Knowledge, Understanding and Mindset.

Last week, my brothers and I were watching stand up comedy with our parents and besides the great laugh we had, I had a great learning moment. We watched clips of Ann Kansiime and that was easy for us all to follow but when we switched to Trevor Noah, my parents didn't get it much. We decided to stick to something we could all understand. They didn't get Trevor's jokes because they didn't know what he was talking about and couldn't relate much.That got me thinking about knowledge, understanding and mindset. The more you know the easier it is to understand and the more you understand, the more your mindset is changed. I believe that's the way our relationship with God works. The more we know him through His word the more we understand Him as we walk with Him and this knowledge and understanding changes our mindset about life. In the same way, we can miss God entirely because we haven't taken time to know Him,understand Him and therefore our mindsets and lives remain unchanged

"By their fruits ye shall know them"

King James Bible
Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? Matthew 7:16

A conviction that is not fruitful /causes no change is simply delusion. So we are Christians, the world asks us what do we have to show for it? Does our conviction make any sense or does it make us sound like crazy people running around speaking of a lost cause? Do  we have love, are we victorious, are we changing with ever increasing Glory, do our lives testify?

"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ:" Ephesians 1:3 . How sad it is to be given everything and live as if you have nothing.

I pray that we may seek, find and LIVE the ultimate plan of God for our lives through Christ.

I jus don't get it

 I'm going to talk about some things I really don't understand.

1.I don't understand why women who are forced to play men's roles by men who just won't play theirs are labelled too independent and scary. If there are two adults in the question and the male chooses not to play his vital role who is expected to play this role?

2.I don't understand why this message about "how to KEEP your man" is still circulating. First of all men are not children or pets and if a woman has to fight so hard to keep him committed then maybe the real advice to give her is how to let him go. Listen real men are not slippery, point blank period!

3.I don't understand why some men who are supposed to be leaders and always point that out are/were raised to be parented. Basically the person this type of "man" is with has to be both his parent and his lady.You want to be the "boss" but you straight acting like a child? Really?

4.I don't understand why some people think that everything a woman does should be measured according to what it means for her suitability as a wife.Can't women just better themselves? Can't a woman have self worth as herself and not as a wife?

If you understand do explain please. Merci.

Tolerable

“You pack .. You un - pack , you create tolerable relationships, then you hope that it won't get dull, boring , meaningless... It happens again ... And again ... And one day it doesn't happen again.”

A friend of mine called Carol wrote this and it got me thinking about the place called “tolerable”.

There is this place called “tolerable” that seems to hold people captive. Wasting away, never risking, never growing, they just remain in this place. Tolerable is safe, neat, unchanging.  Tolerable simply means not the best; it might be close but not the best. I think the only reasons why people stay there is fear and laziness; fear of failure, shame, the unknown and laziness to do the work to change for the best. If there are any of us stuck in this place may God give us the courage and direction to change it.

Reflection on missteps

God grants us opportunities and blesses us with seeds that need grasping, nurturing and protecting.That is how we show how truly grateful we are. None of us is perfect, and sometimes we make mistakes so grave that we lose these blessings or spoil them so badly that we end up having to sweat to repair what was once a "sweat-less" gift. I often think how strange it is that we can praise God for a gift when it keeps on giving and when everything is going well and then turn around and accuse God of failing or not being there for us because that gift is now lost or ruined by one's own actions. If God were human, He would probably be stressed or would have given up on us because of our attitude. Thankfully He is a relentlessly loving God.

There is only one plan that God has for man and it is a good plan; one that will lead us from victory to victory so we can't blame Him for our own mistakes. I pray that we can all be humble enough to ask for God's guidance when we mess up and not lash out at Him.

Forever learning,
Me

When you know better, you do better

Thank God for a Ugandan High School and Primary School education. Yes it was modeled on the British school system but we did add our own unique touch and it was nothing short of Excellent. I realize that one reason why Ugandans are so knowledgeable and accommodating to everyone is we had unfiltered history , social studies and Geography in our School curriculum. That's the reason why we know that sweeping statements like "upper Africans" don't make any kind of sense because there are regions in Africa just like any other continent and several differences in these regions. We also know that we can't assume by looking at someone where they come from, except for some countries that have very distinctive features. Things like migrations and intermarriages across regions and borders have happened over time and now you can't conclude by looking at someone . History lessons and Social studies enable us to tolerate other cultures and not to be guarded or even xenophobic because we simply don't understand or because we are ignorant. When absurd things happen you become really thankful about where you came from. I remember the time when my family had just moved to Tunis, people were obsessed with my little brother Jordan. They gave him sweets, pulled his cheeks, smiled at him etc. Each time a mother did that to Jordan, My mom smiled back at them or their children and the mothers would protectively cover their children. In their mind, they are probably not African because they are Arabs. Well last I checked North Africa is still Africa! But that's besides the point, what made them think they could touch my mom's child, and she couldn't touch theirs? I say ignorance. It makes people really guarded and defensive.  In other countries like Belgium and S. A foreigners are generally treated like they are a problem to be eradicated because people from one particular country(in Belgium I have been told the Congolese and Francophone West Africans have been problematic, in S.A I have been told it's the Nigerians) have continuously become a problem to them. It doesn't matter what country you are from, as long as you have the same colour and have "étranger"  or  "foreigner" on your passport, you all become the same people. In other words because foreigners from one country have been a problem, all foreigners are a problem

I'd list more and more examples but the point of this is thank God for Ugandan education because when you know better, you do better.

It's really not neccessary

So here I was thinking that in marriage, there is a sense of security and therefore there is no need to flash what you already feel safe in.I guess that's not the case these days. I see too many people "struggling" (for lack of a better word) to say to the world,"we outcheeeaaa , M.A.R.R.I.ED, look at us, we killing the scene! marriage has never been done like this before".

 It's almost like those bullies in nursery and primary  school who would snatch something from their victims and proceed to sing the "nye nye nye nye nye" song while flashing whatever it is they snatched. Listen, don't get me wrong, I'm not talking about the genuine show of affection, I'm talking about the "scream-in your face- act" that tries so hard to convince people that you have arrived. I keep thinking something must be seriously lacking or that there were definitely insecurities going into the marriage so now there is a need to display the "trophy" you never thought you would get. Sad ,sad sight. The word of God says love does not boast 1 Corinthians 13:4 and that does not only apply to the couple towards each other but the couple towards other people.  Too many people are getting into marriage under pressure, for all the wrong reasons  and with the wrong foundation.I just pray that people(myself inclusive) will learn to take that step with the right intentions, on the right foundation so that we don't have to do too much. Honestly, it's not necessary.

My love for books

The reason why I love books is that they have a way of blurting out muffled, bottled up thoughts and feelings inside of you. Books also have an ingenious ability to therapeutically free you of unspoken hurts and horrors as if you were sharing with the most understanding listener in the world.I love that about books . I love the lessons big and small hidden in books. Recently I picked something valuable from “Americanah” Chimamanda Adichie’s latest book. The message for me was that life is not a perfectly ironed sheet and that it’s time we all learned to teach people how to cope with the creases in life and not to live as if the beginning of life is when life becomes “crease free”. Being a Christian myself I see and hear too often that challenges are a reflection of your own failure and that something is missing in your “Christian walk” if your life has creases.  Excuse me for getting preachy but why would we need “the Helper” (Holy Spirit) that Christ promised if we were already set up for perfect life? Too many people are thrown into pitiless depression because in this world, it is not okay to have issues. Issues are like a shameful sore you should quickly bandage and hush about.  Many people grow up with a human blueprint to live by, the idea of their own unique and relevant contribution to life a distant fantasy. Everything laid out in timelines, all you have to do is walk through the carefully mapped out plan of those ahead of you. Forget God’s true purpose, forget what you were really called to do and go for the safe route no questions asked is what the world says. I’m still a believer though, at the very least for my own life I believe that I will live out my purpose.  Living is in the full experience, challenges and all. To be able to face challenges and not let them crush you but finding solutions, preventing the recurrence of the same issues in the life of others and living unashamed because after all life is not something we rehearse first and then act out, we only get one unrehearsed shot at life. God help us all!