Relationships - you make it or break it!

The new year is a year of new things, new insights, new ways of tackling problems or situations that you were not able to solve in the past year. It's a year of venturing into businesses or taking advantage of investments that the past year could not entertain. It's a time period of growth and a time when you should not be where you were last year. If you have a child and that child was in the same grade for two years and didn't improve, you would consider that there's a problem with the development of that child. That is because with every new year, growth is expected. Now, everyone has new year resolutions at the start of the year to achieve growth or enhancement in their lives but fail to achieve this in most cases by the end of the year.  New year resolutions are not successful because people do not have the right idea. It's just that they do not use the right idea correctly. People make those resolutions so broad and unachievable. For Instance, if...

The season of Christmas is upon us.  It has crept upon us faster than we had expected. It's December and my favorite month of the year not because of the season that it brings, but because this month embodies the happiest moments of my childhood.  It taught me the real meaning of family, happiness, togetherness and great outpour of charity, which i s originally refer red to as agap ē l ove. As you know, Love is a n affection of benevolence towards another with no expecta tion of reciprocity and absence of selfish gains or interest. Although, Christmas signifies the birth and celebration of Jesus Christ and a major part of the Christian religion, it means so much more than that. However, it is wise not to dwell on that because that fixation could cause a segregation across religious beliefs. Christmas simply personifies and creates a platform for giving rather than receiving. As a young boy, I was educated on the difference between giving and receiving by my late grandfather...

Every day we wake up,roll out of bed, check our phones to stay connected to the social world. We shower, grab a bite and run off to our jobs. We come back from our jobs, shower, grab a bite, catch a show or two on TV while staying connected to the social world, then we go to sleep. This becomes a cycle everyday. We become robots following a routine, while our relationship with God suffers. We forget God, well maybe its a stretch to say we forget Him but we keep God in storage. We keep Him in our metaphorical boxes for later use.We push Him to the sidelines till we run out of options or when we are greeted with problems, and solutions become a stranger to us. We become lost in the fast paced life that we are now enslaved to, which debars us from appreciating God's presence and blessings. Giving thanks to God for giving us the breath of life, good health, and ability to make wealth becomes a foreign language our minds and mouths find difficult to...

Ever wondered why to every left there is a right? And to every right there is a wrong? why there is a male and a female? Why there is a black and a white? Why there is a husband and there is a wife and why you are different from everyone you see around you? These opposites spell out diversity and balance but what they signify the most is relationship. Relationship is the bedrock of our existence. It's the foundation out of which we were formed and forged into life. With no relationship with each other, there would be no I nor You. There would be no us. However, today the word or the phenomena, relationship has been contorted to fit certain people's definition of a relationship to satisfy their own needs or interests. Many people have suffered hurt at the hands of these people who have tainted the true meaning of a relationship. Relationships revolve around true love and I use true love because that word, love has also has been misused to mislead people's em...

When you see a exotic car or a nicely built mansion, it's fair to say that you are enthralled by the outer beauty of that car or house because that is what your eyes are drawn to. Although, that car or house looks appealing on the outside, the real beauty of that car lies in the engine and its other internal parts, which fosters its' movement and durability on the road. The real beauty of that house is in its' foundation, since the foundation and the inner pillars provide stability and structure to that house. Hence, the reason why builders/ architects and car manufacturers spend more time on the foundations of a house and on the engine/internal fixtures of a car than on the external fixtures.  Humans are not different. Our real beauty stems from our inner self and facilitates our relations with others around us. However, we tend to focus more on our outer self by incorporating the use of cosmetic products like make-up to enhance ourselves while ignoring the inner self. W...

The heightened media influence in the world today has led to a lot of changes in how things are viewed or perceived. As anything that brings about change, it has brought along things of good and bad. The world we live in, is a world that revolves around sight (what you see) and as such, dwells on the outward reflection of a person. When you watch the Oscars or the Grammys on the TV, you hear comments of how well dressed or how good look someone looks. The outer self gets the most praise while the inner self rarely gets discussed. Also, the rise in popularity and the inception of new social media applications (apps) and sites such as Facebook, Twitter, snap chat, Instagram and so on also adds to the alteration in our relations with each other. For instance, some females now focus on getting likes and followers or friend requests at the price of objectifying themselves on social media. Now there is nothing wrong with making friends on social media apps/sites but making those friends in ...

The killings of innocent black men in America has now become an epidemic. The number of African American men that lose their lives to the police are more than the Ebola and Zika Virus related deaths combined. Alton Sterling and Philando Castile are the 558th and 559th civilians who have lost their lives respectively  to the police in 2016. The use of excessive force and brutal killings of these men by the police stem from hate, prejudice and racism. Where did this hate come from? Well I believe all this hate comes from the so called "freedom" we blacks have from the slave days. The mere fact that we can vote, own businesses, go to schools and earn degrees and diplomas, own a car and house and walk around freely in public angers a lot of white Americans. Also, as studies have shown that in years to come, the white race will now become a minority since the populations of blacks are increasing rapidly along with other races and mixed races. This scares some of the white race and...