Everyone is excited as Christmas draws nearer. We are all happy to be among those who will celebrate Christmas this year. Our different churches and schools have programmes lined up for us to joyfully and thankfully celebrate ending 2010.
It is good and pleasant to end the year with celebrations. It is good for you to throw that party for the New Year. It is good to travel and enjoy with relations you have not seen in a long while. Oh, it is so wonderful to end the year with thanksgiving to God.
But I want to ask you a question: how well did you live your life in 2010? As a woman, did you live visionless in 2010? What are your achievements in the year 2010? Are you just about celebrating another Christmas because it should be celebrated? What about your vigil on the last night of the year 2009? What about those prayer requests you spent the night lying before God? Are you ending the year in pain and so much disappointment because you feel God did not answer you?
Let me tell you the truth; God answered all your prayers that are in accordance with His word and principles, but the problem lies with you. You failed to see and make use of the grace that is ever available to you. You spent little or no time thinking and planning because you were all over the place moving from one prayer mountain to the other, looking for solutions that you already have. You allowed the prayer contractors who are hungrily looking for a prey to control your life in 2009.
Now, after all the stress and efforts to spiritualize everything in a physical world, how are you going to end 2010? I asked this question to enable you think of the past to enable you make good use of the future. If you cannot see your mistakes in 2010, you will not experience the kind of change you want in 2011 because you will still make the same mistakes.,
Let me help you in your quiet moment. I see men planning for the New Year while you have our women sit comfortably waiting to enjoy the fried chicken and nkwobi during Christmas. You need to start planning for a successful life. Even if you are a full time housewife, (which I am never in support of), you can plan to become a better housewife in 2011.
Okay, I will start with our spiritual lives because that is the most important aspect of our lives as women. A godly mother will always raise godly children. What was your spiritual life like in 2010? How closely did you walk with God? How was your relationship with your maker? What kind of service did you render to Him in 2010?
You rendered wonderful service to your employers; you received the employee of the year award. What kind of award will your maker give you if you should stand before Him now? What effort did you make to see that your children walk in the way of God? I leave you to score yourself in all sincerity. I didn’t do too well; I didn’t get to where I planned to get with God. Think about this and let us together do greater things for God in 2011. Consider the following areas of your life
YOUR LOVE LIFE:
What is it like this 2010? How many guys did you date and break up with this 2010? How many of them saw your nakedness this 2010? Did you really achieve all you set out to achieve in your love life this year? I keep getting text messages from girls who feel used and dumped by men. You feel these guys they come into you, sleep with you and go. That may not have been their intentions, you know. Could there be something(s) about your personality that drives them away? Stop complaining and start telling yourself the truth.
I once heard some girls saying no man has ever proposed to them. According to them (and they are in their thirties), they date all kinds of eligible bachelors, but once it’s time for them to go to the altar, they find another girl. The bitter truth is that there is something wrong with you.
If you are in your late twenties and no man has proposed to you, there is something wrong somewhere. It is either you need to work on your character or there is something else wrong. 2011 shouldn’t be a time to visit different hungry clerics with prayer requests for a husband. You have done that in 2010 and it didn’t work out, try something different in 2011.
You moved from one big church to the other looking for a husband. Girl, your husband could be in one small congregation somewhere. In 2011, devote more time to building your character as well as cultivating a new lifestyle that befits a typical African woman. Maybe you did not treat men with respect in 2010 because you believe it is a free world. Please have a rethink for 2011.
YOUR HOME:
As a married woman, how well did you run your home in 2010? Did you find yourself in the company of women your husband never liked? Did you spend your time in gossip and rumour-mongering when you should have been busy with more meaningful things?
Were you a godly example to your children? How many times did you pray together with your family? What are those things your children learned from your life in 2010? How did you treat your domestic helps in the presence of your children? Remember, children learn more by what they see than by what they hear.
What about your spouse? How well did you treat him in 2010? Did you give him his place as the man in the home? How did you serve and honour him this year? What was your love life with him like? How well did you take care of yourself for him? Did you go about in 2010 wearing what you want to wear or what your mother and pastor wants you to wear instead of what your husband wants to see you wear?
How well did you satisfy him sexual needs? He comes home on a daily basis frowning and getting irritated over every little things. Have you tried to find out what the problem is? Maybe you need to change the look of your home in 2011. Did your husband avoid bringing friends home in 2010 or he gives enough information before coming home with friends? Girl, you need to step up a bit and learn to keep your home clean and well arranged.
What about your in-laws and step children? How was your relationship with them this 2010? Think, think, think well my dear fellow woman and make amends in 2011.
YOUR VERY OWN LIFE:
What did you do with your life in 2010? In what areas did you notice some improvements in your life? Are you one of those stepping out of 2010 just the way they stepped in? You spent your time in 2010 reading novels and watching movies that made no positive impact in your life. Please permit me to ask you this question: how many motivational and inspirational books did you read this year? You spent so much money going to the cinemas and visiting so many interesting places. It’s so wonderful and nice to know you enjoyed yourself, but I can tell your life got no better with those activities.
I am one person who spends so much time and money on books. I am one of those women who won’t sit to watch a movie. I am not saying it is wrong, maybe it is necessary to you, but don’t you think you could have used that time for something reasonable, at least reading a chapter of a book. The day you stop reading is the day you start dying.
Recently I helped a young girl to get a job as PA to a friend. I never knew that she was a university graduate until that day. She reads constantly and carries herself in such a manner that is rare among the graduates of today’s Nigeria. Reading will expand your knowledge base and that will put you miles ahead of your mates. People keep wondering how I have so much knowledge of the society when I hardly step out of my house. The reason is because I spend time reading.
2011 shouldn’t be a year to spend on Facebook and twitter telling lies to different men just to seduce them. I felt so sad the day a friend told me about a married woman who is into this Facebook dating. Woman, Facebook is not for you to flirt and do all those silly stuff. People are getting richer and blessed through Facebook and there you are wasting your own time.
What are your goals for the year 2011? How do you want to live your life in 2011? Even at your work place, what are your achievements
in 2010 and how do you intend going about your duties for promotion in the new year. If you do the same things you did in 2010, your colleagues will get promoted while you remain where you are, grumbling and telling everybody how much your boss hates you (as if they care to know).
In your efforts to end 2010 on a very good note, please sit and purpose in your heart that you will enter 2011 as a more organised and focused person.
Merry Christmas, see you in 2011.
