Love Your neighbor-Treat others well at all cost!

Scripture references: Mark 12:30-31

                                     : Matthew 7:12

When I was younger my mother taught me a simple statement: W.W.J.D (What Would Jesus Do). Every time something happened, when am about to react she would call out the phrase: “Florence! WWJD!” Trust me even if I was about to do the meanest thing to either my brother or sister I would drop it immediately. The phrase if implemented by most of us would make the world more like Jesus like.

Today’s topic is treating people nicely. Well the WWJD sort of relates to this one. So on this particular day I started telling my mum about a friend of mine. About a month or so from this particular day I asked for a favour. I begged and begged this friend to help me out on this one (particularly it was helping out my other girlfriend, I was just her spokesperson). But this my friend said no (and I don’t take no’s very nicely). So I gave up, moved on and requested the favour from another person. I had almost forgotten about the incident when this friend of mine appeared, asking for a favour form me. Haha! I was like payback time baby! Payback time.

So on this particular day I needed my mum to scream “Florence! WWJD!” I was telling her: “Mum imagine so and so asked me to do A,B,C for them . And you remember how my small favour asked was met with a capital NO. Oh am so going to say no. exactly the way s/he said it to me..” you should have seen the enthusiasm and excitement I had when I said this statement. My idea was I got to teach this guy a lesson neh? That if you go around asking people for favours you should be able to do some favours for them.

My mom took sometime reminding me of W.W.J.D,of being nice to people at all cost because I may never know when our paths may cross again. I may never know when I may need a huge favour from them too. Above all she said: “If Jesus was the one asking the favour …”

Yhoo!! I thought of how I would stop everything else just to do this favour for Jesus. At the same time I thought I love Jesus. I truly do..but my love for this particular friend of mine was questionable. I sort of had grievances over the favour issue I was denied. I can’t say I hated them but I just had some resentment and I wasn’t ready to do the favour this time around. My mums lecture had helped a bit. So I began to think maybe I should do it, despite me being the only one who gives the favours when my favours are denied.

Coincidentally, the bible study that day was on Mark 12:28-34. Where Jesus talks about the fundamental cornerstone. LOVE. He talks about our love for God and then for our neighbors. Our neighbors are the people we live with, our friends, our families. Jesus Calls us to love them.

There are no conditions for loving people. Whether they do favours for us or not.  Even if they love us back or not. He just says “love your neighbor”. During our discussion we learnt that to love means to forgive peoples mistakes, not to hold their mistakes against them forever. So here I was trying to fight resentment towards this person. In doing this I did not love them and trying to get back at them was in no way love.

So yes the Bible says do unto others   you would want them do unto you (Matthew 7:12).Love others if you want love. Treat others well as you would want others to treat you. Do small favours for friends if you want them to do small favours for you (hahaha! Not personal though).

But from my small classes through the day, I have learnt: Treat others well at all cost. All in summary as the lord put it: Love your neighbor! If you do love your neighbor, you will be nice to them at all cost.

I pray that you will find strength to love your neighbor, when they love you back and when they don’t. I pray that your love for your neighbors will be without conditions. That you will not hold their mistakes against them forever. That simply you will do the commandment as it says: Love your neighbor.

Prayer: Dear Lord! Teach us to love without conditions. Help us to treat our neighbors well. In Jesus name…

Practice! Practice! Practice to Perfection

My little nephew is learning to write his numbers, the art of learning is really fascinating. This is so because you have to discover something you haven’t done before. After which you have you have to know it to the point that you can do it without difficulty.

So you see my nephew has a difficulty with getting his 3’s right.  So now he has to practice it, so every evening when we sit in the living room.. he will be writing his 3’s. Some are right, some are not. But I like how he keeps at it, he writes and writes and writes and am sure one of these days he will get the 3’s right.

 I recall that for me to know all I do know now,I had to go through the same process. Learn to write my numbers, from which I learnt to add, subtract and divide from which I was able to learn how to solve complex statistic, algebra, trigonometry and calculus. It all started with learning to write my 1’s to 10’s and then to hundreds, and to thousands and so on.

I realized that some things in life, you ought to learn. Some you will do them right some you will do them wrong, but the principle is simple: KEEP ON IT! Slow down, reflect, re-strategize, do it again! If the thing that you are not doing very well at, is a must do it right! Then keep at it, it may not be easy! Keep at it still. It may be difficult to get it right the first time, but that doesn’t mean you should NOT LEARN IT.

There is a need to realize that every learning process doesn’t start with bigger things, it actually start with the small things. The 1’s to 10’s,the A’s to Z’s,then from there you can learn to add or subtract. Or you can learn to make words and pronounce them. It’s not a one off thing. It’s a process you have to go through… learn bits by bits until you get to the complex stuff.

Learning is a process. You don’t learn if you give up, that is why at all cost you gotta keep trying that thing until you perfect it, until you learn it! If you need practice, go for it practice and practice until you master it and you actually know it. It is a thrilling experience to finally learn something.

So don’t quit, don’t give up! It may be difficult yes! But its still doe able and the is no one  who can do it better than you!! 

Broken dreams / northern Stars

There times when I have beat myself up for messing up, hated the decisions I have made and just wished there was a reset button. Which would take me back to my comfort zone and times when I wouldn’t complain, times with beautiful memories. Then I think I would have had a chance to reverse all the decisions I label as wrong, and I would over do all the things I feel are the right decisions. You relate to that? Perfecto!

Yet Paul in Romans 8:23 says: All things Work together for the good of those that trust the Lord. Does this even work for the bad decisions we have made? Even the mistakes we have made?

So many times we toil and labor for things that are not ours and many times God is trying to point unto us the destination that he wants us to take, buh because we are focused on “the dreams” of this world, what the world labels as success we so many times fail to see Gods sign as to where we have to go. So God does use the wrong decisions, the mistakes to finally show us his grander plan.

 I love a song called  God bless the broken road: 

GOD BLESS THE BROKEN ROAD LYRICS

I set out on a narrow way, many years ago
Hoping I would find true love along the broken road
But I got lost a time or two
Wiped my brow and kept pushing through
I couldn't see how every sign pointed straight to you

Every long lost dream led me to where you are
Others who broke my heart, they were like northern stars
Pointing me on my way into your loving arms
This much I know is true, that god bless the broken road
That led me straight to you

I think about the years I've spent, just passing through
I'd like to have the time I lost, and give it back to you
But you just smile and take my hand
You've been there, you understand
It's all part of a grander plan that is coming true

Every long lost dream led me to where you are
Others who broke my heart, they were like northern stars
Pointing me on my way into your loving arms
This much I know is true that god bless the broken road
That led me straight to you

But know I'm just rolling home into my lover's arms
This much I know is true
That god bless the broken road
That led me straight to you

So in short the song talks about how the broken roads and broken dream leads the writer straight to God. And many times in my life I have realized that the mistakes the broken dreams were really northern stars that were pointing me to every perfect gift that the Lord has given me.

So as I reflected on this topic:

Psalms 23:1- The Lord is my shepherd;…

Psalms 23:2b- He leadeth me beside the still waters.

The Lord being OUR SHEPERD LEADETH us beside the still waters. It means we may have dreams and aspirations that do not lead us unto the still waters. We may think the path we have taken leads us unto the still waters; But God knows that path won’t take us to the still waters. So He leads us. To lead is to Point, to give a Hint, or to indicate the best path that we ought to take to get to the still waters. In which case:  ‘the still waters’ is our destiny. It’s a place where we ought to be

I am thankful for all the mistakes I have made; they have set me on a path, which am fully convinced I would not have gotten to if those were not made. I thank God that as a good shepherd, he never tires to lead me to the still waters. Whatever happens he is faithful to his words and he shall lead me unto the place that he knows is set for me.

And I Pray that may you find the same comfort when things don’t go as planned. Your Sheperd the Lord will surely lead you to your still waters.

Through Your Eyes,Lord!

Through your eyes,Lord!

For a long time

I have been looking at me

Through the wrong eyes

My eyes..

My eyes looks at me

And defines me

My eyes convinced me

That what I was looking at

Through them was really me.

As I looked at me

Through my eyes

I see  unhappy me

I see a worried me

I see a plain me

Unwise and unattractive

Unhappy and

Weighed down in my identity crisis

The world appeared

As if it would help me

Look at me as me

But the world 

Dint define me better

It further went ahead

To define how much of a failure I was

Untalented, not smart enough

I succumbed and accepted

That all these were me.

I want to see me

As you see me Lord

For wen u took hold of my hand

You smiled at me and convinced me

To trust in your definition of me

And how you look at me

And through your word

Which is a mirror

I stood to see the me that I had not known.

As you see me lord,

You see a bride,fully adorned

And as you look at his bride

You delight in me

just as  a groom delight in his bride(Isaiah 62:5)

You see

A strong and an able person

For you are the one that gives me strength

(Philippians 4:13)

You look at me Lord

And you see a successful being

For you have made me a head and not a tail

(Deuteronomy 28:13)

And you have made me successful

(Psalms 1:3)

You see me

Not lonely

For you have promised

Never to leave me nor to forsake me

(Hebrews 13:5)

You see me

And you see a victorious me

(2 Corinthians 2:14)

You see

A brave me

For you have made fear

Not a part of me.

(2 Timothy 1:17)

You see

A happy me

For you have made me

Joyful in uniting me

To you (Philippians 4:40)

 You see

A Beautiful me

For you have fearfully

And wonderfully made me

(Psalms 139:14)

You see me

And you see a new me

For all things have passed away

And I am a new creature

(2 Corinthians 5:17)

You see

A worry free person

(Mathew 6:25-34)

When you look at me

You see a wise lady

For I have received the spirit of wisdom and revelation

In the knowledge of Christ

(Ephesians 1:17-18)

So As I stand

Looking at how you see me

I let go of how I see me

I soo love how you see me

And I choose

To see me

Through your eyes,Lord!

Father's Love

Last weekend i experienced something I thought i might share,it got me thinking. FATHER'S LOVE.

Last Sunday i was travelling from Lilongwe to Blantyre,it also happened to be the weekend many students were travelling back to various boarding schools.As usual my dad dropped me at the depot( he has been doing this for the past five years and i totally appreciate).
I saw many other families escorting their kids,other kids had the whole family escorting them others just had their mums and others had their dad. However i easily noticed a lot of girls just like me were being escorted by their dad's.

I began to meditate on how the many fathers i saw had decided to leave some important activities they would have been doing at that particular time but they choose to be with the children during the beginning of their trips. It dawned on me how these people sacrifice so much so that we may live a better life. Here i saw fathers carrying heavy luggage's  for their kids,putting the luggage in the bus boots and helping were the children needed help. other fathers sacrificed boarding a bus with the kids .

The type of love that i saw here reminded me so much of My Fathers Love.. God in heaven above..whom through the death of his only son i can gladly call him Abba father. Him too has given up so much so that he may see us lead a better life. He has given himself fully to us even to a point of giving his only precious son Jesus Christ to die for us.He gave unto us his only son..his first born, all that he had so we may have life today and be able to be his children. Today its because he gave unto us that he now calls us his friends.

And just like any earthly father he is much concerned  with our lives that he gets involved in everything that concerns us. Every area of our lives is his business too. He wants the best for us that is why he gets involved in all that we are. The only Urgent business that God the father has is YOU. When God is sorting out your life don't think he is getting in your way..he got your best interests at heart,he has you in his mind.

For today i will stop there..and let you take in one thing : You are  Gods urgent business,He Has good plans for you and Loves you to the point of giving all he had(his son). What a manner of Love!

THROUGH THE EYES 0F 2012

I got several questions in my Facebook inbox why I have not updated my blog for quite sometime. Its not that the writing genie in me died..life has just been too busy and moving too fast. I would not find proper time to voice out all my thoughts proper. But am still around and just realized as all of us know...we are coming to the end of 2012.

2012 has been quite a year to me, firstly because it is the year i finished my undergraduate degree and every one now has been asking whats next? whats next? lets keep it for the next blog. I took some time to appreciate what God has done this year,and that what i would like to write about.

God has been so good and faithful to us even in the times we have not been all faithful.
God has answered all our prayers even thou at times we refused to listen to his call
God has provided for us even though sometimes we have failed to share and provide for others
God has reached out to us even in the moments that we have failed to reach out to our inner selves
God has held us,all so tightly..close to his heart although we have piled up other things near our hearts and left him so far away
God has showered us with so much love even though we have trampled on it
God has been so merciful even thou we have failed to show mercy to others
God has been so forgiving..even thou we have not fully forgiven those who have hurt us

God has been faithful,reaching out to us so we learn from him. How much he's loved us. But mostly his love has gone unappreciated.his actions have not been recognized and we have failed to learn from him.
his everlasting love and grace has seen us through 2012..his faithfulness and love will remain with us for the rest of our lives but we need to learn from him..

to love without conditions
to forgive ,to be merciful
to reach out and to be helpful!

we've been called to be a blessing to other lives!! lets live up to it!

Back to school!

So Usually when am back at school ,the blogging spirit kinda flies away and  am all geeky. So i came to school  yesterday, that's Monday(12 March 2012)!

Back to school as a final year student is very exciting! very exciting i tell you! Am thinking in a years time i will no longer be a student..maybe a student at a different institution! we cant say already !

But all in all ! Me is super excited about the year! i know there will be lots of opportunities coming along..just keeping my fingers crossed!

I may not blog in a long time.

Until next time! I love you all!