SELF ENCOURAGEMENT WORKS

By Temiville

2011 came with so much excitement. Everyone at the Church service seemed so jubilant and ecstatic. The New Year was now here with us! Thank you Lord!

Later on that Saturday, the 1st of January, a friend and I were having a discussion about how 2011 meant we were now officially getting 'old'. I started the whole moaning episode but she was quick to let me know I had nothing to worry about since she was turning 30. That immediately kept me mute.

There are so many times when we go about trading stories of woes with our friends and basically, whoever has the saddest tale 'wins'. This has habitually turned our way of encouraging ourselves. However, what does the Bible say about encouragement? I don't think merchandizing sad stories does anything to help soothe our pains in any way, what it only enables us to achieve is enormous pity that only adds more to our worries. Let's observe the story of David in 1 Samuel 30 and see exactly how he handled discouragement with the Word.

There was a time David's family and city (Ziklag) were raided by the Amelekites. He lost everything. His two wives were taken captive and even his men considered stoning him in their anger because their families were taken away too. The Bible says David wept until he could weep no more. So what did he do thereafter? Did he swap tales of woe? Did he complain? Did he throw a tantrum and shore up discouragement with unconvincing excuses? No! He encouraged himself in the Lord, 1 Samuel 30:6. He leaned on God for wisdom on how to handle the situation and God indeed came through for him, which consequently made David to end up recovering ALL that had been carted by the Amelekites.

When discouragement comes, we have to remember the source. It is always from the devil. Never will God send discouragement our way. 'Never' have I said! When we trust in God, we run to Him for help. We remember His promise that the thoughts He has towards you are plans of good and not of evil to give you an expected end. This means that in the journey of life, there might be storms but we know that all things are working together for our good. This realisation makes us rest in the Lord and in His promises, knowing that He is not a man that should ever lie.

Discouragement is a sign of lack of faith in God. It only shows that we are moved by the things that we see which goes against what II Corinthians 5:7 tells us (we walk by faith and not by sight). Whenever depression sets in, we need to strengthen our faith in God. Whilst it is okay to feel sad and cry, we have to learn to snap out of it.

How exactly do we build our faith? Paul, in Romans 10:17, stated that: "faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God". We build our faith, therefore, by diving into God's word. We refer to His promises which are able to build us up. We hold on to them and from there, our faith is made strong. That way, we can easily be built up. I can easily give numerous instances of where this has worked for me. Over and over again, I realise that holding on to the Word of God yields great fruits.

Some of the promises that keep me going are:

·         Jeremiah 29:1:- For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.

·         Isaiah 55:12:- For ye shall go out with joy, and be led forth with peace: the mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap [their] hands.

·         Psalm 23:6:- Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever.

Which ones encourage you the most?

No matter where discouragement seems to be taking a heavy toll on you, you need to remember that God's Words are yea and amen and always stand sure. Yours could come from looking for a job, seeking for direction in one area or the other, needing healing for a family member or even yourself. Whatever the case is, I pray you always have the strength to keep on holding onto God's promises which can never fail even as we have just started this New Year.

God bless you.

Temiville.xoxo

 

·         Temitayo is a fellow blogger who blogs about the various situations that have come to define who humans are and how she, when faced with some of those circumstances, tends to tackle them. One thing about the way she blogs is not in the regularity of her creative posts, it is with the way she mixes her personal experiences with whatsoever theory she is expounding to her numerous readers that attracts attention - That's just why I subscribed to her blog. She muses under the name Temiville on a blog called Caramel Latte Addict.

 

 

CHANGING A HABIT

Habits are repeated actions over a period of time, it is a routine carried out on an everyday basis.
According to an online encyclopedia, Wikipedia;
“Habits are automatic routines of behaviour that are repeated regularly without thinking. They are learned, not instinctive, human behaviours that occur automatically, without the explicit contemporaneous intention of the person.”
From the fact stated above, it is obvious that habit cannot be formed without the helping hand of its possessor. The intention of whoever possesses a habit is sought through the repetition of such habit. It is never instinctive or inborn, it is not learned overnight.
It is medically proven that whenever a behavioural pattern is performed, neurological connections are built, the more it is repeated, the stronger the neurological connections become, and the harder it (habit) is to drop. This is why we have to be careful on what build our strong neurological connection on.
In spite of our determination to dump a habit, it reoccurs so often to our consternation. The reason why the wall of our determination to do away with a habit keeps crumbling on us is because we have always failed to carefully map out a step-by-step approach to it.
The following steps are therefore necessary to adhere to in changing a habit.

CLARITY: You cannot change a habit you do not know. An enemy can only be attacked when it is properly identified. Before you can overcome a habit, clearly pinpoint the habit you will like to change and the good one which is to replace it. This step is very important because it is the foundational process.

WHY: A thing will always fail when it is not backed up with strong reasons. Before you got fed up with a habit, there must have been a reason. Your reasons (WHYs) for wanting to change a habit can be to prevent something bad from happening, to help achieve success and victory, or to help against facing a future embarrassment. Your reasons should also include what the good habit you intend to change to will do, the impact it will have in your life and on a situation. In the adventure of changing a habit, difficulties abound; only your strong reasons will sustain your determination and drive. Every habit is not unchangeable when will cite as much reasons as it (bad habit) has to stay to put it away.

FUNCTION AND REPLACEMENT: The important thing to note about a habit is that it is not formed or cultivated just because we want it; it is formed to satisfy some functions and needs. A good or bad habit is repeated to serve a purpose. For example, a person who hisses every time he gets angry or irritated must have developed the habit of hissing to serve as an outlet to his anger or distaste for something. It will be very difficult for the person to change such habit without identifying the function it performs and replacing it with a good habit that fits well into the same function. In finding a proper solution, the habit of hissing could be substituted with taking some cups of water to relieve the hold of anger whenever the person is consumed with anger. Please be realistic when looking for what to replace your habit with, so that your aspiration of replacing an unwanted or bad habit will be a daydream. It will too foolhardy for a person who is kleptomaniac by habit to tie the replacement of his bad habit to when he steals the amount that would make him comfortable. He may never see the end of the habit. Such replacement is unreasonable and impractical

SET THE RULES: Make it hard on yourself to return to your old habit again. Whenever the strong urge to return to it comes, try your possible best to clear it off your mind by engaging yourself in a breath-taking activity that won’t give you the time of nursing the thought of having the old habit in your mind. Thought has the potency of waking up an old or bad habit when it is not stifled. Also, make you life more interesting by participating in activities that are entertaining; like reciting to yourself the poem you composed on the consequences of having a bad habit. Old habit can rear it head again during the time of boredom and idleness. Always fill your mind with materials and thought that will only invigorate and whet your thirst for having a good or desired habit.

SELF-MOTIVATION AND REWARD: Bringing to memory of how you succeeded in doing away with a habit for some days can be self-motivating. Appreciate the initial gesture you took at destroying a habit. Motivate yourself by saying: ‘if I could muster enough power to put it (unwanted habit) away from being till this time, I will always have the power to bring it ti its total destruction. Reward yourself by giving yourself a special treat. If you are a person that loves bread and beans as a meal for example, cook a pot-full of it to make yourself happy.

A habit proves difficult to dump when it is borne at of what we love doing; it gives us every reason to stay and feeds on our weaknesses. A wise word says; ‘No one has ever drown in his own sweat.’ You cannot keep tilling a field of changing a habit by turning it over in your mind, you need an effort. As days go by without the repetition of a habit, the momentum of the habit becomes weaker. Don’t be discouraged, whenever the habit seems too chronic for you to bear; never fail to seek the help of God, but always remember that it is also your responsibility to seek ways of changing an unwanted habit. Have it also that you are a human with his falling, and not an angel. Do not be discouraged. Your habit, no matter how used you are to it, is changeable!

It Doesn’t Matter… (Individual Issue)

“It doesn’t matter if I play a fast one on that supervisor in the exam hall…”
“It doesn’t matter if I ‘help’ (though negative) myself as heaven helps those who helped themselves”.
“It doesn’t matter if I do it the other way round and have it my way”.
“It doesn’t matter if I employ the aid of academic machineries during the forthcoming examination”.

These are the words you don’t have to strain the pinna of your ear to be able to collect their sound waves, provided you can chat up anyone who doesn’t handle his responsibility as a matter of importance in achieving his set goal(s). It would always make one wonder at the way people tend to watch their lives with indifference, while it gradually slip into self induced abyss, without making an effort to somewhat save it. ‘It doesn’t matter…’ comes into use and become very handy to quickly resort to when facing a crisis, in order to give a non-commensurable pats to ourselves. Would it not be better if we make a public show of our inadequacies and get the required direction from those that have travelled the journey before?

It matters a lot to discontinue the use of the phrase “It doesn’t matter…” in every of our conducts and activities. This word would always only bring to your memory others that have failed due to their resignation in the face of the difficulty involved in their task. It would never remind you of people who kept trudging the same mountain you are climbing now without sloughing off their responsibilities and finally ascended into victory. “It doesn’t matter…” is invariably resonated with stories of woe, failure, weakness and not of success. A common word says: ‘What you do not fight and struggle for, you don’t get’. It is only a person who has made up his mind about pulling out of an activity that gets FAILURE as his identity tag.

We have become so dilettante in our approach to almost all things that whenever we are stalked in a quandary for sometime, we easily make references to a story to support why our lackadaisical attitude, which equaled to poor result, shouldn’t matter. Whoever doesn’t put every little and tit-bit of details into consideration will never matter in his society and to the people around him. It is time we made every thing matter in our lives, so that we don’t become castaways of our self destroyed ship - everything in life will always matter. When a thing ceases to matter, it becomes a matter of rottenness and extinction. We cannot afford losing time and resources by stashing away our quart into a pint pot. Every hand must tenaciously hold onto his tool of social and personal revival, as we cannot make a ‘fried egg’ without breaking an egg. All, for success sake, will always matter!

YOU CAN INSPIRE!

The reason why we have always been lax with everything we do cannot be unconnected with the fact that we fail to understand that on our shoulders are responsibilities that are not only ours. Killing people and generations are not only done physically. We dent others’ future with so much sorrow through the negative attitude we have towards our responsibilities. Sometimes we abdicate it, and at times, we carry it out shabbily with lackluster.
Fame do not make men, men’s positive attitude to responsibility make fame for them. Inspiration in its simple meaning means the sudden stimulation of the human mind that helps to develop ideas while tackling various challenges in life. What inspiration does to us is to give us the enthusiasm and fervour that the challenges we are facing requires. Iron does not sharpen iron when facing a task that needs to be tackled with rare dexterity. You can not be heart saddened and expect creativity to flow. All you ever need is what will keep you over the situation – inspiration is it! Inspiration imbues in you the joy that would take you to the level of skillfulness needed to accomplish a task. No human life on earth has been left untouched by the potency of inspiration. Before inspiration, comes the longing to inspire others. In the process of affecting others, inspiration sprouts up.
Things that we get inspiration from today were things done by people who had had us in mind during the time they were putting their crafts to work. It would be going against the rule of the thump if are not preparing to get others inspired through the inspiration we got from some other things or people. To be able to inspire others, we must be ready to accept responsibility for our actions and inactions.” The opportunity to inspire others comes but we do not notice it. It is almost all the time drabbed with taking responsibilities” (Paraphrase). We cannot keep searching and seeking inspiration from others and things that they have created without refining it with our adroitness and redistributing it to others that need it. A food soon becomes poisonous when its waste content is not passed out through excreta. Inspiration is better got and maximally used when it is given as inspiration to those that stand on our shoulders to see what they would not have seen, had they not stood on us.
We can all inspire when we realize that our success and achievements will not only bring encomiums and accolades to us alone, but also to those that would take cue from it and re-route their steps by emulating our encouraging deeds
A maxim reads: “The lantern hung on our window posts is not only to give light to our backyards; it is also to give hope to the hopeless traveler; that he has not lost his path yet.”
You too can inspire!