Surrounding yourself with greatness!

Friendship to me as a child growing up was just a network of playmates, cousins, and classmates i preferred to be around. It never was an issue of importance because if it wasn't working with one friend i will simply move to the next person. And growing up, it was very easy to make friends. All you gotta do was to offer them a sweet, walk with them or just simply be nice to them. Friendship was an easy thing to get in and out of.


But as i grow up friendship became more meaningful to me and complicated. It became very hard to make friends and of-course to keep them. The reason being that now friendship ain't about offering somebody a sweet, its much deeper than that. Friendship is now not about just hanging with people but it has to be the right people, the best amongst the rest. Friendship is now a relationship in which things are shared, advises are made or required, time is spent together e.t.c. and this requires not just anybody but people of certain qualities. There are criterion that I feel a child of God should follow or look into when choosing a friend. At least this is what i look at when deciding on friendships


1. Is the person Godly?
As a lady who wants to become a woman of God, I feel its important that my friends be Godly people. Friendship can be very intimate, you share your emotions and your dreams with your friends. So for me, that person has to be Godly, a person who fears God. not a person who will be backstabbing you whenever you share your dreams. There are dream thieves and dream killers out there and its easy for a person who does not have the fear of God to do that. So we need to surround ourselves with people who fear God and share the same values with you
Also, a God fearing person will help you grow spiritually. If you choose people who are not Godly, they do not have interest in the things of God and will not stir up that hunger for God within you or the edge to wanna grow more spiritually. Instead ungodly friends can even make you fall off your Godly ways. 1 Corinthians 15:33 Do not be misled: "Bad company corrupts good character."


2.Does the person give good/Biblical counsel?
As I explained above that friends are people we share our grievances, happinesses, successes e.t.c with, so they should be Godly. This also so because as we share whatever we go through with our friends, we get advises, opinions, comforts, rejoices whether we ask for them or not (that's what friendship is for anyway, right?). Therefore if our friends are gonna give us al that, it has to be good and what is more good than Biblically based counsel? our friends need to give us counsel that will take us back to the cross, that pleases the Lord, that will keep us on the track with God. Proverbs 12:26; The godly give good advice to their friends; the wicked lead them astray.


3. Is the person honest with you
I do not believe in friendship that is based on lies, on fear and inequality, whereby one person is like the boss and the other is the follower, that is not friendship is just ruler-ship (hehe, I wanna use this word). There is a ruler and a follower, that is not friendship. Friendship is equality between friends. Not in reference to education, spirituality, or economically e.t.c, no I mean in the friendship itself. We should be equal and there should be respect not fear. Is the person you consider a friend someone who can tell you when you are wrong, without hiding anything, without being afraid to hurt you? I personally prefer a friend who will correct me than the one who will give me a kudos while I'm headed for a shipwreck. Is that even a friend? Proverbs 27:5-6; An open rebuke is better than hidden love! Wounds from a sincere friend are better than many kisses from an enemy. Proverbs 27:9;The heartfelt counsel of a friend is as sweet as perfume and incense.


Get the part two of this here

Changes Day 2. Eating healthy

This is day 2, and i am here to give the report of the day. First i gotta say that most of the time the preparation is what makes everything hard. Someone once said that an organised person is the one who plans 80% of the time and 20% is carrying it out. so i had to research and see how i can improve myself, preparation is the key. And in terms of food here is what i do;

1. prepare my meals before i sleep. Preparing the things that will not perish or not be fresh the next day. Foe example, for salads, prepare the veges the day before and then refrigerate. When you are ready to eat you just add dressing. Microwaveable food containers will come in handy. If the food needs warming, you just put it in the microwave and they are ready to eat.

2. plan your meals well in time. For you to prepare the food, you got to have a plan, a meal plan of what you will be eating. This will help you to have a variety of meals, know what to buy when you go shopping an also help you with eating at the right times. Most of the time i just eat any junk because there is no binding schedule or plan to show me what i should be eating, so anything that is quick and near is OK. Planning is the solution to finding yourself in the McD drivethru.

Today's meal

I ate the same thing for lunch and dinner, There is room for improvement.. Okay here is what i should have done, i should have separated the food,i should have ate the green salad and the fish together and the other salads together. Well,Next time!

The green salad
Ingredients
Tomato
Green Pepper
Cabbage
Cucumber
Lettuce
Vinegar
Olive oil
Black pepper
*for this salad, what ever that works for you, this is what works for me.
Directions
Slice the tomatoes, cabbage, green peppers into strips and the cucumber cut them in a normal way. The lettuce should be cut into small chew-able pieces. Mix everything in a salad bowl, then add vinegar and droplets of olive oil to taste and some black pepper to taste. Its ready!

Beetroots salad
Ingredients
Beetroots
Onions
Sugar
Salt
Vinegar
Directions
Boil beetroots until they are well cooked. Peel them and grate them. Slice a quarter of an onion into thin strips and put them in the grated beets. Add a spoon of sugar and a pinch of salt to the beets then add vinegar and mix it all together. Done.

Pumpkin salad
Ingredients
Pumpkin
Sugar
Butter
Directions
Wash the pumpkin, then add a small amount of water, like 3 tablespoons of water and add some sugar, around three table spoons. When the pumpkin is ready and well cooked, add butter to it and mash it until its soft like shown in the picture. You have your pumpkin salad

 Potatoes
Ingredients
Potatoes
Olive oil
Pepper
Salt
Directions
Peel potatoes and cut them into small pieces and boil them, when they are just about ready, add some olive oil droplets and let them fry a bit, add pepper and salt to taste and they are ready.

Steamed Salmon Fish
Ingredients
Salmon
Lemon/ vinegar
Salt
Pepper
Olive oil
Directions
Rub the salmon with lemon or vinegar, pepper, salt and olive oil, then steam the fish until its ready. After the fish is ready, i dish it on a bed of onions because of the smell.

 The complete dish!

I will write about how i plan my meals and what i have for snack tomorrow! God bless!

Changes...A healthy lifestyle!

My tertiary school life was filled with the desire to be healthy, but it never happened. I always had excuses to give or maybe i was just not faithful enough to my planned routines. Keeping healthy requires a lifestyle change, discipline and determination. Its challenging and one can be easily discouraged by the slow change and unnoticeable changes that are taking place. So one needs to be determined to embark in this journey of no return.
A desire to change was all i had and it remained as a desire. I kept on postponing it to a further date with quite reasonable(to me anyway) excuses; i still have more time, let me enjoy this time for now, school life does not allow such commitment, my housemates will be affected if i change my lifestyle, i do not have enough money to support the new life and many more.Are they reasonable?

These excuses costed me four years filled with a fruitless desire to change my lifestyle to become more healthy. I am in my final year now still... no change. I am still the same Pamela i was, but i feel robbed by my own excuses and procrastination. I desire to feel different and look different as well as do things differently but i just never seem to start and commit to my routines. I had to develop a new approach and tactic towards this. Do you know why i stress this too much? Because if affects my whole life; my decisions, my ambitions, what i can or cannot do, my husband and kids will also be affected by this. If i can't start living a healthy lifestyle right now, what makes me think i will be able to when i am much older, having too many responsibilities and other people's lives to think about? really, how will i be able to make such changes with all those responsibilities if i can't make them now when i only have myself to think about?tell me, how???

Healthy lifestyle
To me this encompasses every department of my life; physical health, finances, mental health, spiritual life, social life, family, friends dreams and all other things that are my life. Healthy means balanced to me, being in a good state, organised, functioning wealth, ready to defend when problems come. That is healthy to me and a healthy lifestyle is achieving all that in every department of my life. is it feasible? i say YES. A BIG FAT YES!! because through Christ i can do all things because its HIM who gives me strength. NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE! and you what, i am going to achieve all this. I am determined to go through the changes, because in order to change,i gotta go through some changes. Pastor William Murphy III, changes. That's ma song! I have decided that i will blog about this. and whoever wants to join or start up their own changes journey, do it. It might not be the same as mine but you do feel that you need a change in your life. Do it. it might be breaking free from the lifestyle of drinking, smoking and clubbing, do it. it might be running away from what you know you are suppose to do, do it. It might be turning your life around and surrendering to God, do it. It might be getting a job and starting a responsible lifestyle, do it. Taking care of that child that you abandoned for such a long time, do it You. Taking your walk with Christ more serious, do it. You know the changes you need in your life. Go right ahead and do it. Through CHRIST you can do all things.

Here are some of the photos of what i ate today for lunch as a new start in a new day to a new lifestyle. 1 Corinthians 6: 19-20....my body is the Temple of the Holy spirit who is in me..... i am changing my diet!

An attempt of

chef salad

Ingredients

Broccoli

Cauliflower

Carrots

salt

Olive oil

Chicken breasts

Directions

Cut some broccoli and cauliflower into mouth fitting chunks and  thin slice carrots then steamed all the veges together. Add a  pinch of salt and droplets of Olive oil. 

With the chicken, cut it into strips then boil ity to cook. Add droplets of oil to brown it a bit. Then toss it around salad to give it the meaty touch. It ready!

Yogurt Coleslaw

Ingredients

Cabbage

Tomatoes

Cucumbers

Natural yogurt

Directions

Thinly slice raw cabbage would for normal coleslaw, cut the tomatoes into strips and  slice the cucumbers normally. Mix them together in a salad bowl and add some raisins and dress them with natural yogurt. And you have your meal. 

please overlook the presentation of the food, it will improve with time.

My breakfast was just a banana raisins milk shake which unfortunately i didn't snap.
Banana Raisins Milkshake
Ingredients
Banana
Soya Milk (any milk you prefer)
Raisins

Directions
Cut the banana into three pieces then put in the blender, throw in some raisins, half a hand full will be enough. Pour a 3 quarter full cup of milk. then blend until its smooth. You got yourself a banana raisins

Be blessed!!!

You Called...

This is a poem i wrote in one of our church camps, Bible conference March 11-13 2011 to be exact. Check it out:

You called and i heard your voice
Heard it but not for myself
I heard your voice for my brethren and my friends
For my sister seated at the right corner
For my brother in the yellow shirt
You called and i heard your voice
but not for myself

You called and i heard your voice
but i was busy looking at the latest fashion
I was still trying to update myself with the latest news on yahoo
"who did what, where and why"
I was caught up with makeup nails and twee-zing my eye brows

you see when your call came my nails were still wet with nail polish to answer your call
I still had 5 more lines to go on my cornrows
I was still undecided on which shade of pink will go perfectly with my eye shadows
you called
and i heard
but i was still busy

you called and i heard your voice
But i couldn't respond.
My skirt was too short for me to kneel down
I had my 'Sissy Boy'  white pants on, to kneel down
When you called i couldn't answer though i heard your call

God you called and i couldn't answer
'cause brother man was still checkin' me out, for me to break down in tears of repentance
Daddy when you called, i heard you but i had a reputation to protect
I had 'Self' to worry about

Oh Lord you called for me, but i had all sorts of reasons why i couldn't answer
By now Daddy please call again
cause
i have all sorts of reasons to answer
call again cause self is dead

Many times we hear God call us in different ways but we always have reasons to NOT answer the call. It could be our lifestyles, our circle of friends, our habits that we are still nursing or our sins we still wanna hold on to.

But God does call for us, through that sister who is always bothering you about coming to church, through that brother who always tells you that Jesus loves you, through that classmate of yours who invites you to endless programs in your church, through that desire you always have to want to change through that still small voice from within that tells you the time of change is now. God wants you and He call for you just as you are but The decision is your, will you answer the call??
He says "Here I am i stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, i will come in and eat with Him and he with me." Revelations 3:20. Will you answer the call?will you open the door and let Him come in? Will you invite Him in your heart? in your life?

Why don't you pray this prayer and answer the call, and invite Jesus into your life
say " Dear God
        I admit that i am a sinner
        please forgive me and change me
        I acknowledge that Jesus Christ died on the cross for my sin,
        and came to life again on the third day
        Right now,
        I invite Jesus to my life.
       And i accept Him as my personal Lord and Savior
       Amen"
If you have prayed that prayer, congratulations!! you are now a born again child of God " If any man be in Christ, He is a new creation. Old things have passed away behold all things are become new." 2 Corinthians 5: 17. You have answered the call and have welcomed Jesus to dine with you. I encourage you to take another step of faith and look for a Bible teaching church and join the family of God. The Bible says there is Joy in Heaven as you give your life to Christ, (Luke 15:7). A welcome Home party just for you. Congratulations!!!

I would also like to hear form you about write me at  lrtmolema@yahoo.com and tell me about your experience. Once again CONGRATULATIONS!!!

Lemon Water 

My friend cousin gave me this little tip that is well spoken of; drinking lemon water before breakfast. That might not sound too appealing but the benefits of this tip are wonderful.


Lemon water has a lot of benefits to your health and even your skin. 

     'It triggers hydro-chloric acid production which happens to   be a great help in food digestion.'

Hydro-chloric acid helps in breaking down of foods to enable digestion and better absorption. The molecules of food that enter the stomach are quite big, if they are not broken down, digestion will hardly take place and most definitely, no absorption.

'it gives your metabolism to a great boost for the day'

as we grow older, our metabolism slows down and this will lead to gaining of weight. Lemon water is one of the ways to give your metabolism a boost to avoid any effects of a slow metabolism.

'it helps the Liver function much better'

The bitterness of the mixture helps the liver in its function and detoxification. If the liver is not functioning well, a lot of complications may arise; low energy, poor complexion, hormonal imbalance to mention a few. So the liver needs to be active and healthy, just so you know, the liver cannot be replaced long term.

Try this, warm water with a squeeze of lemon (amount depending on how much bitterness you can withstand) and drink up 20 minutes before you take your breakfast. Note that after a few days of using this tip, you might feel a little worse, CHILLEX, this is due detoxification that maybe your liver hasn't been able to do well. After that time of feeling worse, there will be great benefits.


Try it, give it time and enjoy its awesome benefits!!! 


Remember 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 "¹⁹ Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; ²⁰ you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies."

 God bless you

Wordless wednesday

The treasures that are hidden

Its been a long time i know, bit this post will explain why...in a way!
When we talk of treasure our minds run to jewelry, money, etc. But i have come to realize that those are really not treasures but they can be stealer's of true treasure. We tend to trade the true treasure for these things and then we get to mistake them for treasure. Treasure simply means valuable things! what is valuable to you? How have you been showing that it is valuable?

There is a system in the world that we get assimilated in, its as if at birth you are already incorporated in it. Here are the stages in the system:
1. Get an education
2. Get a job
3. Get a house and a car
4. Get married and have a family
5. Accumulate more of the houses and cars as well as a lot of money.
6. Get some status in the community or socially
7. Raise your kids to follow the same cycle
How many of us are on the track of fulfilling this cycle? i Know, a lot.But is this it? i mean life? is this as good as it gets? shouldn't there be more to it?
The truth is that there is more to life and there is more to living than just accumulating wealth and becoming somebody to other somebodies. The devil has trapped us in this fast lane life that we don't even see the precious things in life: People, family, friends, bonding times, serving others, bringing hope to the hopeless, bringing a smile to the gloomy faces, enjoying nature and its beauty (taking sometime to smell the roses), being nice to others for no reason, helping out the poor etc..you get the drift! Doing things that will bring fulfillment to you and change lives.

I have come to know that time is treasure, people are treasure, family is treasure, peace is treasure, joy is treasure, happiness is treasure.ITS IS THE SMALL THINGS THAT MATTER!!!

Just indicate, look at your mirrors for behind vehicles and shift lanes, get on the slower lane. Take some time off your busy schedule,park your car by the road side, talk to that Old lady selling oranges, ask her how she is doing, encourage her, pray for her hug her and tell her how important she is!

Miss that huge conference, get your child from school, take them to the playground, get dirty with them and enjoy their company, be a child once again!

Cook a nice carefully prepared meal, get your car and pick as many street kids as you can, invite them into that marble floored living room of yours, let them seat on those suede velvet dining chairs of yours and treat them as high class visitors with your meal!

Get off the fast lane and enjoy your life, feel your heart with joy for once instead of your pockets or your bank account. We miss out on life running after things that will never bring us true fulfillment. Love, serve, spend time, pray for people. Thats how Jesus spent His time!!!!

True treasures are Hidden, find them in your own life and go after them, you will never regret it!!!