11 Lesson learned in 2011

1. When you make God the foundation of your life, and you entrust Him with everything that concerns your life, then NOTHING can move, shake, break or kill you!!!

2. We never ever stand alone...there's always someone vouching for us, cheering us on to get to the finish line. we can't afford to give up on ourselves!!!

3. there are no shortcuts to any place worth going, and there's no easy way to develop good character... dreaming allows you to begin with the end in mind, but living is what happens between the beginning and the finish line. BE A DREAMER, but even more than that, BE a LIVER OF LIFE!!!

4. Some things in life can wait...the race is not against the clock -but everything has a time and an appointed season...like my dear mother once said: time is not a speedway between the cradle and the grave...so be patient, it will get you places!!!

5. Never underestimate the power of prayer: pray before the battle, pray during the battle, pray after the battle and pray during a time of peace, pray in every season!!! never ever cease to pray!!!

6. Family is a gift from God, no matter how bad things get, never give up hope on your family. Love them, pray for them, talk to them and talk with them!!! No one will ever be perfect, but love them any way!!!

7.  Even when things are not going that well in your life, celebrate with the people in your life that have something to celebrate, do not forget to pray for other people to prosper as you pray for your own prosperity... God is able to bless us all!!! He won't give your blessing to someone else!!!

8. The love of true friends speaks for itself... it is seen in truth and honesty, loyalty, sacrifice and most importantly time!!! trying to be a best friend to everyone only results in you spreading yourself so thin that you can't even be a good friend to one person!!!

9. People that are willing to walk your spiritual journey with you are for keeps...cherish them and pray for them too!!! thank you to my homecell for a great and interesting year!!!

10. Ntate Nelson Mandela (& his fellow comrades) was wiling to die for freedom because way before '94 he had found freedom within himself, that's why he believed that it was a cause worth fighting for.Your dream has to be alive within you, even before the rest of the world can see it manifest...because when days are tough, the dream will keep you going!!!

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·      11.   gold has to go through the harshest conditions to be made pure and of great value... life will test you, it will burn you, melt you and change you... and it's okay!!! whatever you go through in life doesn't define you, all that matters is the finished product!!! hold on, God is with you throughout the whole process!!!

Thus says the Lord

I couldn't sleep tonight, the heat is just too much to bear. So I decided I should read a little scripture to make the best of my time, and I came across the story of Elijah and Elisha in the first four chapters of 2 Kings. (please read them to get a good idea of what is going there)

It's an amazing piece of scripture, and what stood out for me were the following verses:
 2 kings 1:16-17 the he said to him, "thus says the Lord: ...therefore you shall not come down from the bed to which you have gone, but you shall surely die". So Ahaziah died according to the word of the Lord which Elijah had spoken.

2 Kings 2:21-22 Thus says the Lord: I have healed this water, from it there shall be no more death and barrenness. So the water remains healed to this day, according to the word of Elisha which he spoke.

2 Kings 3:17,20 For thus says the Lord: "You shall not see wind, nor shall you see rain, yet that valley shall be filled with water so that you, your cattle and your animals may drink"...Now it happened in the morning, when the grain offering was offered, that suddenly the water came by way of Edom and the land was filled with water

There's a few more of these kind of verses in the 4 chapters, and what I saw was that, without a doubt, whatever God says will be shall be.
In John 1:1-3, 14 we understand that the foundation of the world was built on the word of God:
"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
He was in the beginning with God.
All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made."
And the Word became flesh (Jesus) and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.

Furthermore, Isaiah 55:11 reads: so shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth. It shall not return to Me void.
But it shall accomplish what I please
And it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.

WOW!!!

What awesome knowledge to understand the power of the word of God.
God has built everything that we have come to know on His word. He said, and it was - even at creation (Genesis 1)

The Bible is full of things that God said, His word in pure form and I think now that we understand what power there is in His word, we can begin to declare His word in our lives and in the lives of the people we have been called to reach in order to see it become alive in all of us.
We can even begin praying for our countries, for Africa, for the world, for our leaders... just by declaring what the Lord has already said, making it specific to our lives!!!

There's one specific scripture that I declared throughout the year, which made a huge difference in my life...Psalm 32:8 "I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go. I will guide you with My eye"
Every time I felt I needed direction, I would loudly remind God of this promise that He made through His word, and I would ask Him to lead me as He has promised. And then I would continue to blindly follow Him. I applied this to my studies, my job, relationships. As a result I found myself within His will, and even when I went out of His will He always led me back to where I was supposed to go because I continuously declared His word in my life. He had to honour it.

I am grateful to have a God who honours His word above everything.
I am grateful for Jesus Christ, who is the Word in flesh!!!
I am grateful that the word of God will not return to Him without having established what He has sent it to us to accomplish.

"this Book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night. That you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success"
Joshua 1:8

Inspire-d: Living the Gym Experience

Inspire-d: Living the Gym Experience: So, today during my session at the Gym, while I stopped to catch my breathe in the middle of a killer exercise, I happened to look around a...

Living the Gym Experience

So, today during my session at the Gym, while I stopped to catch my breathe in the middle of a killer exercise, I happened to look around at everyone else in the gym, just to see if anyone was looking at how I was not coping!!!.
I quickly scouted the room hoping and praying that I wouldn't see anyone looking in my direction and shaking their head at how much of a hard time I was having (even getting a little irritated with myself for missing gym for 3 days last week).

While looking around, I realised just how busy everyone else was with their own "thing", not even having time to waste looking at me or to even care what I was doing... and then a thought struck me: this is exactly how life is supposed to be...

Life is very much like Gym, where each person has his/her own Gym programme (purpose) that has been designed for that specific individual to enable him/her to reach the goals that they have set for themselves - be it to lose weight, to gain muscle or to just maintain their current shape.
Furthermore, the programme that one person is going to use to, for example, lose weight, is not necessarily the same one that another person will use to achieve the same goal, because everyone is DIFFERENT (age, health, height, amount of weight to lose etc).

Likewise, in life, we all have a different purpose, different goals, different visions... and it only makes sense that we function according to different programmes. And even in situations where we might share the same goals (for example: my flatmate and I both want to qualify as Chartered Accountants and we both want to get married and have beautiful families), because we are so DIFFERENT (study patterns, age, values and belief-system)... we will both get there, however the road that we will have to take to get there will be totally different. I might have to put in more effort than her in my studies, she might get married earlier than me and so on!!!

So while I was in the gym, I started imagining what it would be like if people in the gym started competing with and comparing themselves to one another (like people ussually do in real life)... Imagine I see a girl lifting heavy weights and I feel like I have to prove myself to her and to anyone else watching, and I go and start lifting the weights with her - can you imagine how big I will be after a few weeks of doing this... and can you imagine how much I would have deviated from my main goal of going to the gym (which is to simply build up energy to run marathons)... would I even be able to run my marathons with such big muscles???

So why do we do this in our lives? why do we constantly compare ourselves to other people, and copy their way of doing things even though we know that we are DIFFERENT, that we have different values and different goals in life!!!

Sure, we are all meant to succeed, but according to our own programmes. NOT according to the programmes, time-frames and definitions (of success) of other people.

So the next time you see someone succeeding at what they do, remember this blogpost... and just congratulate them and wish them well further on. DON'T start comparing yourself to them... we are all in different journeys... and we should all HAPPILY live the gym experience!!!

What God sees - for women!!!

Have you ever looked at yourself in the mirror and wondered: what does God see when He looks at me???
Do you know that He sees a daughter, a princess (for He is the King), a woman of great magnitude, a lady, a woman of integrity, a woman who never compromises her worth just to please a crowd or to excite men... God sees us as beautiful, queens who deserve nothing short of the best Kingdom!!!
Isn't it time that we all aligned our view of ourselves, with the way God sees us... isn't it time to look at ourselves and see ourselves exactly as He sees us.

Have you ever stopped halfway through calling yourself stupid to ask yourself: what does God whisper to me every single day. Do you know that God calls you holy, He calls your body His temple, He calls you a proverbs 31 woman!!!
Isn't it time that you spoke to yourself the way God would speak to you, isn't it time to be more gently with yourself, to practise kindness on yourself, to whisper words of love to yourself, because you are a woman of God... a woman for God!!!

We are worth so much more than this world gives us, worth so much more than how the media potrays us. We are worth so much more than anyone can tell us...
Ladies, we can begin by seeing value, not only in ourselves but in every woman around us. Because we are truly God's girls and He loves us soooo much.
it's time, ladies, that we loved ourselves as much!!!

I love you, i value you, i care about you and I wish you all the best in the journey of self-discovery!!!
You are born to shine!!!

Enlarge your BOX!!!

have you ever felt like you are stuck in a box? that you are limited within the confines of the path you chose to take, by the decisions you have made in the past when you didn't know better.

Have you ever felt boxed in by your career? your relationships? your environment? that everything was just too limiting???
well, guess what??? everyone of us is stuck in some box or another. When you start off at work, you are stuck in the box of routine, doing things over and over and over until you get tired of them.

The most important question is,however: what do you do when you reach your peak, when your box is no longer enough to contain you, your dreams and the vision that you have for your life.
Do you simply settle for mediocrity, which is really just being good enough to get by... or do you make an effort to enlarge your tent, to increase the capacity of your box??

i believe that it is very rare in life that you have to do something as radical as changing a career path, relocating or totally re-structuring the plan you have for your future. Many-a-times we just have to get up and change our view of our current situation/circumstance in our lives.
As long as there is growth in our lives, there will always be a need to change the size of our box... a need to develop even beyond our own limitations.

So if you currently feel like you are stuck in a box, i suggest that you take a step back and analyse what it is that makes you feel stuck, and then ask yourself this question: what can i do about it???

"You are in the exact place in your life that you're suppose to be. Be present. Excel - right where you are"
                                                                                                                                     Thami Ngubeni

No one makes it out alive anyway

Good evening friends

As I write this I'm in a bath filled to the brim with water, imaginary bubbles and I have an imaginary drink in one hand and my beloved blackberry in another... I just got in from having supper with friends

A friend of mine called Bokang arrived from Botswana on friday to see Oprah at the University of the free state and she's leaving tomorrow so we decided to and catch up for a bit... A few of my other friends who I hadn't seen in a while were going to hang out so we decided to join them...

So right now I'm sitting here in this warm bath - which is getting lukewarm with every word I type and I'm just reflecting on the great weekend that I had...

On friday Rong (another friend of mine) and I went to the waterfront to eat out at Mcdonalds and then to exclusive books to read introductions and prologues of books in order to decide which book was the best... Not judging a book by its cover but by its introduction... After all, didn't someone say: a good book should have you at "once upon a time"... If no one has ever said this before then I give you permission to quote me.
So the award for best intro went to "Resident Alien" by Rian Malan (which, by the way, is on my birthday wishlist)

Saturday was spent paying bills (or at least trying to before I realised that I woke up after the banks closed)... In the evening I attended a function held by ABASA (Association for the advancement of Black Accountants in Southern AfricA) to celebrate CA(SA) students who hAd just qualified... I rocked up at the do a bit late, but I had fun all in all - even though my hair was held up by pins so small that even sneezing would have been a fashion mistake... The theme of the evening was: what role does the accounting profession play in the year of job creation... One of the speakers answered the question very shortly and sweetly by saying: it starts by making a small difference - by helping to make sure that the Spaza shop next door to you turns into a supermarket!!!
All in all, a great night of shoulders rubbed with many Greats and Greats-to-be in the Accounting profession.

My sunday morning was typically spent at Grootvlei prison ministering in song to the inmates, and as always, I came back humbled and blessed and in awe at what God is busy doing in this beautiful country of ours.
Sunday afternoon was spent on a date at Braza having coffee and good conversation about South African politics.. And then straight to church again for the evening service.
Ps Clive was preaching... A powerful service that deserves a post of its own so look out for that.

And then Bokang and my other friends all went to Spur for a nice student special supper - guitars and all...very "soothing" environment as a friend of mine put it...
Bokang and I shared tears and laughter in the midst of that crowd and we caught up on a year and a half's worth of conversation - what a great night.

And now here I am, shivering in my now cold bath... Thinking: sometimes letting your hair down is okay... To forget about all the study work awaiting you, or the work that your boss asked you to do over the weekend. To forget all your troubles and all your fears... To just embrace the best that life has to offer... To hang out with loving friends who will remind you that: You are not alone!!! To smile, to laugh and most importantly to love without fear...
To allow yourself to not take life too seriously, because when all is said and done, like my friend Mariam said: No one makes it out of life alive anyway!!!

God bless you and have a great week.
LK

A brother in his 20's: My very first blog

A brother in his 20's: My very first blog: "Wow. My very first blog. Its a bit strange considering that a couple of years ago, I thought anything to do with 'blogging' and 'tweeting'..."

FREEDOM is NOT FREE

Today in South Africa, we celebrate the lives of "The Youth of 1976", who died marching in a fight for FREEDOM.
Even though the precious youth lost their lives that day, today we enjoy the fruits of their labour because today we live in the FREEDOM that they fought for.

I once asked a friend of mine why it was that many courageous people, who fight for a cause never lived to see that cause established... and today I finally know the answer: Those courageous enough to fight for a FREEDOM of any kind know that it may cost them their lives, and they fight on regardless because at one point in their lives they made a decision to fight so that their children would not have to fight the same battle...

Today, we, the Youth of 2011 walk in the footsteps of the fallen heroes of '76. and even though the battle for a democratic South Africa is one that we do not have to fight... We have our own battles that demand us to be selfless, to roll up our sleeves and to stand in the frontline, so that the future generations don't have to fight our battles for us.

Today, ours is to take a stand against poverty, HIV/Aids, Hate crimes, Abuse of people, the senseless rape of mother earth, And to also protect this very same democracy to which we have been entrusted!!!
The struggle has become colour blind, and today we are ALL called to take a stand against all these injustices.
African youth, unlike American youth, should no longer accept and embrace the luxury to sit and day dream about "money,cars and hoes"... Because "to whom much is given,much is required"... And we have been given much - we are the richest continent as far as natural resources is concerned, and we are called to use what we have to fight today's battle!!!

I have a dream, of different colour feet running the same race... This is the time for this dream to be realised... And, YES...even WE CAN!!!

Another friend of mine asked me, "do you really think that this FREEDOM that we so fight for will materialise in our lifetime?"
My answer: No it definitely won't, but we shall see it through the eyes of our children... Because if we want it bad enough, we might have to die for it!!!
And I know this because FREEDOM is not FREE!!!

Be a good receiver

Once I set my heart to it, it's not so hard for me give...of my time, my money, my advice and even more easier for me to give is love and respect!!!

The one thing that is a stumbling block for me, the one thing that I have great difficulty with is being a good receiver...

a pastor at our church once said: don't stop someone's blessing by being a bad receiver...because if someone offersa you something and you refuse to receive it, you are denying them the chance for God to bless them for being a good giver.

I am really bad at receiving, whether it be compliments, help, money, advice, love, respect...the list is endless!!!
I just do not know how to receive without paying someone back in one way or the other.

a good receiver is someone who says "thank you", someone who knows how to ask for help, someone who knows that sometimes someone else knows more about something and trusts in the advice they give, someone who is not afraid to receive love and compassion, someone who can freely run to another's arms for a shoulder to cry on. Someone who understands that the responsibility they have to help someone in need is the same responsibility that other people have to help them when they are in need.

The willingness of the people around me to help me in my time of need has really humbled me to a point of tears and now I realise that I need to learn to receive in order to be sure that the blessings of God fall upon them for being a blessing to me.

So the next time someone offers me anything, I will be more reluctant to say: No, thank you!
and I will choose to rather say: Yes, please!!!

the inner circle

Having a diverse range of friends and acquaintances is very important to ensure that you remain an open-minded and interesting individual but it is even more important that you limit the people that are in your inner circle...

These are the people who rub off on you:
The people you spend the majority of your time with, the people whose opinions you trust, the people with whom you exchange views on life.
These are the people whose english accents you start picking up, the people whose facial expressions you start unconsciously imitating, the people whose favourite words and phrases you start playing around with.
These are the people who ultimately have an influence on you...whether you realise it, or admit or not.
These people are your "environment" and you hve to be sure that the environment is conducive to the achievement of your goals.
What's the use of spending time with people who smoke if you want to stop smoking?
If you are suffering from depression you are not doing yourself a favour by hanging out with people that are just downright negative.
If you are looking to doing something with your life, there's no use hanging out with people that "chill" for a living.

Your inner circle plays a very important role in your attainment of success (in whatever way you define it) and therefore it's important that we learn to rather love some people from a distance if they are not rubbing off the right things on you.
But most importantly, remember that you are a prt of someone else's "inner circle" therefore take a look at the man or woman in the mirror and be honest with yourself... If you were someone else, would you elect to have yourself as part of your "inner circle" or are you just one to be loved from a distance.

The friends you have are your choice, and they will definitely influence the choices you make...CHOOSE right!!!

the pursuit of purpose

I read a book once (forgot the title and the author)...this book explained that the "purpose" is the place where personal ambitions collide with God's plan for our lives...and I read another one that explained that God's plan for our lives is always about other people - never ever about us!!!

It all makes sense...that God (our creator and the author of our lives) would make sure that our genetical make-up, and our emotional capacity is in-line with what He pre-destined us to do in this life/world.

But this doesn't mean that it's easy to figure out what it is we are here for...and this is where faith comes in.

Faith involves believing that the path we are walking will lead us to the "purpose" or that the path is the purpose!!!

Faith means trusting that every decision we make - good or bad - will contribute to getting us there... That along the road of God-discovery, we will find self as well.

Right now, I'm on that road... The cross-roads!!!
Where I have to make critical decisions according to my faith (which is a gift from God in itself)... I have to trust that God will see that, in my heart,in my heart, deep within all I want is to be like Jesus on the cross after He fulfilled His purpose when He said: IT IS FINISHED!!!

I know I will probably not get it right the first million times, and I'll fall just to get back up again - only to fall even harder...
But I fail and pass and fail some more...
I will get it wrong, step on toes, and make enemies...all in the pursuit of the desires that God has given me.
But I will do it all the FAITH that the road will lead me to my purpose on earth...that God's plans and my plans will cross paths at the end!!!

Word of mouth!!!

Although the law of attraction is documented in "the secret", it is not that much of a secret that we are what we say!!!

The words that we speak over our lives are a reflection of what we keep buried within us, and are therefore an indication of the direction in which we steer our lives.
What we say over and over is what we attract into our lives...it is also called the concept of "we declare it, God decrees it!!!"

I am truly convinced that what separates the successful, and the not-so-successful&everything-is-going-wrong-in-their-lives people is their attitude; that is clearly displayed in the words of their mouths...

I believe that if anyone wants to change the direction of their lives, they should change what they say about their lives, themselves, their environment and the people around them.
It is all in the power of the tounge, and sadly some people use this power to destroy (themselves and others) instead of using it to draw success and prosperity to all!!!

So the next time you feel like you are at your wits' end, and just can't take it anymore, remember that what you speak over the situation will determine whether you will rise out of that situation or whether you will stay stuck in it - not only physically but mentally.

Speak life back into your life, speak your dreams into being and speak yourself into a good attitude if you still need to develop one.
Tread carefully when it comes to your word of mouth, for you indeed reap what you sow!!!

inner beauty...inner greatness!!!

Though beauty may be seen on the outside, it is a reflection of that which is found on the inside of everyone of us...
Though words come out of our mouths, and are picked up by our ears
They are simply an echo of the inner-man, crying out and expressed by the external

Although we may put an effort to correct what people see, to potray a certain image of ourselves to the naked eye...
Although we may train ourselves to be eloquent in speech, to be graceful in conduct and to be perfect and flawless to those who are watching
Who we are will always come from deep within
Our front will fail us, one way or the other
Because it all starts from within!!!

Our time and resources would be more profitably spent in developing ourselves from inside,
In building up our self-confidence so that we hold our heads equally high on a good and on a bad hair day
So that regardless of our lack of expression, and inspite of our clumsiness, our greatness may still shine through!!!

it all begins inside...and if we get this right, then we won't have to say it to show it...we won't have to ask to know we have it...we won't have to parade it to be acknowledged
If we get it right, we simply know...We are beautiful!!! We are great!!! We are kings and priests, queens and priestesses!!!
But it all starts inside...it all starts with you and I taking ownership of it!!!

letting go...

It took me this long to be able to put these feelings on paper, but here goes and I hope it helps someone to let go...

When we said goodbye, it was as if my clothes had been ripped off from my body, like a bandage had been ripped off my bleeding heart, I felt like my nakedness was being exposed to the world...and all I could do was stand there and let the stares of passers-by amputate me.
For weeks, all I could do was cry. I contently let the tears flow, I held my knees against my chest as I lay on the floor, I allowed myself to wallow in heartache...I cried like a child!!!
I gave up on my studies, I forgot to eat and all I wanted was to be alone.

It hurt to know that all the time spent, the fights we had and the effort we put to make things work was all in vain. It hurt to think of how much of me I had given in our relationship, of the fact that I could not give any longer.
What hurt even more was knowing that there was nothing either of us could do to fix things, that our time was truly up.

But its true that time heals, although only partially...because as days turned into weeks, and weeks into months I found that I cried less and less, that I managed to fit more smiles into my daily routine...but this would only be temporary because all I needed was to see him, or to hear about him to go back to lying on the floor in tears again...

But this is all in the past now...nowadays laughter is my companion and most of my tears are brought on by joy...
Today, I can safely say: I have let him go!!!

When you lose something or someone, its not easy to move on because it is even harder to let go.
The thing about letting go is you have to go through the whole process so you can heal fully and completely.

My process was painful, and it was long and it went something like:
1. Being angry at him and blaming him for everything that was going wrong (2 months)
2. Crying because I am angry at him(1 month)
3. Accepting that no one is to blame, that our time is just up and "the break-up", and tears and tears and tears!!! (2 months)
4. Telling myself that I'm over him and am ready to move on, then going back to square one because I'm really not ready to move on and starting all over again (3 months)
5. Letting go...

After you go through the process you get to a point of letting go, which in itself is a process.
At the letting go point I realised that he was meant to be in my life for a certain season of my life only, and that the season was over and I needed to let him go in peace. I also realised that my time in his life was also up and there would be no use fighting for something that had expired, so to speak.

I also realised that all the effort we had both put into our relationship had not been in vain, as we had both grown from the experience and as he had influenced my life in a lot of positive ways.

Furthermore, I learned that although I had given a lot in our relationship, he had also given equally much or more and I could never get what I have given back instead I had been giving the capacity - by God - to love more and to give myself more in my next relationship!!! That although I felt I could not give any longer, because of the experience, I was in a position to give even more!!!

Constantly Changing!!!

It is said that the only thing constant in life is change, but of course this doesn't make it the easiest thing to deal with.

Right now I'm right in the middle of change: a new job, a new place, new friends and a whole new approach to my studies...nothing is familiar at all except the fact that I'm still living in the same town.

Although all these changes are exciting and are a dream come true, it is a very uncomfortable place to be. Firstly because this is not where I thought I would be in 2011...I hadn't planned to be doing long-distance learning and I had thought I'd be out of bloem by now, and secondly because I don't have much of a support structure where I am...my family is far away, and all my friends are also out on their own journeys trying to manage their own different changes.

So what does one do in this situation??? Is it really practical to curl up and cry all day like I feel like doing half the time, or to spend hours on the phone with family and friends so I can feel supported?
Not practical at all.

I have found that the best way to deal with my change is to be flexible, to have a different approach or game-plan, if you will.
I mean, my goals remain the same...I still want to qualify as a CA, and I still want to settle down in Cape Town...what has changed is not where I want to go but how I'm going to get there.
Furthermore, change brings with it new opportunities to build relationships, to travel another leg of my life-long plan, and to grow as an individual...therefore, I need to embrace this change, and to welcome it in by making room for new family and friends - and therefore a new support structure that is strong enough to support me on this part of my life and to also make bigger dreams and to have a better vision.

It is true: change is constant, and although it might be scary and uncomfortable, change is really what we need for personal growth and to be able to deal with an ever-changing world.

So embrace change, be flexible enough to accomodate change and make change work for you!!!

the pink and the red ribbons

This morning as I put on my earrings, I came across two ribbons in my jewelry box. One was red and the other was pink.
I wore the pink one last year in October - Cancer awareness month - and the red one I wore on the 1st of December (World Aids Day).
Every year I make sure that I remember to wear these ribbons, in honor of cancer and Aids victims and in the hope to increase people's awareness thereto.
And every year, at the end of October I put my pink ribbon in a shelf to gather dust until the next October, and at the end of the day on the 1st of December I put my red ribbon away and look forward to the following year to take action again!!!

But today as I looked at the two ribbons they held a different meaning, because last October as I wore the pink ribbon I knew two people that were getting treatment for breast cancer.
And the red ribbon has a different meaning because during the December holidays I witnessed a person very dear to me battle with HIV/Aids.


Today as I looked at the ribbons I realised that I cannot and should not wait for something to become personal before I take action. I realised that I cannot wait to know someone who is abused to be touched by woman and child abuse, I realised that I cannot wait for it to flood all over the world to be touched by global warming, and I realised that I should not wait for someone I know to be a victim to rape or murder before I speak against crime.

So, this year I will not shout for 16 days of activism against women and child abuse.
I will not wear a red ribbon on the first of December nor will I wear a pink one for the whole month of October.
I will not salute our fallen heroes on freedom day.
I will not take a girl-child to work and I will not buy a R5 sticker on casual day.
I will not close my eyes for a moment of silence to remember the victims of xenophobia.

This year is the year that we talk less and do more!!! This is the year to actively bring about change. This is the year that we stop looking the other way.

This year, every single day I will actively make a difference in my world.
I will take action to learn more about and to educate someone on HIV/Aids, I will encourage my friends to get monthly checkups in order to detect cancer early, I will not laugh when my peers make jokes about "makwerekwere" (foreigners) because their pain is my pain, I will pursue to live my life as a role-model for every girl-child (to give them something more than one day at work will), I will stop refering to my friend as "the blind girl" and rather call her by her name.

This year I will earn my right to wear those ribbons!!!

the ultimate plan

Last year in January I had a perfect 10-year plan.
Obtain my honors degree in 2010, pass the QE 1(accounting board exam) and begin serving my articles at an audit firm in 2011, qualify as a chartered accountant at the end of 2013...and so on and so forth...the plan was flawless... Until I failed my honors, then I had to start making adjustments and I started to panick because my life would not be going as I had thought it was!!!

This year I have a 10-year plan. And that plan is to walk in the way of God consistently and to follow His purpose for my life no matter what it costs me.
Sometimes what we have envisioned for our lives is not exactly what God has in mind, and we just have to accept that.
When we walk in the will of God we have to trust that whatever happens is part of His purpose for our lives, that in the end we will look back and say "it all makes sense now"

Sometimes following God's plan means letting go of the plan that you had for your own life, giving up your dreams to fulfill the dreams that God has for your life, but the rewards of God's plan are greater than any that you could ever desire for yourself!!!

I am quite certain that at some point in my life I will understand why my honors year didn't go as I had thought it would, and that the character I developed in that year will come in handy in a very important life-defining moment that is so much greater than an honors degree.
I believe that what God has promised for my life, He is able to perform. No matter how long it takes to get there, and what road He uses to get me there, I will get there!!!
His plan is the ultimate plan