A Lady Fit for a King

So everyone in the UK's been speculating and talking about the Royal wedding scheduled for next April between Prince William and Kate Middleton. The media's been buzzing about the future Queen. What will she wear? Is she going to get a lovely reception in the family or a frosty one as some of the previous brides who have joined the Royal family? Well only time will tell. I am sure that she will look dashing on her wedding day and I'm sure they will not spare anything in making sure that she will be adorned in the best bling and satin the world has to offer. I won't go into the technical logistics of where the £10 million or so required for the wedding will come from, it's a topic for another day.

Needless to say, once the wedding is over and life as the wife of a very important man starts, a huge responsibility will await Kate. If you are fortunate enough to marry a future King, you would have to get your act together, if it wasn't already together.

I was thinking about that in relation to all my girls in waiting. I know lots of Miss Independents all waiting for the day their Prince will show up and whisk them into a wonderful future. It's tiring and sometimes frustrating business waiting for "the One". Endless prayers, fasting, reading books, listening to Cd's, attending Singles Conferences...and so on. After a while, you're probably thinking for how long mhen, I can't take this stuff anymore. It may get hard and lonely at times but hang in there, God will surprise you when you least expect it...

In the meantime, I leave you with these thoughts...What have you done to prepare for your future King, oh thou fair woman of God?

Making your House a Home: A man can buy a massive house on top of a hill but only his wife can make it a home. But you can only do that if you know how to manage a home. Despite your busy schedule develop a habit of maintaining some kind of order in your home. Think of creative ways to enhance the place where you live. It doesn't have to be expensive, just make sure it looks good. Read home magazines, learn all you can from other people. Also make the hoover and duster your best friends. A tidy, clean home goes a long way in creating order in your lives. If you can't even take care of a one bedroom apartment now on your own, why should God entrust you with a man and a mansion?

Sacrificing and giving a Little : Has someone ever asked you for something? You know like the last tiny piece of cake and you want it badly. Would you give them the last bit or eat it yourself? Only you know the answer to that. Relationships require growing up big time. It's not all about me, myself and my beautiful I. No, I have to consider the other person. Think about how you act when you don't get your way? You may not be in a relationship right now but how do you handle yourself in situations where you're trying to decide something as a group and you suggest something but people ignore your suggestion and go with someone else's. Do you just shrug it off or do you make a big deal out of it and try to force your point home? If you always want to be right and always want to be the one to win and get your way, you need to start praying and asking God to help you to change your attitude. Learn how to walk in love and put other people before yourself. True Love always gives. That's why the bible says, "God so loved the world that he gave his Son".

Submission in a Feminist Society: These days most people are very much aware of their rights to this and their rights to that. I'm all for rights but I still believe that Godly women should submit to the man that God places in their lives as their husband. Yes, the Queen has to submit to the King, period.
Of course you can make suggestions and have your say but ultimately the man should make the final judgement call because he is answerable to God for what happens in your family. And guess what, you start learning how to submit waaaayyyy before you even get married. God will watch how you submit to different levels of authority such as your parents, church, the law of the land and so on. So are we really ready to submit?

Learn the Art of Effective Communication:  Communicate well with people around you coz this is the best practice before you get hitched. Always say what you mean. Do not assume that people know what you're thinking if you're not willing to vocalise it. You sometimes hear women saying about their partners, "I thought he would do x,y,z." C'mon gals, cut him some slack, if you want him to do something, tell him. It's not just going to happen because you expect it. In a nutshell, men are not mind readers, even though we would like to believe they are...

So maybe you've mastered all the four things above, good on you, I'm sure your time is nearer, keep trusting God and enjoy where you are now. There's more on this topic which I may put in another blog post in the future but in the mean time, I pray that God would mould all the Wonderful Women in Waiting to be Wise, Lovely Ladies worthy of the King that God is sending their way....

Be blessed,

Gobble till you Wobble...

Even though we don't officially celebrate Thanksgiving in the UK and even though I do give thanks every living day of my life, I'm gonna use this day to just give props to my heavenly Father and a few other peeps.

Thanks to the Lord above for
my mum who is a beautiful and special Queen even though she doesn't live in Buckingham palace;
my loving family and friends, I love 'em all dearly, especially my best friend who has made life such a joy...u know yourself, mwaah.

Thank u Lord for answering my biggest prayer request which I had on my heart for the last three years...you could have granted my request ages ago, but you chose to make me wait and I thank you for that wait because I grew and became strong through all the tears, the questions I lobbied at you and the tantrums I made you put up with...lol. At the end of it all so many wonderful things were birthed in my life, one of which was this blog...

Talking about the blog, I wanna say a big shout out and thank you to all of you my wonderful blog readers, for taking time to come and read the rants and musings in my corner and I hope something has at some point blessed you, touched your heart or made you laugh, at the every least.

Special thank you to Mbini who was the first person to break the ice and comment on this blog, thanks for that first ever comment you made and all your wonderful comments that keep coming. Also a big thank you to the following blogger babes: Rainjoy, Blessing, Maid of Heart, Miss Drammani and Mbini for being the Top 5 peeps that have commented on my blog on a regular basis. U guys rock mhen!

I'm also grateful to the following people for taking time to read my blog and commenting as well:  

Sulthana, Jaycee, TriBe, Waiki, Irene U, Patience, Simingaphi, Tamika,  Olufemi, Cathy, Busi K, Michelle C,  Treasured1, Favoured Girl, Amy S, Douglas D, Laura,  Shawn, Tisha, Sithenjisiwe, blackgold, Chido, Able Abe, doll,  Braids, Patrina, ChizzyD, oluSimeon, Seshe J and all the various Anonymous peeps. Keep showing the love guys. xoxo

Even if you have never commented...I suppose your "silence is golden"...lol, but seriously thank you for stopping by as well... Also last but not the least, thanks to Opeyemi for the tips you gave me and Mugove for your support with the whole blogging experience.

 Till the next blog post, happy thanksgiving y'all, especially my frenz Americana across the pond...

xoxo


P.S Due to other commitments I may not be able to blog regularly for a while but do come and indulge in all the previous great posts until I make a proper comeback.

The Cracked Pot

A water bearer in India had two large pots, one hung on each end of a pole, which he carried across his neck.

One of the pots had a crack in it. While the other pot was perfect, and always delivered a full portion of water at the end of the long walk from the stream to the master's house, the cracked pot arrived only half full.

For a full two years this went on daily, with the bearer delivering only one and a half pots full of water in his master's house.

The perfect pot was proud of its accomplishments, perfect to the end for which it was made. But the poor cracked pot was ashamed of its own imperfection, and miserable that it was able to accomplish only half of what it had been made to do.

After two years of what it perceived to be a bitter failure, it spoke to the water bearer one day by the stream: "I am ashamed of myself, and I want to apologize to you."

Why?" asked the bearer. "What are you ashamed of?"

"I have been able, for these past two years, to deliver only half my load because this crack in my side causes water to leak out all the way back to your master's house. Because of my flaws, you have to do all of this work, and you don't get full value from your efforts," the pot said.

The water bearer felt sorry for the old cracked pot, and in his compassion he said, "As we return to the master's house, I want you to notice the beautiful flowers along the path."

Indeed, as they went up the hill, the old cracked pot took notice of the sun warming the beautiful wild flowers on the side of the path, and this cheered it some.

But at the end of the trail, it still felt bad because it had leaked out half its load, and so again it apologized to the bearer for its failure.

The bearer said to the pot, "Did you notice that there were flowers only on your side of the path, but not on the other pot's side?

“That's because I have always known about your flaw, and I took advantage of it. I planted flower seeds on your side of the path, and every day while we walk back from the stream, you've watered them.

“For two years I have been able to pick these beautiful flowers to decorate my master's table. Without you being just the way you are, he would not have this beauty to grace his house."
Anonymous

Moral: Each of us has our own unique flaws. We're all cracked pots.

But it's the cracks and flaws we each have that make our lives together so very interesting and rewarding. We've just got to take each person for what they are, and look for the good in them.

There's a lot of good out there.
There is a lot of good in us!
Blessed are the flexible, for they shall not be bent out of shape.
Remember to appreciate all the different people in your life!

Thank you to the cracked pots in my life.
You have made life more interesting and beautiful.

I thought I'd share this coz it's such a beautiful and inspiring story and hopefully it will encourage someone...

Have an amazing week,

A Life Lesson from The Apprentice

I'm not a big fan of Reality Shows, in fact I dislike most of them because they tend to go on and on about nothing in particular. I do however like 3 in particular, Come Dine With Me (coz I love food and you get to learn how to cook interesting stuff), Dragon's Den (I'm always amazed at all those intriguing inventions and ideas...and the ones that are not so great) and also The Apprentice(UK).

The other week on the The Apprentice(UK) a lady was ousted from the show after a dramatic showdown in the boardroom. She was given a chance to say something and redeem herself and had she been clever she would have used that chance to highlight her strengths and why she should not be fired. She chose to play dirty. She started going on about the other two candidates, how useless and incompetent they were and how Sir Alan should do the right thing and fire them. Sir Alan then pointed out to her that she was out of bounds. The only person who was allowed to judge the contestants and make the final call was Sir Alan himself. Because she tried to operate out of her jurisdiction, she ended up taking the cab home even though she had been a strong candidate herself.

As Christians we are meant to live our lives without being judgemental. Yes, people around us may be doing one wrong thing or the other, but it doesn't give us the right to judge and pronounce verdicts.
Yes, so that girl in church has a stud ring on her tongue and that other guy wears jeans that sag showing part of his Calvin Klein boxers, or that other woman smokes as soon as she leaves church or that man has a few beers on Saturday night before coming to church the next day...ohhhh how so unchristian like...we tend to think...

We may not agree with certain things but let's not judge and decide that these people are doomed and cannot be sincere in their walk with the Lord, for we don't know their hearts, only God does. Let us just love people and leave God to convict and deal with their "issues" which we may feel do not measure up to our standards.

The thing is if you tell someone not to do something and they stop because you told them to and not because of any conviction of their own, they are likely to keep going back to it. But if the Spirit of God grabs hold of them and gives them a revelation about the wrong thing they are doing, they are likely to stop for good.

You may feel led to advise and correct someone who may be erring (which the bible says to do in certain cases where someone is going against the word of God) but do so tactfully, in private and with love. Do not condemn them and decide their fate because we ourselves are not perfect and are living by God's wonderful grace. Let he who has no sin cast the first stone.

Jesus said in Matthew 7:1-5 
"Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye."

Blessings to ya'll

Mingling with the Rich and Famous... (I wish)

Hello peeps, hope you've been cool. You know what, I never did get round to telling you something interesting that happened about three weeks ago.

Deitrick Haddon (the American Gospel sensation for those who may not have a clue who he is...lol) was in London at the end of October and he came to do a concert in my church. The last bit is the most interesting but as a woman (we love explaining everything) let me tell you the whole story. Right, since I was so excited, I got there nice and early so that I could get a great seat and I'm pleased to say that I did get a fantastic seat by the aisle so that I could get my dance on. Yes I'd like to think that I am a good dancer, I reckon I have better moves than Paula Abdul and Michael Jackson...ke ke ke. No eye rolling please, I can dance. Anyways, for the first part of the concert I was at the door greeting people as they came into church coz that's one of my ministries in church. Yeah, I figured with the kind of dazzling smile that I have, the Greeters ministry was made for me. lol

Then when people stopped trickling in, I went into church to enjoy the concert. The supporting acts were great. MOBO award winning UK gospel artist Guvna B opened with a couple of tracks and got people on their feet. He's a talented bro and definitely going places. Then our very own UK gospel version of Beyonce took the stage, the fabulous Rachel Kerr. She stormed the place up with some up tempo tracks...

Then came the moment that we'd all waited for, Deitrick Haddon took centre stage and rocked the house. Wooah I was too excited and busy taking pictures, I even forgot to dance for a while. Then I put the camera in my bag and started dancing like David did in the bible. I didn't shake what my mama gave me seeing as I am a Spirit filled sister and all and also we were in church. But I tell you I did do a lot of dancing. All good things come to an end and before we knew it the concert had ended with an altar call.

As we left to go home, some peeps milled about in the foyer buying Deitrick's Cd's and DVDs. I didn't have any cash on me so I took a rain cheque. Then Deitrick came out from backstage and I walked up to him tentatively not sure what to say or do. I mean how is one supposed to act? Do you grin or wave? Reach out your hand? Bow? (ok maybe not the last one) but it's one of those situations where you wanna make contact but not sure how to do it. So I kinda grinned, smiled and mumbled something which didn't seem intelligible...Anyway he shook my hand, smiled and said hie back. I know he said one or two other things to me but I was too excited to remember what he even said sha.

Some blessed folk managed to get their new merchandise autographed by the man himself. That's when I started edging closer to the guy so that I could ask him if I could take a photo with him. Everyone else seemed to have similar ideas ...lol Anyway to cut a long story short I asked him and I did manage to take a picture with him, in fact not one but three. The guy is so friendly, passionate for God and down to earth...Damita Haddon (wifey) is surely a blessed woman.

I have to say that before all this I was wondering whether I should take the picture because I didn't look my best. I was having a bad hair day and after all the dancing and sweating my make up wasn't that great. So I was faced with a dilemma, go to the bathroom and fix up and possibly miss seeing Deitrick OR take the picture in my not so fabulous state. I opted for option 2. I wanted to share the photo with you guys but eerhh...my reputation is at stake here so I'll have to pass...lol

So now I'm working on my photoshop skills so that I can digitally enhance the photo I took with Deitrick, so until then all I can leave you with is this piece of advice, like the Girl Guides always say, "Be Prepared" coz you never know what is going to happen. :-)

All the above photos are copyrighted by me. © 2010 PCJ

Have a fab weekend!

Blabbering about what really counts

Whenever I see something nice I wanna talk about it. In fact it's hard to get me to shut up about it. Many people are exactly the same.

If you were single and you met a gorgeous guy and he asked you out, you would be texting, BB-ing or tweeting all your friends about him. If you go to Debenhams (or Bloomingdales for my American peeps..see I don't forget about you) and they have a sale on you will want to tell all your buddies so that they can get their hands on some fabulous bargains. It's human nature to want to share good things with others.

Now we've found something good in Christ, something a zillion times better than the gorgeous guy, therefore we should be sharing it with others at every available opportunity.

Now don't worry, I'm not about to suggest that you go out into the deep Amazon and preach the Gospel as a missionary(If God has called you to do that, Brilliant stuff...go for it!) No all I'm saying is we should be sharing the gospel with others whenever we can.

A few years ago, just before I started Uni...there was a meeting for some of the freshman where I got to meet some of the students I was going to be studying with.
I started chatting with one lovely girl and in the course of our discussion I told her I was a Christian. She asked me to tell her more and I eagerly shared how I had given my life to Christ the year before and how my life had started changing for the better. This girl and I clicked and we became good friends. A few weeks after we started Uni, I invited her to SCM(Students Christian Movement) at Uni. That very night, they did an altar call and she went up and gave her life to Christ. I was so happy and a part of me couldn't believe that it had happened so fast but all the glory belongs to God. She had a hunger for God and she started attending church regularly with me. I'm glad to say she is still serving God many years later, in fact she is in the Praise and Worship team in her church. She and I are still friends and she is now happily married to a wonderful man of God. Now isn't God good?

If your neighbour fell in a ditch I'm sure you would try and help them to get out unless you're a real Meany without any heart (which I know you're not)
If you saw someone driving along the road and you knew that there was a cliff a few metres ahead, you would do everything you could do warn them.

Now why is it that we know that people are walking through life and walking towards eternity without Christ and headed towards hell and yet we're too cute to care and witness the love of God to them. We are worried about what other people are going to say or think. We are afraid of offending people or being labelled bible bashers. Lets not allow the devil to stop us from fulfilling this one thing.

Jesus was disliked for talking about the Kingdom of God but that didn't stop Him. Here are somethings we can do to witness to people about our wonderful Saviour.

1.Invite people to church services or other church events like dramas, concerts etc.

2.Share the gospel in subtle ways with workmates, friends.

3.Hand out tracts or give people Christian movies to watch or books to read.

4.Go on outreach or Evangelism programmes

5.Live your life right so that your lifestyle can be a testimony. Who knows someone may be watching you and trying to decide based on your lifestyle whether they want to become a Christian or not.

Don't worry if you witness to someone and they don't immediately turn to the Lord. Keep praying for them and asking the Holy Spirit to convict them, by God's grace someday the seed you sowed in their life will take root and flourish.

Jesus said in Matthew 28:19-20, "Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

Be Blessed,

It ain't over till the Fat Lady sings...

Red leaves, yellow leaves, orange and lots of brown ones too mixed with the refreshing green of the tender grass. That was the sight that greeted me as I walked into the park the other day. I couldn't help but marvel at the beauty that stood before me.

For a minute I stopped thinking about all the stuff I needed to get done, the things I wished I had or the pressures coming from different arenas of life. I sighed, took a deep breathe and just paused to take in the moment. I wished I had a camera so that I could capture that moment, when nothing else seemed to matter but the tranquility of being in a place where the surroundings reminded me of the goodness and magnificence of my Maker.

Life has a way of knocking you down sometimes and you think back to the time you were a child when everything seemed to be alright and if you had a problem you knew your dad or the school teacher could fix it somehow. No one placed great expectations on you other than getting reasonably good grades, no one expected you to be responsible for too much.

Enter the later years of life, rejection letters, disappointing emails, demands, work or the lack of it, dreams you reach for that sometimes seem out of your grasp, making it in a world recovering from recession, being a good Christian in a society whose values are upside down. It ain't easy, no sir, it takes tenacity, perseverance and the ability to lean on God like never before.

In such times I retreat to the rock that is higher than I and seek wisdom, strength and encouragement. He makes me to lie down in Pastures Green and sometimes when I lie there I don't want to get up and go back to facing the real world.

But get up I must at some point. He has given us grace to go through all things. His grace is more than sufficient. Set backs may come and obstacles will be many on the road that leads to destiny. But His word is true, He cannot lie, trust Him. Remember the things He has whispered to you in the secret place and may they remind us of why we started this journey and carry us to the place that our hearts yearn for.

Be blessed,

Say no to Size Zero

Over the years I 've seen one diet after the other captivate all sorts of women (and some men believe it or not) as they search to fulfil that quest of being slimmer and trimmer in all the essential places.
Atkins, GI diet, Paleo, Leptin, Special K two week plan... the list is endless.

Now I don't know for sure whether or not they work, but I do know that if you starve yourself for extended periods of time you will inevitable start to lose weight.
Now as Believers we are meant to keep ourselves well nourished with plenty of the Word so that we can stay in great shape. A well balanced diet with double helpings of the Word through reading the Bible, listening to word based sermons,some gospel music, reading books and blogs is essential...its up to you how you like it.

The problem is that a lot of people are only having snack bites of the word once or twice a week, sometimes never. Getting the word from the Bible is the main meal, all the other things are appetisers and snacks for in between meals and as we all know you can't really survive on snacks.
Now if you've always looked at the Size Zeros and thought c'mon you need to fix up and put some weight, I 'm sure the angels are looking down at some of us and thinking the same thing. Stop this dieting and getting yourself on a healthy feasting plan. Enough said, I think you get the picture.

Ask yourself some serious questions and be honest with yourself.
When was the last time you read the bible and are you reading it consistently?

Soak yourself in the Word and always pray for revelation before you begin your bible reading. I know sometimes it can get a bit boring and it feels like a chore but you can pray and the ask The Holy Spirit to give you a hunger for the Word and for it to come alive in your life. Believe me you will never see it in the same light again. You will begin to look forward to reading it like you do your Nandos chicken.

If you feed your flesh more than your Spirit, you will act fleshly, your thoughts and actions will mirror what you're feeding on, so guys lets all make it a priority to make time for the one thing that will ultimately have a long lasting and beneficial effect on our lives.

Joshua 1:8 says "This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success."
Lets give up the skinny diet and stuff ourselves with the Word, after all it's the only place where it's cool to be obese.

Be blessed,