Welcome to the August 16th edition of Faith & Life Lessons.
You will see this email full of tidbits from my week. My goal is simple. I hope that from how I live my life, you can find a thing or two that helps you as you try to live a life that matters. I am always trying to do one thing - make Christ-focused decisions in love, work, and life. And this was my week.
The Story of My Week.
We came back from our family vacation this week.
This was a case of what God ordered, God blessed.
Let me explain
At the beginning of the year, I was not thinking of a holiday in Spain.
Well, that was until the 3rd week in January. I had taken the week off as my start-of-the-year retreat.
During that time, that was when this dropped on me.
Kind of like the apple dropped on Newton in the garden.
So, based on my apple-drop moment, we planned a family vacation to Spain.
Interesting how things panned out leading up to the trip.
A few weeks before the trip, one of our kids was so sick that we spent about a week on admission at the hospital.
Days leading up to the trip showed that the results were not fully clear. Well, we travelled with medication.
Turns out none of it was needed during the whole vacation.
Every member of the family enjoyed the vacation, and we were truly blessed to spend time with all the people we met up with.
Old friends and family extensions...it was great. We also padded in some time to do stuff we hadn't done before, even went to parts of town that we didn't see when we lived there.
I am grateful to God for this vacation.
A gift from Him.
A gift which we enjoyed.
Things I Learned
1- Relationship Before Partner: An interesting thing happened during the week.
As we boarded our last connecting flight, I saw someone else with his family doing the same thing.
The interesting thing is that we were also both on the same flight leaving the country on the same day.
Yes...we flew out to different locations on the same outbound flight and came back on the same inbound flight on the same day.
I first met this guy about two years ago at a mutual friend's business event. We exchanged contact, and I sent him a message, which he didn't respond to.
No fuss...things like that happen.
Fast forward to this year, I was attending a residential program, and they brought out past participants to share their experiences of the program. He was one of them.
When I saw him after the outbound flight, I reintroduced myself, mentioning the mutual friend at whose event we first met.
Interestingly, he said he was going to meet up with our mutual friend during the trip.
At our reunion during the inbound trip, he said he met up with him, after which he said, "We need to collaborate."
We spoke later on after the flight.
But we are not collaborating on anything yet.
Why?
Because there is no need to rush a collaboration. It's better to know more about ourselves and where our lines cross before we create something that we both work together on.
He understands this. So do I.
For now, we stay in each other's space.
2-Space to Become: Time away gives the mind space, space to create something that helps to become.
I had struggled with creating something that would simplify my daily routine for a long time.
It looked like a not-to-be-climbed mountain.
But I solved this during my time away.
It is the value of space.
Space created with time.
A reminder to me that I need to keep creating more time.
Time for space.
Space to create.
Create for a better becoming.
Postscript
May you find the God-given rest in the daily rhythm of life. Amen
If this encouraged you, please share it with a friend who needs it. And if you are not subscribed yet, make sure you are on the list so you do not miss the next one.
Tola Akinsulire
Helping Christians excel at work and in life without the overwhelm but with peace and rest
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