Happy Birthday Somto (and Happy Anniversary)

                               

Today will always be a very special day for me as it is a day that is very special to someone who is very special and important to me.

On this day, twenty something years ago was the day the woman I’m going to spend the rest of my God ordained life with Miss Somtochuckwu Michelle Ifunaya Ifeka was born. And today doubles as one month anniversary of our relationship (yeah we only just started).

That said; please join me in wishing Somto a HAPPY BIRTHDAY. I won’t tell you her exact age but I will tell you she’s between 1 and 15 years. Lol… 

 On this your special day love, there are a few things I would love to share with you.

Firstly, there’s nothing I would love more than for you to know your maker the more; nothing else matters outside of Christ babe… HE is the reason for [y]our existence.

He created you, He made you beautiful, and He put you on this earth for a purpose for His glory. You are His beloved, His Joy, His Pride, the apple of His eyes. You are worth more to Him than peals and diamonds.

I encourage you to grow closer to God. The more I grow in my relationship with God, the more I realize that real maturity is not about age. Real maturity is making right decisions based on the word of God. Making decisions contrary to the word of God is immaturity.

I can't help but be excited about everything God is doing in your life. Please don't get distracted by anything. Enjoy life’s journey and embrace everything that will help you become a better woman for God.

Stay disciplined, grow in grace, grow in purity, grow in love, and grow in His WORD. True joy and fulfillment comes from Jesus, not an event (birthday).

Here is my special wish for you dear...

I want you to be beautiful not beautiful like the world but beautiful like Jesus. I want your face to show his love, your arms to show his strength, your hands to show his grace, your feet to show his selflessness and your words to show his mercy.

I pray that people see Jesus in you every day and that you inspire people to live and enjoy the life they've been given.

Happy Birthday Sunshine…

Now unto our Anniversary

Babe it’s been 30 magical days… we started this journey (our journey to covenant) on August 22^nd 2014 and it’s been one of the most incredible 30 days of my life. I want you to know that I love you and I love you a lot.

I had no idea that what I have been praying long and hard for was right next to me. I thank God He opened my eyes and lead us both to this point. He is so faithful.

                              

Babe although we've talked about this, I still want to reiterate that fact that the goal of our relationship is to honor God. He brought us together for His glory and for our good.

Yes we’re only thirty days in but I can say without a shadow of a doubt that you my princess are the coolest lady I know-- I don't know many girls who are young saved and godly for obvious reasons.

 

I want you to know that you’re not my crush for 30 days; you are my lady for life. I don't take likely anything God does so be rest assured that I won’t take you for granted… not ever. I’m going to rock and enjoy this life with you.

You my dear will be the co-captain of my ship, the queen of my castle, my very best friend and my (future) wife forever!!! I'm so thankful for the day that you were born! I'm convinced that God made you from me for me.

You've brightened up my life and provide a presence that cannot be matched by any other. I only have eyes for you. You are and will forever be my favor, my crown, and my rib. Thank you for agreeing to marry me advance ;).

I would tell you that I love you from the bottom of my heart but for you, my heart has no bottom.

Happy anniversary baby… Cheers to many more beautiful days, weeks, months and years. I look forward to us fulfilling all God has tasked us to do.

Grace to you and Peace. ♡

Real Life – Honesty Moment

I decided to blog about something different from the usual encouragement I put out. I decided to write about real life… my real life.

I have for some time now been going through some extremely difficult situations. Things are heightening, there is pressure to perform, I've gotten into many troubles for doing what is right and a whole lot more that could make a sane person go insane. Many of you are not aware of this because I refuse to wear my problems on my face. I sure can complain but I just choose not to.

That said one thing I know for sure is that the darkest seasons always come before the brightest ones so are you going through some kind of storm? I encourage you not to give up or give in whatever what you’re going through. Please keep praying (and keep me in your prayers too).  I know God will come through! He always does.

We all go through tough times… it is a natural phenomenon so don’t go about thinking that the reason you’re going through so much is because God doesn't love you or that God is angry at you. Understand that tough time really is an opportunity to trust God. Tough Times = OPPORTUNITY TO TRUST GOD.

Life is tough… I must be honest and tell you life is tough. It's only by of the grace and mercies of God that I'm able to endure some of the things I’m going through. He is my focus and my HOPE. I walk by faith, not by my physical senses. I trust Him no matter the cost, discomfort or sacrifice. Life’s storm isn't comfortable, but my hope in Christ keeps me at peace.

The central theme for the life of Christ-followers is summed up in one word--endurance. We are called to endure even the toughest things and run the race that has been set before us. Its sure isn't easy but it is necessary. We are living in a crucial time. Everything about us must be focused towards God.

We must not be moved by what we hear or see. We must refuse to quit no matter how hard it gets. Quitting is just not an option. Each of us have purpose, and we must fully live it out as God directs.

We must trust His guidance, and not follow the voice of another. We must become sensitive to Gods voice and focused on completing the assignment He's purposed in our heart to finish. We must work smarter. We must sacrifice more. We must give all of myself, go the extra mile and do what others choose not to do.

Friends, do not surrender to life's difficulties although you will get tired and weary. It is not easy however; Christ makes all things it possible. The Scripture tells us that we can do all things through Christ, and that my friend is so true. We can do all things when we rely solely on His strength and not ours.

I just want to encourage us all to good works. Truth is, we are not called to an easy life. We are call to a holy life therefore we must pursue holiness. Eternity is before us, we must ensure that absolutely nothing hinders us from being with the LORD.

The struggle is real but what is more real is the grace of God that sustains us. We must endure to the end.

Grace and Peace be multiplied onto you immeasurably. ♥

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Birthday Chronicles

As some of you may know, I turned a year older yesterday.

What a journey life‘s been. I am thankful for every second God gives me breathe… I know without a doubt that the same God who has kept me through these many years will keep me through many more years!

Birthdays for me are not mare but special days because it is the anniversary of a person’s arrival to planet earth and that’s huge. I am humbled and overwhelmed for all the love, prayers, text, face book message and tweets I received. You all are amazing and I pray God smiles on you every single day of your life.

Out of all the texts I received; the line that stood out for me was “happy birthday, long life and prosperity”. Year in year out, the message is happy birthday, long life and prosperity but if we’ll be honest most of us don’t have happy lives. Happy birthday does not translate into a happy life.

Are you the same person you were a year ago? If yes, that can’t be a happy life. A lot of people are getting older but not get any wiser. Every year, we ought to be growing in grace, in knowledge, in wisdom, in mercy, in love, in holiness, etcetera.

We need to realize that we are not just adding numbers to our age but practically growing old therefore we must live life in a hurry… not in making decisions but in living out our life’s purpose. Our time here is but for a moment…

One big misconception about birthdays is that it is supposed to be all about the celebrant but NO. True the person was born on that day so therefore, it’s ok to honor them and celebrate their birth. However, the celebration of the person should never grow to a point where it exceeds the glory and honor that is due only to God.

Now let me flip over and talk about something I heard that cracks me up.

I heard some very religious people say; we’re not supposed to celebrate birthdays because according to them, the Bible never said we should celebrate birthdays. Well the Scripture is silence on birthdays but does that mean we shouldn't celebrate birthdays? ABSOLUTELY NOT! The Bible never said we should or should not celebrate birthdays.

Birthday celebration is purely a thing of preference. If you don’t want to celebrate your birthday you don’t have to. If you want to celebrate, do so… you won’t go to hell for it. Birthday celebration shouldn't cause division amongst believers.

That being said, instead of concentrating on the outward celebration, we should consider our hearts and our worship.

The objective in birthday celebrations is to make sure praise and worship goes to God so to you reading this, do not wait for a phone call, text message, gift, or surprise to feel special. That isn't the reason God put you on this earth. You were born for the glory of God so live in light of that.

Celebrate everyday God gives you breathe. You are special. God loved you enough to keep you alive this long. Don’t expect anything from anyone, but appreciate everything that you get.

Be more concerned about living for our Lord and King Jesus. Stay focused on sharing the Gospel and glorifying God in all that you do. Take time to lead others to Christ, be content with all God has given you, bear spiritual fruit and abstain from immorality.

And people, if we have to wait until a person’s birthday before we tell/show them they are loved and special, then it means they really aren't so special. Let’s not wait until birthdays to make people feel special. Let’s purposely set out each day in whatever way to make others feel special, loved and encouraged.

That said, no matter what length we go to celebrate a person, we mustn't forget that our primary praise must only go to God.

Finally, I want to again thank YOU for the birthday wishes. There were too many messages so I couldn't respond to everyone individually. Please know that I love you, and I thank you for sharing my special day with me.

God bless and keep you. ♥

Grace and Peace!!!!

Living, Learning and Loving (Dealing with Conflicts)

Recently, two individuals I love and respect so much got into a needless braw that affected their admirable relationship that span for years. Typical of me, I tried to encourage and share God’s truth with them but they were more focused on tearing themselves apart than making peace.

Their ordeal made me think long and hard on how to act appropriately dealing with conflicts in relationships.

I notice that too often, we allow the smallest, most insignificant things destroy beautiful friendship and relationships we have with those dear to our heart. Like in the case of my friends, what caused their brawl was so silly; it shouldn’t make them want to kill each other.

The real issue with conflicts is that we are a variety of different people with different personalities, different orientations, different ideologies, different values, different beliefs etc so in relating with each other it is natural that we’re going to have conflicts.

We need to see conflicts a normal part of any healthy (sibling, friendship, business or marriage) relationship. Any relationship that is without conflict is most likely not a real relationship.

I can’t imagine living with a person for a life time and not having any form of disagreement with them. Living with someone, you’re going to have different ideas on different things that can cause conflicts.

I remember when I was much younger and growing up, my elder sister Katharine was someone that easily got angered. At the slightest provocation, she will lash out and most times, she lashed out on me. Being a guy I would give her a fight… our quarrels and fights got so much that our mother got tired of separating us. One minute we would be happy and playing together, the next minute we would be at each other’s throat.

As we grew with time, we learnt how to solve our petty quarrels and problems ourselves and the more we resolved our conflicts, the more we began to understand each other and our relationship grew stronger. For many… many years now, we’ve never fought. We’ve only had a few calm disagreements.

I noticed that oftentimes, we turn to experience conflict as an attack on a person instead of resolving a problem and that is usually where the problem begins. So when conflicts arise, what do we do?

Fight through the situation

Instead of fighting each other when conflicts arise, we need to fight for one another. My friends eventually fought for their relationship. Everybody thought their relationship was done and over but thank God they made it through, and I pray that we’ll continue to make it through. A real relationship requires a lot of work, and sacrifices and prayers and patience and love so fight through whatever together, grow close together, laugh together, and don’t give up on one another.

Communicate the offence

You’ve heard it said several times that communication is the key to a good relationship. That is so true… communication is the bloodstream of any relationship.  Real relationships thrive on truthful communication. It’s important that people open up to talk and share their frustrations as well as their expectations.

I’m somebody that rarely gets offended but when I’m offended, I make sure I communicate the offence. I realized that a lot of time, we offend people and not even know that we’ve offended them.

Communication helps both parties understand one another and share concerns that could potentially grow into major frustration. Communication can solve just about any issue so to you reading this, I say don’t allow silence kill what communication could possibly save.

Confront every issue not matter now little

I can say from experience that the small issues we neglect have the potential to turn into bigger problems.  And the bigger a problem gets, the more it gets out of hand and the more overwhelming and difficult it becomes to solve.

Next to communicating an offence, we must confront and quench the small flames that can turn into a raging fire that could kill our beautiful relationships.

Be angry but sin not

In the Bible, we are not told never to get angry! What Scripture says is be angry and sin not – Ephesians 4:26 so you are not going to hell if you get angry. Anger is an emotion like any other feeling. Anger becomes a problem when it is too intense, occurs too frequently and last for too long.

Anger if not handled properly gets out of control and once that happens, innocent people get hurt and we hurt ourselves in the process. SOMETIMES, IT IS UP TO US TO STOP BEING ANGRY OVER SILLY THINGS.

Learn to forgive and move ahead

I’ve been hurt severally by people I love and trust to the point I was unable to forgive people for some particular offences but I'm glad to say that God has delivered me from that! Trust me; not being able to forgive people causes us to miss out on amazing people and beautiful friendships.

We can’t sustain a lifelong meaningful relationship without forgiveness. If Jesus held on to un-forgiveness would HE have died on the cross for us?  Why do we hold back forgiveness towards others?

The same way we’ll want God to extend mercy and grace to us, we must endeavor to extends, mercy and grace to others. Mathew 6:15 says “But if you refuse to forgive others, your Father will not forgive your sins.” We mustn’t forget that the grace we fail to extend to others, we will one day need our selves.

Take your frustrations to Jesus not on people

Life is full of plenty annoyances as there are loads of things that constantly drive us crazy.  Even the most patience of people sometime get worked into a furious rage that they pour their frustrations on the people they love. Whenever you feel angered, take a deep breath; exhale then Cast all your cares upon the LORD; for He cares for you. – 1 Peter 5:7 Take your frustrations to Jesus not on people…

Conflicts from all we’ve seen are indications that there is something we need to address that have not yet been addressed. We need to look for the issues and address them and not attack the person while ignoring the issue(s).

At the end of the day one thing conflict does is, it puts our character and integrity on display. One better reaction can change the cause of a failing relationships to for good (especially if it’s a relationship put together by God). One prayer I pray almost all the time is Lord help me learn how to act right when others act wrong.

In closing, if you’re dealing with whatever kind of offence, conflict or issue in any valued relationship, may I suggest to you that God can redeem anything if you let Him? Give it up to Him and He will settle it.

Life is about living, learning and loving… so live, learn and love.  Try to live at peace with everyone! Live a clean life. If you don’t, you will never see the Lord. – Hebrews 12:14 (CEV)

Grace and Peace be multiplied onto you immeasurably. ♥

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Quick Announcements

Living, learning and loving is taken from my book “thought of a youth” which is still in the works. Keep a brother in prayer. Prayer is free!  www.thoughtofayouth.blogspot.com

Dress Craze

I notice that there is a lot of talk about dressing and as it’s typical of most people (especially Christians); we've over flogged the whole issue. We've turn a social issue into a religions issue and that really is going too far.

I want to approach this subject in the most loving manner but before I do, I will first of all like to correct a notion. I have heard people say this isn't Christian or that isn't Christian dressing but that pops the question is there such a thing as Christian dressing?

Well there are ways people (not just Christians) shouldn't dress but there isn't such a thing as Christian dressing so let’s not get caught up in legalism.

I firmly believe that people should dress appropriately but I notice that a lot of us (men and women alike) often dress craze (sometimes unknowing to us) so now... What is dress craze?

Dress craze is any dressing that is contrary to good reason. In other words, dress craze is the inverse of a gentle, responsible, well-articulated dressing.

That been said, I would like us to look at that purpose of clothing… It is said that “when the purpose a thing is unknown, abuse is inevitable” and it so true with everything… so what’s the purpose of clothing? The sole purpose of putting on clothes is to cover up our nakedness. (This is a basic truth many people seem to have forgotten).

Since the sole purpose of clothing is to cover up our nakedness, when we put on clothing that reveals (especially sensitive part of) our body, the purpose of putting on clothes is defeated. This is so basic, it isn't rocket science...

I found out that the issue of clothing/dressing is purely an issue of common sense but sadly, one challenge we have in this day and age is that common sense is no longer common as it used to be.

It is common sense to dress properly. It is common sense to dress decently. It is common sense to know that any clothing that put your assets on display is not good clothing.

It has become the norm for people (especially Christians) to blame the devil for anything and everything so I often hear people say the devil made me do this and that but could that be true? Of a truth the devil does play on our ignorance but I don’t think it’s the devil’s fault that people dress craze.

If you got drunk, you got drunk. The devil didn't make you get drunk. You took the liquor and drank it. If you dress silly, you dressed silly. It wasn't the devil that made you dress silly. We have blamed our poor choices and foolish decisions on the devil for far too long. High time people got responsible.

If a person doesn't dress properly, they have a dress/wardrobe problem and not a devil problem; don’t go about giving the devil credit he doesn't deserve.

The issue of dressing is one so trivial yet so prevalent because of our inability to discuss and address it in the most loving manner.

There is so much more I will like to say but I will conclude by saying love yourself enough and dress properly. People will form an opinion about you based on what they see on the outside; appearance does matter a lot.

And in case I went too far with this, apologies... I just felt in my heart to remind us that dressing is a common sense issue so let’s put to use the senses God give us and dressing appropriately accordingly.

There is a second part to this dress craze issue but I am going to discuss that comprehensively in a different blog. In the mean while, Grace and Peace be multiply unto you immeasurably. ♥

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The Biggest Room In The World

I was having a heart-to-heart discussion with some youngies (teenage boys) when I asked the question “are you the same person that you were last year?” There was about 3 minutes of silence in the room as each one of them had to think hard about the question I asked.

Each of them said so many different things but one thing that stood out for me was “I haven’t done/change/achieved much because of this/that… they said I haven’t stopped partying,  clubbing, and chasing of different girls because…

It baffled me that these youngies at such a young age had imbibed the terrible value - irresponsibility. But it wasn't much of a surprise because right from Genesis, humanity has always refused to take responsibility for anything.

And Adam said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.” Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this that you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.” And that has not changed.

Our culture has taught us how not to accept responsibilities and we've accepted. We lie but we hate to be called liars. We steal but we hate to be called thieves. We only care about ourselves but we hate to be called selfish.

My discussion with the young lads prompted me to write this blog to challenge all of us… that being said, the biggest room in the world is the room for improvement. And the journey to self improvement begins only when we accept responsibility for our lives.

We need to realize that all of our lives is the sum total of the choice we've made over time. And choices (whether good or bad) have consequences. Each of us is responsible for our life. You are responsible for what you do, you are responsible for what you say, you are responsible for how you act and responsible for what you think.

The year is but three months old and I’m wondering… are you self improving? Life is but a vapor and none of us is getting any younger. Some of us need to put our big boy and girl pants down and grow up.

We can’t be doing the same things that have gotten us nowhere year in year out.

We often turn to work hard on many different things leaving out the major thing we should work hard on – ourselves. When we work hard on ourselves to become better, we work better; we live better, we love better, and do everything better.

We must grow in faith, our faith may begin small, but that doesn't mean it should stay that way. Year in year out, we should be growing in our walk with the Lord. Whatever keeps us away from growing, we must cut off.

We must grow in character; character is what forms the core of an individual not looks, money or any other superficial thing. We must pray for those who abuse us, love unconditionally, and meditate on the Word day and night, doing so will build in us real character.

We must grow in love; my number goal for this year is to love people the way God loves me. Love is kind, patience, doesn't hold a grudge, doesn't judge etc. - 1 Corinthians 13. I don’t only want to verbalize these; I want to live it out for real.

We must grow to hearing from God; God still speaks… I don’t care if anyone told you otherwise. Whenever you hear a still small voice inside of you, that's God saying, be reasonable and do it my way! If you want to hear God speak to you, open your Bible.

Someone said (and rightly too) that “you are what you eat.” This is true both spiritually and physically. The kind of environment you hang out in, the kind of things you subject your mind to - that is exactly what you will grow into. Your ears and your eyes are the quickest entry to your heart; guard both.

We must grow in Discipline; discipline is required in all things especially when living a life acceptable unto the Lord. We must be careful so that we don’t get distracted by gossip, bad company, mindless entertainment, or whatever else. No matter the distraction, we must remain focused on the task at hand—improving ourselves.

Challenge yourself everyday to do a little extra. Read at least 1 book a month. Quit procrastinating on your goals. What you don’t start today you won’t be finished by tomorrow. I can tell you that from experience…

Final thought… we are powerless in changing our selves all by our self but with God, we can make the necessary changes we desire.

When Christ infiltrates your life He will change you then you can improve in every area of your life. I am a living proof to this truth so love God, love His word, and passionately pursue His will and purpose for your life.

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Grace and Peace ♥

February 14th is Just another Day

Today is Valentine’s Day for those who aren’t aware of it. And since today is a day of love for most people, I decided to talk a bit about love. Not the mushy, butterfly, emotion filled kind of love but agape love; the God kind of love.

Valentine is a big deal for a lot of people. It’s a day they get flowers, chocolate, teddy bear, ice cream, poems, and whatever extras but whenever I read the valentine story, I realize it was so different from what we practice today.

That being said, here is a link to St’ Valentine’s story on my blog; see it… http://sureboy.blogspot.com/2014/02/the-valentines-story.html

This blog is actually for those of you who don’t have a “valentine”… no flowers, no chocolate, no text/call. I want you to know that you actually have more than that.

Our human society have only set aside a day to show love but God doesn't do that. He loves you every single day whether it’s February 10^th, 11^th, 12^th, 13^th or 14^th and if there were February 37^th He would still love you on that day too.

Allow me to ask you this question… do you really believe that you’re loved by God? Not just knowing it in your head but do you actually believe deep down in your heart that you are loved, cherished, wanted, pursued, and adored?

I don’t think many people actually believe that. We turn to hear about the love of God so much that it doesn't even move us anymore but God’s love is for real.

Picture this! God… the creator of the universe, the same God who was here before anything was here, the same God who created you and every other person on the planet literally got off His throne, came down to earth, lived a sinless life and died a shameful death all for love.

I don’t know what that means to you but that for me means everything. God’s love is unlike any love and He is willing to go all the way to prove His love for us. 

Now on valentine, I really do not think it is a bad idea but I do feel the idea of celebrating love once in a year is horrible. If we only celebrate love one day, what happens to the remaining 364 days in the year?

I know some of you want to be cuddled, taken out on a date and have all those other beautiful stuff synonymous with valentine and hey, there’s nothing wrong with that but I don’t want your desire for that to distract you from experiencing real love.

You can have all the boxes of chocolate in the world but if you do not have a relationship with Jesus I’m afraid you cannot know love; neither can you experience real love. Christ is the beginning and the end of love.

He loves you regardless of who you are, what you did or didn't do and nothing…. absolutely nothing will ever keep Him from loving you so now tell me, how you found true love yet? Real genuine love is only found in God not in a human.

Our identities aren't wrapped up in what happens to us on Valentine’s Day. Our Identities are wrapped up in the love that our Savior gives. It’s constant, it’s forever and it’s free. ♥

Just Sharing My Thought

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