So much more is expected...

There's been a 2 week crusade at our church that started last friday and will end next sabbath. Last night's sermon has really put the tone on the rest of the year. I felt spoken to directly. The pastor is Pastor Randy Skeet, and that man is anointed of God, he has probably read the Bible like 50 times over because he recites it and other good literature as if it is imprinted in his mind. Yesterday the title of the sermons was, "why is the first commandment first?"and the scripture reading was from Gen 25:29-34 (the story of Esau selling his birthright to his younger brother Jacob)

Some lessons that I gathered from the sermon last night are:

• Do not allow temporal "needs" come between  those things that are supposed to be 
• your most valuable possession
• Do not take advantage of others. God takes this personally.
• DO NOT HELP GOD! Just trust Him to do what's best for you.
• Whomever/ whatever directs your life & choices becomes your god/ God (you need to decide carefully)
• When God commissions you to do something, don't give excuses, just DO IT, He will enable you. Ex 4:10-17
• You must not fear that you'll lose something from being obedient to God, if you do lose it, then that thing was not worth having to even begin with.
• The tendencies of the natural heart of the natural heart are downward so you have to make a conscious decision to choose God.
• You need to determine in your heart who your God is , because it is that God that will help you in the time of the end. 

At some point he was speaking of education as he was talk ing about the events of Daniel 1 and the determination of the 4 hebrew boys to hold firm to the teachings of their parents and how much more is expected of me as a child of God, i cannot be mediocre simply because I'm a child of God, there's a certain level of excellence that God EXPECTS.

And so the tone was set.

God will help me. As I remember why the first commandment was made first.

Running vs LIFE

I did my first half marathon yesterday, didn't do it in "marvellous" time but what counts for now is that I finished. 

There are so many lessons that I picked up while running, and as I'd learn, I'd smile to myself and continue running. We started off by arriving somewhat late, if there was nothing we need to do before the starting time it would've been fine but some team members of ours needed to get race numbers from another team members so the task was to help each other find the missing race numbers even after the gun had gone off. About 5 minutes into the race while floating amongst hundreds of people it dawned on me that we're all living life, all on a stairway to one of two places, heaven or hell. We're striving we're all fighting in one way or the other to achieve what we perceive to success. Another very important point that dawned on me is that Jesus knows each of us by name and know everyone of our businesses, to the last detail as if you were the only on the road. 

While running I came across some interesting characters, some of which I had seen at races before this one. The one that caught my attention quite intensely is this white old lady who walks. Now, when I say walks, I don't mean a slow, lazy pace but a very brisk and fast pace, if I'd estimate i'd say she walks at about 6,8 - 7km/hour and she keeps that pace throughout... She doesn't slow down at all... In fact for a while she was ahead of me, then when I regained my energy I zoomed past her, but she made me think of how important it is to be consistent in the good things you decide to do. 

Then there was was this black couple, I'm not sure what their names were, I didn't really ask... All I know is that we were with each other throughout the race, they'd go ahead of me and rest and vice versa... The guy was mostly encouraging the lady. They both taught me how important it is to have an accountability partner or a companion that you can walk this life with, for the benefit of both of you. (They ended up finishing a little ahead of me)

Then finally there was this random guy who just started running with me, as we ran he would tell me bout the people he was running with before he got to me, we kept a good pace but after a while I felt a bit sapped and soaked out having to encourage while I was struggling myself so I left him for the sake of my sanity. He wasn't a bad partner for a while but when he started feeling heavy I had to cut him off. He ended up beating me at the end but that's not the point. I just learned this important unwritten rule that if it's too heavy for you to carry, weigh your options, if it's worth keeping then carry your cross with patience, but if not... Do not hesitate to cut all ties!! It'll do you the world of good, even if it turns out that you made a bad choice... Don't regret! You did what you thought was good for you at the time... So it's fine!!

Here's to remembering the first 21,1km I ever ran!!

Another year!!

IT'S MY BIRTHDAY!!!

24 YEARS OLD, AND NOT EVEN ASHAMED!

Another year has gone by and all I can do is give thanks and celebrate life that I've been gifted with! God has been super gracious to me. 

I believe I've done really well! Looking at my past achievements and the things I've challenged myself to do, just for today I can look at everything and say well done ME!! Tomorrow I'll look at what I can better but today's just time set aside to give myself a pat on the back and just smile about it :-)

THANK YOU GOOGLE!! 

You're definitely making some kind of progress!

I've been trying to lose weight for the longest time but for the first time last year some weight started shedding off but that was purely because i actually put my back into it. Started exercising regularly, eating as clean as I could, in winter i even started running (as in road running and doing some road running races). It was really cool. I was getting so excited, by october I had lost an incredible 16 Kg's.

I believe I started getting somewhat big headed or something but I gained 3 kg's by December and I've been on this same weight since. My goal is to shed 25Kg's this year. I need to finally reach my GOAL weight. I've been seeing so many people I know or people I knew looking great in their "new bodies" and I'm not jealous but i can't help looking at my own body and thinking WHY ME!?!?! I know I have to work a bit harder especially where food is concerned because apparently weight loss is 80% nutrition and 20% exercise so i can't slack not even one bit in that regard!

Just when I was starting to think I'm not getting anywhere with this weight loss thing someone I met in November, at the time of my supposed weight gain told me that she's noticing that I've lost quite a lot of weight since she first met me which was late last year.

This made me think of a very crucial life lesson, and that is: if you're putting in the time and effort, you're definitely making some kind of progress, no matter how small. I remember blogging about the fact that it is all the small victories that make up the big victory, and this theory is so important and true especially if you're as hard on yourself as I tend to be and I just keep having to remind myself that no matter how small the progress is, it still counts as progress!

Here's to making progress!!

getting really close to the mark!

Don't stop dreaming

Don't stop dreaming, ever!! Whoever tells you to stop is trying to trap you in a deep dark dungeon of uselessness and hopelessness. Stay away from people who challenge you not to dream bigger. My dad isn't a man of many friends, in fat when he was young his mother used to warn him about friends and say they weren't good for him and they'd waste his time. Well fortunately my dad didn't pass that teaching down to me but what he did warn me about was having friends who are below peer level in all aspects and facets of life. He always used to say, you must have friends that are peer level and above. I listened to him and now it makes perfect sence. The theory behind the concept is that you need to be around people that you can relate to and people who you can learn from. Of course it doesn't hurt to have a few friends that learn from you but you will soon realise that it is tiring to always be on the teaching end you must constantly be learning and teaching and the stream must constantly flow or else the relationship will tire you out.

What point am I getting to?

Well DO NOT STOP DREAMING! If people don't want to dream with you it's fine, dream alone!! There's absolutely nothing wrong with that!

When the dreams slow down, get inspiration from someone who you believe dreams big. 

CAUTION: DO NOT JUST STOP AT DREAMING THIS WILL GET YOU NOWHERE! MAKE PLANS TO MAKE THESE DREAMS COME TRUE! THIS INTURN CONVERTS YOUR DREAMS INTO SMALLER DOABLE GOALS!

BACK TO REALITY!

I got back to work yesterday!! It was quite busy, not falling over and and tripping over files busy but it was busy nonetheless. So i made some promises to myself at the beginning of the year, also known as New Years' resolutions but i  made sure that at some point I'll follow up on myself and make sure that i'm still doing for MYSELF what i promised to do. I realised that one thing this year, that I am so unfaithful!! especially to myself and that is very bad. The Bible says that you must love your neighbour as yourself, I think by implication God expects us to love ourselves dearly! Hmmmm, well, how do you love someone that you're not even faithful to? I'm not saying this is going to be a selfish year but I am saying that I'm going to keep tabs on myself so that i can be the best person I can be, not only for myself but for the service and love of others!!

Here's to keeping it real!

It's 2014 and I'm falling behind on my blogs!