BITTERNESS: YOUR OWN POISON

It was such a timely message that came thro as I was having my breakfast and landed on this blessed pastor as he spoke on Family TV this morning.  "Bitterness, he said, is poison brewed for someone but the brewer takes it himself/herself".  As he finished that statement, I really thought about it.  You take poison that you had brewed for someone else, how?  As he continued to speak and as I thought about it, it came out very clearly.  Your are bitter coz of someone who did a, b, c, d... or said a, b, c, d..., yet this person, does not even know that you are bitter.  You are so angry you cannot concentrate on other issues as you ought to.  When you talk or speak to others, and especially upon remembering this other person who said or did the a, b, c,d .... you almost (or actually) lose track of what you were saying/doing.  

You are trully taking the poison brewed by yourself.  It only hurts you, not the other person.  The CURE!  Forgiveness.  Its not easy to forgive just like that leave alone issues of big magnitude.  But remember what our Lord Jesus said 77 x 7.  Yes, lets learn first and foremost not to harbour anger in ourselves as this is the root cause of bitterness - instant forgiveness will yield to peace and joy.  Lets seek the Holy Spirit so that He can help us overcome this - coz its not as easy as you think, but when we surrender it to God, Oh, the weight, or burden it is, is all relieved.  DONT BREW THAT POISON, LEST YOU TAKE IT YOURSELF.  Bless you.

Children, Media and Peer Influence Ctd

As I sit down and watch my children interact with the TV - the movies and the music, I cannot stop wondering what happens to the children out there whose parents are absolutely unware of what's happening in their children's lives, and particularly the impact the media has on them.  In most of the cases when I am some time, I sit down and watch my children's favourite movies, cartoons or music.  This has taught me a lot as a parent - they young ones have all the lyrics which I may not even be able to get after listening to the song several times - after some time I ask, "so what do we learn from that song?", and forth the answer comes, sometimes very accurate, other times just leading. 

And the programmes, for example, "Machachari" in Citizen - I bet some of us might not even be aware of this.  The last episode was all abt facebook, twitter etc, and my goodness, the children involved here are as young as 6-7 years old.  Tell me dear friends, are we taking a passive role as parents or are we proactive?  Are we getting involved in our childrens lives or not?  Are we guiding them - for example by setting principles, rules and guidelines when for example they access the internet or as they watch their programmes on TV.  Parents, Guardians, friends, lets reconsider our God given place in the bringing up of the dear ones that the Lord has blessed us with.  We are responsible for their upbringing.  What we sow now will determine the fruits thereafter.  Bless and c u baadaye.

Children, Media and Peer Influence

For a long time now since I became a mother about 10 years ago, I have been concerned about media and peer influence in children, especially those at the very formative ages of 4 -10.  Most of our media houses and particularly the TV stations have children programmes airing early evenings between 3.30 pm and about 6.00 pm, something commendable.  I however have issues with the programmes that follow thereafter.  These are all ex-rated for the children of these ages.  The greatest worry that I painfully habour in my heart is that during this time, most of the parents have not been able to return from their places of work or business and therefore are not able to monitor how the children spend this time just before meals and retiring for the next day.  As a result child are left to watch and listen to "pornography".

Irrespective of how we may view it, our children are slowly by slowly being mentored by the media.  This would have been excellent if it was positive mentoring.  As parents or guardians, we might have different lifestyles and this may therefore not make sense to some out there, but my big question is this:  What foundations and values are we laying in our children for the next generation as we watch them day in day out being fed with virtue-less material and information into them?  Given their ages and thus curiosity, they absorb these kind of information very fast and unfortunately, identify with it.  In this regard, what ought we to do?  As a parent, guardian, you are not there most of the times - (may be you spend just one hour or less with your child every day), you are unable to influence your child's relations and friendships at all times, behaviours and habits have been formed and as time goes by these form that young boy or girl you have into a teenager and before you know it, a young adult?  How can you ensure that your child grows up not only in your desired ways, but in the way of the Lord?  To be continued ....

Identity

As I finished reading the message below, I could not stop to wonder how many people around us, people that we know – leave alone the people in Kenya or in the world at large that have lost meaning in life simply because one or two things happened to them.  May be a broken relationship, a broken marriage, failure in exams, the death of a relative or a spouse, or just something else that they could not come into terms with.  The message below brings it out clearly that the underlying factor, the core of our lives lies in “whom we belong to”, whom we identify with.  So as you read this, I hope you can be able to clearly say that you know your identity in Christ – coz any other identity in this world is short-lived.  Be it material, knowledge/intellect – all will pass away.  Find your identity in Christ if you have not already.  Read on….. 

A well known speaker started off his seminar by holding up a $20 bill.  In the room of 200, he asked, "Who would like this $20 bill?"  Hands started going up.  He said, "I am going to give this $20 to one of you but first, let me do this."  He proceeded to crumple the dollar bill up.  He then asked, "Who still wants it?"  Still the hands were up in the air.  "Well," he replied, "What if I do this?"  And he dropped it on the ground and started to grind it into the floor with his shoe.  He picked it up, now all crumpled and dirty.   "Now who still wants it?"  Still the hands went into the air.  "My friends, you have all learned a very valuable lesson. No matter what I did to the money, you still wanted it because it did not decrease in value. It was still worth $20.  "Many times in our lives, we are dropped, crumpled and ground into the dirt by the decisions we make and the circumstances that come our way.  We feel as though we are worthless. But no matter what has happened or what will happen, you will never lose your value in God's eyes.  "To Him, dirty or clean, crumpled or finely creased, you are still priceless."

Psalm 17:8 states that God will keep us, "as the apple of His eye."  The worth of our lives comes not in what we do or who we are but by WHOSE we are!

Time Management

Last evening I had quite some interesting time with my children. We were discussing about time management and I found myself telling them that one's life is made up of the time they have here on earth and how they spend that time then translates to the value they add to their lives. We were discussing this in regard to their homework, play time as well as devotion or bible reading. As they listened and tried to understand, I realized that I was actually speaking to myself more than to them. How we basically spend our time really matters. For example if you spend 6hrs of sleep, you attain some rest (if it was really necessary), if you spend the same amount of time just having a meal, all you achieve is satisfaction (you are no longer hungry), but if you spend the 6 hrs in a professional skill may be at work or consulting somewhere, you end up achieving some financial as well as knowledge gains. Many are the ways we spend our time, sometimes in invaluable ways whereas other times we almost regret why we had to do this or the other.  Its worthwhile evaluating what it is that we are spending out time on.  What value does it add to us - remember, time and chance happens to all. 

Lets be good time managers and look out for ways of spending time that will add more value to our lives.

Rose

Welcome!

Hi Everyone,

I am more than excited to have finally opened a blog for myself.  I hope that we can share and interact herein with the aim of gaining more insights on various and diverse issues.  More specifically, I have professional interests in Organizational Development.  I would also like to have your views on a more subtle aspect - parenting.  I am so passionate about this topic.  This is because, as a parent, my children have not only brought so much joy into my life have have actually caused a paradigm shift in me in the way i view things.  In this regard, I am doing a book on parenting which I trust will be out soon.  Will keep you posted.

Welcome to share your views. 

Rose