Welcome to the July 25th 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
I had a bit going in my head.
On one side I think about the future of my kids, the kind of parent I am.
Am I bringing out the best in them? Will I help them become the best in life and faith? Am I training enough for the challenges they will face?
On another hand, I am thinking about my marriage. Am I doing my best and making my wife the best she can be?
Still on another hand, I am thinking about my professional career. Where am I going to end? How can do more in the job I am on? How can I bring my Christian experience to play? What should the future look like?
And not forgetting another hand, am I doing the best I should be doing with the opportunity to train people to live their Christian faith experience better in everyday life?
A lot of questions.
I don't have all the answers.
But I remind myself of the firm conviction that if I do the best in the next thing in front of me, God will work everything out for His will.
I may not be able to sort out the big picture now.
But if I add the right brush-stroke on the canvas every day, I will get a masterpiece worthy of the Master's praise.
That's the only thing I can aim for now
Things I Learnt
1- Marriage Journeys Highs & Lows: Things got personal this week with a lady that I had been dealing professionally with for almost 4 months.
As we talked, she scrolled through her phone gallery to show me the picture of her 6-year-old daughter. My eyes caught a glimpse of food pictures and I remarked casually that "oh, you take pictures of your meals".
She responded that it's her proof for the lawyers. Her next words melted my heart.
"I am going through a difficult divorce and my husband sends pictures of the food I serve him to the lawyer. So, I take pictures to have my proof", she said matter-of-factly.
They still live in the same house - the husband stayed on the first floor while she and the kids stayed on the second & third floor.
I asked her if she saw a way for them to reconcile - she said she didn't.
On the same day, I was speaking with a younger friend. We had got to know each other about 2-3 years ago. He had asked if I could meet with him once a month to discuss life issues with him. We covered anything he wanted.
During our conversation last month, he had felt that he was not devoting the needed attention to his professional dreams. He didn't want the regret of not fulfilling the dreams he had in mind for himself.
The only problem I saw was that he was putting his dream ahead of his marriage. I told him the hierarchy of commitments that God had given him requires him to put his marriage ahead of his professional dreams.
He should not give the time for his marriage to his professional dreams.
During our meeting this week, he told me about how he had adjusted his calendar to give attention to his wife.
Guess what, he was still crushing it with the things he wanted to do. He even asked me for advice if he did not have too much on his plate.
My simple advice - you adjust your commitments based on the season of life you find yourself and your time requirements to the most important things in life. Things like marriage, parenting, spiritual growth, emotional balance, and physical health should rank higher than any external commitments.
It was a tale of 2 marriages. One was hitting on the rocks; the other was adjusting its sail to avoid the rocks.
I will continue praying for the first one. God can still work a miracle if they are willing.
2- Giving the Brain a slow-down: A few weeks back, I discovered that my brain was losing its "pausing or pacing" ability.
For example, I listened more to audiobooks which I could speed up the reading pace.
So, I decided to re-teach my brain to slow down.
I went back to reading hardcopy books. I read eBooks but they were not doing the slowing down for me.
Every night before I go to bed, I try to complete a chapter of a book I'm reading.
My brain is learning to slow down and think as I read line by line, turn the page, bring out a pen to mark, make notes
I missed a few days and went back to it this week.
I am enjoying re-discovering a slower pace of learning again.
I am still doing my usual practices of audiobook learning but it is good to let the brain find a new rhythm.
Postscript
May the concerns about what will happen in the future not steal your joy and keep you from enjoying the present. May your joy stem from hope in God's power to work everything out for good on behalf of those that love Him. Amen
Tata,
Tola
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