GIVE YOUR BEST TO RELATIONSHIPS

A boy and a girl were playing together. The boy had a collection of marbles. The girl had some sweets with her.

The boy told the girl that he will give her all his marbles in exchange for her sweets. The girl agreed.

The boy kept the biggest and the most beautiful marble aside and gave the rest to the girl. The girl gave him all her sweets as she had promised.

That night, the girl slept peacefully. But the boy couldn’t sleep as he kept wondering if the girl had hidden some sweets from him the way he had hidden his best marble.

Reflection:

If you don’t give your hundred percent in a relationship, you’ll always keep doubting if the other person has given his/her hundred percent.

This is applicable for any relationship like love, employer-employee relationship etc. Give your hundred percent to everything you do and sleep peacefully.

Some of the biggest challenges in relationships come from the fact that most people enter a relationship in order to get something: they’re trying to find someone who’s going to make them feel good.

In reality, the only way a relationship will last is if you see your relationship as a place that you go to give, and not a place that you go to take.

The quality of your life is the quality of your relationships.

Never idealize others. They will never live up to your expectations. Don’t over-analyze your relationships. Stop playing games.

A growing relationship can only be nurtured by genuineness.

People are lonely because they build walls instead of bridges.

Each friend represents a world in us, a world possibly not born until they arrive, and it is only by this meeting that a new world is born.

Do you build walls instead of bridges?

Accepting Your Flaws and Mistakes

‘Nobody’s perfect’ is a phrase we hear a lot. It may even be a phrase we say a lot, but while it’s commonly repeated, this often does very little to make us feel any better when we just failed an exam or interview.

The solution is then to simply focus on our strengths rather than our weaknesses which will boost our confidence and help to make us more accomplished individuals all around.

You need then to come to terms with your flaws and mistakes and to move past them if you are going to avoid being defined by them.

Few things to consider:

View Mistakes as Lessons:

Whenever you make a mistake, this will have some negative consequences in the short term – maybe you failed exams, or perhaps you are left with no job, or your relationship on the rocks.

Unfortunately, to quote Shakespeare, “what’s done is done and cannot be undone”.

However, the trick is to learn from your mistakes and thus avoid making them again.

So instead of punishing yourself, just see this as something that will help you to grow more and think about how you can make sure you do better next time – whether it’s through training or simply avoiding making the same mistakes.

Know Your Flaws:

Knowing your flaws is not a weakness, but rather strength. All of us have flaws, but it’s only by recognizing them that we can account for them, better predict outcomes and work to improve them.

Denying flaws will only lead us to make the same mistakes time and again, and to appear oblivious to casual observers.

Turn Your Flaws Into Strengths:

So you have a big glaring fault that you wouldn't have chosen – big deal, so does everyone else! In order to move past this though and to work your flaws in your favour, you need to be able to look at them as strengths, or at least as part of the tapestry that makes you who you are.

Find Good Role Models:

Whatever your flaws and weaknesses are, there are people out there who have overcome them and succeeded anyway.

See Flaws as Challenges:

Life would be pretty boring if it came easily.Whatever problem you have that you feel is stopping you from becoming what you want to become should be seen as obstacles and must be dealt with accordingly.

If you are smart, if you are persistent, and if you have the right attitude, then you can triumph over adversity and your victory will be all the more impressive. And you may even provide a good example for someone else in a similar situation.

Know That Tastes Vary:

What you perceive as flaws is really only in the eye of the beholder and it’s perfectly possible that someone else might see them as what makes you attractive.

If you have a physical feature you’re not proud of, then you might still be someone else’s ideal of physical perfection.

Play to Your Strengths and Focus on What Matters:

So you’re terrible at meeting new people – does it really matter? So you don’t like your hair – again does it matter?

Know your strengths and weaknesses and then play to the strengths by emphasizing your best qualities and choosing careers etc where they are an important asset.

Find out what you think your role is in life, your purpose, and what brings you fulfillment.

Do What You Can to Change Things:

If you have made a serious mistake then there’s a chance of course that you can amend things. Before you go about coming to terms with what has been done, first go about trying to repair the damage and make things right.

So you failed your exam, is there any way you can take it again, or debate the results?

Maybe a mistake cannot be undone, but that doesn't mean necessarily that it may not yet be rectified.

Reflection:

You can make it to the top. You can overcome those challenges. God is with you. He is working on your flaws. There is nothing too hard for Him. Do your part and leave the rest to Him.

Ladies! Ladies!!

When I got born again, my brother was particularly worried about one thing, being brain - washed.

He believed that women were so easily led because of their emotions and he was worried for me. Once someone can convince us with a few words, we are captured. With more and more sweet talking men of God, its becoming more and more rife, that women admire and seek to please their ' perfect' Pastors.

Today, I would like to address something that is common to a lot of my sisters......idolisation of pastors.

Arrghhhhhh, OMOBOLA, why?

It's simple, because it's part of the bible.

A common occurrence is that a lot of my sisters see their male pastors as next to GOD. Some of us even obey and fear them more than we fear GOD. Their verdict is final in our homes.
If you have been caught in this error, you need to stop now.

God made a man the head of his home. Whether the head is bald or has a funny nose , he is still the head and need to be treated as such.
Pastors visit to the house sets your husband jealous.
Pastor gets to eat the choicest meat when he comes visiting. He gets served with your special expensive plates.
You told hubby that you are managing his allocation, and because of this, he cannot have his usual drink, but pastor gets a bottle of wine whist your hubby has to ' manage'.

At his appearance, you are kneeling and standing, pouring with sweat because he is a man of GOD. Meanwhile, your husbands sentences do not reach the airspace in your house before you bounce it back....STOP NOW.
To Pastor, you answer SIR, to your husband you say that stupid man....or you even say the devil is using him....Why won't he be available to the devil.

2 Timothy 3:6-9 MSG
These are the kind of people who smooth-talk themselves into the homes of unstable and needy women and take advantage of them; women who, depressed by their sinfulness, take up with every new religious fad that calls itself “truth.” They get exploited every time and never really learn.

Yes, your husband is struggling to hold the family altar in the morning. He does not even know how to read Psalms 23 after being born again for several years, he is still your head. If you want to see improvement in his life, you won't get it by making him feel inadequate.

The bible is clear on this.....
Wives, submit yourself to your own husband.
YOUR OWN HUSBAND. .....not your own pastor.

Ephesians 5:22-23 KJV
Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the saviour of the body.

If you refuse to allow your husband occupy the position of honour in his own home, it's not a wonder that you are not reigning as queen. He has no throne. Until he gets to that position, with your prayerful, support, you can't occupy that enviable position that you so desire.

If you bypass ypur husband and throw the decisions about the day to day choices in your home into the hands of the pastor, you are living in sin. You are disregarding the authority in your home.
Harsh as this may sound, if you need to make amends, plus go ahead and do so now.

Tongue talking and firebrand, if your pastor is married, he belongs to his wife, not you.
Don't help pastors wife polish her possessions whilst you treat yours like a piece of rubbish.
Your garden is overgrown because you are tending another woman's garden.

Small or big.
Fluent or stuttering,
Smart or rough....
Word loaded or newly saved.....your husband is the head of your home...RESPECT, HONOUR AND CHERISH HIM.....STOP watering another woman's garden whilst yours die of drought!

Sister Bola.

How to Pray Your Way Through a Trial and Stress

Job 5:7 gives an interesting picture of that fact: "Yet man is born to trouble as surely as sparks fly

upward" (NIV). Jesus made the same truth abundantly clear: "In this world you will have trouble" (John 16:33).

Ironically, moments of crisis bring a remarkably clear understanding of the realities of life. In a crisis our eyes are opened in a fresh way:

We understand just how needy we are.

We understand that life is too big for us to carry and that we need God's help.

We feel the weightiness of each moment, and we seek the Lord more urgently than when everything is going well.

The pain and pressure of a crisis will, inevitably, bring us to a crossroads. From the Latin word crux, a crossroads is a place of decision. Indecision is, in itself, a decision. We must respond decisively to a crisis, and, all too often, life-changing decisions must be made on the run.

David wrote, "When my spirit was overwhelmed within me, You knew my path" (Psalm 142:3, NASB). We will find that God has anticipated the crossroads that we face, and He has already charted our courses ahead of us.

When you and I come to that crux, where do we start? How do we pray in such times? We must remember that, although we do not know how long our difficulties will last, God does. We may feel lost and confused, but God is not.

Sometimes we imagine that God only listens to us when we pray "on target," or somehow connect the dots and follow the right formula. Not so—God listens to our hearts. When we grope our way through the fog and the pain of circumstances, the Father's heart is open to us. God will be patient as we call out to Him and seek His wisdom.

When we come to the crux of life, no matter how deeply the crisis wounds, no matter how darkness, pain or fear obscures our view, we never have to wonder if God is aware, and fully able to guide our steps. He has never lost His way, and He will not let us lose ours.

How You Can Pray

Are you or someone you know going through a crisis right now? Take time to lift up any fears to the Lord, and ask Him to bring wisdom and clarity. Then thank Him for His promise to never leave us nor forsake us.

Prayer for new week

Jesus Christ had to touch the blind man from Bethsaida a second time before the man could see clearly (Mark 8:25). As you start this new week, I pray that God will give you a second touch in any area of your life where you need clarity of vision for direction in Jesus name. Stay blessed.J

Happy New Week from us ASB-World. 

Recipe: BAKED POTATO RECIPES THAT ARE SIMPLY YUMMY

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Willful Disobedience

TEXT: Ezekiel 22:1-12

Key Verse: “In thee have they taken gifts to shed blood; thou hast taken usury and increase, and thou hast greedily gained of thy neighbours by extortion, and hast forgotten me, saith the Lord GOD” (Ezekiel 22:12).

A watchful, dutiful mother looked out of the window on the snow covered driveway. She saw her seven year old son Danny sled into the street. She called him into the house and reprimanded him, saying, “I’ve told you never to sled into the street! You will have to stay in the house for the rest of the day!” Throughout the day, Danny heard the laughter of happy neighbourhood children as they romped and sledded on the snow. When the day was almost gone, Danny pleaded, “Can’t I go out now mum?” Mother relented. She bundled him up warmly. As Danny dashed toward the door, mother warned, “Remember what I told you about going into the street, stay in the yard”. These were the last words Danny ever heard his mother speak. Five minutes later Danny was dead. He was crushed by a car when he sledded into the street. Obedience could have saved Danny’s life.

The children of Israel were like this defiant child who eventually strayed into his destruction. Sundry acts of rebellion which include immoral lifestyle, idol worship, shedding of innocent blood, greed and extortion from the less privileged, and catalogue of many other crimes as were mentioned in the text are dangerous to a believer’s spiritual health! The day of forsaking God can be very devastating. Departure from God will lead men into defilement, as the case is in the passage of today.

Israel became a laughing stock because of sin. Unfortunately for them, they ran from security into insecurity. They had no understanding to discern the danger that is imminent. The world is in darkness today because of departure from God’s standard of holiness.

God is gracious however to those who come into His redemption plan through the death and vicarious sacrifice of Jesus on the Cross of Calvary. The solution to the problem of the world is in returning to God sincerely through repentance. The word of God says “If thou will return, return unto me: if thou shalt put away thine abomination out of my sight, then shalt thou not be removed” (Jeremiah 4:1).

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: Repentance is the key to restoration.