New Year and Its Resolutions

Another New Year and I am extremely grateful to God for seeing us all through to this year... it might be chaotic right now in Nigeria but we will get through this too. I hope you all enjoyed your hols... I did too, I actually spent mine in Warri... and although the town 'dey hot' during the Yuletide  it was still fun-filled.  


I had a chat with a childhood friend in Warri and this post is borne out of that conversation... I hardly make new year resolutions... Its not something I think about doing...oh I did make one and that was 'Jay you will stop drinking alcohol this year' I made that in 2009 and I intend keeping it...someday. But then my friend talked to me about something important, and that is LOVE...AGAPE LOVE and how it outshines and overshadows the other types of love. So this year I am making my new year resolution:

• I will be Forgiving this year: ''...and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us'' Do you know how many times we lie when we pray this prayer? lie to ourselves and lie to God. Well I have decided to stop lying... I have resolved that whatever happens, I'll forgive. One reason we hold grudges is because somehow in our limited thinking it makes us feel like being the person who was wronged automatically makes us 'important'... we want to show off our emotional scars and we glow under the exclamations of 'She/he did that to you???' we enjoy the attention and letting go feels like we are letting the offender off the hook too easy. While for some others we really are deeply wounded and its hard to forgive the offender especially when he/she is someone you trusted with everything. Well this is a new year and in the spirit of love I intend walking in, I am letting go and will let go every wrong both past and present... I may gladly even turn the other cheek. 
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• I will be Trusting this year : hmmm this is the part where I would have to work hardest... I grew up with the mantra 'Dont trust anyone... people would fail you....trust only yourself'  and I have had my own fair share of disappointment that makes that statement seem true. And its easy to fall into the habit of wanting others to earn our trust first before we trust them... we all do this. Its common to hear 'I dont trust people anyhow o...you have to earn my trust first' . Well that is the sensible thing to do... but as for me and in the spirit of love I intend walking in this year, I am giving out trust as a gift. if my heart gets broken in the process, i'll remember my number one resolution. It might sound foolish but if God could trust me enough to allow His son die for me free of charge with the hope that I wil not disappoint him by rejecting that gift He gave that i did not ask for, then I think I also can give trust as a gift to my fellow man. Enough of suspicion, and over analysing and being overly careful.
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• I will Pay-It-Forward:  I realised that I have always had good things happen to me... when ever I find myself in a fix, somehow help comes my way... financially, materially, and even in form of moral support. And as much as I try to reach others in like manner, it has always been at my convenience, when it wasnt too much trouble. Well the year has come for me to start paying it forward. Have you head of the Dead-Sea? It is the only sea that other rivers flow into but No water flows out of the Dead Sea because it is a "closed basin." This means that the water has no way out.  I refuse to be a Dead Sea. Full Stop
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• I will Love: This simply means I will love compulsorily. Whether it is welcomed or not...whether I feel like or not...regardless of if he/she deserves it or not... I'll pray for my enemies and bless them that curse me. I will practise agape love until it flows from me without me thinking about it. 

I guess what I am trying to say is that I'll live this year like I was three (3) years old... resilient as a child. Not caring who offended me 5 mins ago... not being careful for anything... loving the stranger who joins you in the playground without pausing to do a background check first... never weary in doing good. Because come to think about it... doing it the other ways never made life better. Instead it kinda isolated me... 

This way I know I am being careful for nothing and relying solely on God to take care of me and my heart. So help me God.

Enjoy your year lovely people. Don't  forget to do unto others what you want them to do to you

Till the next one. 

Nutty J.