MONTEÈCLAIRS TRANSFORMATION INITIATIVE

  There once was a little boy who had a bad temper. His Father gave him a bag of nails and told him that every time he lost his temper, he must hammer a nail into the back of the fence. The first day the boy had driven 37 nails into the fence. Over the next few weeks, as he learned to control his anger, the number of nails hammered daily gradually dwindled down. He discovered it was easier to hold his temper than to drive those nails into the fence. Finally the day came when the boy didn't lose his temper at all. He told his father about it and the father suggested that the boy now pull out one nail for each day that he was able to hold his temper. The days passed and the young boy was finally able to tell his father that all the nails were gone. The father took his son by the hand and led him to the fence. He said, 'You have done well, my son, but look at the holes in the fence. The fence will never be the same. When you say things in anger,...

PREACHERS OR   MOTIVATIONAL SPEAKERS Today, you walk into a new generation church and the preacher tantalizes your mind with mesmerizing words and catchy phrases. Lines from philosophers are used more the scriptures. There is no insight or depth   in the scriptures taught; every line is tailored towards exciting the congregation, meeting their emotional needs and boosting the financial status of the church. The question I dare to ask is do we still preachers or they have been replaced by motivational speakers?! Churches now employ preachers not because of the level of anointing they carry, but choose by how well they can convince and carry a congregation. The church is run like it’s a business enterprise, ‘HAPPY CONGREGATION, HAPPY CHURCH’ or better still, ‘HAPPY CONGREGATION & THE CHURCH SMILES TO THE BANK’. For the most part, Christian motivational speakers concentrate on two areas that may overlap. The first is spreading the gospel. This does not mean that t...

mY SuIcIdE nOtE The thoughts had been recurrent through the week. I imagined myself leaving a final note behind, but would I write? Other thoughts crept in… I thought to myself, “is it Normal? Is it Christian? Who can I tell of these strange thoughts? Who would understand that I can’t even a place a finger on what is really gone wrong? Is it my job, family, friends, fiends, my faith, my fate, my fears….what exactly? ” Suicide as described by kenea (a lawyer friend), is cowardice; perhaps he was right! {Thank God he  didn’t possessX-men (mutants) skills of mind reading, else I would have been found out} Some folk may think my life is a fairy tale, but then my nightmares were unending. One of my friends rightly analyzed me as 'managing perception'. If you knew me, have met me, or seen my boisterous self, bewilderment of my recent thoughts will panic you. But why would a seeming ‘perfect’ me be depressed I ask? Well, Google was a little help…depression & suicide t...

THE DISEASE OF ASSUMPTION (Wisdom for singles) It was a bright and beautiful Sunday morning and every one was set for worship. Men were dressed and seated; women were clothed in their best, admiring each other at the same time criticizing others. Young people were exchanging pleasantries and updating themselves with the latest gist in town; church workers were busy organizing their activities for the day. The worship leader interrupted everybody with a loud shout of “praise the Lord” which brought everybody back to their senses that they were in church. It was time for praise and worship and every body was happy except a few whose problems were heavy and seemed blinded from seeing God. People were singing, dancing and jumping. The pastor suddenly came up to the podium signifying the time church for announcements.and end of praise session, and now After exchanging pleasantries with the congregation, he started with wedding announcement. The first was that of a popular brother in...

What comes to mind when you see this question, as it is far from being rhetorical? Strangely enough, it might interest you to know that not everyone wants to be a millionaire. But for some it’s a do or die affair, ‘Get Rich or Die Trying ’. Well, I’m a Zillionaire (…lol..billionaire or trillionaire is limiting, that’s what I believe for me ) & its mainly for common good. However, let’s leave the spiritual gymnastics of claiming the Best or mere aspirations and optimism and attempt to address the matter, “Who Wants to be Millionaire?”. Assuming you’re answering in the affirmative, how, when and why do want to be a millionaire? WHY? ; The ‘Why’ is such an important element, that it goes a long way show your desperation; determine the extent one will go in answering the how. It also informs the goal setting approach ,which is the reality of a future trapped down on the paper with specific steps to achieve it within a time bound. WHEN; Your goals must have a d...

This is not new, but well worth being reminded. One day a man saw an old lady, stranded on the side of the road, but even in the dim light of day, he could see she needed help. So he pulled up in front of her Mercedes and got out. His Pontiac was still sputtering when he approached her. Even with the smile on his face, she was worried. No one had stopped to help for the last hour or so. Was he going to hurt her? He didn't look safe; he looked poor and hungry. He could see that she was frightened, standing out there in the cold. He knew how she felt. It was that chill which only fear can put in you. He said, "I'm here to help you, ma'am. Why don't you wait in the car where it's warm? By the way, my name is Bryan Anderson." Well, all she had was a flat tire, but for an old lady, that was bad enough. Bryan crawled under the car looking for a place to put the jack, skinning his knuckles a time or two. Soon he was able to change t...

Do you still remember the time when the only TV station was NTA, and the options you had were NTA channel 10, NTA 2 channel 5, and NTA channel 7. That was a time when frank oliseh of “newsline” was more popular than today’s frank edoho of “who wants to be a millionaire” (who doesn’t). That was when Birdman and G - force looked like our modern day avatar, I mean the animation really looked crisp. That was when you would have a lot of friends coming to your house simply because you had cable TV or would be a classy bachelor if you had a video player (with some Indian films) at home. Once upon a time paratroopers was the reigning game, and pacman wasn’t that bad, before mortal combat took over. A computer genius at that time was one who could power on a system, do some few things on a word processor, enter some basic commands and tell you the history of the computer(genius indeed). Indeed if I look at where we are coming from as a country, when street lights was an endangered specie, ...