Many have been sent to early graves because they entrusted their lives in relationships they did not test. Many visions have been stolen and hijacked by unfaithful friends, associates and partners. Many have been ruined financially due to undue trust in others. There are so many Delilahs and Judases out there today, so before you start trusting, test the trust.

Don’t be in a hurry to start sharing your life’s secrets with someone you hardly know because he has an angelic look. Don’t reveal your trade secret to someone who has not earned your trust. Don’t commit your resources into the hands of an untested workers. Even God does not commit resources into the hands of untested fellows.

Subject that relationship to the test of prayer, time, small assignments, and your gut feeling. Pray about the relationship before you go deeper. Allow good time to pass before taking the relationship to another level. Don’t be ruled by your emotion. Keep your senses alert. The signs are usually there, we just ignore them. Start with small resources and test their integrity and sense of responsibility. If they are not faithful in little, they can’t be faithful in much. Follow your spirit or gut feeling or your sixth sense. It is rarely wrong.

Summarily, don’t be in a hurry to speed up any relationship, subject it to all kinds of test.

God bless us all.

Good morning Africa!

Good morning Nigeria!

As I sat last night listening and watching dignitaries and ordinary people alike from different races, religion and creeds, making glowing tributes, eulogies, and farewell speeches about Muhammad Ali (the greatest) at his home-going ceremony, I couldn’t help crying and wishing he could hear all that was being said. I picked a few lessons from this farewell ceremony. Here are some :

Ali was from rural Kentucky, a heavily segregated part of America. He grew up in the midst of prejudice and racism. Yet he loved both black and white. He never acted out his experience in the hands of racist on anyone. He just loved humanity. Don’t let past abuses, sufferings and persecutions color your sense of love and respect for people. Forgive, Forget and Forbear.

Ali hated injustice and he fought injustice. He was asked to join the US army to fight in Vietnam. He objected saying it should be his choice, and he cannot go to fight innocent people when his people were suffering at home. His defiance of the State caused him to lose all his prized possessions, including his titles and boxing license in 1967. He was banned from the Rings and remained so for three years. This did not kill him. It only strengthened him to fight injustice the more as he used this period to make speeches while also appealing his conviction. Nothing can kill you, unless you allow it.

Ali was bold, often referred to as being brash. His sojourn into boxing started with the loss of his bicycle. He told Joe Martin (the white policeman he reported to about his stolen bicycle), that he wanted to beat up the thief who stole his bicycle. Joe Martin advised him to learn how to fight before challenging people and thus began his boxing lesson at the age of 12. Joe turned out to be his first trainer. You need boldness in life to succeed.

Ali knew and used the power of positive words to the best of his advantage. He kept singing it to the world ‘I am the greatest’ and truly he attained such greatness that remains unmatched both in and out of the Rings, even Parkinson couldn’t deny Ali of that greatness. What do you tell yourself everyday? Ali was indeed an apostle of positive confession. He confessed himself into greatness.

Ali never allowed defeat to knock him out. He suffered defeat in the hands of Larry Holmes, Joe Fraser, Michael Spinks and others. After each defeat, Ali would immediately go back to the gym and immersed himself in Training. He held the world title three times through his tenacity. He never gave up on himself, even after he was diagnosed of Parkinson disease in 1984. Ali didn’t commit suicide unlike most celebrities, as the disease took control of his body. He was in control of his mind and took to social activism, peace making and philanthropic engagements. Even Parkinson couldn’t defeat Ali, as he lived with it for 32years! So what is your excuse?

Ali was full of endurance. He had the reputation of tiring out his opponent. He could fight on for the entire 15 rounds in a boxing bout. Friend, develop your strength and stamina. Life will knock you down if you don’t have stamina.

I could go on and on. Ali made me love boxing and it remains my number one sport. He brought a lot of charisma and energy into the boxing ring. His popular words ‘float like a butterfly and sting like a bee’, became a terror to his opponents.  Ali was great indeed. Death can’t deny him of his greatness, for even in death, his greatness still speaks.

Ali’s life is a challenge to all of us. Regardless of your background, color or race, you can be great. Especially for the black race, we can rise above every primordial sentiments and excuses and achieve the greatness God has destined for us. It is time to stop the senseless bickering and power struggles. It is time to amaze the world with our gifts and talents. Nothing can stop us except we allow it. May his soul rest in peace.

God bless us all.

Good morning Africa!

Good morning Nigeria!

There is the Glory of the Sun, there is the Glory of the Moon, and there is the Glory of the Stars. These are all different Glories, yet they are all Glories. The Moon cannot perform the work of the Sun. The grace of the Moon is to provide light at night and would lose its importance or relevance during the day. Likewise the Sun, it will be an anomaly for the Sun to come out at night. It will hurt nature. The moon cannot provide the kind of illumination the stars provide at night. They are beautiful in their splendor. None is greater than the other, but they each function most in their time and space.

You have your own Glory too. You have your grace. God gives us grace as He wills and according to our different abilities, so there is no need to envy the Glory or Grace of another. You don’t need to struggle with another person to shine. You will shine in your own space. The Sun doesn’t struggle to shine. It rises gracefully everyday and there is no contention over its effectiveness. Once you find your space, you begin to function with ease and great effectiveness. Your Space is where your grace flows with ease. Your Space is your Calling. Find it.

Therefore, instead of envying the Glory of others, appreciate your own grace and build up on your grace. Sooner than later, your Glory will be seen by all. There is no one created without grace. The problem is we function out of our grace. Who is poor? He is poor who is ignorant of his Grace or who fails to utilize his Grace. May you find your Grace.

God bless us all.

Good morning Africa!

Good morning Nigeria!

You are the major determinant of what you will become in life. Whether you are from a rich or poor background, whether you have strong or weak support, whether you are educated or not, the choice of who you become is yours. You have that veto power to decide who you will become in life. It is not your circumstance, condition, situation, location, but your choice that determines your destination. There is a lion in each one of us, but it requires a decision backed up with action to rouse that lion.

It is not what happens to you that determines who you will be, it is what happens in you. As a man thinks, so he is. If you choose to be great, you will be great. If you choose to be poor, you will be just that. The power to shape our lives has been vested in us by the Almighty. He commanded us to be fruitful, multiply, replenish, subdue and have dominion. He is not unaware of debilitating factors that we will encounter, but He has given us an inherent power to overcome every limitation through the power of our choice.

If you are nowhere near your desired goal today, it is because you have chosen to believe all the excuses that you have allowed to hinder you. Nothing can limit a determined person except God, and He won’t limit you in your pursuit of greatness. In the Biblical tower of Babel, God made a heavy statement in Gen. 11:6, ‘… behold the people is one, and they have all one language ; and this they begin to do, and now nothing shall be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do.’ Powerful statement! In other words, you alone can hinder yourself by your choice and of your choice.

Charlotte Bronte (author of Jane Eyre) said, ‘I am no bird; and no net ensnares me: I am a free human being with an independent will.’ Nothing can ensnare a man who has decided to be great. Nothing can hurt a man who knows where he is going. ‘You don’t get to choose if you get hurt in this world…but you do have some say in who hurts you. I like my choices.’  –  John Green

Your greatest limitation is you. You can be your own best friend or your worst enemy! The Choice is really Yours!

God bless us all.

Good morning Africa!

Good morning Nigeria!

You become like those you associate with. A sheep that walks with the dog will eventually eat dungs. Your life is a reflection of two things, your thoughts and your friends or associates. You are a median of the group of friends you keep. If you keep intelligent people as friends, you will be intelligent. If you keep riff-raffs as friends, you can’t be better than a riff-raff. Don’t be deceived, your friends make you. Even if you are from a noble background, you can lose your nobility by the type of associations you keep. “A king’s son is no nobler than his company.” –  Gaelic Proverb.

The choice of one’s friends is not something you take lightly. You must consciously build your association. If you want to be rich, associate yourself with the rich. I am not teaching you to disdain or despise people of low status. Your duty to them is to help them rise up, not to make them your advisers. The kind of advice, inspirations and dreams you have are oftentimes drawn from the associations you keep. So if you want to dream big, you have got to relate with big dreamers and people who have already done similar things. This is not pride, it is wisdom.

There is a need for you to begin a conscious review of your association with a view to sifting and repositioning yourself. Pigs enjoy staying in the mud, so if you keep a sheep with the pigs, they will drag her into the mud. Breed a dog with cubs of lion and you will be surprised that the dog will grow up as a lion dog. Changing your association is one way of changing your life. “Associate yourself with men of good quality if you esteem your own reputation. It is better be alone than in bad company.” –  George Washington

Find a role model among those who have achieved what you are dreaming of and learn from him or her. Read about great people. Small minds talk about things or people, while great minds make things happen. Leave the company of those who talk about things or people and join the company of those who make things happen.

God bless us all.

Good morning Africa!

Good morning Nigeria!

How reliable are your words? Can people take your word to bank? When you promise, can people take it as done or with a pinch of salt? You are as strong as your promises. A man who does it as he says it, is a man of integrity. Show me a strong man and I will show you a man whose word is a bond. Stephen Richard said ‘Promises are only as strong as the person who gives them.’ Be a promise keeper. Be a strong man.

One of the most important accounts you can draw from, especially in times of trouble is your integrity. Your integrity is derived from your past record of keeping your words or promises. Do you have any integrity? Your integrity creates a Trust Account. It can be in Surplus or Deficit. If you have integrity, you will have Trust Surplus. It is this Trust Surplus that gives you access to help, funds, and resources that others may not have access to, or for which they must pay great prices to access. So don’t joke with your promises. Not keeping your words can lead to Trust Deficit.

Confidence in an unfaithful man in time of trouble, is like a broken tooth and a foot out of joint. (Proverbs 25:19). People don’t rely on promise breakers or covenant breakers. If people can’t rely on you, you would be denied a lot of opportunities in life. You are the one suffering most from your habit of breaking promises. Trust deficit does more harm to you than others. So if you think you are being smart by breaking promises, you are only killing yourself bit by bit.

Knowing that promises are meant to be kept, you may want to be careful before making them. ‘Don’t make promises you can’t keep’ says Elizabeth Hoyt. Don’t force promises out of people too, you are only setting them up for Trust Deficit. One of our problems today is that we vote our leaders to power based on the number of promises they can make, without considering their abilities to keep those promises. We have too many leaders running on Trust Deficit. That is why, even when they have good intentions, they are misunderstood and resisted.

Be careful of people who make too many promises. They will break your heart. ‘Liars make the best promises.’ – Pierce Brown. Only say what you can do and leave the people to make their judgement. If you can’t keep your promise, provide reasons why you can’t. Don’t leave people to guess. Be a promise keeper! Keep your words!

God bless us all.

Good morning Africa!

Good morning Nigeria!

In 2008, Joanne Guidoccio retired from teaching Mathematics after 31 years of teaching to pursue her dream of writing. Most of her colleagues, friends and everyone taught she was crazy. Today she has written a novel, published several articles in newspapers, magazines and online. She spent 31 years living another life and was able to switch to a new life after. Who says you can’t have a career switch?

Friends, it is not too late to pursue whatever dream you have. You may have truly lost time, but time is a continuum and there is still enough of it left to fulfill your heart desires. It is not too late to start a new career. It is not too late to start a new relationship. It is not too late to run for that political position. Every dream carries within it the required energy and drive for its fulfillment. Once the dream is conceived and the pursuit commenced, you will find things gradually falling into places. Don’t give up on yourself, it is not too late.

It is better and nobler to die trying rather than carrying the regret of not trying to your grave. The greatest risk in life is to risk nothing. If there is a risk everyone must take, it is the risk of True Living, which is to find and live out your dream. I would rather die in the pursuit of my dream than stay alive in the safety of someone else’s dream. You must not be limited by age, time or circumstances. You are neither too young nor too old to pursue your dream. Jesus started teaching at 12 and started his ministry at 30! Moses started leading Israel at 80!

You are inexcusable friend. Go find your place in life. Live your dream regardless of your age.

God bless us all.

Good morning Africa!

Good morning Nigeria!