Faith · Family · Life

You Changed my Life

Today 27th October 10 years ago, my life changed, my world shook and a defining moment was birth. It was school holidays and I had plans to enjoy my break as best as I could but little did I know that my journey for the rest of my life without an earthly father was just about to begin.

Daddy and his girl took a drive out of town, the motorway wasn’t busy and like every other time my dad wowed me with his sense of precision in driving. He took every turn carefully, overtaking when necessary and easing off the accelerator gently to avoid going over the speed limit.

We were enjoying our ride until someone’s mistake happening outside found its way on our turf. Dad did the bravest thing with the little time he had left, he managed to swing the wheels…. but how far can you swing the wheels to avert evil in a sudden moment to save your life? Dad was brave in that moment and as I’ve grown and processed that episode I gleaned a life lesson that “Giving up in the face of life’s sudden twist is not an option, you must continue to do all you can do”.Had my dad not done what he did based on the God given wisdom we would have ended up under the trailer and not one soul would have made it out of the car alive.

Standing at the edge of the motorway covered in blood and watching my dad struggle- my life flashed before my eyes and a sense of purpose was further drummed into me and I knew again with more clarity that “people are the only resource that matter and family will forever be the greatest asset we are blessed with”. At that moment wisdom explained to me that I can’t continue to major on minors and no matter how high some things may scream they just won’t make priority list and I must learn to choose my battles and focus my strength and cherish every moment I have with the great people I’m blessed with.

My faith in God was rebirth through that incident. My dad lived his life telling me but more importantly showing me God dependence and as this episode played out I knew it was time to stand and be a faith girl, knowing God for me. I knew if I was going to make the rest of my life’s journey without bitterness, depression and a sense of loss hanging heavy on my shoulder and holding me down from my God ordained destiny then I needed to make God my anchor. God continues to wow me and he stands true to His word as the father of the fatherless.

Can I quantify my dad’s life- NO, not here, not now, not on this page and definately not ever. His death reminds me everyday that we are time bound on this side of eternity. We are individuals on a mission and we have to continue to live on purpose adding our unique individuality to the human race, touching lives and giving back in ways that we are empowered and inspired to. We can’t just exist as a completion to balance out the Eco system. We were created to make impacts in our families and in the lives of those around us.

Dad the whole world may not have known or heard your name but in the course of doing life you touched the life of the many people you were opportune to meet. You touched your family and prepared your little girl for life even before she was ready to face it. I’m stronger because you lived and taught me faith.

Saying my dad is one in a million is saying I’ll meet someone like him someday and that’s a lie. So i put it this way He was one in a GENERATION and nobody will ever be what he was. I speak for his queen,prince and princesses …….Dad you changed our lives and we have grown to understand God, purpose, faith, love and life.

Thank you for living your life the way you did. Even time cannot erase what you said, who you were and the impact you made on us. We continue to pass on your legacy of giving and helping in the ways we can. Amidst all the challenging things we face living without you is most challenging but God’s grace continue to lead us as we live everyday. Dad you may be gone but you will not be forgotten .

Life

YOU are better than the JUNKS

“Forget about what has happened don’t keep going over old history, be alert, be present. I am about to do something brand new” Isaiah 43:19&20(msg)

“You stand in the threshold of a grand adventure the extent to which you experience the fullness of that journey is determined by the extent to which you let go of the scenarios that no longer serve you”—-Author unknown

As i prepared for work on a beautiful morning, I decided it was time to change my holdall and as I began putting contents from one holdall to the other I began to see some old stuff that I thought I had got rid of -some old tickets, post it notes and receipts which were dated back in the past and for which I won’t require any soothsayer to tell me these stuffs are not needed anymore and they won’t be needed in the future either.

As I continued this mundane task I had one of those moments when life speaks loudly to us and the spirit of God explains wisdom from seemingly foolish things. And at that point I saw that our lives are just like holdall which can take anything, significant or insignificant depending on what we allow. We just keep piling and it keeps holding.

Too many times we cling so tightly to yesterday basically because it’s familiar territory and we forget to live in the moment. We hold on to pain and hurts because we think we don’t deserve happiness. We blame ourselves for what went wrong in our world in the past and we stay content with the junk from yesterday because we think if we let go we’ll be left with nothing. We worry over things because we think that’s how we’ll find the solution.

We make up our mind it’s to risky to give hope a chance and it’s too tasking to dare to dream of new beginnings and brighter todays. We lie to ourselves we are okay with the junks and we build around them instead of giving it up.There are somethings, some people, and some old moments that have used up their time and finished their work with us but for some weird reasons we still cling so tightly to them/memory of them for dear life.We become hoarders of yesterday and junk up today with a past that should be tossed.

One of the truth about junks is that they take up reasonable amount of space that belong to valuable things and they blind us from seeing the good things we’ve got going for us. They stop us from hoping, from believing and from dreaming our way up. They block the good that is ordained for our lives and if we are ever going to go up and see the new horizons, we’ve got to know when to LET GO, where to LET GO and what to LET GO.

Don’t junk your today and don’t give anyone the liberty to junk up your world. God said to forget the former things so that we can recognise the new things He’s doing. Let the past be a teacher, learn from it for that’s how you develop 20/20 hindsight so you don’t keep making the same mistake. Once that lesson is learnt say good-bye to YESTERDAY don’t keep hanging on to it.

Let go and make room for the new and valuable things. Learn and believe there is a good in good-bye. You are better than the junks and too precious for the weight that shoulda, woulda, coulda brings.Stop worrying, let go and let God. You deserve to travel light, so say good-bye to the junks,embrace the NEW YOU and step into the NEW THING.

Have a junk free travel.