RESISTANCE TO COLD ISN’T PERMANENT 

Never would have thought a day would come when I would utter the words, ‘please put the A.C off’. Living in the Northern parts of England for some years should have built my stamina but this was clearly a temporary feat. I get cold a lot faster now. 

ANY TALENT GIFTED TO MAN NOT USED FOR THE GLORY OF GOD WILL BE USED FOR THE DESTRUCTION OF SELF AND FELLOW-MEN 

There was a reason God created Paul. There was a written God gave Peter his personality. We see how Saul, a bold persecutor of the Christian Church surrendered to Christ and became Paul, a poor martyr of the Christian Faith. We see how Peter who denied Christ received the Holy Spirit and won thousands of souls and boldly spoke to the leaders in high places about never renouncing his faith. We see how John who was the son of thunder encountered Christ and became the Elderly Apostle of love. 

I see how I, Eunice, was the life of the party in the dark days, used my words to harm people, used the personality God gave to me to bully and suppress  people but Christ found me and I see, with great hope, encouragement (and wonder!)  how God is working in me for His glory and good pleasure. 

I wrestled and continued to wrestle with why I wasn’t just made a simple, gentle, quiet, average witted, shy, ladylike lady then that quick and double-edged Sword of God pierces my heart with the words:

“But indeed, O man, who are you to reply against God? Will the thing formed say to him who formed it, “Why have you made me like this?” ‭(Romans‬ ‭9:20‬)

…Then I surrender to my Creator to do whatever He will. To take my life and let it be consecrated unto Him for I am the wonderful work of His perfect Hand. 

My mother would call me in times past, ‘Madam I fear no man’ but it was in reference to a reckless boldness that came from ignorance. Yes, I still fear no man and this is only because I fear The One – the ONLY One! – who can kill me AND send my soul to hell (Luke 12:5). 

CHRISTIANITY IS BEST LEARNT FROM THE PAST. 

“Thus says the Lord: “Stand in the ways and see, And ask for the old paths, where the good way is, And walk in it; Then you will find rest for your souls. But they said, ‘We will not walk in it.” (Jeremiah‬ ‭6:16‬)

To see what true Christianity looks like, we are best off when we look to and learn from the past. Right from the Resurrection to those days of the early Church, the Reformation, the Revivals and so on. Those models depict what the Christian life looks like and we can see how they all ended. 

Contemporary Christianity is mostly an anticlimax in its entirety. When we stick close to the Scriptures and Christian History, we see the light shine through. 

This isn’t to completely censure Christianity today. We still have many faithful men and women of our faith. However, today’s mainstream Christianity seems to have a very low view of and very low expectations from God (low being anything earthly i.e.  our highest hope in God is something we can get in this world e.g.  jobs, money, children, marriage, ‘success’ etc. It is a very low view of an Almighty God – The God of the Bible). There is absolutely nothing wrong in desiring the ‘good’  things of this world, however, “If our hope in Christ is for this life alone, we are to be pitied more than all men” (1 Corinthians 15:19). 

It is said of the Heroes of Faith, “They were too good for this world, wandering over deserts and mountains, hiding in caves and holes in the ground. All these people earned a good reputation because of their faith, yet none of them received all that God had promised” (Hebrews‬ ‭11:38-39‬ ‭NLT‬‬). 

If we are looking for Christian role models, we are best off picking from the buffet of the dead who finished well and investing in resources related to their lives. 

Besides all that, we are more excellently best off when we just stick to the simplicity of the Holy Bible.  

NOTHING IS NEW UNDER THE SUN 

This apparent platitude is more than a philosophical mantra. Truly, NOTHING is new under the sun. It’s so happens that on the day I write this, earlier in conversation with a friend, he was recalling a time when he gave himself a spiritual nickname along the lines of Pastor, Bishop, Reverend but this title had a funny twist to it and he was certain that no one would ever have referred to themselves as that but behold, 3 other people who he had never known or met had used that somewhat ‘creative’ name to refer to themselves – one being a prominent preacher.

Our experiences, our pains, our confusions, setbacks, joys, milestones, feats… there’s none of it which has not been done or experienced before. This is another reason History is a gift to us.

 “Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened to you;” (‭‭1 Peter‬ ‭4:12‬)

It is a wise thing to learn from the past. It is also wiser to understand that whatever we may be going through – good or bad, happiness or sadness has been experienced before which really should humble us. Nothing on this earth is thatserious. Nothing on this earth is that special. 

GOOD GRADES ARE IMPORTANT

Academic records aren’t a set prophecy on how  anyone’s future turns out but I’ve learnt that good grades are important and if I could do school from scratch again, I will endeavour to make stellar grades all through. Many jobs already disqualify you if you do not have a certain class of degree. You don’t get the chance to sit in an interview to explain that your grades aren’t a true reflection of your ability and that you only read the night before the exams after whiling away all the term-time and it really is a miracle you even passed the exam at all. Good grades are important and anyone who still has the chance to make excellent grades should make sure they put in their entire being into ensuring that they do so.

EXCELLENCE IS NOT BEING THE BEST BUT BEING YOUR BEST

With academic endeavours and really any area of life, excellence is not defined by a standard but ability. Working in the education sector has exposed me to children with different abilities. I have seen children who could perform much better than they did but because they had done their work mindlessly, they end up making avoidable errors and falling short of what they could have achieved if they committed their mind to the work they were doing. On the other hand, I have seen another child who in terms of grades, was well below average but was very eager to learn and contribute to questions asked in class when most times, his answers were wrong. The enthusiasm with which he did his assignments and answered questions would make you think he was presenting something of quality, but most times they were wrong. When he was graduating, I said to him that I admire his excellent spirit because despite the amount of times he was laughed at in class  for wrong and far-off answers, you just couldn’t break his spirit. He always kept trying and always wanted to be corrected. That kind of child will achieve better than the one depending on talent to do the work the mind and will need to do. As the title of that book says, “IQ does not determine destiny.”

THERE IS A STIGMA AROUND THE EDUCATION SECTOR

This applies especially to Nigeria, this also applies to schools and overall, this applies to the Teaching Profession. Right from the colonial days when the British colonial government established some public enterprises in Nigeria to provide essential services like railways, roads, bridges, electricity, ports and harbours, waterworks and telecommunications while education and health were substantially left with charitable and religious organizations, the education sector has been painfully ignored. Teachers are looked down upon and it seems indeed as though many come to teaching as a profession when ‘all else fails’ and something is needed to get by. Teaching is a calling and the best teachers seem not to have sought to teach but found that they couldn’t help but teach. 

YOUNG CHILDREN ARE UNDERESTIMATED

This applies specifically to children aged 2.5-6 years old. Being exposed to the Montessori philosophy and approach to Education has taught me that the child in the stage of Early Childhood is an unlikely force. A fire to be ignited and not a bucket to be poured into. I have seen children this age do, say  and recollect things  we ordinarily wouldn’t have attributed to their ability. Society can be changed if we focus our attention to these young ones and build them up in that manner we would have wished for rather than ignoring them in those crucial aspects until they are much older – at which time they are already formed – and can only depend on strict discipline or a divine act for change to occur. We must train children not at some later time but at that sensitive period. 

PAUSE BEFORE CUTTING PEOPLE OFF

Whether family, friends, coworkers or neighbours, relationships are important and where there’s a misunderstanding, it’s not wise to instinctively cut people people off. Technology has greatly enabled this and  I used to be very friendly with the block button until I saw the number of people I had blocked one day and couldn’t even remember reasons for blocking them.

People move on, life continues and when you feel sorry for cutting someone off and would like to continue a relationship with them, things just don’t go back to normal – it might be a very slow and long road till the relationship can be restored, other times, that relationship is permanently severed and when beautiful things in their life happen – work promotions, marriage, children – and you genuinely want to express your best wishes, your motives for doing so are suspected. 

Cutting off people is certainly necessary in some situations  but this should be a very final resort after prayer, sleeping over it, possibly seeking counsel and in some cases, telling the person that this is a decision you’re considering but it should by no means be an impulsive action at some perceived offence.

“Owe no man nothing but love”; “Love is patient.”

THERE IS NOTHING LIKE A “STAY” AT HOME MUM

This concept needs to be scrapped entirely. I am not yet a mother but am a professional Aunty and I have learnt that being a mother is no ‘stay’ experience. It is work. It is labour. This applies to those who choose to be mothers though because it is possible to pay someone to do the mothering work for a child you’ve birthed. From the basic things like brushing another individual’s teeth twice daily to someone else having a blocked nose but you not being able to breathe to praying they will know and love God to meeting their academic needs to being the model they will emulate when you still struggle with various flaws. To those who use that expression, ‘stay at home mum’, the prayer is “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” To those called ‘stay at home mum’, who alone know all that they faithfully do – body, soul and spirit in raising another individual, “The Lord will fight for you and you shall hold your peace” (Exodus 14:14). 

THE HEART OF MAN IS A MYSTERY

THE BIBLE IS AN ACQUIRED TASTE

…which hits only with consistency, wholeheartedness and the good pleasure of God to reveal it to us. Neither does it hit all at once. The first day I read Psalm 124:7 was certainly not the first day I read   Psalm 124:7. As with many other verses, seasons of life will take us into deeper meanings of different parts of Scripture. For instance, Psalm 71:9 is a verse I cannot relate with at this time of life. The same cannot be said of my 110 year old great grandfather who is alive and truly numbering his days. A time will come however, God willing,  when this verse will certainly be the prayer of my heart.

THERE IS NO BETTER TIME TO WALK WITH GOD THAN YOUTH

Youth is a time when at the end of life, we would look back and wonder what we really did with our lives, especially when we had all the strength and time to do so much to the glory of God. We could also look back and thank God for the grace He gave us to contribute in our little but wholehearted way to  advance His Kingdom on earth. The Bible has different recurring themes on youth. “The glory of the young is their strength” (Proverbs 20:29). So why not expend it on the One Thing that matters?

WE WERE BORN FOR SUCH TIMES AS THESE  

Many times I have genuinely wondered if I was born in the wrong generation. I was convinced that I belonged to the 1900s or some earlier period but The Lord knows why He put everyone in the epoch to which we’ve been assigned. It’s barely impossible  to imagine living in a time where we couldn’t type things, where an internet search couldn’t produce us with results in milliseconds, where there wasn’t a Bible Verse to compare various versions of the Bible on the go, where we didn’t have all the rich historical resources as points of reference and we had to be the ones used as examples of those times.. really, it is a blessing that God  has intentionally put us on earth at this very time period there would not have been a better era or better resources than that which we have here and now to use to the glory of God. 

EVERYONE HAS A PRAYER POINT  

Some might not realise it as that but there’s no individual, not one, who doesn’t have something that can be likened to a prayer point. It can be called dreams, goals, desires but we are all at the mercy of God. No one has it together, no one has it all figured out. “The heart knows its own bitterness…” (Proverbs‬ ‭14:10‬). Life is a never ending warfare. We do not need to envy anyone, be angry with anyone or judge anyone by appearance. We are all alike in need – only God is needless. Kindness is the best thing we can do for  the next person. 

ALL THINGS WORK TOGETHER FOR GOOD

Even those decisions that were made in error and ignorance, the heartbreak, the stagnancy, the lockdown, the rejection, the illnesses, the losses. They all work together for good – not manageable, not average but good.  Watch this, however, the caveat in the verse: To them that love God (Romans 8:28). We must not misappropriate the promises of God as revealed in the Bible. You cannot hate God and declare that things are working together for your good. No. This is self-deceit. You don’t expressly have to declare you hate God to be an enemy of God. You may say you love God and believe with all your heart that you do but “I have told you often before, and I say it again with tears in my eyes, that there are many whose conduct shows they are really enemies of the cross of Christ” (Philippians 3:18). The end of such people is destruction and not good. 

SOLITUDE IS PRICELESS

A period of time set aside to mediate, reflect, be away from people and devices is a necessary good. It is inevitable especially for the child of God. That time of being alone with God reveals so much. Our souls are fed. We come out shining, we come out refreshed, we come out with better understanding. This is one exercise we seriously cheat ourselves on if we do not engage in. I have experienced  the invaluable benefits that come with precious time spent away from all things and people but God and His Word.  

BOOKS ARE WORTHY INVESTMENTS

The reading culture of our generation has generally declined compared to past generations based on the fact that our distractions and options have increased but books remain priceless. Listening to a book isn’t even the same as reading it but listening is still good enough. Again, we cheat ourselves if we have no reading habits whatsoever. The world is made up of words. We need words. Books are priceless, timeless and not needless (had to keep up with the rhymes). 

MARRIAGE

There are quite a few lessons under this heading. 

The most important is marriage is NOT compulsory. Marriage is good. It is glorious. It is the very model of God’s relationship with us. However, a marriage is absolutely not compulsory especially if we are doing it for any reason other than this is what God has said we should do and the prospective spouse is who God has led us to: someone who is genuinely after His heart, has a personal relationship with Him and does everything in life out of reverence for God and not the ‘love’ for the spouse. Honestly, marriage is good but many in our generation have such a romanticised, fallacious view of this sacred institution. 

Weddings: This few hour ceremony is glorious and should be done with uttermost joy but it is distressingly alarming how weddings today, even Christian weddings follow a laid down pattern which the world has set. Where did the notion of an after party at a wedding come in? Does a wedding ceremony really need an after party? What has it ever brought forth? Why do games need to be played at a wedding reception? Is this what we have reduced marriage to? We are constantly in search of useless thrills that couples spend so much money only to be absolutely clueless on exactly what they desire their wedding day to be save for vain points such as what outfit they want to wear, what theme they want for their wedding, what hairstyle, what their Bridal party should wear, what song they want to dance to… but absolutely no idea on the depth of the sacred covenant they are getting into. Many who have had such displays of unamusing amusement will in 5, 10 years wonder why exactly they had such a wedding. Do we need to wait five years? The morning after the wedding, they wonder, ‘is that what we spent all that money on?’ 

Couples should certainly have the wedding they want to have as long as it is within their means but Instagram or what another person has done should never be the model of how they plan their wedding for the sake of following a trend. It is a desecration of such a divine event. If we are going to heaven and will one day attend the marriage supper of the lamb, why don’t we strive to model what we imagine the one in heaven will be like? 

Yes, no one knows exactly what it would look like, no eye has seen, no ear has made, no heart can imagine what it would be like but we can be certain of one thing, the language, lifestyle and entire essence of heaven is governed by one immutable word: holiness! 

Especially we who call ourselves Christian, let us truly strive to be different. We are in this world but not of this world. This world’s custom is not our custom, their thinking, goals, aspirations, desires are entirely incongruent to ours. 

At wedding ceremonies, let us dare to be different! 

On marriage itself, the most important lesson I’ve learnt is that the biblical model of marriage is the only way to make a marriage truly work despite what philosophy or influencers say. Wives are to submit to their husbands and men are to love their wives. 

GOD IS LOVE BUT LOVE IS NOT GOD

Many people have such a one-sided view of  The God of The Bible. It is why there is barely any fear or respect for Him by obedience to His Word. We attribute God to our romanticised view of love and imagine that this is the way God loves. 

The God of this kind of love is a weak, powerless god incapable of doing anything simply because he ‘loves’ us. 

God’s love is parallel to His other attributes including mercy, justice, righteousness, omnipresence, omniscience. 

The surpassing attribute of God is His holiness and not His love. Holiness is God. To be holy is to be God and He will do whatever He needs to do to protect His holiness including sending His “favourites” to hell. 

FORGIVENESS DOESN’T EXONERATE US FROM SOME CONSEQUENCES

When we are saved, we are delivered from eternal condemnation and enmity with God, not necessarily from the consequences of some of our actions. If in University, time to have spent studying hard and preparing for prospects of a good career was wasted in futility then I graduate with poor grades that disqualifies me from jobs that have certain grades as a minimum requirement, even if I become born again many years later and now have better understanding, my bad grades stay with me and I am still disqualified from the jobs unless of course by an act of God. Even if I say I’d go back to school to repeat the course and get the best grades, I would still have to pay the price of going back to do what I could have done years ago. 

If I broke someone’s trust years ago and have now become become a genuine keeper of secrets, I shouldn’t be mad if the person still chooses not to entrust me with confidential matters but only make a decision never to break anyone’s trust again. 

The point is that we shouldn’t be bitter when we best the consequences of some of our foolish decisions in the past even though we are now Christians. We must have understanding, plead for wisdom and make wiser choices. David was forgiven for his adultery with Bathsheba and was gifted a precious son who God loved early, Jedidiah (Solomon), but the sword never left his household. 

When God called Saul and directed Ananias to pray for him, Ananias told God how he had heard of Saul’s wicked acts but God said, “I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name”… and Paul indeed suffered. He rejoiced in his sufferings if anything because he understood. 

The truth is whatever painful consequences we have to bear, it is still far less than what we truly deserve – hell. As Ezra said

“And after all that is come upon us for our evil deeds, and for our great trespass, seeing that thou our God hast punished us less than our iniquities deserve, and hast given us such deliverance as this;” ‭‭

Ezra‬ ‭9:13‬ ‭ 

There may be consequences for our past actions in this short life but we can face them with understanding and peace, knowing ultimately it is well with our souls. 

TROUBLE 

For its profundity in expressing this point, I take this excerpt from E.M Bounds’ classic, ‘The Essentials of Prayer’: 

“Trouble belongs to the present state of man on earth. ‘Man that is born of a woman is of few days and full of trouble.’ Trouble is common to man. There is no exception in any age or clime or station. Rich and poor alike, the learned and the ignorant, one and all are partakers of this sad and painful inheritance of the fall of man. ‘There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man.’ The ‘day of trouble’ dawns on every one at some time in his life. ‘The evil days come and the years draw nigh’ when the heart feels its heavy pressure.

That is an entirely false view of life and shows supreme ignorance that expects nothing but sunshine and looks only for ease, pleasure and flowers. It is this class who are so sadly disappointed and surprised when trouble breaks into their lives. These are the ones who know not God, who know nothing of His disciplinary dealings with His people and who are prayerless. 

Trouble is God’s servant, doing His will unless He is defeated in the execution of that will. Trouble is under the control of Almighty God, and is one of His most efficient agents in fulfilling His purposes and in perfecting His saints. God’s hand is in every trouble which breaks into the lives of men. Not that He directly and arbitrarily orders every unpleasant experience of life. Not that He is personally responsible for every painful and afflicting thing which comes into the lives of His people. But no trouble is ever turned loose in this world and comes into the life of saint or sinner, but comes with Divine permission, and is allowed to exist and do its painful work with God’s hand in it or on it, carrying out His gracious designs of redemption.”

YOUR BIOLOGICAL PARENTS ARE NOT YOUR ENEMIES 

Some might actually be your best friends especially if they are truly Christians. They are human like us and certainly have their flaws. They have secret tears and bitterness of heart they do not share. Most times, they might be trying to help us avoid the mistakes they have made. Of course they do a lot of things in ways we cannot comprehend. They seem backward in thinking, they don’t just seem to get us but I have learnt that they are your best friends  and the ones who truly wish the best for you, want the best for you and will do the best for you. This verse of  Scripture particularly spoke to me on this issue: 

“Like as a father pitieth his children, So the LORD pitieth them that fear him.”

‭‭Psalm‬ ‭103:13‬ ‭

If God can liken his compassion over us to that which an earthly father has over his children, certainly, my earthly father cannot be my enemy. Certainly my earthly father loves me and cares for me. Certainly, my earthly father  wouldn’t give me a snake when I ask for meat. 

Surely, my mother will not forget the child who sucked her breasts. The child who she has shared so much tears in prayer over. The child who she has served and laboured for and sacrificed. No no no. She cannot be my enemy. 

My earthly parents, Pastor Samuel  & Mrs. S. O. Olatunji are my best friends. Thank you, Lord. 

FEAR IS AN ILLUSION

Whatever it is that is causing fear, I have learnt that it doesn’t exist. It actually is very funny when you realise this but fear is unnecessary and self-inflicted pain. Take this for granted: that thing you think you fear does not exist. The fear of missing out popularly called FOMO doesn’t exist – you haven’t missed out on anything. The fear that someone doesn’t like you doesn’t exist doesn’t exist – it only takes a conversation to establish this. The fear of the future doesn’t exist – time is only what it needs. The fear of someone else doesn’t exist – death only needs arrive. If that does not snap you out of your fear, let Revelation 21:8 frighten you out of fear! 

BASK IN EVERY MOMENT

Things change quickly and unbelievably so. A time comes when we wish for the good old days but the Bible warns that this is not wise (Ecclesiastes 7:10). Now is ‘the good old days’. Walking through the RCCG camp during the Holy Ghost Congress 2021 brought nostalgic feelings of the days when it was hard to find where to put your feet on the ground due to the large crowds, when you had to be very alert otherwise you lose track with the person you were walking with and all this as a result with how the world has permanently changed  to a new era, thanks to technology. Children grow up so quickly. Give them all the hugs and kisses you can. Just enjoy every moment. Life is a gift. Forgive quickly.

PICTURES ARE IMPORTANT

As moments pass by very quickly, the best way to preserve memories is to take pictures. It’s ironic that in a time during which we have the best photography equipment, we take the most meaningless pictures. How many selfie’s could we possibly need? Meanwhile, when we see pictures from past days, the people we were surrounded with, the beginning of a project, we feel nostalgic. Pictures of ourselves are good and important but we shouldn’t get so lost capturing just our faces and outfits that we lose the precious moments we are in.  

TO HAVE FRIENDS, JUST BE A FRIEND

Any change we desire begins not with any higher authority or someone else but with us. If someone isn’t smiling at us, rather than take that as a reason not to smile, we can be the change and smile. If someone hasn’t called us in a while, rather than be bitter about it, we can be the change and make the call. We must be ready to first make those moves we wish other people would make. To have friends, be a friend.  Listen, offer counsel when you can, pray with and for them from your heart, encourage them with Scripture, give your time and your resources and don’t expect the same treatment. Do all things without expectation from fellow humans. 

A GOOD NAME IS BETTER THAN RICHES

And is the greatest legacy any parent can give to their children. For Jonathan’s sake, David remembered Mephibosheth. For his greed, Achan’s lineage was cut off. Personally, I have enjoyed the gift of having parents with a good name. I have been to several places where when it is mentioned that I’m a daughter of my parents, I have been favoured, I have been attended to, I have been treated specially. The son of a  Nigerian president who ruled as a tyrant lamented recently how despite the low life he leads with his family, which ever airport he lands in in the world, he is on a list where he is taken aside to be examined. This is a burden no child deserves to inherit. The blessing of a good name is a great lesson to learn and a debt I owe to my children as I’ve enjoyed same. I bless the Lord truly for my dear parents. 

GOD IS FAITHFUL

This, I have learnt and I’m still learning.

Faithful: Full of loyalty and fidelity; true and constant in affection or allegiance to a person to whom one is bound, or in the performance of duties or services; exact in attending to commands. 

Trust worthy; true; exact; conforming to the letter and spirit; conformable to truth or to a prototype. 

Observant of compacts, treaties, contracts, vows, or other engagements; true to one’s word. 

True; worthy of belief; truthful. 

Synonyms: Truthful, careful, trusty, trustworthy, stanch, incorruptible, reliable.

Dear God, You are faithful.