in, during and outside our specific prayer times and place. Staying in his presence is the only sure belt that we can be Joyful All The Time.

So with the help of the Holy Spirit, practise being in his presence all the time, every day. Find small ways of involving him in your daily activities. Stop and pray in the middle of work. Set little reminders to get you back into his presence and soon it’ll become second nature to you and you’ll find you are full of joy unspeakable All The Time.

So straight from my heart: I encourage you seek his presence more than his presents,
His presence brings peace which passes all understanding, peace in the mist of dire circumstances, which permeates the souls, unleashing it from the tangles of pain, sets it free to be joyful, Joy that trickles as an endless stream which flows from being with him, never ending, always abiding. Always a joy to be joyful always!