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 13, Issue 09: Back To Work, Gladly

Return to work thoughts for many people tend to be filled with dread. I admit often feeling that way some years ago. But now, as my return to work day draws near, I don't have that sunk feeling when I think of going back to work. It's okay. And this time around, the long break has afforded me the opportunity to see my days with a different lense. I get to have my special mornings still, then enjoy work after my leisurely breakfast.

To some extent, my days are similar, whether I am working or on vacation. The mornings and evenings are the same. The only difference is the time between breakfast and dinner, I am either working on my computer or doing a myriad of things, or doing nothing mostly around the house. Whichever of the two I am engaged in, my mind and body are in a relaxed state.

I don't find my job a pain. It is hard and demanding, but I am glad to do it. I now look at my days as a loop. I get to do different things with my work day. I get to spend time with God at the crack of dawn, do a workout, go out for a walk, read a book, write, have a leisurely breakfast, work on my computer, and sit down to dinner with my family. What's not to love? I love my work days the same way that I love my off days. They both serve a purpose. I am thankful for both.

I am grateful to have a job to go back to. A job that I love and enjoy doing. If you ever dread going back to work, consider the people who don't have a job to go back to at the start of the year. Think of all the people who are yet to land a job after graduating from college. And all the people whose jobs ended and haven't found other jobs yet. It is a blessing to have a job to go back to after the holidays.

For His Glory,

Lillian Chebosi

Volume 13, Issue 08: Make The Drastic Change

Just like children, we too can make drastic changes on the spot. While out for my prayer walk this morning, my mind settled on a bad habit I have had for awhile that needed changing. I knew it was a lousy habit and I wanted to drop it, but I had never seriously considered dropping it, until this morning.

In that moment as I prayed, I repented the bad habit, and of course beat myself up for not being smart enough to see it for what it was all this time. But the best part is that I made a concrete decision to replace it with a good habit, which conveniently came to mind right away.

As I write this, now I see what that was all about. It was the Holy Spirit convicting me of a bad habit, and illuminating for me a way out. How wonderful the Lord is to us. He loves us so well, he doesn't want us to miss out on the abundant life he has for us on account of misfits in our makeup. I am so grateful for this today.

I was so delighted when it dawned on me at that moment that I can make a drastic change on the matter. I had lived one way for a time, and now I take a totally different route on the matter. Whenever I come in contact with something for which I used to entertain negative thoughts about the person responsible for the mess, I now make a positive declaration about the person instead.

It's not enough to build good habits. We must endeavor to drop bad ones too, just as urgently. Ask the Lord to illuminate for you a habit that you are entertaining that is not good for you. Then pray for grace to drop it and to immediately replace it with a good habit to avoid a relapse.

For His Glory,

Lillian Chebosi

Volume 13, Issue 07: Attack The Sloppy

One of the good things I like about taking a lot of time off work in the first month of the year is that it affords me a lot of time for reflection, including unintended reflection. While at Church last Sunday before the service, instead of participating in the pre-service prayer session, I found myself talking to myself and to God about the things I was unhappy with.

This resulted from the state of mind I was in, having hustled to get myself and the kids out of the house for the before service prayer session at my church. The kids not being ready when I was ready to go wasn't the main problem. The main problem was that I wasn't ready to leave until almost half an hour after the time I wanted to leave for church.

I was unhappy with my weekend mornings being sloppy. I have a good idea of how I want my weekend mornings to go. But lately, it's been rather sloppy. It's like my race for efficient mornings ends on Friday, leaving the weekend to fend for itself.

I am not satisfied with winning the morning only during the week days. I want wins all week long. For me, winning the morning on the weekends is really important because it's the time I get to rest and recover from the week. With lack of efficiency, I end up feeling cheated when tasks excessively outrun their time.

So, I am taking back my weekend mornings from the "sloppiness workshop." I must have efficient mornings all week long. Five days out of seven is not good enough. I want all of it. After all, seventy percent success is not really success, is it? If you are already doing so well with your routines, don't let a few things drag you down. Attack the sloppy.

For His Glory,

Lillian Chebosi

Volume 13, Issue 06: Drastic Changes

As parents, we sometimes think that our growing children are not learning from us. Or that they are not grown enough to be capable of making drastic adjustments for the immediate success of a new phase of their lives. This can be such an incorrect assessment of our young people. And they often prove us wrong.

The last morning of their school vacation, children may struggle to wake up by mid morning. But when you wake them up at the crack of dawn the very next day to go to school, they get out of bed without a hustle. Isn't that just amazing!

Another drastic shift I noted yesterday is how during the school vacation, my teen son was on his phone almost every waking hour he was in the house. But the night before schools opened, he handed in his phone for storage for the week and hasn't looked back.

I think children may have a higher capacity for making drastic changes on the spot than adults. They may be hooked to their phones or other gadgets for a season but completely wean themselves out of them when required of them in another season.

Among other things, children can come from staying up late and sleeping in all morning to going to bed early and rising early at the drop of a button. My son came from not touching a text book all holiday long to getting started on his study program the very first evening of resuming school. I thought he would ease into things, maybe show a few withdrawal symptoms after living one way for two months. I am glad he proved me wrong.

There's a lot that we can learn from the drastic positive changes we see our children make from time to time. When we have done our part to instill in them wisdom and raise them well, we can trust that they will do the right thing if they are not bent on rebellion. We can rest assured that they have learnt from us and will stay with their training, or come back to their training if they stray for a time.

More importantly for us, we can know that we too can make drastic changes to improve our situations in life. We can think one way today and a totally different way the next day. We could have lived a certain way last year but make a complete overhaul for the better this year. Like our kids, we too can make drastic changes for the better this year.

For His Glory,

Lillian Chebosi

Volume 13, Issue 05: Fresh Fire

There's always room for improvement in life, no matter how good one is at something. Stumbling into a new idea or a new app for tracking your habits can just be the trigger for setting the stage for improvement. Thanks to a habits App I found and downloaded on my phone a few days ago, I am excited to raise my game in all my habits this year.

Any new year should not be treated as business as usual. Even if there's no need to introduce new things, there has to be new tweaks, or new methods of doing the things you are already doing that can bring improvement to your life.

This early in the year is a good time to be on the lookout for new ideas, new methods, and new tweaks to your habits and routines. I have found this to bring new excitement and determination to go after my goals. It's the fresh fire that I didn't even know I needed.

For His Glory,

Lillian Chebosi