Our response to crisis around us is an outward exhibit to our display of faith. Showing Empathy (understanding and support) and Sympathy (sensitivity and unity), determines our outcome of faith.

Our heart breaks as mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, uncles and grandparents when we know our daughter is in distress, and we are unable to release her burden. Our helplessness displays our crushed and sorrowful minds, even as we are made to just wait and hope. Our vision for the aspiring young girls is collapsing, making our view of the world turn into a magnifying glass that’s dented with premature cracks from over-usage.

Who-is-that-Girl? She’s funny, friendly, exasperating, endearing……how would you describe your daughter, your sister, your niece, your granddaughter or god daughter? My daughter is all that and more! I remember holding her in my arms the first time….hard to describe the feelings; it was more of a wonder that God had created such a perfect thing as this tiny baby in my arms! Everything about her was fascinating. How could He see to all the details that went into creating this small thing? I wondered!

It’s a new day, and there’s still an outrageous uproar of brokenness in every heart that knows the value of a misplaced or vanished female child! The smoke of deceit is still hanging in the air, stabbing pain cutting deep into the hearts of their loved ones, betrayed innocence of an abused culture! But by the time the sun sets in the evening, even the little village market in Chibok is still counting its loss from the day’s sales as opposed to relieving tensed emotions from finding their girls!

My conscience labels me as an envoy to the almost 300-school girls kidnapped in Nigeria. Why? Because it could have been me 25 years ago while I was attending an all-girls secondary boarding school, 1000 miles away from home! Or even anyone of us, who’s been to a boarding school, far away from home. But by God’s grace and faithfulness, we are here today, Untouched!

So, for everyone who has a daughter, a sister, a young female cousin, a young niece, a god-daughter, an adopted girl or even pregnant with a girl, right now! This very moment! What is your display of faithfulness? It could have been anyone of us, or anyone we know, but the scene is yet to unfold because we are not in the cast, so we sit afar like the spectator, while the world is a stage – but honestly we should be talking about it, raising hope and awareness, even educating people around us about our passion and determined to get attention for world peace.

Today, I am encouraging everyone to open their hearts and connect to a “missing girl cause” both known or un-known, show support and empathy with the family in distress by praying for them daily: for a break through. I carry within me the burden, grief, the pain and the torture that’s crowding those missing girls, because I am a mother of 2 young girls , I feel the joy and pain of child bearing and motherhood.

Even though I am thousands and thousands of miles away, I am humbly wearing their thoughts and holding their trembling hands close to my chest in prayer. God says faithfulness is proven by our others-directedness and by giving our help, by looking at others rather than concentrating on ourselves. God is going to judge our faithfulness through our relationship with other people, especially when they are in deep distress.

May God help us all
Yinka

Last Christmas, my kids and I saw the movie,”Frozen” which is now one of the coolest comedy-adventure ever to hit the big screen. When a prophecy traps a kingdom in eternal winter, Anna, a fearless optimist, teams up with extreme mountain man Kristoff and his sidekick reindeer Sven on an epic journey to find Anna’s sister Elsa, the Snow Queen, and put an end to her icy spell. To my greatest surprise and advantage, my toddler sat all through, captivated and thrilled – and now with such firmness sings and hums the theme song “Let It Go”. And it makes me wonder if she actually meant it like…”come out of the darkness Elsa, let it go, move forward, breath, live! Hmm!

So, we all have that ‘something that challenges us” also known as our Dark place or places. Having it doesn’t mean we are less qualified for eternal life, it only proves that we are human and still a resourceful client in God’s workshop. Our dark place could be our attitude, our posture, our sensibility, our defect, our instability, orientation, pain, anger and hunger.

It is that cloudy and unlit area of our lives that we usually cover up with pretense, ignorance or shame. We are the only freelance occupant.

Because it is the strongholds we are comfortable with. We then allow people around us to see only what we want them to see. We display only that part of us that wows the public, we give the best smiles, hit the highest pitch while singing in church, people see us and admire our strong will and wonders, but deep down when we get back to ourselves- alone, we clamor when we retreat to our dark place, beating up the thoughts of cold shoulders, the pain of rejection, hurt and waiting for a breakthrough, the unbearable loss of a dear one, the outbreak of sickness, the work load and expectation at work, the burden of the family, the un-expected trials of marriage, the pain of the thought of another miscarriage, a new dawn and still no cry of a baby, the loneliness of reaching out to find a partner, the heaviness and joy of childbearing and child rearing, the struggle with addiction and acceptance. But they are all challenges and it is just a process to wake us up and draw us out of that darkness. We must only make a tent in the dark place but never build a house there.

Through all that defining period of our darkness, God sees seeds in us, but he has to cut us deep (like carving a red delicious apple) to get to the seeds inside, because our future is in the seeds. God always reserve a place to plant his seed and it will only germinate in the dark place.

The dark place is that place that brings you to your knees, that transforms you, you surrender because of the pain of your dark place, the dark place is so painful it brings you to humility and totally connected to God.

Today, I am encouraging someone to allow God to “cut deep” into them like the red delicious apple- so that the seeds inside can be planted for His greater work. I am encouraging someone to freely sing ‘Let it go” like my Toddler, believing that once we let the darkness that’s been a stronghold and a forbidden tenant in our life be unleashed. We cannot develop well in the light, unless we are completely lifted from the dark place. In the dark place, tissues come together, bones begin to form, there’s a move, a kick, you cry in the dark place – so you can dance into victory in the light.

The dark place in our lives is not a destination, but a transformation.

May God help us all.
Yinka

“Even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you. Psalm 139:12

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Our talent is a display of our: know-how, expertise, skill and capability. It is that knack we are all created with – despite the fact that it can sometimes take forever to be discovered! Unknowingly, we all have it, and it is that “wow factor” that makes us stand out and tall amongst the ordinary. While title is our man-made banner: The power appeaser attached to our original person, it is that poisonous push-on or in-expensive antidote needed to help booster our self-confidence! Well, once we have been labeled with one and uncertain on how to embrace such dignity-we become boastful!

One of my fondest memories from attending an all-girls secondary school was the constant parade and reminder from our house mistress then (an Indian lady). She has this peculiar way of always announcing her entrance into the dormitory. She will stroll in dramatically, all her 20plus shimmering bangles, glittering and hitting hard against each other, a make-shift for a bell; brilliant red sari wrapped around her, tucked nicely and gallantly while the edges; freely flowing alongside carelessly! ”Here I come! Engineer, Doctor, Mrs.…” She will mention all her titles and end it with “senior house mistress, doctor’s wife and mother of two, Oh goodness! No amount of greetings or side attraction could have distracted her morning ritual of reminding us of who she was. Hmm! It was a very comical and rather humorous scene for us students then, and we’ll hold our breath, avoiding open laughter and escaping her slaps! But years later, meeting up with couple of friends from high school – we were able to discuss/understand and feel her pressure in trying to stand out, be heard and be respected. She wasn’t boastful as we all thought she was. She just needed to be heard, honored and respected. And that was the only way she knew.

So, without even knowing it, we can parade ourselves as overly-desiring to be successful! How? Through our search for discovery; an unexpected elevated position in life; we begin to crave a kind of recognition and acceptance: We either parade our titles by bragging about it or showing off our talents by acting out, hereby making ourselves look boastful, arrogant and pompous. Or sometimes – we become over ambitious, imposing our ideas on other people, not willing to learn from others or to be corrected.

Being humble is one of the greatest virtues that God wants us to have. And being humble doesn’t only mean that we are more than willing to accept all His will and commands, but true humbleness can be measured on how we will obey those commands in our everyday interaction with people around us. It is the humbleness of little children that makes them the greatest according to Christ.

Children don’t have pride, they don’t know about it. They don’t care if honor are not given to them unlike us adults. In the eyes and heart of children, we can only see that everything for them is equal. There is no superiority in a child’s mind.

Today, I am hopeful and believing that someone has finally accepted to make a giant move on their aisle by discovering that great talent God has given them – to put aside pride and procrastination and use it wisely for God’s glory. That those who are exalting themselves up high will be humbled. Choosing the higher path means there is a tendency for us to fall and go down, but choosing the lower path means there is no place for us to fall and the only way to go is up – which is in heaven.

May God help us all!
Yinka

“The person who is greatest among you must be your servant. Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted” – (Mat.23:11-12)

Ah finally! Welcome to my precious birth month of MAY. Chances are, you have pleasantly encountered with some of the most beautiful, highly motivated, strong personalities and dramatic people!

In preparation for my 15,330 days of birth and counting, I engaged myself in a deep conversation at lunch time with some colleagues, and was amazed to know that, some of them around that splendid age, had experienced some kind of “un-questionable act of in-balance” also known as midlife crisis, dilemma, pressure, crossroads or disaster.

Mid Life Crisis is: Un-expected Change or Fear of un-accomplishment. Mid-life Blessing is our breakthrough, our passion to excel, our hope to fulfill.
It is casually called the time in life when you do outrageous, impractical things like quit a job impulsively, buy a red sports car, or travel around the world. For years, midlife crisis conjured those images. But these days, the old midlife crisis is more likely to be called a midlife transition and it’s not all bad.

Now, it is like nursing a bruised knee with a wet feather – even though you know there’s no remedy in it to cure, you kind of enjoy the caress and smooth silky feeling – that’s how it feels when you approach another birth year you begin to reflect on the things of the past, your gainful records is spread right in front of you, while at the same time, your aspirations yet achieved is right there – starring right at you, and sometimes even mocking you! –

Ah! Our ego is altered, all because we feel it’s another year and we still haven’t reached that targeted goal that we would have loved to! So, when you approach a new birthday, do you feel overwhelmed that you still haven’t scored that goal?

Today, I am encouraging someone to graciously decline the appeal of “mid-life crisis’ and reflect on the great achievements they have made over the years, boost your self-worth by empowering and impacting people around you with a memorial. Build a legacy that defines your worth, even when you are long gone. Turn that “mid-life challenges into Mid-life blessings. Our past performance is only a tutorial ladder into our future of victory, disregard that age-number stamp, embrace change, live life to the fullest – we only get better with age. I am certainly much better with age.

May God help us all.
Yinka