Word for the Day: Desperate ?

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Desperate times they say calls for desperate measures but desperate measures could be dangerous…so be careful

because…

When you get desperate, you will be tempted to do stupid things like removing ancient lines, breaking covenants, sacrificing values and destroying yourself, legacy and/or name. So don’t be desperate or stop when you get desperate. #RelationshipMatters

Please…Pray for OK

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Friends – Today as always please pray especially for Oklahoma.

Please…
Pray for OK!
Pray that in the midst of this storm, all impacted will be safe.
Pray that the God of all comfort overshadow everyone in harm’s way in Jesus Name, Amen.
We pray for peace, hope, grace, strength and power for all today, It is well and shall continue to be well, Amen.

We speak to the winds, storms and the air – PEACE, BE STILL!
Prayerfully,
pFlo
Relationships Do Matter
@relationshipsDM

The Touch is Passed – Anon

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The Torch is passed.

Is there a magic cutoff period when offspring become accountable for their own actions?

Is there a wonderful moment when parents can become detached spectators in the lives of their children and shrug,
"It’s their life," and feel nothing?

When I was in my twenties:
I stood in a hospital corridor waiting for doctors to put a few
stitches in my son’s head. I asked, "When do you stop
worrying?" The nurse said, "When they get out of the accident
stage."

My mother just smiled faintly and said nothing.

When I was in my thirties:
I sat on a little chair in a classroom and heard how one of my children talked incessantly, disrupted the class, and was headed for a career making license plates. As if to read my mind, a teacher said, "Don’t worry, they all go through this stage and then you can sit back, relax and enjoy them."

My mother just smiled faintly and said nothing.

When I was in my forties:
I spent a lifetime waiting for the phone to ring, the cars to come home, the front door to open. A friend said, "They’re trying to find themselves. Don’t worry in a few years, you can stop worrying. They’ll be adults."

My mother just smiled faintly and said nothing.

By the time I was 50:
I was sick & tired of being vulnerable. I was still worrying over my children, but there was a new wrinkle–there was nothing
I could do about it.

My mother just smiled faintly and said nothing.

I continued to anguish over their failures, be tormented by their frustrations and absorbed in their disappointments. My friends said that when my kids got married I could stop worrying
and lead my own life. I wanted to believe that, but I was haunted by my mother’s wan smile and her occasional, "You look
pale. Are you all right? Call me the minute you get home.
Are you depressed about something?"

Can it be that parents are sentenced to a lifetime of worry?
Is concern for one another handed down like a torch to blaze the
trail of human frailties and the fears of the unknown?

Is concern a curse or is it a virtue that elevates us to the highest form of life?

One of my children became quite irritable recently, saying to
me, "Where were you? I’ve been calling for 3 days, and no one answered. I was worried."

I smiled a wide smile. The torch has been passed.

~Author Unknown~Story shared by MountainWings.

‘Caught In Between’ – Dami Ige (RDM Contributior)

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Hello All: Long distance relationships (LDRs) are vastly understudied yet seems to be increasing or on an upswing lately. I must admit that technological advancements have made it easier to keep and stay in touch. So many questions, yet so few answers on the common challenges associated with LDRs. Well…

Dami, starts the conversation by capturing the genesis LDRs…read, comment and post your questions. Join the chat on Facebook too (Relationships Matter Group).

"CAUGHT IN-BETWEEN".

I do not believe in “love at first sight”. You wouldn’t be wrong if you say love came looking for me. Sola and I became friends after a brief incident in our University days. In the process of scrambling for the front seat, I stepped on Sola’sinjured leg; he screamed with exaggerated terror that I was frozen with fear. I was shocked and did not know what next todo, I had attracted some attention. Like a bubble split, Iapologized as if my life depended on it. My words fluttered, I stammered and I was sorry.

‘Sit with me’, he said coolly and almost authoritative.

I could feel a rush of emotions sweep across my face. No doubt he fazed me. I wasn’t ready to sit with him but the seats I wanted were all taken so I sat with him resigned, and keeping a distant face. But he worked his charms on me and we’ve become good friends since then.

In our third year, second semester, on a Saturday night,after a film show at the school theatre, Sola walked me to my hostel and that was when he confessed his feelings for me. I was overwhelmed, apart from sola being a sought after, he is a good person in every sense of being good. I am not the sly type. I had always loved and prayed for him. I had good feelings about him. So I told him upfront, minced no word in telling him what I feel for him and our relationship took a new turn that night. We became inseparable except when we need be. We had our struggles but it was all fair. We were nominated for ‘likely to get married’, we won several couple’s awards, and we had moments of pure bliss. It was Shangri-La!

After our service year, life started taking a new turn; it was no more a roller-coaster. We had lots of issues. I wanted to be recognized in my career. He had once confessed my feisty tamed under innocent looks was his first attraction to me. I thought he had always known I would go all out for my job, but he obviously wanted a rather more subtle character in a wife and that was our first real struggle. And that is still not settled yet.

He asked me to dinner one night when he announced his intentions to travel out for his Masters degree. I love sola and I want him to go all out for his dreams, so I didn’t protest much but I was hurting and devastated. We had an informal introduction and he left a month after.

We had it going at first, several video calls, morning and night text messages, it all started fading as time went on. We became engrossed in our different pursuits and we both should take the fall for that. It has been three years now and he is done yet he has no plans to return to Nigeria soon. He has gotten a job and keeps talking about relocation. I love my job here in Nigeria, I enjoy what I do, I had never dreamt of relocating to another country. Still, I am a woman, the pressure is on me, Iand a male colleague are already getting close, I have a bridled affection for him and I’m wondering how long, just how long it is going to take before I let my emotions take over. Sola seems to hold no hope for me anymore.

So what do you think?

Relationship Ideas for Singles & Couples.

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Relationship Ideas/Tips for COUPLES:

  1. Bring her a glass of white grape juice in a goblet. Let her take a drink, then kiss her lips to taste it.
  2. Rent a love story type movie to watch together.
  3. Dedicate a song to her on the radio.
  4. Sign the two of you for dance class.
  5. Pray for each other.

Relationship Ideas/Tip for SINGLES:

  1. Learn to dance.
  2. Learn to enjoy ‘you’ time.
  3. Appreciate yourself.
  4. Be true to yourself.
  5. Eliminate self doubt.

SALAMA – PEACE – Wordsmith (Song)

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Friends, We need PEACE daily to navigate the difficult terrain of life. We have that PEACE in CHRIST.
I remember John Mark who taught us about the deep things of the Spirit in the late 80s and faintly remember attending one of the ECWA churches in the North.
We pray peace over the North of that Nation today.

Please pray and listen to this song (sang in Hausa).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=xGb7weQM-kU
Peace!
‘Flo

Scriptures for Mothers!

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Today, we celebrate Mothers who epitomize what it really means to be selfless, loving, caring, kind, sacrificial and much more. It’s a high risk, high reward vocation. We love you and appreciate you all. Happy Mother’s Day! Here are scriptures that you bring to life in your endeavors, interactions and much more.
Love, RDM

CHARACTER
Love is patient; love is kind. Love is not jealous; is not proud; is not conceited; does not act foolishly; is not selfish; is not easily provoked to anger; keeps no record of wrongs; takes no pleasure in unrighteousness, but rejoices in the truth; love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, and endures all things. ~I Corinthians 13:4-7

ACTION
Who can find a virtuous woman? She is far more precious than jewels…, Strength and honor are her clothing, and she can laugh at the time to come., She opens her mouth with wisdom, and loving instruction is on her tongue., She watches over the activities of her household and is never idle., Her sons rise up and call her blessed., He husband also praises her:, Many women are capable, but you surpass them all!, Charm is deceptive and beauty is fleeting, but a woman who fears the Lord will be praised., ~Proverbs 31:10, 25-30

OVEN
Psalm 139:13 ‘for you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.

FAITHFUL
John 19:26-27 When Jesus saw his mother there, and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said his mother, "Dear woman, here is your son," and to the disciple, "Here is your mother." From that time on, this disciple took her into his home."

SACRIFICE
Mark 10:29-30 "I tell you the truth," Jesus replied, "no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and the gospel will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age (homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields–and with them, persecutions) and in the age to come, eternal life.

HONOR
Matthew 15:4-6 For God said, ‘Honor your father and mother’ and ‘Anyone who curses his father or mother must be put to death.’ But you say that if a man says to his father or mother, ‘Whatever help you might otherwise have received from me is a gift devoted to God,’ he is not to ‘honor his father ‘ with it. Thus you nullify the word of God for the sake of your tradition.

DIRECTION
Proverbs 1:8-9 Listen, my son, to your father’s instruction and do not forsake your mother’s teaching. They will be a garland to grace your head and a chain to adorn your neck.

Proverbs 6:20-21 My son, keep your father’s commands and do not forsake your mother’s teaching. Bind them upon your heart forever; fasten them around your neck.

Proverbs 19:26-27 He who robs his father and drives out his mother is a son who brings shame and disgrace. Stop listening to instruction, my son, and you will stray from the words of knowledge.

Proverbs 23:22-24 Listen to your father, who gave you life, and do not despise your mother when she is old. Buy the truth and do not sell it; get wisdom, discipline and understanding. The father of a righteous man has great joy; he who has a wise son delights in him.

Deuteronomy 4:9-10 Only be careful, and watch yourselves closely so that you do not forget the things your eyes have seen or let them slip from your heart as long as you live. Teach them to your children and to their children after them. Remember the day you stood before the LORD your God at Horeb, when he said to me, "Assemble the people before me to hear my words so that they may learn to revere me as long as they live in the land and may teach them to their children.

UPRIGHT
Luke 1:5-6 In the time of Herod king of Judea there was a priest named Zechariah, who belonged to the priestly division of Abijah; his wife Elizabeth was also a descendant of Aaron. Both of them were upright in the sight of God, observing all the Lord’s commandments and regulations blamelessly.

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