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Thinking there will be a time when everything will be as desired would be a mirage. Hard times, I want to think is part of existence. You were born to meet hard periods from one phase of life to another, for as you solve one, you’ll encounter another.
No one individual has been able to solve all the problems he/she has met or encountered in life. You win some and lose some but life must continue.
Every phase of life has its own peculiar problem or challenge. When an individual is going through a state of struggle to make changes or good things happen, he/she talks of hard times.
When people talk about hard times, what they are saying is, mostly, financial shortfall. And this is when your income is insufficient to settle your bills and meet your needs.
Money is a powerful tool in the hands of those who have it. Haven’t you seen a fool that wise men bow to simply because he has financial control.
Families in Nigeria woke up on January 1st 2012 and met themselves in the examination room writing a test they did not prepare for.
Removal of oil subsidy is an equation too difficult to balance, except it is approached by divine insight and revelation.
Humanly, thought of inflation, which will affect the purchasing power of many, filled my mind.
My business
The question to ask is: Is my product essential or a luxury? A luxury of course! Supposing the strength of our products get reduced in the market place, it means some workers will lose their jobs? What will happen to such people’s means of livelihood?
The time to serve the Lord is now. Renew your hearty relationship with God this year. See to it that you obey His instructions as you find them in His word or as He whispers to your heart. God says He will Teach and Counsel you in the way you should go in the year 2012, so that Satan would not prey against your family. Follow His leading like a child.
In life, it is not about what happens to you, it is what and how you handle your test and trials of life. A quick reminder here, that without test in the school of life, your promotion is stunted. The more test you pass, the faster and more beautiful your success.
Greed and not giving God priority in the family causes prolonged storm to ravage families. Life is delicate; it takes wisdom to tread different terrains. This is not to cause you to fear but for you to acquire knowledge and skills for good success.
In my last column, Praise for Nigerian Men, I expatiated that they are the best husbands in the world and I mean it. Nigerian women are blessed in every aspect. God reserves the best for us. But our lack of true knowledge of God has been robbing us of our beautiful and lasting heritage in marriage. And that is why SUBMISSION is our subject today.
Nigerian men are among the most God fearing, loving and affectionate of men on earth who are alive to their responsibilities. When Nigerian men come of age, they believe in having settled homes and working towards having good families. Majority of Nigerian men take pride in being married. I have observed that our men feel unfulfilled if their marriages are not going the way they desire. Forget about their all-is-well appearance, Nigerian men cherish good homes because that enhances their confidence.
Thanks to our fore-fathers that laid the foundation for good moral conduct and a good family system, the Nigerian men believe in good name rather than instant gratification.
Marriage entirely succeeds or fails because of the manner in which couples themselves relate to one another. Proper relationship in marriage begins with a proper motive for the marriage. Most marriages do not bring happiness, talk less of joy, because the contracting parties neither understand nor attempt to understand the force of thought, through the operation of which every word they speak, every act in which they engage, and every motive by which they are inspired to deal with each other, is picked up and woven into a web that entangles them or gives to them the rings of freedom through which they soar above all forms of unhappiness.
Role in this article means the effect, impact or function religion has on your marriage. There are two sides to a coin. There is good and bad side to most issues of life. What determines your perception of what you enjoy depends on your understanding of the subject, which is a result of your level of knowledge acquired, and your discipline to apply it correctly.
What is religion? The dictionary meaning says: one of the systems of faith that is based on belief in the existence of a particular god or gods; like Jewish religion, Christianity, Islam, and other world religions. It is the subjection of your faith, trust and pattern of life to the Supreme Being you believe in and your constant activities to show your allegiance.
In my last column, I enumerated the four kinds of conscience (You can get the edition to get details of this). In this edition, we are looking at how to get good, pure and Godly conscience. When you have the right conscience, all other things will be right.
It is an established fact that human beings are interdependent in nature. No one can be an island to himself or herself.
It is not possible to have it all as a family or an individual; there must be one or the other input that somebody will add to make your life whole. As it is; can we say life is an enterprise while the earth is the market where goods and services are being exchanged for blessings to go round?
Making requests is part of our day to day life activities. This is because we are created as inter-independent beings. No one has it all; even God who created heaven and earth does request from us certain things for Him to achieve some of His objectives. He says when you praise me, the earth shall yield its increase; praise is a request. In creating man, for example, He made a request for other Angels to join Him before the first man was created. “Let us make man in our own image, according to our likeness.” If we are God’s likeness, making a request is not a sin provided it is from a genuine heart.
“And the LORD said, “My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, for he is indeed flesh; yet his days shall be One Hundred and twenty years.” The Psalmist in describing the eternity of God says, “the days of our lives are Seventy years; and if by reason of strength, they are eighty ….”
Be it one hundred and twenty or seventy or eighty, the word of God stands for a human being to live on planet earth for at most one hundred and twenty (120) years and at least seventy years depending on individual make up or strength. Which means a major part of one’s life should be with their choice partner in marriage.
There is no way you can arrive at the right destination if you follow wrong a route. Until you trace you way back to choose the right path, you cannot get to your desired state. We continue with the Bolaji and Bolanle story:
My Request: At this point, Ps. 32:8 came to my mind again, which says, “I (God) will teach and counsel you the way to go and watch over you.” Where do I go from here was the next question.
An argument ensued, as usual, between Bolanle and Bolaji who have been in marriage for about eight years. They have two boys because they both decided to hold it for now. Bolaji is a withholder, stingy in nature. He is fond of giving out money to his wife to go and buy mama put for him instead of giving pocket money.
He would eat without his wife and children or sometimes go to joints and eat. The wife dares not complain, else he will kick or rain abusive words on her. It is not as if he is poor or his business was in a bad shape. No, he just did not feel good caring for her.
