With all these facts on Nigeria, why do we sacrifice everything just to get out of naija. Did i hear you say greener pastures? Must we seek out these greener pastures at the expense of our own lives?

I was minding my business when I came across this article from Sun newspaper. A desperate naija brother sneaked into the tyre compartment of Delta airlines with the aim of being smuggled into the US, but he arrived as a mangled body, with pieces of his body and blood smeared on the tyre.

   Before you raise your hypocritical and condemning fingers on Nigeria, know, there have been past stories of people from other countries that carried out similar suicide mission, all in the hope of getting into the US of A.

Perhaps, this is a new story, and perhaps,this could have been same story that happened few years ago and is just being replayed by Sun news, but out of curiosity, would Delta airlines be sued for the death of this guy? How many people in his family knew he was embarking on a suicide mission and how many encouraged him? What would become of his wife and kids?

Check out the full story here: http://www.sunnewsonline.com/webpages/news/national/2010/apr/17/national-17-04-2010-003.htm

Have a great weekend y’all, and for those who checked up on me…..thanks, I did miss you too.

                          My words, my views, my style! Naijagirl©2010!

           This week alone, I have consciously and unconsciously made prayer requests and I can only say God has answered most of them. Both for peace of mind, family peace, calmness, boldness, fun, happiness, laughter, financial breakthrough, divine favor, journey mercies, emergency help and deliverance…..In case you were wondering, Yes, I actually do pray for such things.

             I am grateful for the thanksgiving holiday—its one of my favorite holidays—because it gives me an opportunity to officially thank God, and of course, I get to eat a lot within that week. This year was no exception, I had a blast with my loved ones, and because I know that there are people who didn’t have this opportunity, I am just gonna pause and say—I am grateful for the opportunity to have a blast. You may be one of those people angry with God for having not answered that major prayer you have been praying since January 1, but what about those people who cant even pray? What about those people who are 6ft under and have no hope of prayers answered—take out time today to say “thank you God” for giving me one more day.

              I am grateful for peace of God that calms a stormy weather. I am grateful for new friends. I am grateful for having a job, a place you can wake up in the morning and go. I am grateful for a good work schedule. I am grateful for strangers we meet that put a smile on our face. I am grateful for friends who keep you company and stay up with you when sleep is MIA. I am grateful for prodigal relatives that still remember they are relatives. I am grateful for the gift of hope.

          I am grateful that in spite of all my wickedness, immaturities and filthiness, that he still accepts me as his and calls me “mine”. I am grateful for setbacks for they are opportunities for God to prove himself strong. I am grateful for they give me reasons to be grateful and to testify and to be able to write my TGIF series. I am grateful for all the wonderful bloggers who are not angry that I have been MIA from their blogs in a while. I am grateful for you reading this right now, No, don’t turn around, I meant you. Yes you. I am grateful for you.

           Have a wonderful weekend y’all.

                  My words, my views, my style! Naijagirl©2009!

Some colleagues at work encouraged me to start with a fish and then I could mature into a dog or any other kind of pet owner. They helped me make a list of things to get for the aquarium and how to take care of the fish and what type of fish to get. Of course, all of them told me more than half of the fish will die before the end of one week, but that it was normal. Ok, cool. Off I go to the pet store.

The store attendant told me I will have to prepare, and treat the water and fish tank for one week as a welcoming party for the fish, that is, before I buy the fish. Ok, sure, I decided to treat the water for one week. I went back to buy the fish and I was told the cheapest fish they had was 20 bucks. one tiny fish was 20 bucks? What?  Its not as if I am gonna eat the fish. Even fish sef wey I fit eat never cost that much not to talk of one small fish wey go die within one week.

I left the fish until months later, I went back to another pet store and they were on sale for some fish. I bought 22 of them. With all the excitement in my face, you will think I won a lottery. I Put them in my big tank but before long, some of them started dying. I actually felt bad, not minding I was told that it was normal for half of them to die within the first week. I decided to remove the remaining fish from the big tank and put them in a small bowl, making it easy for me to change the water everyday.

The fish stopped dying and I was happy coming back to see my “new babies”. I travelled and left them in the hands of a loved one, but on coming back, almost all the fish were dead except one that I didn’t think was pretty. I was very sad and disappointed ‘cos the ones with beautiful colors were dead except this ugly looking one. I lost interest in taking care of that one, including neglecting the water change and feeding, but believe it or not, this one fish refused to die like the others. That actually caught my attention and love for it and before you can say Jack Robinson, I became attached to that one fish, but I sat down one day and realized I have learned some lessons from my fish and I likened those lessons to my relationship with my father.

Lessons from my fish

-          I took out time to buy the fish and all I needed to house it and make its life comfortable. The fish were my responsibility, and my investment—people don’t play with their investments:  God made me, therefore I am his responsibility. He invested a lot in creating me; he has a stake in me. I am the investment of God; where your investment is, that’s where your heart is, that must mean I am in the heart of God—he thinks about me. I am the thought of God.

-          They pollute their environment/water a lot, so I learned to change the water almost every day, to give them fresh environment/water: The love of God for me is new every morning. He puts fresh love for me every day, notwithstanding what I had done the previous day.

-          They are either smart or dumb—I haven’t figured it out; I take them off and put in another container, then I clean the fish bowl and put fresh water and food. Now, the big issue is getting them back into the clean water. You would think they would hurriedly run into the clean water and new food screaming “thank you mama” , but oh no, we have to do a little dance and I have to nudge, cajole, plead, beg, threaten, before they know to go into the clean water”: Makes me think of my relationship with my maker. Just like the fish, I am expected to rush into the will of God because that is best for me, but do I do that? No! God have to move and shake things before it dawns on me what his will/plans are.

-          They make a lot of poop/mess, but do I leave them? Oh no: I do go astray a lot, through the words of my mouth, through the meditations/thots of my heart and through my actions. Do you know how many times I fall short and sin every day? But does God leave me? No. even when the world judges me, does he judge me? No. Being the caring father he is, he accepts me back everytime, no matter how severe my sin is – Now, thats the kind of father I want.

-          The one fish I didn’t like was the one that survived and stuck  by me; even when I left it, thinking it would die, it still survived: Sometimes, the one thing you couldn’t stand, becomes the source of your deliverance.

-          It survives in its own poop or mess and without food, until I come back to pet it: No matter how much the stock market change, no matter how much recession gets to my side, I am fearfully and wonderfully made and God has deposited some shock absorbers and certain things in me that would help me weather the stormy seasons. It may not be something big, bright or shiny, but its there and I only need to ignite it, for it to shine to its full potential. I only have to tap into that to see a positive change for me.  “God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear, but along with the temptation he will also make the way out in order for you to be able to endure it.”—1 Corinthians 10:13.

“Even if the world blows up andthe mountains cave into the sea, do not fear, trust in the Lord, for he knows all things. Be still and know that I am not just God, but I AM GOD” (Ps 46)

Have a wonderful weekend y’all!!! Enjoy this song “you were always on my mind”

                    My words, my views, my style! Naijagirl©2009!

I am grateful for babies, but above all, I am grateful for epidural.

First and foremost, I know its not Friday. Of course, we all can pretend there’s a town or planet where its still Friday, but I just witnessed one of the joys of nature and humankind—the birthing process, and I had to write something.

The more I interact with women, especially pregnant women and women in labor and post partum women, the more I come to appreciate the gift called woman. First and foremost, I think every woman on this earth who has carried a baby in their womb or given birth deserves a lifetime achievement award. If nobody has ever thought to say that to you or present you with one, me, naijagirl is endorsing you for a lifetime achievement award.

Babies are bundle of joy, but the process of them coming to be is not a bundle of joy (in my own opinion)—I almost got traumatized while witnessing one. I came out narrowly missing being traumatized but I gained something from the whole experience. I realized the efforts of mothers and the price they pay for bringing us to life. This must be a time to reflect on Genesis 3 where God was dishing out his punishment to Eve and the rest of the women.

The whole experience had a great impact on me, so much so that when I got out of the room, I sent my mom a text and the following transpired between us.

Me: honey, quick question. Did you do natural birth or did you use epidural?

Mom: there’s no epidural in naija. Ask me if I have ever heard of epidural until I went to OB/GYN clinical

Me: hmmm. That’s torture. Perhaps, your kids need to give you a lifetime achievement award…….(I went on to tell her how I endorse her for the award and how much I appreciate what she did by giving birth to me. I continued by apologizing for my past and present wrongs. I told her how much people don’t know what women go through to bring a baby and yet the kids grow up to be rude and saucy or break their heart.

Mom:I receive all the good prayers, blessings and messages but that’s the joy of it all.

What? What? Joy of what all? The joys of motherhood—seriously, where does that joy come in. I stood near that woman’s bed watching her writhe in pain and all I kept saying to myself was “oh hell no. you want me to go through this? Oh hell no”, that was until I heard she chose to go natural which is why her pains were intensified.

By the grace of God, pain reliever has been manufactured to help relieve the pains of the birthing process but some women still don’t get to use it. They go “natural”, and by that I mean go the whole nine yards through intense pain Either cos of cultural, religious reasons or plain ignorance—perhaps, they weren’t told about It like my mom.

Truly, I don’t see any reason why anyone would decide to feel that pain when you know you can get something for it. Natural or no natural. I think some women chose not to take epidural just cos of “bragging right”. In other words, so, they can say, they went through the birthing process without any medication. I have reasoned like that before, but the more I get older, the more I realize it doesn’t just make any sense. Seriously, 10 years from now, who’s gonna care if you went natural or not—definitely, not me.

Men, appreciate your women. When she’s pregnant and you see all those changes in her, appreciate her the more ‘cos you don’t see those instant changes in your own body. I wish all fathers get to stay in the delivery room to go through the process with the mothers, but since most of them choose not to, you ought to appreciate the woman the most for that experience cos its not easy.

Any woman that insists on going natural, all I can say is “hmmm”. Life is torture on its own, why add more to it, and bragging rights aint gonna look so cute later when you think about it.

I don’t care if all the women in your generation went natural or if you use your wife’s birthing process to brag in the locker room, but any man that insists on the wife going natural, like I have witnessed is a very wicked man, Its just plain cruel.(naijagirl©2009)

As I reflect over these things, it reminds me of a note I read on facebook. It was written by an immature guy to “woman”. In the note, he mentioned how he bargained for a beautiful body but after couple of years, all he sees is a body with stretch marks. To begin with, stretch marks on the stomach of a pregnant woman was one of the first things I saw and said—fathers should always appreciate their baby mama.

I have a friend and the thot of seeing a pregnant woman sends him to an early grave-yet, he wants a house full of kids (12 or more), and because of him and others like him, I have attached a warning label to this post—not for the fainthearted.

Have a wonderful weekend y’all!.

                   My words, my views, my style! Naijagirl©2009

        Have you ever been in love? I don’t mean have you ever loved someone, I mean “in love”. The crazy, butterfly in stomach, crazy about you ,type of love where you think of the person all the time, see the person in things around you, and would wanna do anything just to please the person or make the person happy? Have you? Well, I have.

       This afternoon, I was having a private discussion in my mind with God. I was telling God, I wanted to fall in love with him. I wanted to be so crazy about him like I was with mister, and I was asking cos I have come to know the difference between loving someone and being in love with the person. I have always said “I love you Lord,” especially at those times when he has surprised me or done something major for me, but that’s not what I wanted today.

     Loving someone is stable, but being in love comes with a roller coaster kind of feeling and that’s what I wanted. My thots were “God make me believe truly that you love me, let it be a permanent belief in me. Let me believe you desire me cos that may fuel my own love.” Yeah, I know it sounds selfish.

       I reflected on the selfishness but the truth is that there’s no way I could have loved God without him loving me first. Thinking otherwise would be kidding myself. My first attraction was because he loved me and I saw the beauty of what I can gain by affiliating myself with him. Perhaps, it was the audacity of the person that preached to me the day I first asked him to come into my heart. But I have come to know him a long time and I am no longer satisfied with that stable love. Now, I want more. I want to love him based on his character. I want to love him because of who he is. I want to love him just because.

        Barely an hour after these utterances, I came across this entry in “I thought for sure I’d be married by now” by Jeff Hidden. This is a beautiful story and the best so far about the love of Christ for every child of his.

……“Jennifer responded to my altar call for releasing the past and receiving inner healing. When I started to pray for her, the Lord gave me a vision of heaven. I saw Jesus lifting his left hand, looking at a huge diamond ring on his finger. He was in pure delight as he gazed upon the beautiful stone. He could not contain his excitement. Jesus turned to God and said, “Look, Father, isn’t it beautiful?”

As God turned, a bright light hit the diamond and caused a million rays of light to shoot in every direction.

“Wow!” Jesus said. “Isn’t it spectacular?”

“Yes”, said the Father. “It is the most beautiful diamond I have ever seen.”

Jesus stood up and began to twirl around like a new bride enraptured by her wedding ring. The glorious light beaming through the atmosphere caught the attention of the angels.

Amid the worship of “Holy, Holy, Holy,” you could hear the angels oohing and aahing as they pointed at the ring and whispered to each other.

“Isnt it beautiful?” Jesus asked the cloud of witnesses who were already stunned with amazement. You could tell he was proud of his ring and its obvious beauty.

“its one of a kind!” an angel shouted

“its so bright that I can hardly look at it,” another bellowed.

“its priceless,” two angels concluded after trying to calculate the value of such a precious stone,

Jesus made his way back to the throne. “Look, Father, look. Isn’t it the most precious thing you have ever seen?”

“it certainly is,” God firmly agreed. “it certainly is”

Then, in the vision, Jesus looked at me and said, “Whisper in Jennifer’s ear and tell her, “You’re that diamond on the ring finger of Jesus.”

            Have a wonderful weekend y’all. Enjoy  “in love with him” by jeremiah Gyang http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Ofs75aadwo

                My words, my views, my style! Naijagirl©2009!