PLAN FOR A HEALTHY LIFE STYLE

Hi Friends! I want to start this by apologizing for going on another hiatus so soon. I must confess that 2016 is starting for me as a challenging year and right now there are so many issues on my mind that make creative thinking a burden.

The good news is that we begun a series on planning for the year and we have dealt with the issues of  planning for your spiritual life and your finances. Next I will like to share some thoughts on planning for your health.

The Bible says in 3 John 2, "I wish above all things that you prosper and be in health, as your soul prospers". Without any controversy, God expect us to be healthy. Notice that the scripture places the responsibility of staying healthy on our shoulders not God's. It is our responsibility to do all that is within our means to live healthy lives. I find a parallel to this principle in 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 and repeatedly implied in 2 Corinthians 5:10 that we will be liable for what happens to our body. I do not know if this makes a profound effect on you as it did me to know that God will judge me amongst other things by what I did with my body.

I many of the letters of Paul to the existing churches in his days, he wrote profusely on the body. In fact he outlined one cardinal difference between Christianity and other religions and that is the fact that in Christianity we will inherit resurrected bodies. Other religions talk about the soul and give no prominence whatsoever to the body but in Christianity Paul seemed to emphasize the place of our body in our eternal destiny.

Sorry for the theological digression and back to what is on our plate just now - Living a healthy life. May I state once again that this is a non negotiable requirement for proper Christian living. Where do we begin from? Let talk about what we eat.

You will agree with me that you are a product of what you have been eating over the years. In fact the doctors will tell you that certain diseases are associated with our diet. Obesity that is being over weight is a function of how much calories you ingest per day.

Have you ever wondered why God in the laws of Moses was so concerned about what his people ingested that he prohibited many things from being eaten. Let us take Pork for example, I am told that it takes approximately 4 hours before a meal of Pork digests. Imagine. So apart from any religious considerations is it not clear from this scientific fact that pork is not desirable if you want to stay healthy?

More on this next time!

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HAVING A FINANCIAL PLAN

Folks I must apologies for my slow start into the new year I can only attribute it to the need to retreat to re-fire if you know what I mean!

Anyway, I stated in my last write up that you  need to have a financial plan for your self this year. many of us just allow things to catch up with us without deliberately planning for our finances. the need to plan for your finances cannot be overemphasized.

in the first place you are not in absolutely in control of all the factors that will affect your life this year so it makes sense to reduce the unforeseen to the barest minimum via planning. Furthermore, planning you finances helps you to allocate resources well ahead of time preventing waste and impulsive spending.

The first step to financial planing is to have a year's budget broken down into monthly budgets. In the past I have spoken on what ought to constitute a monthly budget but suffice it to say that a repetition will not be out of place here.

In your monthly budget there are certain keys issues that must be provided for. They include but not restricted to the following:-

1. Food
2. Rent.
3. Bills (Electricity, water etc)
4. Transportation or fuel
5. Consumables - soap, sanitary items etc.
6. School fees
7. Clothing items - especially for those living in cold regions.

Every other thing will be an addendum depending on availability of funds.

Now the sum total of all the monthly budgets over 12 years constitutes your year's budget. Now the total will be the minimum amount you need to earn to cater for the needs of your family for the year. Next you need to ask yourself if your present income can match or surpass the year's budget. If it can then all well and good otherwise, you will need to find out how to augment your income by taking a second job if possible or doing what is called side hustle.

In any case your year's budget tells you immediately if the present state of your family income pooled together can meet the basic needs of the family.

If you want to embark on some project this year, then you will need to plan on how to raise the funds through savings or securing a loan. I will advise that it will be better to save up for a project than to take a loan that will further deplete the amount of money available for you to spend when ypou start repaying the loan plus interest except you and your family have decided that in other to do the project you will scale down on some essentials.

Next time will look at how to fund projects without borrowing!

God bless you.

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HAPPY NEW YEAR

Welcome to 2016 a year that portends greater things than 2015. Obviously for many economies, 2015 was a year of recession and slow business growth but 2016 seem to be looking like a year of recovery. My prayer is that you will recover all that you lost in the year 2015 a hundred fold.

Having said this, it is pertinent to remind you that this is the time to begin to plan for the year if you have not already done so. In fact for those of us who have not yet planned for the year we are behind schedule but it is not too late to sit down and plan for the year.

On the family level what are the things we need to plan for?

1. Our spiritual life
2. Our finances
3. Our health
4. Our children's education
5. Our recreation (holidays etc)
6. Kingdom investment.

The Bible admonishes that the starting point for all serious planning is to put God first. (Matthew 6:33). God must be on top of every plan we will conceive this year.

Spiritual Planning:
"And you shall serve the Lord your God and He shall bless your bread and your water, and I will take sickness away from your midst." Exodus 23:25.

1. Your first plan or goal if you like is to serve God better this year. Serving God better may involve greater sacrifice on your part in terms of your time and resources but you must do better this year. Such a plan must involve the whole family.
2. Personal development through prayers and reading of the Bible as well as other Christian materials that will help you become a better Christian. If you were spending say 1 hour in prayers last year, you can plan to spend 2 hours this year. Also plan to read the Bible through this year. There are many yearly Bible Reading Plans you can adopt as you do not need to reinvent the wheel as it were. |Also make sure you carry the family along and encourage them to read the Bible.
3. Sharing your faith: This is one area many of us fail as disciples of Christ. You can plan to share your faith with at least one person per month which will give you a target of 12 people throughout the year.

More next time!

Once again Happy New Year

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COMPLIMENTS OF THE SEASON

As the year 2015 winds down, I write to appreciate all my readers and those who casually visit my blog and to thank you immensely for your comments, criticisms and support. The year 2015 has indeed been a challenging and eventful year especially for those of us in Sub-Saharan Africa with the political and economic changes that have swept the continent this past year.

Be that as it may, I believe that we all have cause to be grateful to God for sustaining us throughout the year. If you are still in your marriage or you have a home, you should be specially grateful to God because yours is not among the statistics of broken homes and marriages.

As many homes are constantly under the attack of the wicked one, my prayer for you is that God Almighty will keep your marriage and your home now and in the coming year.

I also pray that your home will become a model of God's infinite mercy and grace and that you will live to reflect God's glory.

As the year 2015 expires, may trouble and sickness expire from your life; may the struggles and challenges of life expire with the year 2015; may you arise form every backwater to shine in the coming year.

Once again, I extend on behalf of my wife and children our hearty compliments of the season and to wish you a prosperous 2016.

God bless you.

Femiimevbore@gmail.com
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SEX AND MARRIAGE

This is one topic that I have been running away from addressing because it is something that is very private and sometimes embarrassing to discuss publicly.

Unfortunately, this is one subject that is very important to having a healthy marriage and one that cannot be taken for granted.

Concerning the issue of sex generally, there is so much misinformation and because these issues are not dealt with on the family table as it were, every child growing up ultimately finds out about sex from friends and peers. In the end many people come away with a wrong view of sex and its purpose.

I will like to remind you of the saying by Mills Munroe that if the purpose of a thing is not known, abuse becomes inevitable.

So what is the purpose of sex? Why did God put this desire in us? Why are we not hermaphrodites?

A good place to begin finding answers will be in the word of God itself.

"Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh. And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and they were not ashamed. Genesis 2: 24-25.

"And Adam knew Eve his wife; and she conceived, and bare Cain, and said, I have gotten a man from the Lord." Genesis 4:1

The first thing to say about sex, is that it was created by God. It was God who created the man and the woman and brought them together. So sex in its pristine form is God's idea.

The second thing to say is that it is God's intention that sex should be between a man (husband) and a woman (his wife).

The third thing I will like to state is that sex is supposed to be between two intimate people (male and female) in a marital set up. The idea that Adam KNEW his wife presupposes that there was intimacy as a prerequisite for sex. Therefore this clearly precludes casual sex or sex without any form of commitment.

More next time.

God bless you.

Femiimevbore@gmail.com
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FAMILY FINANCES 2

Last time I tired to look at the reason why many women view monies collected from them by their husbands to solve family issues as loans rather than their own contributions to the upkeep of the home.

In some cases such issue have led to serious quarrels and you hear men complaining that when the woman asks for money, the man does not see it as a loan but an obligation being fulfilled. I am yet to know any man (except he is a Gigolo) who does not fell proud to e able to meet the needs of his wife.

In other to solve this problem, I will strongly recommend that couples run a joint account where both of them will be signatories to the account to handle such emergencies. The man may decide to set aside say 10% of his monthly income which will be paid into the joint account. The woman on her own may decide to contribute say 5% of her own income.

Whatever monies is deposited in the joint account will be controlled by both of them as no one can withdraw from the account without the consent of the other.

Another suggestion is that families should try as much as possible to operate a monthly budget. Sit down with your spouse and outline how much the family will be spending on a monthly basis. This is especially important in a month like December when the family expenses is likely to rise without any corresponding rise in income.

Budgeting has many advantages including helping to curb impulse buying and keeping your spending on essentials only.

The Lord bless and keep your home.

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FAMILY FINANCES - WHO OWNS WHAT 1

I have heard many women complain that whenever their husbands borrow money from them the husbands never pay back and this has gotten me thinking recently about the dynamics of family finances.

Family finances is an important aspect of the home and if not properly handled can lead to very unpleasant consequences.

Now let me say categorically that I believe strongly that it is the man’s responsibility to cater for his family. By catering it must be understood to mean providing food, shelter, education and security for his family. Everyman worth his salt should pray to be able always to fulfill this obligation without sweat.

Unfortunately, the reality shows that not many men are able for varied reasons to always fulfill this obligation; sometimes because they are temporary out of job or their payments are delayed and at such times have to depend on their wives to augment whatever they can provide.

Now the issue at stake is that many women see such “help” as a loan to the man. Whatever comes from the woman is visualized as being borrowed by the man to solve a problem. There is the case of a man who asked his wife for some money for petrol (gasoline) and she recorded it as a loan to the man.

On the other hand from my experience when a wife asks the husband for money outside the regular upkeep, many men do not consider such monies as loans, so why do women see their assistance in terms of helping the family to stay afloat as a commercial venture?

I have come to understand that the problem is in our culture and the woman’s psyche! Women are brought up to believe that it is the sole responsibility of the man to cater for the welfare of the home. In other words the man’s money is our money (family money) while the woman’s money is hers.

It will do the family a whole lot of good is this perception is changed. Whatever income comes to the family, either from the woman or the man, ought to be treated as family income.

I am not for one moment suggesting that the man should shirk his responsibility but what I am advocating is that the woman must see herself as a partner with the man in catering for the needs of the home. It is a partnership that floats or sinks together according to God’s plan and purpose.

Whatever monies I have “borrowed’ from my wife, in solving family and not personal issues, ought to be written off as “bad debt”.

I rest my case.

God bless you.

Femiimevbore@gmail.com
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www.lifebuilder.ecwid.com 
www.elshaddaicovenantchurch.org