GRATEFUL WEDNESDAYS - The Power of Growth

Growth is such a liberating experience and this is why today, I am grateful for Growth.

I remember not so long ago, being affected by everything, if someone gave me a constructive criticism I would see it as a personal attack. I was extremely defensive of my stammer and if I walk pass a group of people and they were laughing and talking, no one could convince me that they were not talking about me (how important would I need to be?). I was so obsessed with seeking people's approval and having everyone like me.

Well, I am so happy to say, I am no longer that person. I no longer seek people's approval and does not care so much  what others think or want to say about me. I march to the beat of my own drum and love and embrace all of me - my curves, my edges, my freckles and all my limitations because you know what, our limitations keep us grounded, humble and connected to our source. I don't know about you, but I choose to attribute this liberation to growth.

For those of us who are Christians, growth is equally important and critical to our Christian walk. Growth is how we know that our lives are matching up to God's will. For the pass two weeks, my local Church has being doing a series on 'A time for Celebration' - Walking into our Rest. For their obedience and faithfulness, God promised the Israelites a time of rest and restoration after they settled in the land he had promised them. At that time, they were not to cultivate the land at all but it would still  provide for them even though they were doing no planting. He also instructed them to mark seven times of those seven years (every fifty years) as a celebration of Jubilee - a time when they were to rest from their labors, no planting or harvesting and all slaves bought, should be sent back to their families. He also instructed that all properties sold be restored to its original owner. This was to be a year of restoration and rest (Leviticus 25 V 1-32).  The account of the Israelites journey to the promised land, did not by any means said it was easy, there were times when they grumbled against God and second guessed His will for them.

In the same way, in order for us to receive our rest, restoration and blessings from our Lord, growth must take place, and this mainly is, being obedient to God's divine will for our lives, this is no easy task, as we see regarding the children of Israel, but He promises to to be with us every step of the way. He so wants to give us rest and bestow blessings on us, but we must show him that we are growing sufficiently in him to handle every good thing that he promises us.

Have a grateful day, and a day being mindful of the power growth.

GRATEFUL WEDNESDAYS - ........another chance to get it right.

In my last post (“still standing”),  I should have also attributed my continued step toward acceptance of myself as someone who stutters, to the fact that for a while now  I have been trying to become a more grateful person, giving thanks for everything in my life, good or bad (because there are life lessons in the bad), every blessing whether great  or small. It is out of this that I started my ‘Grateful Wednesday’ segment on my blog and I know this has been contributing to the happier me.

I have seen the statement.........”another day, another chance to get it right” a couple times and I have even used it myself. I love this statement because I find it so. point on and relevant. In our daily life, we are never at all times satisfied with how we handle things, with how we treat others -  I could have been way more helpful to that person in need, I could have listened more to my friend who needed  a listening ear, I could have been kinder, more present, more patient and I could go on.

Thank goodness we are  given chances to be our better selves  or else this life would just not make sense. Some of us sadly, do not use these second chances. I am so grateful that in my small corner, I am doing the best I can.

Have a  'Grateful Wednesday' everyone and be kind to one another.

'GRATEFUL WEDNESDAYS' - Gratitude, The Key To More Life.

"Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. 
It turns what we have into enough, and more. 
It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. 
It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend."

Melody Beattie

I started this 'GRATEFUL WEDNESDAYS' segment on my blog about 2 years ago and today I am grateful that I continue to challenge myself to be grateful. Some days, It takes some effort, because our natural instinct is to feel that we are entitled. 

It does not matter how small that which I am grateful for, is, it seem to increase in size when I give thanks. I am using this opportunity to acknowledge my mom, someone with such a grateful heart and because of this, she always has enough and more - more food, more life, more of God's favour and more love to give. What a great heart.

For this I am extremely grateful. 

Post image by: http://blog.floworldonline.com/2013/04/flowersformothersday.html

GRATEFUL WEDNESDAYS : “What is man without friends”

“Friendship... is not something you learn in school. But if you haven't learned the meaning of friendship, you really haven't learned anything.”

Muhammad Ali

Today I am grateful for my friends.

Our friends usually fall in categories, those who  are always around to laugh with and talk with, and when call upon is by your side in a heartbeat. Then there are those who are not always around but you get a fond hello from time to time, and those who  we  really don’t see at all because their life path takes them away from us, and then there are those who  even though we do not see them, when we speak it is as if we picked up  from where we left off, when last we spoke. I have one such friend  and she tells me  from time to time that even  though she does not see me much, she knows she is in my heart . Believe  me, each category serves  its  purpose in enriching our lives.

The other day a former coworker ran across my mind . (we are often encouraged to pray for people when they run across our minds).. I did not pray this time though, I looked in my phone book, saw a very old number I had for her and decided to call her. Turns out, it was her husband who answered. I was so elated because this means that I would get the chance to speak to my friend. I told him who I was and he did not hesitate to give me her number. I called her, she knew it was me instantly and soon remarked how my call had brightened her day. because she was feeling a bit under the weather, having recently lost her mother, and you know what, hearing how much I had brightened her day , brightened mine  too. I was so happy I made that  call.

We seldom tell the people who are special to us, how much they are  really appreciated and  so I am using this space today to salute all my friends and to  give God thanks for each and every one of them/.

The one who, even as I pen this post, is being used  by God to enrich my family’s life, in a way that only God himself could have ordained, I thank you and I am very blessed to have you as  a friend.

GRATEFUL WEDNESDAYS – Feature 17 - GRATITUDE ENCOURAGES BLESSINGS.

Today I am grateful for gratefulness.

I started this grateful Wednesday segment on my blog, about a year now and one thing I notice is that once you have decided to be a grateful person, it takes some amount of effort to foster this grateful attitude, because there are days when you wake up and because of circumstances in your life, you will find it challenging to be grateful.

When I was struggling with infertility, if anyone had ever told me to be grateful, I would have probably snapped at them. What would I be grateful for, when what I believe that every woman has a birthright to (the right to be a biological mom) was eluding me. On even the brightest, sunniest of days, there was always a dark cloud hovering above me. The thing is, I still had a lot to be grateful for, life, family, love, I could go on, but this unhappiness was robbing me of the opportunity to see this.

I would want to hope that even if I had not overcome my infertility issues, as hard as it might be, by now, I would have come to a place of acceptance and recognize that I am still whole even without children and can still strive to be my best self.

From experience, when you foster a grateful heart, you are a happier, lighter spirited person and even when things go wrong, and you are tempted to revert to a woe is me attitude, because of this resolve, you can still push through and be grateful for even the trials, because most times they do make us better  individuals. 

Just thought I would let you in on a little secret, if you do not already know, gratitude encourages blessings.

GRATEFUL WEDNESDAYS – Feature 14

As a people, we are very ambitious and this is good, there can however be a downside to this, if we are not careful. We could find that we lose ourselves in pursuing self-advancement; a bigger degree for that bigger salary, a bigger house, a newer car, and find ourselves wondering, why are we not happy, why does our life feel so dull and empty. The thing is, we forget to be thankful for the little things that we already have, without which, our lives would not mean much. Our relationships, our health, our faith, our freedom, I could go on.

There are times in my life when I feel I could have achieved more in certain areas, and as a result I beat upon myself and take on a 'woe is me' attitude. Thankfully, I am soon reminded that less I be accused of being ungrateful, I do have many other things to be thankful for.

In my pursuit to become a more thankful and happier person, in general then, I am urged to add a new posting feature to my blog, a segment dedicated to being thankful, which I have decided to call ‘GRATEFUL WEDNESDAYS', my gratitude journal, if you will, where I will, on Wednesdays of each week, post one thing in my life that I am thankful for, regardless of how small. 

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Today I am grateful for health.

I am grateful for the health of my children. For all my pregnancies, my main prayer was that my babies  be born healthy. All parents, I believe have that prayer as well and do believe they got their wish, only to find that before their baby’s first birthday, they are faced with devastating news that their baby has a terminal illness. Such was the case for a young couple, of which the mother appeared on the Today Show on NBC just last week. She said that when she received the diagnosis that her son had a fatal genetic condition, she peed in her pants. At that moment, she became me, as I vividly remembered how I fainted on my OB’s examination table, when my husband and I received the devastating news that our SaraMarie (our first miracle) was gravely ill. I could not hold back the tears, and the host of that segment had problems holding back hers too. They lost their son two weeks ago.

I am grateful for my health and the health of all my loved ones. Our health is not by any chance 100%, but at the moment neither am I, or any of my loved ones battling any terminal illnesses, that I am aware of.

For this I am extremely grateful. 

GRATEFUL WEDNESDAYS – Feature 11

As a people, we are very ambitious and this is good, there can however be a downside to this, if we are not careful. We could find that we lose ourselves in pursuing self-advancement; a bigger degree for that bigger salary, a bigger house, a newer car, and find ourselves wondering, why are we not happy, why does our life feel so dull and empty. The thing is, we forget to be thankful for the little things that we already have, without which, our lives would not mean much. Our relationships, our health, our faith, our freedom, I could go on.

There are times in my life when I feel I could have achieved more in certain areas, and as a result I beat upon myself and take on a 'woe is me' attitude. Thankfully, I am soon reminded that less I be accused of being ungrateful, I do have many other things to be thankful for.

In my pursuit to become a more thankful and happier person, in general then, I am urged to add a new posting feature to my blog, a segment dedicated to being thankful, which I have decided to call ‘GRATEFUL WEDNESDAYS', my gratitude journal, if you will, where I will, on Wednesdays of each week, post one thing in my life that I am thankful for, regardless of how small. 

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Today I am grateful for Forgiveness. 

Pardon, mercy, amnesty, exoneration are some of the words used by the English Thesaurus to define forgiveness.

Forgiveness is hard work and can take a long time and I would imagine all of us have had situations where we need to forgive persons who have wronged us. Many times it is persons who have the easiest access to our most delicate self, who end up hurting us the most.

When I find myself having to forgive, I usually remove myself from the person. (Well, that’s a nice way to put it, but it is just simply malice). If this is not possible, I try to limit interaction with them. As this time passes and after much processing and over-processing of the issue, after getting upset and feeling victimized over and over again, I find that I slowly begin to move towards forgiveness. This involves taking responsibility for anything that might have inflated the conflict on account of my doing; maybe if I had done things a different way; maybe if I had said things differently; maybe if I had been a little more open about my feelings to them. After getting past this phase, I find that I am not as upset with the person I need to forgive anymore, as I have taken some of the focus off them. I have taken some of the power away from them. Believe it or not, it is because we give people the power to hurt us, why they are able to. Before long I am able to embrace that person again (albeit, cautiously at first) and accept them back in my life.

One of my older sisters once said to me, sometimes persons react according to where they are in their lives; maybe they are not able to process things the way we expect them to. Sometimes hurt arise when persons judge us without knowing pertinent information about us as well. I am aware that sadly, we do suffer intentional hurt at times and for this I would imagine the process towards forgiveness is harder. Some of us might to even get there.

With this said, my path to forgiveness might not be your path at all, and I am hoping it can be of help to you.  Sadly, many of us are not really able to forgive as I have come across persons who hold on to things for years and years. This is not healthy to say the least, it causes us to become bitter and self obsessed. Further, this is certainly not the way Christ intended for us to live. In Matthew 18 Verse 21 to 22, Peter asked how many times we should forgive our brother. Jesus responded, not 7 times but 70 times 7. How about that? From one who suffered so much at the hands of mankind and was able to forgive, who better to hear this from. What this is simply saying is that we should forgive, just as Our Heavenly Father forgives us, every chance we get.

For this, I am extremely grateful.

'GRATEFUL WEDNESDAYS' POST 3 - JUST SO YOU KNOW

As a people, we are very ambitious and this is good, there is however a downside to this. We can lose
our selves in pursuing self-advancement; a bigger degree for that bigger salary, a bigger house, a newer car, and find ourselves wondering, why am I not happy, why does my life feel so dull. The thing is, we forget to be thankful for the little things that we already have, without which, our lives would not mean much. Our relationships, our health, our faith, our freedom, I could go on.


There are times in my life when I feel I could have achieved more in certain areas, and as a result I beat upon myself and take on a 'woe is me' attitude. Thankfully, I am soon reminded that less I be accused of being ungrateful, I do have things to be thankful for.


In my pursuit to become a more thankful and happier person, in general then, I am urged to add a new posting feature to my blog, a segment dedicated to being thankful, which I have decided to call ‘GRATEFUL WEDNESDAYS', where I will post all the things in my life that I am thankful for, regardless of how small.

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Post 3

Today, I am grateful for my precious family. What would my life be without you? What would my children's life be without cousins to interact with, without grandparents to spoil them and without kind aunts and uncles to love and dote on them, which at times helps so much when our resources come up short.

We do not always see eye to eye but we continue to touch and enrich each others lives even though some of us are afar. 

When everything around us change, our family is the only constant because nothing can change the fact that their is a common chord that binds us.

I love you family, each and everyone and thanks for the unique way in which each of you touch my life.





N.B. I am not dying, just sending you flowers while you can appreciate it, not when you can't.

'GRATEFUL WEDNESDAYS' - POST 2 - "All good gifts around us are sent from heaven above ....................."

As a people, we are very ambitious and this is good, there is however a downside to this. We can lose our selves in pursuing self-advancement; a bigger degree for that bigger salary, a bigger house, a newer car, and find ourselves wondering, why am I not happy, why does my life feel so dull. The thing is, we forget to be thankful for the little things that we already have, without which, our lives would not mean much. Our relationships, our health, our faith, our freedom, I could go on.


There are times in my life when I feel I could have achieved more in certain areas, and as a result I beat upon myself and take on a 'woe is me' attitude. Thankfully, I am soon reminded that less I be accused of being ungrateful, I do have things to be thankful for.


In my pursuit to become a more thankful and happier person, in general then, I am urged to add a new posting feature to my blog, a segment dedicated to being thankful, which I have decided to call ‘GRATEFUL WEDNESDAYS', where I will post all the things in my life that I am thankful for, regardless of how small. 

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POST 2

Today we took the baby for a doctor's appointment and decided to just stay out until it was time to pick up our son. We grab a bite to eat and still had time, so we went to one of our popular spots for hanging out.

As we sat on one of the park benches, there was a cool, strong but welcomed wind (as the summer heat is certainly on) blowing   The baby sat on my lap sleeping and I thought to myself, this is really a great way to pass some time. My husband remarked almost immediately, "it is funny, we can hardly find time any more to do things like this. I instantly agreed, thinking how we have become a people so busy and stuck in survival mode.

I felt so grateful that we could afford the time today to just enjoy some of the good gifts that God has afforded us by way of His beautiful creation.

FOR THIS I AM ETERNALLY GRATEFUL