Proverbs Blog-Along Day 15

Sooooooooo, it's time for us to pick up where we left off.

DAY 15
These are the verses that stood out to me...

15For the despondent, every day brings trouble; 

for the happy heart, life is a continual feast.

16Better to have little, with fear for the lord,

than to have great treasure and inner turmoil.

Verse 15 is so right. Your attitude determines how you see life, and what happens to you. I've been like that before, where I saw things negatively and would see the bad in every situation, thereby blowing up problems into gigantic catastrophes. If you're happy and live with that outlook, you'll always have a cause to be thankful and celebrate. Verse 16 is also a good one. Imagine having all the money you can imagine times infinity, but you don't have inner peace. There's really no point.

17A bowl of vegetables with someone you love

is better than steak with someone you hate.

I heart this verse right here. What's the point of having riches, and the best things in life, if you're sharing it with someone you hate or dislike? I hear about a lot of Nigerian women who want the good life - designer this or that, and end up marrying men they can't stand. At the end of the day, they're really miserable, if you think about it.

22Plans go wrong for lack of advice; many advisers bring success.

31If you listen to constructive criticism, you will be at home among the wise.

32If you reject discipline, you only harm yourself; but if you listen to correction, you grow in understanding.

Mehn, these verses pack a punch! It can be applied to all facets of life - business, education, personal development and more. How can you grow if you don't get advice or listen to constructive criticism? The only way to grow is by learning, and there'll always be one person or another that you can learn from, whether it's a mentor, pastor, parent, friend, financial adviser, etc.

Any thoughts or other verses from this chapter you like?

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E-book Review: GET U.G.L.Y

Hey y'all,

I was given the opportunity to read this e-book by Adaeze Obiako (who blogs over at Deserve Your Great Life). Her blog is a series of inspirational posts with a Christian perspective, that discuss topics to aim to help you live a Happy and Fulfilled Life.

She recently published her first e-book, which you can get on her blog for FREE! The title first strikes you - GET U.G.L.Y. She turns the word "UGLY" into an acronym that stands for Unconditionally Grateful Looking like You.

Source

The introduction tells Ada's story of growing up in high school feeling less than pretty. Fast forward to college, and she became the IT Girl, which surprisingly left her feeling more insecure. (You know how that can be - you begin to feel pressured to look, dress, act a certain way to keep up pretty appearances).

The book then goes on to list ten steps, one per chapter, on how to live a life that makes you look and feel better about yourself. This is not a how-to apply makeup, what-to-wear, trends-to-follow kind of book. Rather, the steps range from Smile to Limiting Time Spent on Social Media and even Accepting Compliments Graciously (which I have a hard time with sometimes).

Apart from the title, one of the first things that struck me were the colors and illustrations. They're fun and quickly draw you in. The book was quite easy to read, and one can easily breeze through it. However, it does give you food for thought, as the theme really deals with learning to love yourself and putting your best, confident foot forward.

I would recommend that you visit Ada's blog and download Get U.G.L.Y for FREE. In fact, I would print some copies and pass around to teenage girls, who are just coming into their own. With the abundance of hypersexualized celebrities and idols out there, our young women need a resource like this book to help filter out the noise and learn to love themselves for WHO they are.

This is a great first effort from Ms. Obiako and I can't wait for more from her.

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Ebola Virus: The What, Where, How and more

This is particularly for my African readers; more specifically those in West Africa. However, just because you're in other parts of the world, this is information that may be helpful because of air travel. Most of the information listed here is from the World Health Organization (WHO) and Centers for Disease Control (CDC) websites.

I'm going to make this as easy as possible to read, because I know some people just don't have the attention span to read a whole bunch. I don't even have the attention span to write out everything. If you want more info, just click on the any of the websites above.

Back like I never left!

Hey there pretty people!

Thanks so much for your kind words on my last post. The funeral went well, and everybody got back to their various homes safely. Cakes and I then embarked on a road trip of sorts across Southern Nigeria for rest, relaxation and friends' weddings. It literally felt like we were traveling every other day!

TUESDAY: Drove from Warri to PH
WEDNESDAY: Day trip to Owerri to visit my awesome grandparents
FRIDAY: Day trip to Uyo for my friend's traditional wedding
MONDAY: Drove back to Lagos from PH

As in, thank God for the public holiday cos we got to rest on Monday evening, and for the better part of Tuesday. I feel refreshed and ready to conquer the world!!!

Sporadic blogging for the next week

Hello everyone,

I just wanted to let you know that you may not hear from me for the next week or so. Unfortunately, Cakes lost his father in early May very suddenly (I alluded to it in this post). It was a big shock to everyone and very unexpected. The family's doing better now but the funeral was this weekend.

Kindly keep us all in your prayers. We're praying for protection, good health, grace, strength, peace, journey mercies, etc.

Thanks and God bless.

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