Godly teens

"Hope is a flame that needs to be protected; it is the oxygen our dreams need to stay alive." -Eunice Obidi. Right now on this harmattan morning, as I write this blogpost, there are four items on the table before me: an empty glass, which held a steaming cup of Milo about four minutes ago; a red plastic plate with cake crumbs and clumps of abandoned icing sugar; a new notebook, it's pages smooth and crisp, waiting to be filled with everything bubbling in my heart; and an old notebook already filled cover to cover with different colors of ink. The old notebook, although wrinkled and the page edges folded up, is opened to a page titled "GOALSSS!" The writing is almost hard to read because it was written in red ink and is already smudging... But because I was the one who wrote it, it appears as clear to me as the day I wrote it on the third of January 2022.  As I read from line to line, page to page, I see the things I promised myself and God when this year started...

I love love the efforts you're putting into preparations for whatever test/exam season that lies ahead of you... But do you know that God's help will produce far greater results than your efforts ever will? Through every stage, from preparation to writing, there are five major ways God can HELP you in an exam season: 1. He orders your steps; One direction from God in that course can save you lots of time and efforts. Follow the course outlines, but don't forget to ask Him to guide you to places you need to concentrate on. 2. He reminds you; Ever walked into a test/exam and forgotten every single thing you read? It happens to a lot of people.  But fear not.  Believers in Christ have the advantage of the Holy Ghost, who has promised to remind you whatever it is you have studied but can't remember clearly.  Trust Him. 3. He assures you; For most people, exam seasons come with panic in the air.  As a Christian, you can exempt yourself from being a part of that.  The...

Dear Diary, I wish people know that the way you treat others will directly or indirectly affect you.  Beyond the laws of karma, it’s only human when people treat you the exact same way you treat them. Call it “Garbage in, Garbage out, if you want; but the shit is real. A couple of days ago, MJ, my friend, went to do her registration at school and was number twenty-something on the queue. We had planned to wait till she was done before we got lunch, but 2:00pm came and it was not even close to her turn. I decided to walk to a nearby supermarket to get myself something to eat in the meantime, because I was hungry. So I walked into this store and took a McVities shortbread and a drink (someone must've used this combination to curse me🤦), then walked to the cashier to pay for my goods. And this was where the devil had planted someone to try to ruin my day. The cashier, a woman above thirty, eyed my goods and opened the cash register. Then looked at me and said, “I don’t ha...

                                "The people you listen to are a preview of the future you." -Jeff Henderson.   There's something about mindsets that's mind boggling. They're like new computers or phones or blank canvases at birth. The applications or programs that you download in them are what make your system different from mine and able to do different things from mine. As we grow, we are consciously, subconsciously or unconsciously downloading software that will determine the kinds of lives that we live. If the voices you hear constantly tell you that you're incapable, too small, and terrible at doing certain things, guess what's going to happen to you? Yep! You’ll cripple yourself into consistent failure. On the other hand, what happens if the voices you hear regularly, tell you what's possible and not what's impossible; if the voices you hear tell you there's really nothing hard about...

Anyone who knows me well knows that I’m very big on purpose. Purpose is the reason I wake up every day, with the knowledge that there is a particular people out there who ought to benefit from God’s deposits in my life.  But guess what this lifestyle has made me discover. I’ve realized that to really fulfill purpose/destiny, you have to figure out how to hear God for yourself. Sure, we’re wired to make mistakes once in a while as we journey through life, but trust me, there are some mistakes that do not have to be made. [Like choosing the wrong career path, friendships or partner.] And the only guaranteed way to make sure that doesn’t happen is to hear God. For yourself. So maybe you’re thinking, “How do I make that happen?” Follow me. 1.          Join the family: The first step to being able to hear God is to be sure that you are born again, [and that’s just a fancy way of saying you have given your life over to Christ to not just be your Father ...

(Image from Shutterstock) I'm at the fruit woman's burial. Everyone is dancing and singing. They are all in matching attires of white and they sing and clap as they dance after her coffin: "Ile l'onlo, tarrara. Ile l'onlo..." I can't feel the happiness that they feel. I just can't.  "She lived a good life," I hear a man say behind me to his friend.  "Yes. Very very good. She was so easy going, so gentle and nice." Tears are threatening to fall from my eyes as the Holy Spirit reminds me of one solemn truth. No matter how good a life was, if it wasn't surrendered to God, it was headed for Hell. But I can't tell them this. I can't ruin their celebration.  From a distance, I watch a Priest pray over the coffin. "May her soul rest in peace." He said. Again, torrents of tears fall from my eyes. If that woman had not given her life to Christ, her soul could never rest in peace.  It was a bitter pill to swallow. Even f...

The rain is pelting down hard on the pavement outside. The colour of the sky matches my mood today as I seat on my bed staring out my bedroom window. The wind and rain bend the branches of the palm trees outside and it reminds me of why I'm here in the first place; why I'm not studying or scrolling through my phone, or at a sleepover in Kike's house.  Yesterday, a particular news knocked the life out of me and changed my mood from the colourful, rain-bowed sky it was, to one with different shades of gray.  The fruit woman down the street had died. Diabetes, they said. She was just a fruit seller to me, so I shouldn't be here grieving so hard. Not if I had obeyed the voice of God few weeks earlier. Maybe it was because she was so young, friendly and full of life, that I had delayed telling her about the burden in my heart. Five times, I had heard the Holy Spirit urge me to tell her about God and His Beloved Son, Jesus who died so that eternity in Heaven could be secured....