A beautiful currency called integrity

 

Integrity will take you places where perhaps, your name wouldn't.

Integrity would open doors that were shut fast.

Integrity would speak loudly on your behalf where noise threatens to besmirch you 

Integrity eh, if you get am, trade it for nothing please. It's worth more than gold and its ROI is eternal and overflows to others around you (a good person leaves an inheritance). 

A man's word ought to be his bond, but these days, what do we find? What do you want to be remembered for, what legacy will you be leaving behind? Remember, a good name is better than many riches. 

Jesus is Exactly Who We Need

 

Have you ever put your hope in someone, only for them to let you down? We live in a broken world, and even the best people will fall short and cause pain. But Isaiah knew that someone was coming who would be different. He’d be reliable, consistent, and exactly what we need. 

In Isaiah 9:6, Isaiah is pointing to a king with four titles: Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. But what do those names mean?

A wonderful counselor is someone who's wise, intelligent, and compassionate. They’re the kind of leader who provides support, advice, and direction in life. 

Someone with “mighty” in their title is strong, resilient, and willing to stand up for what’s right. 

This king will be an everlasting father—someone who views His people as His children rather than His servants. 

And a prince of peace describes someone devoted to building bridges between diverse groups and ensuring that everyone has what they need for a whole and healthy life. 

On Christmas morning, the Son with all of these wonderful titles was born. Not in a palace or castle, but in a humble, ordinary manger. 

When we look at the life of Jesus, we see Him consistently model these qualities. He supported and advised people with questions. He stood strong in the face of threats and temptations. He cared deeply for everyone He met. And Jesus gave His life to restore peace between God and humanity for eternity. 

Jesus is a Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, and the Prince of Peace. Have you seen Him in each of these roles in your own life? How have you seen Jesus’ wisdom, strength, kindness, and consistent care in your life?

                                    ✨✨✨

The above write up was culled from the YouVersion Bible app. It ministered to me greatly and I hope it does same to you too. Jesus remains the reason for the season, have a merry Christmas folks.

Christ-mass

I'm usually excited for a lot of the Christians' holidays; Christmas and Easter topping the charts. Christmas for me is, wow. I'm giddy here just thinking of its significance. I consider Christmas, a holiday celebrating privilege, & sacrificial giving. 

John 3:16 has it that for God so loved the world that He gave... It didn't matter to Him that we knew Him not, it didn't matter to Him that His gift could very well be rejected. He didn't give heed to the what ifs, He just acted and never for once did He withdraw His gift nor withheld His affection. I realise that I need to be more like my Lord in this, cos I find myself very much asking, what if my gift isn't appreciated and very often, because of that, I end up not giving. 

Appreciated or not, my Lord gave away His precious son Jesus, to die for me. To comman die for the whole world (I love me some Nigerian English 😁). It mattered not whether the sacrifice would be acknowledged by us, this gift, how much more accept it and true to form (human nature), some didn't.

They neither acknowledged nor accepted the sacrificial gift. I mean, in a certain part of the world, there are some still awaiting this promised gift. Sigh, what a pity. I wish every one could see what I see or that I could adequately express how much love our Lord has for us. Heart pounding, bursting love that is as profound as it is real🥹

So, as we celebrate the birth of Christ let's endeavour to ponder on the significance of this birth to us at large. Be mindful about Christmas.

Peace...

 

The Believer's authority

 

“Old things have passed away.” Dear believer, do you really believe this? Do you believe this report that old things have truly passed?  Then why do you still act live like you're not in Christ? Why do you quake at the roaring of an imposter lion. Scripture makes us understand that the devil's like a roaring lion, emphasis on like. That a thing looks like something does not make it one.

This ignorance of our authority in & through Christ Jesus will be our undoing. This reminds me of an incident a few years back that gave me great insight. It had to do with condiments that remained from my cooking session–pepper and onions. I had left them in a plate in the open air to preserve them.

You might ask, how about your fridge? Well, I asked myself that question too. I'd not had a fridge for a while and so it was easy to forget that I now had a preservation system and took my normal route of preservation. Before then, I'd contemplated steaming them since they were not going to be put to use anytime soon.

Long story short, when this happened what dropped in my mind was that as believers, this is is what we do too. When we enter into God's kingdom, we've been completely saved and the old things have passed away, but we forget that. We forget that we've come into power and authority and carry on living like we used to, fearing what we once feared and generally carrying on like nothing's changed in our lives.

We forget that the kingdom life’s entirely different from the self life. We keep struggling and forget to rely on His strength. We keep doing things the usual way forgetting that Christ's made things easier for us. Labouring under the law and forgetting that we're now operating in grace.

So, that was what popped into my mind seeing those pepper and onion lying there shrivelling while all the while, they could have been chilling in the fridge, perfectly being preserved.

I dearly hope that from today, you begin to walk & operate in the authority that God has so graciously given us through His son, Jesus Christ.

God bless you.

Peace.

From Me to You

Wearing/using something that a loved one gifts me, usually has me feeling so loved🥰 I get all the good feelies them😍

Cos it's like carrying a piece of them with you & when I wear/use these pieces I remember them. Yes, you, who gifted me these amazing things.

You'd be shocked at how long I keep these items for, even when they're begging for freedom 😂

Thank you for giving me pieces of yourselves overtime, I think of you whenever I use them😘

And every now & then, I say a prayer for you🙏🏻

♥️

*Streetrats

*Street rats & louts

What do they have in common?

Beady suspect eyes

Yellowed with greed

Darting here and darting there

Seeking out the weak

The naive

The vulnerable 

Skank deposits

To devour 

Street rats

Riff-raffs

Litter the streets of Lagos

All aroaming

Hustling for their daily bread

The scraps and pieces of food

That trickle down their masters' table

That fall off the occupants' hand

Or forcefully taken

From the tenants of the land

Street rats

Scampering & scurrying

Rustling & looting 

Digging, snuffling 

Brazenly, on the streets of Lagos

The centre of excellence

The people's pride

Where it's being said;

Eko for life

Eko oni baje

29/02/24

8:37am

Nightfall

Night falls when it ought

Do not hasten it my love

But do hasten my love

For night cometh

When men shall lay

As though dead

Then shall I

Like a flame, reawakened

Begin my toil

The midnight oil

Shall I burn

Until my dreams are fulfilled

16/08/22

12:45am

The Heart Wants What It Wants

 

Easter 2024

 

*In a singsong voice* 🎵Easter, Easter, Easter.🎵

Easter 2024, God be so kind, He's brought us to yet another Easter celebration, thank You Lord.

As an Anglican, the week leading to today was observed as the holy week, remembering and reenacting (if possible) the days, hours, leading to Christ's crucifixion, death and resurrection.

The journey before then, was lent, marking our Lord's 40 days fast in the wilderness. I don't have much to say, just don't let Christ's sacrifice on the cross be in vain. Accept Him today as your Lord & personal Saviour if you're yet to do so. God bless you.

Photo Credit: You version Bible App

 Hiiiii,

I finally got something that Ive been trying to do for a while now, done. whoo, I feel good. ION, its tedious trying to put up a post via a PC, excuse me, ill be right back, let me switch.

The Hustle II

Oh my, I got feedbacks! Whooheeeeeee💃🏻💃🏻. Thank you, thank you, thank you. It does mean so much to me to know that you're reading and can relate with my "rambles"😂, thank you. Please, do keep the love  coming, it does a lot for me (motivates & encourages). Think of yourself as the wind beneath my sail *soars*, thank you🙏🏻

Ruth or Naomi?

Who would you rather be?

I'm almost sure we're familiar with the Bible story of Ruth, the young widow who choose to stick with her Mother-in-law come rain or sunshine. 

Every sermon I've ever encountered have always been centred on her, Ruth's POV ie. The sermons, exhortations, words of encouragement, ministrations etc etc were always about her; her devotion, sacrifice, selflessness and where it led her eventually (one of Jesus' ancestors). That's all good and fine and lovely. However, at the back of my mind, I always did wonder about the person of Naomi (typical curious me); who was she and what did she do to have evoked such devotion, such loyalty, such love (etc) from not one but two of her daughters-in-law, how did she interact with these ladies? 

Mind you, she was a Jew and they, well, Moabites, the people they ordinarily wouldn't have relations or interactions with. So, how did she navigate their differences, so well that made these ladies to fall in love with her to the point of giving their (at least one person did) all for her? That, is the question.

Since I'm yet to hear a sermon on Naomi, I decided to write out the thoughts I'd formed about her over the years. Should this count as a sermon? *Coughs* I don't know, I'm simply sharing my thoughts😁. By the way, you can read up on this story here (please click), thank you.

So, I keep hearing about how we should be like Ruth, how she was this, she was that, well, how about Naomi, shouldn't we aspire to be like her too? Selfless, caring, magnanimous, and empathetic? Despite all that happened to her, here she was, still looking out for her daughters-in-law. She didn't try to hold them back, seeing as she was all alone in the world. She didn't think, 

"who would take care of me, who will keep me company, who would give me grand children?"

Naomi had every right to be bitter about the hand, life had dealt her. She had every right to want to hold on to these two ladies, after all, they were now her daughters, her sons' wives. But no, she released them, she put their needs first before hers, she saw that they still had so much to live for and did not want to be an obstacle in their way, the one to hold them back, a cog in their wheel of progress.

She gladly released them and with her blessings, telling them she had nothing to offer. Orpah complied and left. I doubt that meant she loved Naomi any less or that Ruth who choose to stay, loved Naomi more. I bet if they were in our present clime where technology has made long distance communication possible, that they'd still be in touch.

Now let's look at Ruth, what a remarkable lady. I daresay, it takes a high level of selflessness or should I say self-sacrifice to do what she did. She literally left home and kin behind and stuck to Naomi, wow. 

Now, was she constrained to do this? No

Was she coerced? No

Did someone come to preach to her about the blessedness of selflessness? No

This brings me to conclude that there just was something about Naomi that brought about such devotion from Ruth, such that would make her choose her over her own family and/or would be future happiness. What do you think?

So to answer my opening question, yes, I'd like to be Ruth. Even more so, yes, I'd like to be Naomi.

They're both remarkable, extraordinary women and I'd like very much to be like them. And I think we ought to encourage our daughters to aspire to be like both women. They both made exceptional sacrifices for the other, an example that I believe, is worth emulating.

Peace.

PS: I have a feeling that I'll be revisiting this story, this has quite evolved from what my original plan was; airing my thoughts. Now, I just might write a story (fiction of course) about these three women.

Workaholics United

This is for my workaholics, this year, try to take a breather every once on a while. You'll be thankful you did😉

I do enjoy playing with rhymes, not every time a long poem; short but to the point. Enjoy😊

The Fight

I recently had an encounter with malaria and by Jove, it was horrible. I can count on one hand how many times I'd fallen this sick, such aggression, I'd never encountered. You can guess who won right?😁

*Cue in "stand up for the champion"*

So guys, that was how it went down. I was really angry at the doctor though, Lord forgive me, I thought he'd given a subpar medication.😄I mean, I'm treating stuff and it's refusing to go away?😄 Now I can laugh about it, but it wasn't funny then.

Oh well, all's well that ends well, I give God the glory.

Lost Hearts

The heart of man, hmm, who can fathom it? Thankfully, I've handed over such matters of mystery to my Abba because, I really can't deal or begin to decipher what goes on in there and thankfully, yet again, I'm in good hands. The hands of He who knows our intents and all that goes on within, I rest my matters with Him. I refuse to begin to analyse and psychoanalyse His creatures' doings and/or undoings, it'd drive me nuts. 

One thing I know for certain is that, how I see you, I take you. I cannot begin to do the work of the Holy Spirit whose sole purpose is to convict man's spirit and bring about a transformation, a change. No, I'm not He, so I leave myself at the mercies of God, who is not man. This is my story. 

Well, a happy new year to you.🥳

This write-up brought a Kirk Franklin's song with a similar title to mind. An old, old friend, that song.

SOTD: Lost hearts by Kirk Franklin

2024 itself

Whew, happy new year! Whooo

I began my year with an adventure, haha. How about you? 

I know the start of a new year holds so much significance for a lot of us; a fresh start, new beginnings, second chances and all. So, as we begin the year 2024, it's my prayer that all that you desire, all that you hope for, may they happen to you swiftly.

Here's to 2024 and all that it brings.

Happy new year,

Cheers🥂

A wonderful year ends

 

It's the last day of the year 2023🥳🥳, congratulations.

It's been God for us, it's been God for us. Wow! Yeah, wow cos collectively, we've been through a lot but here we are, saying goodbye and looking with hope filled eyes at 2024, isn't God good?

Whatever it is that we're doing, whatever it is that we started and didn't finish or couldn't continue in the last year, I'd like to say continue. Finish it in the new year. Don't throw in the towel or beat yourself up cos of a time frame that you gave yourself. I mean, you're alive to continue right? That's the most important thing if you ask me; the gift of life. 

It's quite easy to get lost in the details of hitting ones' goals and targets but let's try to remember that it is the living (and the healthy living btw), that can smash goals. Believe me, if you were in the hospital fighting for your life, the last thing you'd be thinking of is meeting goals and targets.

So as we reflect and count down to the new year, let's try to give ourselves some credit, we have tried, and more importantly, God has tried for us. Whew!

The Burden of Grief

It creeps up on you unexpectedly 

Bringing with it, dead weight

With no time frame of its departure

And so you wait

You wait for the pain that'll soon hit

A pain so deep you feel you can't breath

A pain that feels like drowning

Gasping for air that isn't forthcoming 

Then you wait some more

For the reprieve, however brief that comes afterwards 

You wait for the guilt to hit

Yes guilt because the had I knowns become what ifs

For the wishes however vain, of doing it all over again

And then you wait, again

For the pain to subside

For the tears to stop flowing

For the ache to end

It's a waiting game

One that never ends

Cos this game, you'll play it over and over

In different ways

Different climes and times

Different scenarios 

A never ending cycle

All you can do is wait

For it to run its course

2024 in a bit

I'm back!

Am I? *Thinks in unplanned hiatus*

2022 came, I said same thing

2023, same

2024, well, at least I've put pen on paper (finger to screen) and published this, so yes I'm back. I really am.

I realise I broke things off abruptly *cue in the break up cliché* it wasn't you, it was me, really and truly. Life changed and I wondered about how best to bring it on here, to put it on the blog, and if I wanted that at all. You know, all of my business out here, and then with all that indecision hanging around in my head, it just turned into a hiatus, a totally unplanned one😊

But it turns out it was necessary. So you see, it worked out good and now I'm back *cue in another popular cliche* better and stronger 😂 

I realise we're not yet in 2024 but what's another 2 days to you? Welcome to 2024 & I wish you a Merry Christmas. By the way, "adniL's corner" is in transition. I have no clue what/where we're transiting to, but I beg of you to not leave us, hang in tight and let's see what this pupa metamorphoses into. 

Cheers...

Wait, wait, wait please. Did you notice the photos I used? *preens in AI generated images pride* 

Yes, I created those and for some reason, I feel so fulfilled. Maybe it's because I've been wanting to jump on that bandwagon for sometime now, or maybe *dramatic gasp in sudden insight* having images for the blog wouldn't be so challenging now😁 *dances in eureka* I may also seem to have found a new love for all these inserts (asterisked comments?)😅

Abeg, bye guys, before I carry una go where we no know.

Toodles 😊

Waiting...

A blank page at me stares

Why, I wonder

To be inked?

Be filled with verses?

Be soaked in tears?

To bear the whispers of imaginary voices?

Of thoughts cajoled into words?

To carry on long standing traditions

Of bulky volumes and sloppy handprints?

Still waiting

Straight lines and slanted writing

Like a fun house mirror,

Tilting the perception of things

Turning what ifs to why nots

Putting flesh to thoughts

And life to words

Waiting

An act of patience

The silence of thinking

The sound of scribbling

On a blank page that stares at me

Waiting to be filled

Image, courtesy of @plethorae_jewelry