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 01, Issue 49: Take Responsibility for the Bad in Your Life

It would be nice if we got to choose all that happens to us. But the reality is that we do not get to determine all the events in life. However, the response to life’s events is purely our prerogative. How we respond to those events determines our outcome. If you do not like the outcome, do not blame the events. Take an inner look and evaluate your responses.

In the face of unpleasant circumstances, the best news ever is the realization that the outcome of those circumstances is entirely up to you, and not the circumstances. Nothing and no one but you can manipulate the outcome of the events in your life. This knowledge offers the much needed hope that it can still be alright after all. It changes everything, doesn’t it? It is not what others do to you but how you respond to what they do that determines your ending. It is not what happens to us but how we respond to it and draw lessons from those experiences that determine where we end up.

What do you do when storms of life threaten to consume you? How do you respond? Do you volunteer yourself to be a victim of your circumstances? Every circumstance affords a choice of response. Every time a circumstance of life attempts to do you in, think of all the choices available to you. People may hurl their trash on you. Don’t keep them. Shake them off and move on. Life may throw you in a pit, but you don’t have to stay there. If you make the right choices, you can come out ahead of the game, smelling like a rose.

Your may have your dreams shattered, or your hopes dashed, or your heart broken, or your finances wrecked, but you still have a choice. You still get to choose what becomes of you. No one has to live with other people’s choices. Make your own choices in the face of daunting circumstances. Turn the tables around and take control over your circumstances. Rather than give in to it and allow it to consume you, embrace your pain and squeeze life out of it.

Take responsibility for the bad in your life. You are the only person responsible for your outcome. Taking control over circumstances that seem to darken your life will give you a greater competitive edge. Make the right choices in the storms that test the depth of your ideals. Many through adversity have soared to heights of lasting success. Given your limiting circumstances, recognize your choices and act on them.

Determine not to be a victim of circumstances. Embrace the power within you to enable you to see your circumstances clearly, make choices wisely and come out triumphant. Though you encounter many defeats in life, you must not be defeated. Remember struggling is not the same as failing, and a great man or woman is great whether thriving or broken.

Lillian Chebosi

Volume 01, Issue 48: Do the Things You Can Do Well

In addition to what you love to do, there are things that you are naturally good at, things that come easy to you. Each of us has abilities that we were born with. These are our natural talent endowments. The Bible says that God has given each of us the ability to do certain things well. Some people have natural athletic abilities; other people are good at sciences while others are good at arts. Some are good at cooking, some at music, some at other forms of entertaining, some at organizing, some at mathematics, and interesting enough, some people are good at talking. There are thousands of abilities among us, hence the reason we each perform at different professions, putting to work different abilities as bestowed upon us by our Maker.

We were interested in different subjects in school and college, which then led to our different careers in the work place. Based on our unique abilities, some of us are administrators, some doctors, some accountants, some artistic designers, some mechanics, some programmers, yet still, others have the ability to build businesses, make deals and sales. The list is endless.

Are you in the right profession, using your God-given abilities, or are you pretending to be someone else, doing a job you loathe because the abilities required are not in you? Our abilities are important to God and he desires that we make use of them. When he wanted to make the Tabernacle and the utensils of worship, God provided artists and craftsmen who had the skill, ability, and knowledge in all kinds of crafts to make artistic designs. He is still in the business of bestowing abilities for specific tasks today.

Each of us has dozens of untapped, unrecognized, and unutilized abilities that are lying dormant within us. When I learnt that the human brain can store 100 trillion facts, it freed my mind to start doing things I thought I couldn’t manage. You are a bundle of incredible abilities, an amazing creation of God. There’s a place where your specialties can shine and you can make a difference. Find that place and put your abilities to use.

What you are able to do, God wants you to do. Examine what you are good at. Your capabilities are a match for your purpose. Your abilities were not given just to make a living but to fulfill your life’s purpose as well. Whatever you are good at, do it excellently, and it will provide a platform for you to serve before great men.

Lillian Chebosi

Volume 01, Issue 47: Serving and Loving it

There are things that you just love to do. It is not a coincidence. God intentionally wired you to love doing certain things. You are the way you are because you were made for specific functions.

Have you ever wondered why some animals hop, some run, some burrow, some swim, and some fly? God formed every creature on the earth with a special area of expertise. Each has a particular role to play, based on the way they were structured by God. The same is true with human beings. Each of us was uniquely designed to do certain things.

Physically, each of us has a unique heartbeat, just as we have unique thumbprints. In the same way, each of us has a unique emotional heartbeat that races when we think about the subjects, activities or circumstances that interest us. We instinctively care about some things and not about others. God designed each of us with a unique set of desires, hopes, interests, ambitions, affections, and dreams. These determine what we love to do.

There are subjects that you feel passionate about and others that you could care less about. For me, the subjects I am passionate about are on personal development, parenting, interior design, and a few others. These inborn interests are indications to my purpose. There is a reason you love to do certain things. Consider how you might use them to serve others and bring glory to your Maker who wired you to love doing them. The Bible repeatedly tells us to serve God with all our heart. Doesn’t this mean that God wants us to serve him passionately, and not dutifully? We cannot serve passionately at tasks we do not enjoy doing or feel passionate about. God’s expectation is that we use our natural interests to serve him and others.

You know you are serving from your heart when you are enthusiastic about a task and you look forward to doing it. When you are doing what you love to do, no one, and no form of reward or applause has to motivate you to do it. You do it out of sheer enjoyment.

When you do what God wired you to love to do, you get good at it. Passion drives perfection. You are unlikely to excel at a task that you don’t care about. The greatest achievers in any field are those who do it because of passion, not duty or profit.

In what way can you passionately serve others and love it? Figure out what you love to do, what God gave you a passion for, and then do it for his glory. Serve in ways that best expresses your heart.

Lillian Chebosi

Volume 01, Issue 46: Finding Your Love

Self discovery involves finding out what drives you, what excites you, what consumes you, and discovering your passions. Before doing anything great, you have to become it. Self discovery enables you to become.

The beauty of self discovery is that you get to know what you love most. Once you do, don’t stop there. Begin to do it. Rearrange your life to do what you love most every day. Find ways to make the most passionate parts of your job the most part of your job.

What we are passionate about are the things in the sphere of our strengths. It then follows that we are most fulfilled when we put our strengths to work. Since passion excites and drives us, when you begin to do what you love to do and more opportunities of what you can be and do with yourself begin to emerge, the last thing you will be looking for is the end of the day. You will want your day to last longer. Herein lies your purpose.

Purpose in life is about unveiling what we passionately love. Our strengths are our God-given talents and gifts. They are the basis of our purpose. However, talent is not enough. We must sharpen it for favourable results. Develop your passions. Take the time to learn the appropriate skills and relevant knowledge to reinforce your passion from mere excitement to a core competency. Then serve it where it is most needed.

What makes you come alive? Determine to work at your strengths, doing activities that you are most passionate about. Each of us has a purpose to fulfill. It is what gives our lives great significance and value. Let your strengths steer you towards discovering your purpose. Once you do, connect with it. It is only when you build your life around your purpose that you begin to make a difference by prioritizing according to that purpose.

Lillian Chebosi

Volume 01, Issue 45: Accept the Object of Your Affection

How many people can really answer the question "who am I?" Most of us define ourselves by our roles in life. I have participated in a few interviews and whenever a candidate is asked to describe him or herself, it often leaves much to be desired.

Are our academic qualifications, work experiences, and roles in life all there is to us? I beg to differ. You may be an accountant, an administrator, a doctor, a farmer, or a pastor; you may be someone’s spouse, parent, friend, or any other position you hold in society. These are great but they are not a comprehensive definition of who you are. They are just roles that you play. There’s more to who you are than these and it’s worth figuring out.

Nothing gives you confidence like knowing and accepting yourself. But some of us struggle with self-acceptance. We want to be like someone else. Are you in denial about who you really are? How will you make behavioural changes to improve yourself unless you first accept who you are? You have nothing to develop except who you are. More so, you have nothing to offer others if you don’t like what you possess, which is in who you are.

As you embark on the journey of self discovery, determine before hand to accept what you find. God did not make a mistake in designing you as you are. He endowed you appropriately and requires you to be who you are. You can only be the best at what you were made to do. Unless we love and accept the object of our affection, we will not be motivated to develop it. Connect with yourself. Be your best friend. Only when we head the list of our friendships will we build meaningful relationships.

Find the link between who you are and what you were made for. It is upon discovering who we are that we find our purpose. Nothing brings meaning to our lives more than knowing our reason for being. Discover who you are to find your purpose. Then you will find meaning in your preoccupations.

Who you are comes as a package. Alongside your strengths are weaknesses. Once you accept who you are, you will find it easier to build on your strengths and manage around your weaknesses. As you do, you will realize that your greatest room for improvement is in the area of your strengths. There’s no end to developing strength.

Upon accepting who you are, believe in your abilities. Sometimes we are immobilized by what we are not, and the things we cannot do, so much so that it keeps us from doing the things that we can do well. Don’t let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do. Invest in yourself. Develop your strengths to levels of outstanding excellence. You are your most appreciable asset.

Lillian Chebosi