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Before you date somebody, ask yourself:  1. Am I free to be who I am?  If you have to reinvent yourself to keep somebody happy, you’re in the wrong relationship. If they disapprove of you now, do you seriously think marriage will improve things? Not a chance! 2) Is the relationship based on honesty? The Bible talks about ‘telling each other the truth’. Relationships thrive on openness and trust. When deceit creeps in, it’s time to get truthful in a hurry or call it quits. Now the Ultimate One.

The Enemy Called Worry From the Popular Movie Lion King. Even if you cant recall much about the movie, you will surely remember the popular saying: "Hakuna Matata" which means, "Don't Worry Be Happy". Worry is one of the most ineffective time zapper we can indulge in.  Jesus Himself asked, ‘ Can all your worries add a single moment to your life?’ (Matthew 6:27). Worry is the assassin of rest and relationships. It can stalk you and hijack your mind.  While we may continue to function publicly, there’s a sinister force lurking within us. This enemy called worry disorients moods, destroys creativity, and depletes your sense of completion which comes from within and can’t be achieved by the acquisition of things. Why do we wrestle so much with things we can’t change? Someone writes: ‘It took me years to realise that when I went to bed I shouldn’t go with half my day wrapped around my head. I wrestled all night with issues that couldn’t be res...

 Who Are You Trying to Impress? Can you imagine viewing criticism as ‘a very small thing’? Or being liberated from the need to impress people; your self-esteem no longer dependent on someone noticing how successful, smart, or attractive you are?  Think what it would be like to feel genuine love for someone who expresses their disapproval of you.  Is such a life even possible? With God’s help, yes!  One pastor says: ‘Years ago I wanted to lead a certain ministry. When I wasn’t chosen I became angry. Of course I didn’t show it. That’s not to say I didn’t love God. I just wanted to serve me more than Him! By saying no, God was correcting an attitude that would destroy any real ministry I might have later. When you represent God so visibly it’s nearly impossible for anyone to detect that you’re a fake…except God.’ Ever hear of ‘approval addiction’? Its symptoms include living in fear of what others think of you; being easily hurt by what they...

When You Belittle, You Become Little Here are four questions you need to be able to answer: 1) Do people feel better about themselves after spending time with you?  2) Are your expectations so high that you focus on people’s shortcomings  instead of their strengths?  3) When somebody speaks well of a person you don’t particularly like, do you feel the need to inject a disparaging remark? 4) Are you so insecure and lacking in self-worth that you only feel good about yourself by putting others down?

Why Attitude Is More Important Than Intelligence   When it comes to success, it’s easy to think that people blessed with brains are inevitably going to leave the rest of us in the dust. But new research from Stanford University will change your mind (and your attitude). Psychologist Carol Dweck has spent her entire career studying attitude and performance, and her latest study shows that your attitude is a better predictor of your success than your IQ. Dweck found that people’s core attitudes fall into one of two categories: a fixed mindset or a growth mindset. With a fixed mindset, you believe you are who you are and you cannot change. This creates problems when you’re challenged because anything that appears to be more than you can handle is bound to make you feel hopeless and overwhelmed. People with a growth mindset believe that they can improve with effort. They outperform those with a fixed mindset, even when they have a lower IQ, because they embrace c...

PETROL PUMP PRICE TO GO DOWN  Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo says that the government is working to reduce the price of petroleum products by encouraging and working with private refineries and reducing importation. Osinbajo, who is in the UK to sign the Nigeria-UK solar energy agreement, told Bloomberg in an interview… “We are going to be unbundling the NNPC so that its various components are effective core centres and are able to do their business well. We are going to have private refineries at the site of the old refineries, so they can benefit from the available infrastructure. So, we think that in the medium term, we would be able to get cheaper pump price, pump price of oil would be cheaper because we would be importing far less refined petroleum. A lot of that will be produced locally. “Now, we have well over 30 modular refineries licences, so we think a lot of modular refineries would come. Many of them, their major concern is feed stock, are we going...

START THINKING CREATIVELY The Bible calls you a ‘child of God’. Stop and consider what that means. God’s creativity is already built into your DNA; your job is to recognise it, release it and put it to work. Advertising executive George Lois said, ‘Creativity can solve almost any problem. The creative act, the defeat of habit by originality, overcomes everything.’ But for your creativity to be released, you must first identify the barriers and start taking them down. Here’s a common one: ‘We've always done it this way.’ People who say that have stopped thinking for themselves. They’re just putting in their time, waiting for a pay packet and going home at the end of the day without thinking, reflecting or even considering the possibilities of change. If you’re one of these people, it’s time to wake up and start looking around you. Mind-deadening routine is the cancer of creativity. If you mindlessly go about your business the same way every day, your routine ...