He was the son of a poor preacher. He was considered to be a sensitive but morbid child. His schoolmaster labeled him, “A stupid blockhead.” He earned a collage degree, but graduated at the very bottom of his class. He was rejected from becoming a preacher. He tried law, and again was rejected. He borrowed a suit of clothes to take an examination to be an assistant in a hospital, and then failed at that as well.
He lived in poverty, was often ill, and once, even pawned his clothes for food. The one thing he wanted to do more than anything was to write. And so he forged a new trail. In the end, Oliver Goldsmith rose above his past to rank among the greatest writers of all time.
Richard Hooker worked for seven years on his humorous war novel, M*A*S*H, only to have it rejected by twenty-one publishers before Morrow decided to publish it. It became a runaway bestseller, spawning a blockbusting movie and a highly successful television series.
After having lost both legs in an air crash, British fighter pilot Douglas Bader rejoined the British Royal Air Force with two artificial limbs. During World War 11 he was captured by the Germans three times – and three times he escaped. Are you there? Am not sure you got that. He escaped on each occasion with artificial legs. You can see the power of determination.
It was Orison Swett Marden who said, “You must back up your ambition by your whole nature, by unbounded enthusiasm and determination to win that knows no failure.” There is no doubt some men and women will want to puncture that determination, but they will succeed if only you let them.
In their Book, Don’t Quote Me – What People Said And Then Wished They Hadn’t, Don Atyeo and Jonathon Green writes, “Addressing his audience in the Berliner Tageblatt on July 12, 1914, Prof. Hans Friedenthal of Berlin University stated his opinions in the evolution of ‘the new woman’ in an era of suffragism and higher education. ‘Brainwork will cause her to become bald, while increasing masculinity and contempt for beauty will induce the growth of hair on the face. In the future, therefore, woman will be bald and wear long moustaches and patriarchal beards’”
Goke Ilesanmi writing in Financial Standard said, “It is a truism that irrespective of what we do and how perfectly we think we have done it, criticism is inevitable. Criticism is even so celebrated that we have different categories of critics.”
According to the man who modernized the production of automobiles Henry Ford “I cannot discover that anyone knows enough to say definitely what is and what is not possible.” Never dwell in your past.
To our success!
– Uju Onyechere
Some major issues that threaten healthy family life are the hurts and failures of the past. I refer to hurts and failures as one because the points at which one fails usually becomes a hurt on the mind and it keeps haunting you preventing your progress.
For instance, if your husband used to be a non-resident father who will only come home after spending his earnings on loose and riotous living like the prodigal son. But, unlike the prodigal, he kept going back to his vomit month-in, month-out till he contracted HIV which brought him to his senses and back to God and then home.
Maybe your situation is not that grievous, your wife simply embarrassed you amidst your peers when she said something out of turn and since then you’ve been afraid to take her out to public functions. Perhaps, it’s your son that brought shame to the home when he jilted your family-friends’ daughter.
God’s panacea comes to all ailing families today. Those hurts and failures belong to the past, so LEAVE THEM THERE! Don’t carry yesterday’s burdens into today. The sinner has repented before God and received forgiveness; this is the most important part of the matter. If your heavenly Father has forgiven him/her then you need to follow suit as His child. God forgives every sinner who comes to Him in repentance. ‘If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness’1 And for the saints that have erred in someway in the past, God’s position is clear- ‘My dear children, I write these things so you may not sin, and if anyone does sin, we have a counsel for our defense in the Father’s presence, Jesus Christ the righteous one’.2
Forgiveness came by the cross, that’s where God dealt with the sin problem of humanity forever. He punished our sins- past, present and future in Jesus. There remains no more sacrifice for sins than that which has been made- Jesus died. Thus, God has legal grounds for forgiving and forgetting our sins.
Therefore, we ought to extend grace to this repentant member of our family, STOP viewing the person in the light of the past because God does not do that, He Himself took our sins far from us as far as the east is from the west. The way to deal with past hurts or failures is to take on God’s view point which was displayed in the story of the prodigal; His father ran to meet him and threw a welcome party as though the boy had been a good ambassador of the home all the while. He believed the best of the boy and treated him like a king. Love covers a multitude of faults and expects the best always. Show God’s love; don’t let what has happened in the past affect your family relationship and you’ll realize as you choose to extend grace that it’s not as difficult as you thought because you’ve been wired to live and act like God- your Father.
Scriptures:1 1John 1:9, 2 1John2:1
ASSIGNMENT: Read the story of the prodigal son once again [Luke 15:11-32] and post your comments about the love displayed by his father and the elder brother’s approach to the matter.
– Dr ifelayo ojo
USA Past Leaders Comment on The Bible
Today, we know the United States of America as one of the strongest and wealthiest nation in the world. But do you know that what we see today in USA is a reflection of some of the seeds that were sown by their past leaders. Here are a few comments from some of the past respected leaders in the United States that reveals the kind of people they were:
“It has been my custom for many years to read the Bible in its entirety once a year” (John Quincy Adams).
“A thorough knowledge of the Bible is worth more than a college education” (Theodore Roosevelt).
“If we abide by the principles taught by the Bible, our country will go on prospering” (Daniel Webster).
“I believe the Bible is the best gift that God has ever given to man. All the good from the Savior of the world is communicated to us through this Book. I have been driven many times to my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had nowhere else to go” (Abraham Lincoln).
“It is impossible to rightly govern the world without God and the Bible” (George Washington). (ibid)
Dear reader, cherish this great treasure you have that is called the Bible. Live by its principles and spread the impact wherever you are. Let some other men read your good quote about the bible when you are gone.
okenna obi-igbokwe