THE TEST OF FAITH

People are funny. When all is going fine, they are absolutely in love with God. The moment something negative come their way they begin to doubt God’s credibility and question His goodness. I can say this because I once was like that. Few years ago, I would blame God for all my demise because I felt it was His responsibility to see that nothing goes wrong with me and that all works out well perfectly. I never once considered the fact that God knew what He was doing. Every time something bad happened to me (especially financially) I would quote the Bible and ask God why He did not “provide for my needs according to His riches in glory through Christ Jesus”. This used to be my own major attack point. I was not wise enough to understand the rules of life.

My Take on Marriage

I'm not married. Too young for that but I have seen too many failed marriages and seen too many Hollywood movies condemning marriage to want to be. But we are currently doing a program on Marriage and Family in my final undergrad year so we learn something today that made me understand that marriages fail, not because it is a failed institution, but because the people involved have chosen to let it be. I mean, aren't there countless successful marriages out there? There are. My parents' marriage is a good example of a successful one.

First, people from failed marriages do not understand a lot about marriage.

When Are You Most Vulnerable to Give in to the Temptations?

We have established the effects that watching porn has on people now we want to look at the times when the temptation to watch it is strongest and when people are most vulnerable to give in to his temptation.

1. When you’re emotionally exhausted. This is one of the easiest times for anyone to fall into temptations. Emotions and performance go together. The better your emotions, the better your performance. Performance here refers the way we do things. When you’re emotionally exhausted, you get edgy easily. You’re too tired and you may not be able to resist much. Therefore, the temptation comes at a time like this.
2. When you are discouraged. It is easy to get

#WhatsYourExcuse

The Whole Point of Progress...A Lesson from 'Da Vinci's Demons'

I am currently re-watching a TV show 'Da Vinci's Demons'. The show is a fictional historical account of the early years of Leonardo da Vinci while he was just a young, troublesome artist and engineer. Da Vinci approached the ruler of Florence at that time, Lorenzo di Medici, and asked for the position of Military Engineer. Lorenzo agreed and appointed da Vinci. Da Vinci's job was to create military weapons for Florence as Rome was planning to attack them in war. Da Vinci proposed a three-stepped canon which would fire in quick succession. If you are well versed in history you would know that da Vinci's dream was almost an impossibility. I mean, we are talking about the 13th century when there was little technological advancement. However, despite the cynicism of everyone around him, save for his close friends, da Vinci embarked on the journey. He was finally able to produce the canon. However, at the first testing, the canon exploded, almost killing him and the royal entourage that came with Lorenzo. This made Lorenzo angry, giving da Vinci a 3-day deadline to put it right if not, he would be hanged.

How to Deal With Difficult People

You will agree with me that people are different. This difference in personalities makes some people compatible while some others aren't. You will also agree with me that no matter where we find ourselves -at work, in school, at home and in public places- we will always come across people who are difficult to relate with. Some of these people are proud while some others just lack good communication skills. You will also agree with me that it is important for you to know how to get along with people so that life can be much easier for you. The more able you are to adapt to people's personalities, the better your chances are at living a freer life. Here's how you can deal with such difficult people:

HOW TO ENJOY WHAT YOU DO: TIP 5

Embrace the positives. Learn from and then ignore the negatives. No matter how hard or bad something is, there’s usually a bit of positivity to it as it is negative too. So dwell more on positivity than on negativity. Don’t ignore negative responses and feedbacks. Examine them, see what you can learn from them and then do away with them. Most times, improvement lies in negativity but dwelling on the negatives will only make you hate things more than ever. So instead, try to identify the positives in your work and embrace those positives.

MY ANNIVERSARY IS AROUND THE CORNER

Yeah, the one year anniversary of my blog is around the corner and I wanna celebrate with you guys so I'm thinking of creative ways to do so. I want you all to leave your suggestions and comments so we can all have a good time together. 

Also, leave comments or send me an email telling me how this blog has helped you and tell me which is your best article. You may be in line to win something. You just never know. I am grateful to God for you all. You are my motivation; the reasons I do what I do. God bless you.

Let's Talk About The Conscience...Your Conscience

I heard the story of a married couple who lived somewhere in town (obviously). They trusted each other so much. They had 2 cars and both of them possessed keys to the 2 cars. So one day the wife was driving by a hotel- a very notorious hotel.- and she saw her husband's car. That hotel was so notorious that anyone who lodged in did so to commit wrong. That's how bad it was. So the wife drove home, took a cab, came back to the hotel. Then she drove her husbands car and went on to hide it somewhere. When the husband returned late in the night her lied that he was involved in a robbery attack and his car was snatched. Unknown to him was that his wife knew the whole truth. He was cheating on her. His wife just pulled him by the nose and showed him where she had hid the car. He felt so ashamed and embarrassed. That's the world as we have it today. People lack good moral compass and their consciences are weak or even dead.

HOW TO ENJOY WHAT YOU DO: TIP 4

Understand what can make you happy and what makes you unhappy. Realize I did not say understand what makes you happy because in the first place you won’t be reading this article if you knew how to make yourself happy. But you must understand that happiness needs to come in if you must enjoy what you do. Also, know yourself enough to know what and what makes you unhappy- how and why it makes you unhappy. When you have discovered this, it is now your responsibility to avoid what makes you unhappy and embrace those things that can make you happy from that work. If you can’t find anything in that environment that can make you happy then I suggest you can bring in external sources of happiness into your work. I think that’ll help.

HOW TO ENJOY WHAT YOU DO: TIP 3

Set a reward for every task you accomplish. For example, if you like to watch movies, you can set that as a reward for yourself. For each time you accomplish a task, you get to watch a movie or buy yourself something. Make sure you do not reward yourself without accomplishing that task. Again this is where proactivity needs to come in and you must also be disciplined enough not to cheat yourself.

Help! I'm Addicted to Watching Movies...

Someone asked me to write a piece on how to curb movie addiction so here it is. I'm not much of a TV fan so I guess I may not know much about this but one thing I know is this "where your treasure is, there your heart lies." That's the basic principle that guides this sort of thing. You've got to search deep and ask yourself: "what are my priorities? what are the most important things in my life?" Once you're able to answer this question you're on your way to freedom.

Furthermore, the more time you spend doing more important things, the less time you have to watch movies. Also, it is important that you discipline yourself and learn how to pray to God everyday and study your Bible as well. In the process of doing this you begin to gain perspective on how important times is how much you need to invest and preserve all the time you have. You haven't got all the time in the world.

One More Thing To Note About Porn Addiction

While in my prayer time, I was mulling over the series I started on 'How to Overcome Porn Addiction' and the Holy Spirit reminded me of the most vital step towards recovering from this addiction. Earlier in the day I had seen two different videos on this topic as a form of research and in order to improve my content. What I noticed is that I have neglected the most important step. This step trumps any of the 7 steps to recovery and it is quite easy to remember. It is that you can never achieve freedom without understanding the place of Christ and the Grace He provides us.

Furthermore, the comment on the most recent step made me realize this. We can never achieve freedom from the addiction to porn if we do not even understand that it was what Christ died for. Christ died to set us free from the works of Satan and and sin. Pornography is still just the same sin as lying. There's no need to sugar-coat it. God sees the liar, the murderer, the adulterer and the porn addict as all the same: sinners. but the good thing is that God doesn't condemn them. He loves them as much as He loves those who are already sin-free.

Inspiration for Today...

HOW TO ENJOY WHAT YOU DO: TIP 2

Be proactive, no matter what the environment is like. Look for ways that you can input your own methods and ideas. Even if your boss is a rigid person, find your way around his rigidity. That’s what proactivity is all about. Proactivity also includes you being agile. It means that you mustn’t let a ‘no’ or a rejection keep you from doing what you’re doing. Add fun into it. Own your work and make it like your own personal kingdom where you’re lord over all.

INSPIRATION & ADVICE

HOW TO ENJOY WHAT YOU DO

I know you’ve seen a lot of articles and heard several people say that you should do what you enjoy. However, I am glad to announce to you that that won’t always be the case. We are now in a world wherein you have to learn how to motivate yourself regardless where you find yourself. The other thing is that we know life isn’t fair enough to give us all what we deserve so many are times we have to learn to motivate ourselves even if we may not enjoy our environment. Furthermore, you are going to have to learn how to enjoy your work even if you feel all is well at the time. Here’s my own little formula on how to make sure you stay motivated and enjoy your work no matter what you’re doing- even if it’s school work or menial chores, you’ve got to enjoy it. So I'm going to this bit by bit. A new tip for each new day. ENJOY!.

TIP FOR TODAY: The first and easiest way to make sure you stay motivated and enjoy what you do is to turn it into a practical learning experience. Most of the steps I’ll be giving you will require proactivity on your path so it means more often than not you’re going to have to instigate action. Thus, you have to learn how to turn what you do into a learning experience. Make sure you are learning something from it, no matter what that thing is. This step also needs you to always have an open mind. Don’t assume. Be open to new things and new ideas.

WORK! WORK!! WORK!!!

There's no other way to become successful in life except through hardwork. No matter how good or talented you think someone is, they will never amount to anything good if they do not put in a certain level of hardwork. The same goes for every one of us, including you reading this article.

I don’t know anyone that is consciously satisfied with being a failure but I also know that no one will ever become great if they do not work hard. I read an article on Ofilispeaks that talks about how to make work disappear and the only way I know how to make work disappear is to face the work and finish it. Don’t ever think your talent is good enough to get you that gig you want. Your talent is never enough to get you into the upper class and keep you there but hardwork can.

So whatever you are doing and whoever you are, get to work immediately. If you don’t like what you’re doing change your environment or quit but if you can’t quit then I suggest you better start forcing yourself to enjoy what you do if not you will remain a mediocre forever. Do you want to learn how to enjoy what you do? Then check back on this blog by tomorrow. I’ll have something especially for you. Have a wonderful day ahead and don’t forget to work. It’s the only way I know you can become truly successful.

LET'S TALK ABOUT INTEGRITY

This topic of integrity is one topic that we definitely do not hear much about anymore or so it seems. This morning in our university chapel, our Pro-Chancellor talked about it. Listening to him made me realize how much of this virtue we are lacking nowadays. Few people can actually stand as persons of integrity when we look at it in the real sense of what that word means. And please don't tell me that it is hard to judge a book by it's cover, it ain't. In this present times it has become a norm for people to tell lies and cover up the evil happening around them. It's so sad. Furthermore, integrity should not be limited by situation. This means that holding on to your integrity should not be as occasion serves you. Rather, it should be constant. Integrity should be embedded in your personality and not your actions.
In case you have doubts on what integrity is, let me give you some definitions of integrity:

LET’S BECOME ACCOUNTABLE

In 2012 there was a minor controversy in the football world after FIFA or UEFA declared that Lionel Messi had broken Gerd Muller’s record for the most goals scored in a calendar year- 90. The issue arose when the Zambian Football Association claimed that one of their players actually surpassed that number by scoring 94 or thereabout some years ago. The matter, however, was dropped after Zambia was unable to prove their claim. They couldn’t produce the necessary records and evidence to support their argument. Eventually, Lionel Messi was able to add another world record to his already crowded collection of world records.