This is my first blog in 2012
I’m thankful that God has given me another chance at life and I am here writing and give Him glory
As I reflect on 2011 I look at the good times
It’s easy to overshadow the good times with the bad times
My friends lost their loved ones
I lost a dear grandfather in 2011
I almost gave up on life twice in 2011
2011 was the year that on record was my worst working year
This may not be true as 2011 is still very close and the memory makes it so poainful it overshadows other bad working years
And so it is with life
The most recent hurt is what keeps coming up as you try to look back
But why do we look back?
We look back to see how the year was
We look back to see what we managed to do and achieved
We look back to see the bad decisions we made and didn’t make
We look back so as to be able to take out what was left undone and put it on this year’s resolution/goal/target chart
Whatever the reason we look back
When we look back the first thing we see is the greatest good or the greatest bad
For some we see the greatest good because we want to remember that event for the rest of the days to come
It really was not the greatest good but for us it’s the greatest good that we want to remember and make the greatest good that happened in that year
Sometimes we see that greatest bad that happened because it is still fresh in our minds
Though it did not happen in the recent past we still feel the pain as if it happened yesterday
Why?
Because we don’t want to forgive
We don’t want to let that person off the hook
We cannot let justice go not passed for that deed
We take so much time looking back sometimes we forget where we are
We are in the here and now
We need to look on this day and give thanks for it
Were it not for God’s grace we would not be here
The chorus “dai pasina Jesu ndiani waizondiona?” keeps playing in my head
It means if Jesus were not there I would not have been uplifted to where I am for people to even see that I exist. If it were not for Jesus I would have been a nobody
That’s what we need to drum into our heads each year we start
We need to give thanks for life
Good and bad, that is life
From the pain I’ve learnt to forgive
From the backstabbers I’ve learnt to be prudent
I’ve learnt to be quiet from the gossipers
From the trouble causers I’ve learnt to be prepared-always
From the heart break, I’ve learnt to take care of my heart on my own
From the sympathetic ones I’ve learnt how to give a shoulder to lean on
From the noise I’ve learnt to find solace in my spirit
From life, I’ve learnt how to live, love and let live
Yes, I have learnt how to love from life
From forgiveness I’ve learnt how to give and how to smile.
I almost discounted today as just another day like yesterday but I reminded myself that today is more special than yesterday
Today is more special as I’ve learnt how to forgive
I’ve learnt how to remember
I’ve learnt how to be a true friend
I’ve learnt that a good deed NEVER goes unnoticed- it may take long for the acknowledgement to come, but it DOES come
I’ve learnt that from friends comes love and that love will make me smile on the darkest of days, I just need to keep ALL my friends in remembrance
I said I almost didn’t write this blog
Then what made me do it?
The simple reminder to self that I said next year I would be writing daily on at least one of my four blogs
And also the fact that I just needed to give thanks to God for another year where I have life and my family and friends have life
There is peace in my country that is still beautiful no matter what people want to write about it
Come pay a visit and you’ll know why I longed to be home to a country where people still care about the next person enough to smile even if they don’t know you
They’ll smile because they can see the warmth in my eyes and they’ll smile because we’re wearing the same T-shirt
We are Zimbabweans in the blessed country of Zimbabwe.
God loves this country and from it many will rise to save God’s people
We need to take care of His sheep for many seek His face and do not know Him as yet.
The laborers are few and I call to you to care enough to call the brother next to you to Jesus
The harvest is plenty.
Listen and act NOW
Today I decided I would share even if it means my sleeping late
I’ve procrastinated for too long
Now I believe I just have to say what I ought to have said sometime back
In our prayer group someone shared about prayer and the need to pray and not give in to sleep when we ought to pray
Then I shared on hearing God’s voice to pray for someone
I explained that sometimes we get a feeling that we need to pray for someone
We may not know what challenge pr trouble they are facing and we just need to listen to God’s voice and go ahead and pray
What happens is that at that moment in time you would have prayed for cover for someone who needed someone to intercede for them ad by obeying God’s voice you would have played a part in moving the Kingdom for someone
When we were sharing prayer request, someone said we should remember someone we’d worked with who’d just lost her mother
I felt convicted at that moment as what I had shared came to life
Talk about your words coming back for you!
I had felt the need to get in touch with the person whose mum passed away two days ago
I felt I needed to just reach out and find out how she was doing but I postponed it for another day
What I just did was think of her and ask God to be with her and help her grow spiritually
Had I obeyed that I needed to just pray and get in touch, I may have been able to lessen the burden she now was facing
But if’s don’t work
I did not act when I should have
I really felt convicted
But someone else encouraged me that I ought not to feel discouraged and convicted that I did the wrong thing
What matters is that I acknowledge that I did wrong, ask for forgiveness and pray that going forward I listen and act on God’s voice
The devil came to steal, lie and destroy and he can use guilt to build a rift between ourselves and God
We need to be prayerful and repent of sins and accept and believe that we have been forgiven
What matters is the state of our hearts and our faith
Jesus died for our sins and it’s time we stop shying away from Him because of past guilt
That conviction has it’s place in the past
We need to receive Jesus’ blood as the payment for our sins and start working for His kingdom.
I’ve procrastinated for too long
Now I believe I just have to say what I ought to have said sometime back
In our prayer group someone shared about prayer and the need to pray and not give in to sleep when we ought to pray
Then I shared on hearing God’s voice to pray for someone
I explained that sometimes we get a feeling that we need to pray for someone
We may not know what challenge pr trouble they are facing and we just need to listen to God’s voice and go ahead and pray
What happens is that at that moment in time you would have prayed for cover for someone who needed someone to intercede for them ad by obeying God’s voice you would have played a part in moving the Kingdom for someone
When we were sharing prayer request, someone said we should remember someone we’d worked with who’d just lost her mother
I felt convicted at that moment as what I had shared came to life
Talk about your words coming back for you!
I had felt the need to get in touch with the person whose mum passed away two days ago
I felt I needed to just reach out and find out how she was doing but I postponed it for another day
What I just did was think of her and ask God to be with her and help her grow spiritually
Had I obeyed that I needed to just pray and get in touch, I may have been able to lessen the burden she now was facing
But if’s don’t work
I did not act when I should have
I really felt convicted
But someone else encouraged me that I ought not to feel discouraged and convicted that I did the wrong thing
What matters is that I acknowledge that I did wrong, ask for forgiveness and pray that going forward I listen and act on God’s voice
The devil came to steal, lie and destroy and he can use guilt to build a rift between ourselves and God
We need to be prayerful and repent of sins and accept and believe that we have been forgiven
What matters is the state of our hearts and our faith
Jesus died for our sins and it’s time we stop shying away from Him because of past guilt
That conviction has it’s place in the past
We need to receive Jesus’ blood as the payment for our sins and start working for His kingdom.
Afresh
Today I wish start afresh
Though the enemy encompass me and friends fear for their lives
I will stand up and claim my position
My heritage is in the Lord
He is my sustenance and I will not be afraid
For long I have waited wondering
But today I am stronger
I will stand on His promises
His promises do not fade and are forever true
My strength comes from the Lord
Doubt visits but it will not find anyone to heed it’s feeble suggestion
All is done and what’s left for me is to claim my position
I am restored and forever will stay under His shield
Glory be to God now and forever!
I live again!
Though the enemy encompass me and friends fear for their lives
I will stand up and claim my position
My heritage is in the Lord
He is my sustenance and I will not be afraid
For long I have waited wondering
But today I am stronger
I will stand on His promises
His promises do not fade and are forever true
My strength comes from the Lord
Doubt visits but it will not find anyone to heed it’s feeble suggestion
All is done and what’s left for me is to claim my position
I am restored and forever will stay under His shield
Glory be to God now and forever!
I live again!
Simple
Sometimes in life we need something fixed
We realize it’s not the way it’s meant to be and we make all the noise we can to get someone to notice it so that they make it normal again
When they hear us and they try fixing it and it does not work, we at some point begin to accept that this is now the new status quo
“Things have changed”
And a new routine with the change begins
It’s not that easy I tell you
The whole reason we were making noise about needing a fix in the first place is that we didn’t want things to change in the direction they did
But they did and we wanted them to be back to what they were
So we quietly at times learn to adjust
But usually we noisily adjust, hoping against hope things can be reversed and get back to “normal”
Ah! Don’t we all wish!!
And then one day………. we wake up and things are actually the way they were before
Jubilation!!!!!!
At the back of our minds we still had our fingers crossed as we worked with the new status quo with smiles on our face, secretly wishing for the “past”
Things are back to normal
We make all the noise we deem necessary
Actually, sometimes we grin silently as we don’t trust that it’s permissible that things are back to what they were
There’s just no knowing with this world we live in, is there?
What’s the whole point?
Well, about a month ago my phone suddenly ahd a problem with its date and time
It would move from 2pm to 2:29pm and start all over at 2pm straight after!
And the date never changed
The first day I was a bit superstitious ogled on by this guy but the next I definitely knew something was wrong
So I made some noise and a workmate with a similar phone said they ahd the same issue
Ah! At least I wasn’t alone, someone had the same problem
And so I noisily lived with the new status quo
I move around with two phones so I had to be using the other one for time
I tried all I could to fix the time issue but it just wouldn’t work
Software updates and all
Then just three days ago that workmate told me something that now has me totally changed in terms of my outlook on life
(Honestly I cannot believe I had become this complicated person that I glimpsed I now was )
They said all I had to do was switch off the phone and the time/date would work just fine
Presto! It worked!
I felt stupid for all the times I had tried to get it to work……… changing time zones, not locking the key pad, software updates, pc synchronizing…ad infinitum
A very simple, IF NOT OBVIOUS, fix
Why had I not tried it?
When my workmate told me they had the same issue they also added that the IT guys at the hubby’s place had said it was a software issue that was peculiar/common to that model
And so believing in science that much, I sought a software fix
I never googled the problem but just looked for ‘fix’ software
Long story short, try the easy way first
It just might work and you don’t sweat and feel embarrassed when someone tells you how to do things the SIMPLE way
Bottom line, there’s ALWAYS a simple way to getting things sorted out in life
We realize it’s not the way it’s meant to be and we make all the noise we can to get someone to notice it so that they make it normal again
When they hear us and they try fixing it and it does not work, we at some point begin to accept that this is now the new status quo
“Things have changed”
And a new routine with the change begins
It’s not that easy I tell you
The whole reason we were making noise about needing a fix in the first place is that we didn’t want things to change in the direction they did
But they did and we wanted them to be back to what they were
So we quietly at times learn to adjust
But usually we noisily adjust, hoping against hope things can be reversed and get back to “normal”
Ah! Don’t we all wish!!
And then one day………. we wake up and things are actually the way they were before
Jubilation!!!!!!
At the back of our minds we still had our fingers crossed as we worked with the new status quo with smiles on our face, secretly wishing for the “past”
Things are back to normal
We make all the noise we deem necessary
Actually, sometimes we grin silently as we don’t trust that it’s permissible that things are back to what they were
There’s just no knowing with this world we live in, is there?
What’s the whole point?
Well, about a month ago my phone suddenly ahd a problem with its date and time
It would move from 2pm to 2:29pm and start all over at 2pm straight after!
And the date never changed
The first day I was a bit superstitious ogled on by this guy but the next I definitely knew something was wrong
So I made some noise and a workmate with a similar phone said they ahd the same issue
Ah! At least I wasn’t alone, someone had the same problem
And so I noisily lived with the new status quo
I move around with two phones so I had to be using the other one for time
I tried all I could to fix the time issue but it just wouldn’t work
Software updates and all
Then just three days ago that workmate told me something that now has me totally changed in terms of my outlook on life
(Honestly I cannot believe I had become this complicated person that I glimpsed I now was )
They said all I had to do was switch off the phone and the time/date would work just fine
Presto! It worked!
I felt stupid for all the times I had tried to get it to work……… changing time zones, not locking the key pad, software updates, pc synchronizing…ad infinitum
A very simple, IF NOT OBVIOUS, fix
Why had I not tried it?
When my workmate told me they had the same issue they also added that the IT guys at the hubby’s place had said it was a software issue that was peculiar/common to that model
And so believing in science that much, I sought a software fix
I never googled the problem but just looked for ‘fix’ software
Long story short, try the easy way first
It just might work and you don’t sweat and feel embarrassed when someone tells you how to do things the SIMPLE way
Bottom line, there’s ALWAYS a simple way to getting things sorted out in life
What are you afraid of?
I was watching Akeelah and the bee yesterday and I really fell for a certain quote. Here it is in it's fullness.
"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.
Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us.
We ask ourselves, 'Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?' Actually, who are you not to be?
You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do.
We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone.
And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.
As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others."
- Marianne Williamson (A Return to Love: Reflections on the Principles of A Course in Miracles)
"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.
Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us.
We ask ourselves, 'Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?' Actually, who are you not to be?
You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do.
We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone.
And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.
As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others."
- Marianne Williamson (A Return to Love: Reflections on the Principles of A Course in Miracles)
Be thankful for NOW
Yesterday I had a pleasant surprise
A friend sent an email and from the body of the email I didn’t see or learn anything different from all the other emails I’d been sent before
However when I scrolled to the bottom of the message, there it was!
It hit me
(Sometimes we overlook the small things because they’re only part of the main message
Actually, you can do without reading the small print most of the times)
But this time the small print stuck out and I saw it so clearly
"Do not spoil what you have by desiring what you have not..
Remember that what you now have was once among the things you only hoped for!"
So often I look at my life and I see the gaps
I see what I don’t have
But this time I saw what I have
With hindsight we all can be more grateful for our lives
The relationships that we have, once were not there
The jobs we have once were only a dream or an idea that was possible
Just think about it, that promotion is now a wish because you have a job
If there was no job you would not e wishing for a promotion
That marriage?
If you didn’t have a relationship to begin with, you wouldn’t be wishing to get married to that person
That unruly child you wish would just be more mature and responsible….
You once wished for a family and healthy children
So I challenge you to take stock of your life’s wishes and see what you want to step up from
Acknowledging that you are somewhere that you need to be uplifted from is the first step to being thankful for what you have
Cherish each moment of your life as you look at what else you can get
If you don’t, you’ll miss out on life and wonder where it all went
A friend sent an email and from the body of the email I didn’t see or learn anything different from all the other emails I’d been sent before
However when I scrolled to the bottom of the message, there it was!
It hit me
(Sometimes we overlook the small things because they’re only part of the main message
Actually, you can do without reading the small print most of the times)
But this time the small print stuck out and I saw it so clearly
"Do not spoil what you have by desiring what you have not..
Remember that what you now have was once among the things you only hoped for!"
So often I look at my life and I see the gaps
I see what I don’t have
But this time I saw what I have
With hindsight we all can be more grateful for our lives
The relationships that we have, once were not there
The jobs we have once were only a dream or an idea that was possible
Just think about it, that promotion is now a wish because you have a job
If there was no job you would not e wishing for a promotion
That marriage?
If you didn’t have a relationship to begin with, you wouldn’t be wishing to get married to that person
That unruly child you wish would just be more mature and responsible….
You once wished for a family and healthy children
So I challenge you to take stock of your life’s wishes and see what you want to step up from
Acknowledging that you are somewhere that you need to be uplifted from is the first step to being thankful for what you have
Cherish each moment of your life as you look at what else you can get
If you don’t, you’ll miss out on life and wonder where it all went
Welcome, 2011
So we made it into 2011
So we say
How exactly did we do that?
We did not make it; God let us see the beginning of the year 2011
God has granted us life and we should live it according to His ways
So we say
How exactly did we do that?
We did not make it; God let us see the beginning of the year 2011
God has granted us life and we should live it according to His ways
