GIVING

I really want to challenge you today. To look past yourself, identify a need today, and give whole-heartedly. Right where you are. The good thing about giving, is that you can give anything at any time. Your time, your money, your energy, your attention, your assistance and even sharing what you have.

Giving is not always convenient, but let the fact that you can put a smile on someone’s face or change someone’s situation keep you going. You do not have to be rich to be generous. You will discover that you have two hands. One is for helping yourself, the other is for helping others. 

As you go about your daily activities every other day, identify people in need or a problem and seek to help them, even in the littlest of ways. When we give, it is given back to us in good measure. When we give, we feel a joy and fulfillment that resonates in the deepest parts of our being that we have made a positive contribution to humanity that will long out live us. And this is not even about having it all. This is purely about recognizing that some people may never be as privileged as we are, or ever be in the position to help as us. Why not make good use of that privilege? You may think your situation is really bad, but just always remember that wherever you are or whatever your situation looks like, there is definitely someone whom you are high up above, and can give a helping hand. 

   Ways to give? 

                            

Too many to number. Put your creativity to work. 

-Donate your time. Many charitable organizations survive through the efforts of volunteers.

-Donate your skills. Whatever you are good at, see how you can put it to use for the common good

.

-Give blood. People are daily dying from lack of blood. Imagine knowing you can save the life of a whole human by just donating blood!

-Donate your stuff. Used and unused. There are things we know we would not be needing in our life time again, why not give to those in dire need of it? Like textbooks, clothes, toys and furniture. Its up to you.

-Give your attention. There are many depressed teens and young adults who are taking their lives daily because there is no one to listen to their many struggles. That person might even be in your neighborhood. Take out time to listen, give good counsel and just be a friend.

-Visit the sick. Pray for them and encourage them.

-Volunteer at church. The body of Christ certainly needs you to invest the strength of your youth in serving God.

-Pay for someone’s transport fare, or at the grocery store…anywhere. Just be a giver.

Can we share some of the ways we can give from today onwards?

                                                           

Regina U.

ajaregina33@gmail.com

OVERCOMING COMPROMISE

Going with the tide is often the first thing we do when our resistance is weak and we are tired of fighting.

We just give in because the ‘pressure is too much’

We see it all around us all the time so much so that our minds are fed with the lie that it is ‘normal’

Even those we look up to in every sphere of life begin to fall in it slowly until they lose their every sense of ‘good’

Then they leave us feeling discouraged and hopeless. “Is it even worth it?” we begin to ask all the time.

What do you do in a world where the moral decadence is on the rise and social standard and integrity is so low?

Make up your mind to stand out.

What do you do when everywhere you turn, everyone seems to do what is wrong as if it is right?

Stand alone and do not be timid at it.

What do you do when temptations come from angles you least expected? Brace up and fight.

What do you do when everyone is silent in the face of tyranny and oppression? Raise up and speak. Scream till the world hears you.

And this message is especially for my fellow young people. It’s hard to live in this society and not 

give in to the pressures. I know. It is really hard.

But it is possible. It is doable.

You can be one of the 7,000 prophets who have never bowed their heads to baal nor kissed his lifeless statue.

You can start the revolution you want to see and not always wait for someone else to take the lead.

And this has nothing to do with your age or your tribe or your skin color. This has everything to do with your mindset.

Can we just think differently?

Can we just be a generation that acts outside the box society has put us?

Can we just be different and live large? In our minds that is.

Can we spring up and be the catalyst for good behavior in our own little way?

Cam we embrace kindness, compassion, honesty, integrity and truth in our various spheres?

Can we surround ourselves with warriors who mean the same war we mean and are very hell-bent on winning?

Giving in to a leprous norm never benefits us. Rather, like every generational disease, our children and our children’s children will be stung with the very same disease.

Our society will remain crippled from the effect of this deadly virus called compromise.

And let me say this here, it won’t be easy. The circumstances wouldn’t always be convenient.

But this is war. A war against the legacy set by the society. A war against the goliaths our fathers fought and lost to.

But we must have a winning mentality.

And little by little, we will win this war, until no trace of the scars are found in our heritage anymore!

Embrace your super power!

Regina U.

ajaregina33@gmail.com

LOVING YOUR ENEMIES

 “But I say to you, Love your enemies,

 bless those who curse you,

 do good to those who hate you, 

 and pray for those who persecute you”.

  Matthew 5:44

                   

If we had our way, we would kill the killers in this country, those who sexually exploit children, those who commit acts of violence, all those who spew racist hatred and everyone who hurts people for no reason.

I remember in my JSS2, where these two boys in my class were my arch enemies. I hated them because they bullied me, made life miserable for me, threatened me, and constantly made me unhappy with their piercing words of jest. I wanted so badly to retaliate. Every time their torture started, I would wish I could do something to just end their existence on the spot and have my peace of mind because I mean, what did I do so wrong to deserve all that bullying?

Like every other person who had or has an enemy, there is a fresh rage that springs up in you every time you think of them. If we had our way, we would get back at every single person who back-stabbed us, lied against us, cheated us, hurt us emotionally, or hurt someone dear to us. We just want to snuff out life from them so badly, and that’s the thing.

Hate consumes the hater, and not the hated. I was there hating on them when they had no idea I hated on them that much. I was carrying so much bitterness inside and that toxin was affecting ME, NOT THEM.

Carrying hate on your inside, they say, is like drinking poison, and expecting it to harm someone else. That’s an illusion, you are only hurting yourself. Love your enemies, because hating them is an emotion that eats you up. Many times, they never get a chance to know how much they actually hurt you.

There can be no love without forgiveness. Forgive sets you free from being bound in your past. The hurt might have been so deep, and oh, I know it can be really hard, but you can let it go today. Forgive them even as your heavenly Father has forgiven you. Let God do the revenge, he says we should leave vengeance to him. The boys who bullied me eventually got expelled from the school, much to my surprise. I didn’t know the moment I left it in God’s hand that he was going to show up for me.

Love your enemies through good deeds and prayers. That way, you are heaping hot coals on their head. Many times, I have seen people come to Christ and surrender out of the guilt of been loved by those they have hurt so badly. God loves all of us by being good to us even though we don’t deserve it. Jesus asks us to do the same. Whether it’s something as simple as a courteous greeting, a smile at them or even helping them, we need to reflect God’s love by being good to our enemies. 

In addition to doing good, we must pray for those who persecute us. The best prayer request will be for their salvation. If they are Christians, the best prayer request will be for their walk with God.

We must love our enemies through good deeds, through prayer, and through allowing God alone to avenge the wrongs done to us – all through the grace of God and for the glory of God.

Do we know any other ways to love our enemies? Let’s feel free to share!

Get in touch with me at ajaregina33@gmail.com