A Special Gift

Introduction:

Welcome my friend,

Yesterday, it was a pleasure to be at the hospital during the birth of my little niece; our beautiful bundle of joy.

After absorbing all the happiness, I couldn't help but reflect on how this marked the beginning of her own journey here on earth.

So that while we may all play our part in her life in different ways throughout her growth, this is still her own unique journey; which she alone must walk.

Quite remarkably it has begun.

From the moment we step into this world, time starts counting for us.

We begin to evolve and develop, passing through the different stages of growth one after the other.

This is how life is designed.

From hunger and thirst to the satisfaction of being well fed, from anger, sadness and tears to happiness, joy and laughter, life comes with each one of these, sometimes good and other times not so good.

Yet they're all part of it, and soon enough my little niece would find out.

So while I sat there thinking about it, all I could wish was for her to have an easier journey.

Free of all the challenging circumstances but full of the most amazing ones.

Yet realistically, I must admit that it may not always be so, because in life things happen as part of our growth.

Things that build the strength of our character and awaken us into emotional maturity by breaking our hearts in very painful ways.

However, in all of this, I'm buoyed by the fact that there's a special gift I have for her that can help her excel through life with peace and joy in all instances.

A gift of advice to someone I love.

The best piece of advice to anyone I love.

Happy Weekend my friend.

I hope that you're well.

Discussion:

If an advice is going to be effective then the genuineness and love behind it must be felt.

This is because the aim is to improve someone we care about or preserve them by guiding them against poor choices.

In the absence of this love, there'll be hostility and resentment because the advice will be aimed at pointing out shortcomings and misdeeds as if to say that the other person is not good enough.

When we teach others from a place of tenderness and warmth, what we're saying is that we love them enough to want the best for them.

However, this decision may not be ours to impose, because everyone has the right to make their own choices.

Yet, we must never shy away from the responsibility of firmly pointing out timeless truths that we've learned from our own journey to the ones after us.

■ A Notable Advice

In a world that is constantly screaming immorality in different voices via mainstream media, music, movies and so on, it's very easy to lose our own voice.

This shouldn't be.

We have an identity.

The moral values and principles that were instilled in us in our formative years when we were more eager to heed instructions.

“Train up a child in the way he should go and when he's old he'd not depart from it” is a responsibility that goes both ways.

First on the person that has the responsibility to lead by example, then on the child that has to wholeheartedly accept these teachings.

We must understand that what is popular isn't always right so that we can find the courage to stand alone when everyone else thinks we're crazy for doing so.

■ The Ultimate Advice

For non-believers, hearing that trusting God wholeheartedly is the best thing anyone can do sounds amusing and delusional because it's not real.

Yet for us as children of God we're a living proof of his goodness, so no one can make us second guess what we have a strong conviction in.

We believe not because we've read or heard but because we've come close and have felt and experienced it in our own lives.

So that now we can highly recommend the same for others, well aware that you can never go wrong trusting God.

When I think of the challenges that my niece may yet face, I'm glad that it won't be to break her but to bring her towards her purpose as she lives her life to please her creator.

This is the only way she can have the perfect life that he's destined for her.

■ Application Of This Advice

The reason why many of us have lost faith in God is because we don't find him trustworthy especially when there are things we've asked him that he didn't do.

Yet trusting God goes beyond mere mental acceptance and positive affirmations to actually taking actions that demonstrate the depth of this trust.

This will mean;

▪︎ Obeying Him

Trusting God is following his lead without looking to do things our own way.

We can't tell God how or when to respond to our prayers or try to take the initiative to solve our problems ahead of him.

When things go wrong from this we're only suffering the consequences of our actions and it's not on him.

▪︎ Starting With Him

If you're eventually going to come back to God after everything has failed, then you can as well start from him.

God is interested in all aspects of our lives and we should freely surrender to him without reservations.

This is what intimacy is about and that's what he desires with us.

Summary:

It's true that we've not been able to go into a new discussion as many of these things you may have heard before.

However, it doesn't diminish its importance and significance when applied to our lives.

Hopefully, by next week we'd be able to get back to more in depth discussions as we normally would.

For now, I'll be taking the time to hangout with my little girl who's birth has given us the opportunity to reflect on these words.

It's a big cold world and I'll worry for her unless she's dwelling there in the perpetual warmth of God's big hands.

We too must take the same advice my friend.

Master Apprentice.