Equipping young women professionals with young families to find fulfillment, contentment and joy as mothers and home makers without losing sight of who they are as women.

Volume 07, Issue 14: Aim at something

What’s your plan for today? I find that if I don’t aim at something, whether it’s a work day at the office or a weekend, I come to the end the day feeling not very fulfilled. Just because you leave your house to go to work every other morning doesn’t mean you are aiming at something. You could be just going through the motions.

A lifetime goal is not something you leave for some day in the future, it is attained by your daily actions. Dreams rarely come to pass by chance, we make them happen by the things we do day by day.

You need to have something you are aiming at every day. Your goal may change as time goes by, but have some kind of a plan every day. Have a plan for the day for yourself, for you work, for your home, for the people in your life, and for others. Things may not always go as planned, and that’s okay. What counts is that you had an intention for the day.

A goal gives you focus and pushes you to perform. You want to come to the end of your day feeling accomplished, knowing you gave it your all. It doesn’t have to be complicated. Sometimes my plan for the day is to read something, get some exercise going, work on some reports at the office, and play football with the kids. Most Saturdays my plan is to rest all day, and that’s a great plan if you are a hard worker.

Don’t limit yourself, have some big dreams. Do something with your life and leave a legacy for other people. Dreams become reality when we go all the way with God. To see dreams come true, we have to have goals. A dream together with a positive attitude produces a person with unlimited potential – Joyce Meyer.

Every day, you’ve got to shoot at something. Have something you are targeting to accomplish for the day for yourself, for your work, for your family, and for other people in general.

If you get up every day and you’re not shooting at anything, you cut yourself short. At work, lay out what you want to accomplish that day and go for it. Do the same for your personal life, and for the people in your life. This is how you go far in life.

Every day, you’ve got to shoot at something. Some days may be all about work, and no play. Some days may have a little bit of both. Some days may have a lot going, stretching you to the limit, while other days you may plan to be a lot laid back. If I rest all day, it’s because I planned to rest all day, not that I got carried away by the couch or the television when I planned to do something.

Start your day with a plan, then do your best to be true to your plan.

Lillian Chebosi

Volume 07, Issue 13: Experience God in the Valley

One New Year’s Eve at church a lady was giving a testimony and she started by saying that God had been faithful to her that year. I found that quite odd because God is not faithful only sometimes. God is always faithful. Faithfulness is God’s nature, it’s not something He is on and off.

Just because you are facing a challenge doesn’t mean God has taken a break on his faithfulness. If you watch for it, you will experience God in the storm, let alone in everyday life situations – tough or easy. It was just yesterday when I caught God taking care of me when He sent a gracious cop to rescue me from the meanness of a bad cop in traffic.

See God’s faithfulness in the storm the same way you enjoy it on the mountaintop. If you are keen enough, you will catch God taking care of you every day, whether you are in the valley or on the mountaintop.

When you settle the matter of God’s faithfulness, you look out for a testimony in your season of testing. You know that no matter the trial, God will make a way for you. If you trust God, you will come out on the other side of the fire smelling like a rose, instead of smelling of smoke.

Life is a series of ups and downs. We are either in the valley or on the way to the mountaintop, on the mountaintop or on the way to the valley. When you know that God is faithful, you are not moved by the valley nor blinded by the mountaintop.

A friend of mine shared with me devotion I am sharing below from a You Version Bible devotion called Holy Emotions that expresses my point precisely. I couldn’t have said it any better.

God has not stopped being God because you are in the valley. He has not stopped being a God of goodness and kindness because you are either disappointed or have a broken heart.

We would all love to spend our lives on the top of a mountain. We would all love to vigorously breathe in that fresh mountain air and take in the magnificent view. You can see things on the mountaintop that you would never see from the valley. Things take on their rightful perspective from the mountaintop. You are literally on top of the world.  It's a place fit for a king/queen - making you the king/queen of the mountain!

None of us wants to invest in the valley of despair and disappointment. There is an extremely limited vision in the lower places and you are not able to see beyond the next grove of trees. Yet it is in the valley where vegetation grows and flowers bloom. There is no growth on the top of a mountain. You will only find rocks and boulders there. The top of a mountain is no place to put down roots - that happens in the valley below.

It is in the valley where the most magnificent growth of your life will happen, and it is there that the fruit of the Spirit will grow in lush abundance. In the valley where your heart was broken will be the place of your greatest harvest.

God wants our cups to run over not only when life is good and the view is spectacular; He wants our cups to run over in the valley of pain and in the desert of brokenness as well. God sets before you a table of blessing that will heal your broken heart and feed your hungry soul.

God wants us to be men and women who know that disappointment does not have the power to dis-appoint us. He wants you to be a person who snuggles into His presence during times of brokenness and despair. God wants you to be a believer who bears fruit even at the worst moment of life.

Rest assured, on the valley or the mountaintop, God is faithful! He will take care of you. He will turn your disappointments into re-appointments, your brokenness into wholeness, your lack into plenty, your sickness into health, your mourning into dancing, your sorrow into laughter, your thorns into roses. He is faithful!

Lillian Chebosi

Volume 07, Issue 12: Extend Kindness

Happy Mother’s Day to all mothers. Today I came across a Mother’s Day message that resonated with my heart and thought to share part of it to inspire all of us unto kindness, men and women alike. I realized that we always forget other mothers out there on a day like today. May we educate ourselves and not be guilty of this again.

Happy Mother’s Day to every mother that has chosen to love a child born by another woman, whether by choice or circumstantial – loving children not born of your womb, but your heart. Giving them a chance to love and be loved.

Happy Mother’s Day to every woman who has had to deal with loss of a child or a pregnancy. Even though your nest may still be empty, you are a mother too.

Happy Mother’s Day to every waiting woman. Every woman who has waited longingly for it to be their turn. Secretly dealing with the struggles of infertility, negative tests, empty wombs, empty hearts. Happy Mother’s Day because one day God may fill your heart, and your arms. In His time.

Some of such mothers don’t only have to deal with the pain of childlessness. They also have to put up with our negative energy, silent judgement and crushing comments. It is not their fault. No woman has the power to make a child. It is God who gives children. We must know that. Extend some loving kindness and treat them like mothers because they are mothers too.

Every one faces a struggle of sorts sometimes. Extend kindness because you don’t what someone may be going through. May your words bear healing for someone.

Lillian Chebosi

Volume 07, Issue 11: Settle the Issue of Trust

We can certainly look back in our lives and recount instances where God undertook for us. Yet unless we settle the issue of trust, we lapse back to worry and distress whenever a new challenge crops up. It’s time to grow up and trust, because that is what separates us from everyone else when trouble strikes.

Build your trust in God from what you have seen him do for you and others. Don’t be troubled by trouble. You have seen God make a way for you time and time again. When a problem comes, remind yourself of that and remain steadfast in your faith. Daniel had seen God nourish him and his friends supernaturally. He then knew God could take care of him if he continues seeking him against the King’s orders.

Daniel had settled the issue of trust from what he had seen God do for him. He defied the King’s orders and continued to seek God as he had always done. Having withstood a trial before by refusing to eat food offered to idols, he knew he could withstand the consequences of not bowing down to idols. He trusted that God could take care of him even if he ended up in the lion’s den.

Daniel’s friends also had no problem trusting God. They didn’t care whether God would choose to deliver them or let them perish in the hot furnace. That did not matter. What mattered was that they knew in whom they had trusted, and it didn’t matter whether they lived or died. Their conviction was so deep they told the King, “Your threat means nothing to us. If you throw us in the fire, the God we serve can rescue us from your roaring furnace and anything else you might cook up, O king. But even if he doesn’t, it wouldn’t make a bit of difference, O King. We still wouldn’t serve your gods or worship the statute you set up.” It wasn’t a subject for deliberation or discussion, the issue was settled for them. Now, that’s the kind of trust we should aim for.

Note that Daniel’s friends said “God can”, not “God will”. Trusting God is leaving the matter in God’s hands, and being content with how he chooses to answer. Things don’t always turn out the way we want them to, but God makes all things work together for good for those who love him.

David wrote that all his years on earth, he had never seen the righteous forsaken. So why do we fret when we should be knowing this? Unless these are just words and not revelation for us. These words are true. I have faced different troubles over time, but not once has any trouble overtaken me. I don’t always get what I think I want, but God makes all things work together for good.

God has a track record of keeping his word. Just like you, I have seen God do amazing things – making a way, working miracles, keeping promises, rescuing, delivering, protecting, healing, mending, restoring, promoting. Oh, I wish I had a wall of remembrance for answered prayers and all, but I keep records on my journals. We may face many troubles, but God has promised to deliver us from them all, if we trust him.

I have come to appreciate that I am not smart enough to run my life. So I leave it to the one who knows all things, and enjoy my life while God works on whatever problem I may be facing. Worrying implies that if you think hard and long enough, you will figure out how to solve your problem. You settle the issue of trust when you realize you are not smart enough to solve your problems.

Where do you see your situation taking you? Does it look completely hopeless? God is not God only in the not-so-difficult situations. God is God in small and big challenges alike. A friend of mine recently told me something life changing. She said, “You trust God for a million shillings the same way you trust him for a hundred shillings”. This applies in every situation in life. Don’t pick and choose what God can or cannot do. He is God.

Call back on what God has done for you and seen you through in the past and choose to trust him completely. It doesn’t matter how complex your situation is. Nothing could possibly be too big or too small for God. Settle the issue of trust once and for all, and turn your back on worry.

Lillian Chebosi

Volume 07, Issue 10: Trust God to Take Care of You

When King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon declared war on Jerusalem and besieged the city, he took with him some Israelites from the royal family and nobility. These were young men who were healthy and handsome, intelligent and well-educated, good prospects for leadership positions in his government. The King intended to indoctrinate them in the Babylonian language and the lore of magic and fortunetelling.

Daniel and his three friends were among those selected. The King ordered that they be served from the same menu as the royal table – the best food, the finest wine. After three years of training, they would be given positions in the king’s court.

Daniel and his friends gave up the opportunity to enjoy the delicacies of the palace for the sake of honouring God. They requested to be exempt from the royal diet. Some of us can barely sacrifice regular food for one day to draw near to God.

Daniel trusted that if he sacrificed the king’s food, the best of the best in the land, God would see to it that he and his friends wind up stronger, healthier, and better looking than those who took the land’s best.

How do you trust God to take care of you like that? The king offered them the best so they could turn out healthy and strong, fit for his service. But determined to not defile themselves, Daniel and his friends quietly turned it down.

God takes care of his. At the end of the training, the Bible records that Daniel and his friends looked better and more robust than all the other young men who ate from the royal menu.

Our own understanding says ‘no way’. There’s no way a meal of vegetables and water for three years could possibly beat a daily royal feast to turn out stronger and healthier. But God nourished Daniel and his friends supernaturally. They turned out far superior than the rest of the young men in training with them.

Surely God is able to do immeasurably above and beyond what we could dare think or imagine. In addition to nourishing them physically, God gave these four young men knowledge and skill in both books and life. When the King interviewed them at the end of the training, he found them far superior to all the other young men. None were a match for Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego.

The Bible records that Daniel’s wisdom was ten times better than that of all the magicians and enchanters in the kingdom put together; ten times better than all the experts put together. Imagine that!

That’s the kind of God we serve. May this revelation build our faith to know that we can do all things, and have all that God has destined us to do and have. And why is that? Because we are the righteousness of God. We have right standing with God; not because we do everything right, but because we love him and we are in Christ. We have been justified and made right with God by the blood of the Lamb.

I am persuaded that there’s no other way but to trust God in all things. Let us learn to have our first response to challenges be ‘I trust God’, not anxiety and complaining. Daniel and his friends were God-fearing men. They had already been captured from home and taken captive into a foreign land, yet they trusted God. They trusted God to take care of them even in captivity.

It was God's idea to deliver the children of Israel from Egypt. That rescue plan wasn't a mass murder mission. God had a good plan for them - freedom and prosperity. He didn't deliver them from the tyranny of Egypt and across the red sea only to have them die of thirst or starve to death or perish by the sword of their enemies on the way home. Yet they didn't trust him to take care of their needs for water and food, and to defeat their enemies on the way. Whenever they faced a challenge, they responded by complaining. They failed every test. Determine to pass the tests you face in life by responding with trust and praise.

Trust God when things are going well, and when things are not going so well. Trust God on the mountain top, and trust God in the valley. Many times we ask God ‘why?’ when faced with problems. Daniel and his friends could have doubted God for letting them get captured along with sinners. God didn’t exempt them from that trouble and humiliation. But they trusted him. Instead of complaining, they trusted God, and God took care of them.

The righteous are as bold as a lion. Anything God has said you can have for his sake and for the sake of his Kingdom, you should not take no for an answer – Joyce Meyer. Don’t compromise to get ahead. Trust God to take care of you. No matter your circumstances, choose to trust God.

Trust God from the bottom of your heart; don’t try to figure out everything on your own. Listen for God’s voice in everything you do, everywhere you go; he’s the one who will keep you on track.

Lillian Chebosi