Corner Stones

-->

Seeing the smiles on the faces of the children above, it would be hard to imagine that they were abandoned by people delegated by God  to care for them :(. Those were the thoughts that went through my head while I was at an Orphanage recently (Abuja Children's Home – visit sometime :)) and those thoughts have been filtering in and out of my head all week; Why go through the hassle of carrying a child for nine months, go through the pains of child birth and then give that same child up?...I still can't comprehend it. 

It's really heart shattering when you visit these kids and all they do is hold on tightly to you, craving the love and affection that almost everyone who grew up in an average family takes for granted.  I am not an advocate of abortions but what makes a person who commits abortion at the early stage of pregnancy different from someone who carries it full term and then dumps the child in a dumpster?. What is the huge difference? *confused face*, because in my humble opinion, I think they are very closely related; the difference maybe that in the first instance you have to come to terms with the fact that you "killed" a fetus while in the second instance you live with  an illusion and in an absolute state of denial, thinking a good Samaritan will pick the child up from the dumpster *raised eyebrow*. What if the child dies, is that not the same as "killing" a child?.

I can go on and on with my questions :), but the major thing I and a lot of people (I guess) would want to know is why give up on something you spent nine months of your life nurturing?. Why?

PS: Deviating just a little from my line of questioning :), I would like to suggest that we create a little time out of our verrrryyyy busy schedules to visit these places (Orphanages) from time to time. Trust me, you will feel like a million bucks for putting that smile on the faces of these children, try it…it won’t hurt and they don’t bite :).

“At the end of life we will not be judged by how many diplomas we have received, how much money we have made, how many great things we have done.

We will be judged by 'I was hungry and you gave me to eat, I was naked and you clothed me, I was homeless and you took me in.'

Hungry not only for bread -- but hungry for love. Naked not only for clothing -- but naked for human dignity and respect. Homeless not only for want of a room of bricks -- but homeless because of rejection” - Mother Teresa

“I expect to pass through this world but once; any good thing therefore that I can do, or any kindness that I can show to any fellow creature, let me do it now; let me not defer or neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again” - Stephen Grellet

Smile. 

Dream Weavers

As we grow older, certain words come into play in our lives; such as : Comfort Zones (the inability to try out something totally new or different from your normal everyday routine), and Fear (the increased sensitivity to failure or outright downplay of our Individual strengths). 

We get so engrossed with what the Society expects from us, people's opinion especially concerning our capabilities. 

What happened to those carefree days? When we were fearless enough to try riding a bicycle with or without a helmet, When we could stand up, dust ourselves up after eating "dust" and try again and again until we master the craft of bicycle riding.

Friends

Another article from the archive of Ms. Faith Alfa.

Enjoy :) :

I saw a Blackberry display message a while back that had something to do with Friendship, it made mention of different types of friends;

• There are usually those who will tell you the truth no matter how badly it will hurt.
• There are those who will always tell you what you wanna hear (whether its the truth or not) and;
• There are those who try to 'balance' it out. 

So which would you rather have and which would you rather be? You know with 'truth' sometimes comes 'bitterness' (but the right perspective of things) and when we make people tell us what we wanna hear, we invariably turn them to liars and the lies we hear, may end up causing us to walk into 'life's ditches'. 

And there is the "finding balance" people who mix both, and so seem diplomatic but then with these ones you almost never really know when to listen to them and when not to. 

So which are you up for? The Truth tellers, the Ones who speak to soothe your heart or the Ones who find a balance?

Semira's Reply (Moi) : Please give me the "Truth Tellers" anytime, any day. It may hurt when it being done but eventually these are the people and memories stored up / engraved in my mind's "walk of fame" (never to be erased for saving my a** from that mess I may have blindly walked into :) ).  Besides there is a saying; “Only your true friend tells you when your face is dirty”.

Different strokes for different folks though, so what is your preference?. Please tell :).

Written by Ms. Faith Alfa (Guest Writer) 

Unconditional Love

It feels good to be back (sort of...since am still posting this article via a guest writer :) ).  Well, my "writing juice" has been low for a while now, it seems to come and go as fast as fuel in Naija does (one day its here in abundance and the next its gone bringing with it endless queues). 

Fortunately for me, I got a reliable "black marketer" (Ms. Faith Alfa) who knows where to get a constant supply of fuel (writing juice in this case) and she graciously wrote and forwarded two articles, which am going to share with YOU, my adorable reader :).

Enjoy:

I dunno know where to start but I know I want to write about unconditional love and in all truthfulness when I think of love and the 'unconditional' one for that matter,  GOD comes to mind.

Am guessing if I asked you guys (and girls), the meaning of 'love' you'd all come up with different meanings of love.  When I seat to think of it though, ultimately God is Love. God loves us beyond measure. He is so patient with us. We do all these bad things and because of His nature (which is love), he opens His arms and heart to us when we return to Him.

The Bible gives all these wonderful attributes of love, which as far as I can tell only God is able to give and be. So truly God is Love. Hey, take for example the beauty of being able to wake up, even in the dead of the night, call on God and the 'knowing' that he'd be listening to you, or the concept of knowing a God who never sleeps nor slumber, who'd watch over you, day and night? Or the joy or knowing that he cares so much for you that He gave His only Begotten Son to die for you. I can go on and on but am sure you get it now, the awesomeness of God is beyond words and the depth of His love........... I think, can only be imagined.

God Loves you and me unconditionally.  When you are up remember that He gave You the blessings of being up and when You are down, remember God is always available to lead and help You, (if you are willing to listen) and also that all men ( who you think can help you) are only, but instruments in His hands. Essentially, I hope we learn to value this great gift of Love, unconditionally given to us by God.

Smile.

Written by Faith Alfa (Guest Writer)