Friday is a time to wine down and rest from all the work done during the week. To some it is a time to regroup for the challenges of the coming week. Is that why you love Fridays and what do you look out for in this Friday?
YOU CAN JUDGE ME BUT…………………….
Yes! you can judge me but I did what I did because I had to do it, even though I can’t look myself in the eye right about now but I did it and that’s it. Really I wish I could detach myself from the girl that I have become but how can I? Biodun had come home that day frustrated after attending another job interview of “we will get back to you later’, she refused to talk to any of us and I just knew she was going to crash if something didn’t come up for her soon. Mum had threatened her a week before that she had to get a job or stop being another mouth to be fed in the house. It wasn’t Mum’s fault either, after training four children all by herself, she deserved to be left alone with her meager salary. She has a house full of graduates with no one having something to call a proper job. She was so understanding when we all came back home one after the other after the NYSC but the house rent had to be paid, four mouths still needed to be fed, bills were to be paid, and of course the four of us had to depend on her for everything. I guess she needed to transfer her frustrations on someone to ease off, Biodun being the eldest daughter was just the scapegoat, the other reason being her refusal to marry the ‘okay’ guys coming around but to wait for a better offer. Don’t blame us yet, we tried, our first Born Deji almost lost his life during the FRSC nationwide recruitment and his right leg had become limped as a result of that, it was only last year that he packed his things to go run ‘whatever things’ with a friend of his in Sagamu.
You could say mum was still fair to me being the youngest but I wasn’t seeing things the way my other two sisters saw it, they wanted it honourably but it wasn’t coming their way, they kept applying here and there but return home perturbed. Kemi my other sister had to take up a crèche assistance with a little money to keep body and soul but Biodun an engineer would have it no other way. our rented two bedroom flat wasn’t what any friend could come visit in, it was all dirty because of all the old stuff, the curtains, chairs and all were just out of description and colour and I envisaged things could go on like that if mum retires next year with nothing to live on from us, she might just die as one unhappy woman who spent her all on the children who were unable to give back. So I developed a plan, girls who work in the big companies weren’t more brilliant than me but were just smarter so I joined the wagon, nobody cares where you work, just make a name for yourself, be the big girl in your own right, share exploits on BBM, FB, TW and maintain it.
You may not know but it happened to me so I know that you attract your kind of personalities, after developing some good moves, people of like minds became my pals, I stared singing in the clubs at least that’s what mum and the rest of them knows but really it’s not that I am sleeping around its just stripping. But oh! Money keeps rolling into my purse, I have a manager who arranges all the places we go but it doesn’t go beyond showing, I actually don’t do sleep around. People believe we are into one creative concept, but you don’t want to know all I do every night. well I am making contacts having met with some bigwigs to get my sisters a job and now, things have really changed. Bills are paid on time, food is in the store, good clothes are being worn, mum smiles more often, though she knows I am doing more than singing but has decided to turn a blind eye. My other sisters are enjoying all of it and I am sure I am getting them something soon because deals are underway. It’s so amazing how you might not be able to see eye to eye with crème de la crème during the day but have them watch you like the blockbuster movie of the century at night.
Well, now my brother has come home having heard of my exploits, I thought he went to run things too but he came back all born again and also as a tutor in a secondary school. According to him, it’s a brand new kind of life, though he looks it but his preaching is so disturbing to my very soul. Business has been very bad for me ever since he came home, mum had become so soft crying to him as if he was God himself, in his own viewpoint, poverty had driven us to a dangerous corner especially mum and my sisters who had rejoiced in my daring acts. He scolded them because they knew I had something up my sleeves other than singing, his words have been hunting us down because we all love each other but what can I do? I don’t want to go back to that life where I can’t even do things I wish to do because I had no money or buy a gift for my mother on her birthday. How many years do I know she has left anyway? And if I keep waiting for things to turn around when will my life start? Deji had explained to us all, that meeting family/personal needs is never an excuse for bad behavior, I don’t know how to tell all of them the actual truth but Deji has helped me to confess it to God. But temptations abound greatly, my contacts are calling me for money and my manager has threatened to dump me, yet no job is forthcoming. Deji says to believe, but it’s hard, he has offered to take me along to his place so as to stabilize in my new faith but it’s not so easy going back to living a life of needs and not wants but you know what; I am climbing my mountain one step at a time. Though you can judge me but…………..it was just that I allowed my feelings to take over the right judgment. If God surely has a better life for me I think I want to hang in there to taste and see whether he is good or not.
Three things you must not be ignorant about!
There are three things you can’t be ignorant about as a shining light in your generation:
ONE: who you are! (Identity) You must get your identity from Christ, let not your circumstances or background or your failures define you. Do you know who you are?
TWO: what you have! (Resources) You must know where your resources are drawn from. We have a God who cares, His name is Jehovah, the ALL
BREASTY ONE. He has all we ever need and he is ever willing to give us all things.
THREE: what you can do? (Capacity) we can do all things through Christ who strenghtens us, Yea in all these things we are more conquerors! From now on there must be an alignment between how God sees you and How you see yourself. Simple, how God sees us is in the bible, How we see
ourselves is by reading and doing what we see in the Bible. Have a beautiful weekend.
EAT AS YOU WILL?
Mobade was that kind of young man, he could eat anywhere, from anyone, at anytime, in any manner, in as much as it is food. Simisola thought it was a joke when they were courting, she just felt it would pass, thinking perhaps; it was because he was single. Some of her friends had complained to her about it, but she just brushed it aside “there is no perfect man”, she told them. But here they are now; three years down the marriage line and Mobade still collects food from friends and colleagues as if he was still in the primary school where begging for food was part of being a pupil.
The recent was when he collected plantain chips from an IT student in his office, Simi walked into the scene and was shocked to see her husband in such a degrading manner. If anything, he was supposed to be the one giving the younger girl something and not collecting from her, this was not just being friendly; some of her husband’s colleagues had notified her that such behaviour of his could make him loose respect in the workplace but mobade has never seen anything wrong in what he does. In fact he sees it as being free with people and being open minded.
When Simi walked into the recent “food collecting” her husband quickly excused himself from the scene but not without telling the IT student “remain small for me o”.
“Why do you keep disgracing me and your family members” Simi raged the moment her husband got back home but Mobade starred at her as if she was not in her right senses. Frustrated, Simi opened the cooler of food she had prepared, took a handful of the vegetable rice and forced it down the throat of the man she had vowed to commit to, all the days of her life “foolish man, here, eat and die” and this led to series of argument, names calling and battering.
For days, neither spoke to each other and this went into months, no one created the room for reconciliation, but Simi was hopeful that this will at least make him sober so as to turn a new leave. On the contrary, this plunged Mobade further into his detestable habit; it was during this time that he met Sandra, a desperate single lady looking for anything called a man to be her husband. By every standard, she was that kind of woman who would cook and the street will begin to vibrate with aroma, she was that of woman whom you would want to eat her food again and again. So getting hooked to Mobade was so cheap to her, she had never understood the phrase “on a platter of gold” until she met mobade who could forget himself, the moment food was set before him.
When she notified her mother of her unusual luck, work had quickly began on his case and before anyone could say……. Sandra had become pregnant, wedding had been arranged in another city for both of them, they needed no family attendance, all was arranged by the mother. Of course Mobade was no longer the man Simi married, he didn’t even know what was happening to him, he only answered to Sandra and her mother. It was at this time, Simi and the rest of his family members began to seek divine intervention for his release from the hold of Sandra and her mother.
Truly, God will divinely intervene in difficult situations but how better would it have been, if he had been involved from the beginning. Finally when Mobade realized he had been dining with the devil, he had become the father of two unplanned children, the husband of a manipulator, three years of his life had been wasted by the enemy, he didn’t even know where to start from or what to do next. Food now became so irritating to him and even hated the sight of it but it was already late, better, if he had hated it the moment he realized that the path he toed could adversely affect his future. It would have been better if he had made the decision he was making now back then when everyone advised him, and it would have been the best if Simi had taken matters to God, at the time she realized it was beyond human efforts to convince her husband from eating as he willed.
I pray for myself and the shinning star reading this that God will help us to be disciplined in the areas of little things we often overlook; such as eating as one wills.
Who is in your circle?
‘Molade checked herself for the “God know knows how many times’’, in the mirror, each time was harder than the previous. She needed to appear ‘up to standard’ enough for the seminar presentation. This wasn’t her first nor second but ever since the twenty second of January, two thousand and seven, she has known better to always dress attractively and conduct herself perfectly or else it would be bad episodes after that.
Her shoes were polished till it sparked, makeup and hair was just perfect like a picture, and the dress had no other definition but cute. Nails had been manicured a day ago, and certainly no food twenty four hours before today, though she felt hunger pangs but that won’t be compared to the accolades if she did appear on her best. She didn’t have the time to rehearse her lines of introduction, main points and conclusion, all she concentrated on was her appearance. When time ran out on her, she stepped out of the house and into the car where the company’s driver had been waiting two hours ago.
She couldn’t get the right words out of her mouth when the driver complimented her looks for fear that something might go wrong with everything she had invested so much to put together. The driver in a way tried to chat her up, he could speak good English and was smiling all the way as if driving her gave him pleasure but she couldn’t just bring herself to talk, they will never understand why she did it and that might affect the way the rest of the day will go.
She heaved a sigh of relief when she saw the bravura Adelaja Williams hall, protocols were everywhere directing people and participants were trooping in, she smiled slightly, these people were waiting for her as the main speaker of the event. Her years of experience, expertise, poise and charm earned her the position of the public relations executive of the nation’s first class mobile communications company- Xiantel communications and today she will tell the gross section of participants how a product can sustain a long lasting reputation in the competitive market.
“Well this is not all there is to me, In case you needed reminding, my name is ‘Molade Akolade, age thirty one, and engaged to be married to Adefemi Williams, regional manager and son to the CEO Xiantel communications.”
(to be continued)