The day before, I had been awfully busy with preparations for my older brother's wedding. I got back and had to make my hair and also do some laundry. I hadn't had my "I just got back from school, please allow me" sleep. At this point, I felt like my head was going to snap open if I didn't. I had just slept for a while after struggling for a long time when my mum came to my room and woke me up to dress up. At this point, I'm like "what"?!!! Apparently, my brother who hadn't been feeling too well for quite a while now had to be taken to the hospital, and I was supposed to be the "delegate" if they needed someone to stay with him. I wasn't too happy about it, but hey! My brother needed me. After all the "hospital waka", we finally got home around past 11. You can imagine how I felt at this point. I didn't even bother to eat anything cos at this point I'm quite hungry but the sleep is much more important. I scramble into bed and like a baby, I sleep.

The next morning, my mum comes into the room to wake me up by past 5 asking if I'm still following her for her graduation. The sleepiness I feel cannot be explained even though I'm just waking up. She's now like "if you don't want to go, you could just stay back. I can see you're really tired". Knowing the kind of person my mum is, she didn't mean it for me to stay. I saw the sadness in her eyes and so I agreed to go with her. I sacrificed my sleep just to make her happy cos I know she's sacrificed a lot just to make me happy. Today's topic I'd on SACRIFICE. Sacrifice is giving up your comfort zone and things that please you just to make the other person happy. It's the quality of putting the other person 1st other than yourself. The world we live in today is a selfish one, and nobody cares how the other person feels. As Christians, we should embrace the life of sacrifice as that is the major reason why we are where we are. If God acted like you when he was meant to give up his son just for your sake, do you think you'd be here today?

Ponder on this and let's show that our Christianity isn't just a way to classify us but it's indeed who we truly are.

Have you ever been to Balogun market on Lagos island, Nigeria? (For those reading this that aren't Nigerians,  you might not relate at this point).  I'm sure you might have been really frustrated with how people just push you like no man's business.  I know it's a market and all but hey!  Don't behave like you pushing me is your freaking right to own the whole road.

I'm normally a courteous person not just to my elders but also to my mates and people I'm older than.  So I'm in the market with my mum buying stuff and this woman comes from nowhere and literally just pushes my mum and I.  In my head I'm like "What the hell"?  Normally  I'd just forget it since she's elderly but she just made matters worse by saying" Ehn what do you want me to do"? I just shouted that she should apologize at least.  Well, she didn't but people around apologized because the way she pushed us was just not it.

Another scenario

I wake up My mum wakes me up this morning to help her do something online.  I know this means I'm not going to smell my bed again till I'm done with all I have to do.  Now,  someone just keeps banging on our house gate,  literally banging the gate. Even when I'm shouting "I'm coming",  this person doesn't actually care but keeps banging.  At this point, I'm forced to shout cos my mum is also getting irritated by this.  I open up and I see that it's a family friend so I have to put on a smile and show I'm welcoming.  This person now says "why are you now angry"? and I'm like I'm not angry but you shouldn't have kept on banging the gate when I already said I was coming.  Courtesy demands you apologize for causing a nuisance,  right?  But nah... Some of us just think it's our right to be plain rude but we don't tolerate when others are rude to us. Some of the quarrels that occur could be easily avoided if you're at least courteous to the other person. Please let's learn to use the words "please,  excuse me,  sorry,  thank you,  pardon me". Being a courteous person is something that will take us a long way and attract great people towards us. 

I remember one time when I was to have an exam on a Friday and I had just found out on Tuesday that I had not even registered the course, but I had been going for lectures and I was signing class attendance. At this point, I didn’t even know what to do! I got back to my hall to get my ATM card to withdraw and pay for an analysis I had to do before Saturday which was when I was meant to go home. On getting to the room, I noticed that the last person to leave the room didn’t drop the key at our usual spot. My head was blank at this point and I couldn’t feel any emotion. I later found the key, got what I needed and raced to class. I met my course adviser and he tried to help. Apparently, the portal to add the course was open and he had approved it, but it wasn’t just showing on my final registration page. I just kept praying that God should help. I went to the building where the office of the course coordinator was and when I reported my situation, he said it wasn’t in his power and that I had to go CSIS (the office in charge of the portal management). I went there and I was referred to this office of the Director of Academic planning unit. I was told to write a letter to him, through my HOD, through my course adviser. I did all of that and when it was time for my dept HOD to sign, he wasn’t on seat. My Lecturers and friends kept telling me to calm down that everything was going to work out well. The HOD eventually came back at around to 5, and after interrogating me about the issue, the signed the letter. It was too late to dispatch the letter to its final destination that day. I got back to my room and slept, not bothering to eat anything. My appetite for food was somewhere hanging in limbo. I woke up and started reading for my tomorrow’s paper. Checking through my laptop, I saw that I had saved a couple of screenshots from twitter of bible passages and when to use them. I searched for the ones relating to worry and I came across Psalm 46: 10;

“Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathens, I will be exalted in the earth”

And 1^st John 5: 14;

“And this is the confidence that I have in him that anything I ask in his name he hears me”. I keyed into these passages and I worshipped and praised God.

The next day, I went to the dept where I dropped the letter and I was told that it had not yet been dispatched since I brought it late. I chilled in my Lab to study for the general paper I had that day. When I went back to ask about how far the letter had gone, I was told it had been sent and I needed to follow it up at the office. It was already too late to go to the office for the follow up because I had an exam in the next 10 mins.

When I got there the next day, I met the secretary and I explained what happened. She asked for my name and was like my own letter had not been brought yet, but I should sit and wait. I prayed in my heart for favor and she later found my letter. She told me to come back the next day and when I got there I received it immediately. She told me that the person-in-charge wasn’t around yet but I should drop my name and come back the next day because it would have been granted. I went to thank God for everything.

Results came out for that semester but I didn't see a result for that course. Apparently I found out the letter got lost in transit. I was so devastated that I didn't know where to even start from. I prayed that God should send helpers my way because I that point I was utterly confused. Definitely, he did send helpers. After months of praying/fasting, the whole issue got sorted out. Like how it happened, I don't even know but I'm just grateful.

All through this period, I did not lose foresight of who my God is even when the situation seemed like all hope was lost. I trusted my God to be greater than any challenge that life threw at me. This is for someone; it may seem like you're at the edge of the cliff, about to be thrown off. Remember God has never failed, and he's not about to start. Don't try to wrap your head around how he is going to do it, because his ways are not our ways. Hold on. Your testimony is on the way!