December 14, 2010

The 21st Century Wife – 2


Dear Praise,

I have done everything to change my husband to no avail. I have done everything and sometimes became confrontational yet nothing seems to have changed. He has this disorganized nature that he doesn’t seem to know where he keeps what? I have tried to teach him how to become organized to no avail. As a matter of fact he switches off anytime I want to correct him and I am really bothered because he has started showing some strange signs that I am not too sure if he is not seeing another woman. Please what do you suggest I do?

Kemi I.

Welcome to another awesome session with me and thanks once again for your numerous mails and calls. The key to building a fantastic marriage is our willingness to unlearn, learn and relearn the vital time tested principles that makes every marriage work. Continue reading

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December 3, 2010

Can a Woman Have it All?


Question 9: How did you get to find out about this MTN competition? (The more people write your name, the better for you) Please check previous articles for the rule, this is the answer that delivers the blackberry :) )

It’s interesting that after a long break, I’ll have to write on a topic that’s the flip side of my last article. What actually prompted the writing of this article is also very interesting. While i was in the university, i belonged to a clique of lovely focused ladies. We all met in school but had connecting points that brought us together….we were all in the same department and class and shared common values and principles. That made it easy for us to read and have discussions together, pray together and have loads of fun. Did i mention that we started out being 6 in number? After a while, we became eight. After graduation, everybody went their separate ways, career, marriage, etc. There was one of us who inspired me to write this article. She was the youngest, and arguably brightest among us. Everyone knew she was likely to go into research or academics and she never argued against it. But of course, things changed…this was 9yrs ago. Continue reading

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November 30, 2010

The 21st Century Wife


For 5 years I have written my column every Friday for This Day newspaper and with every response I get all over the nation I still feel there are millions out there hurting who need to get help from this treasure in earthen vessel so it was a dream come true when I was offered a life time opportunity to feature on this platform weekly.

I want you to know that together we are going to have a swell time as I cover every aspect of singleness, marital life and sexuality so fasten your belt because every week we shall explore something new and together we shall build the most desirable homes. Ok let us get down to business.

Dear Praise,

I find it difficult to understand what my husband finds in other women that I don’t have? I do all my best to satisfy him yet he complains all the time. I can’t understand why a man that has a cardilac at home would run after the Okada outside. I think I need help on what I must do to keep my husband at home because I hear my friends share similar stories and it gets me worried

Yemi I. O

I often get lots of calls and emails along this line especially from women who are troubled by the situations in their marriages. And what I do most times is to engage them in a dialogue so that I don’t give a microwave solution (which many of them expect) to a problem I don’t fully understand.

I see a lot of ignorance among married people in the 21st century and I have said it severally that we need to begin to intentionally prepare our young people for the 21st century marriages because the challenges in this century is totally different from the challenges our parents faced when getting married.

It was sufficient for the women of old to remain as wives because they never really had the kind of attractions and distractions the present day men face. The 21st century women must not just be wives they must also be concubines to their spouses. I have addressed our men in my past editions so women should not feel this is a ploy to subjugate women but you have to be able to see it from the real intention which is to assist us build sustainable homes.

I often say to women who monitor their spouses everywhere that a man that wants to misbehave in marriage will do it no matter what you do to track his movement, but if you channel your energy to render exceptional value that is superior to what any other woman can offer you would have reduced his chances of cheating on you.

I have carefully noticed the differences between a wife and a concubine and realized that the 21st century woman has to be able to fulfill both roles so that the man’s appetite would only crave for the ‘Cadillac’ at home. It is a lot of intentional work but it is achievable because I have seen it work over the years. Why would a man in his right senses run away from his beautiful wife to pitch his tent with a stranger who is not up to his wife by any standard? It is called ‘Goodwill’ or ‘Superior service’. Goodwill says that old customers will always return to the old place. In the actual sense of it the concubine doesn’t render superior service, it only looks like it because the grass always looks greener on the other side. However we must not ignore what makes the concubine tic because if we can add it to what we are already doing and do it consistently, we would have been able to keep more men at home and sack the women outside.

I will highlight a few differences here and they are as follows:

1. Treatment – The wife treats the man like her husband while the concubine treats him like a king.

A man that is treated like a king prefers a royal treatment to being treated like a mere husband. How do you treat your husband? How do you talk to him at home and even in the midst of his friends? Look through you kitchen at the plates you have been using to serve his meal and ask yourself for how long have you used the same plate?

When it comes to serving the food how have you been presenting the food and what has been your attitude? We sometimes overlook a lot of things in marriage that makes us perform better at work than home. We render exceptional service at work because of the fear of getting sacked which makes us put up our best attitude. But without such threat or motivation at home we sometimes take a lot for granted, forgetting that as you have others waiting to take your job if you don’t handle it well at work, you also have a lot of women warming up to take your place in the life of your husband.

Every woman should remember that every time you are messing up, someone else is warming up to take your place. Why don’t you move from a husband treatment to a royal treatment today, and observe his response. But you have to do it consistently.

To be continued

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November 26, 2010

The Predatory Preacher


“Except a man be born again he shall not see the kingdom of God”, he thundered to the fearful audience that came for service in the morning

But ‘let me come in from behind he echoed to the girl who had become his playmate (sexmate) every night

“No fornicator will make heaven”, he groaned passionately as he delivered his Sunday service

But let us quickly do it he moaned as he stole out of bed to meet the needy girl living at the vicarage

“I don’t understand what is so special about sex”, he preached in the morning

“But you are the best thing to have happened to me”, he remarked after another round of intercourse with the girl next door. Continue reading

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September 24, 2010

Don’t Quit!


Are you experiencing any of these symptoms?

•    A compulsion to prove oneself
•    Working harder
•    Neglecting one’s own needs
•    Displacement of conflicts (the person does not realize the root cause of the distress)
•    Revision of values (friends or hobbies are completely dismissed)
•    Denial of emerging problems (cynicism and aggression become apparent)
•    Withdrawal (reducing social contacts to a minimum, becoming walled off; alcohol or other substance abuse may occur)
•    Behavioral changes become obvious to others
•    Depersonalization (life becomes a series of mechanical functions)
•    Inner emptiness
•    Depression

If you are experiencing any of these as symptoms, then you are approaching burnout. You need to quickly retrace your steps. You are in this business because you want to own your life, and enjoy your life, don’t let anything stress you out. Don’t allow anything to wear you out emotionally. Change your game!

Here are a few tips on what you can do. Continue reading

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September 14, 2010

It’s not all about you!


We have all somehow averagely gotten ourselves into a saddening grind. We take up jobs because it’s the best choice for us, we negotiate hard because we want to win,  we do deals because we need the money, we go to church because we want to be blessed, say long prayers for personal requests. It’s all about us, it’s all about what we want, who we want and when we want it. We want a better Nigeria because of ourselves, because of our children, we want good healthcare because we need it. In this saddening cycle of life, it’s all about us.  If you think deeply about it however, you will realize… it’s not all about you!

“A person starts to live when he can live outside himself.” -Albert Einstein

The way life is wired, you cannot have true fulfillment or joy living life simply for yourself. You cannot be wealthy, cannot have a great marriage, you cannot enjoy career convergence living life at the level of “me, me, me”.  The best things in life are deliberately reserved by God for those who stretch beyond themselves. Continue reading

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September 12, 2010

Who is Your Leader?


Last week Saturday, I had the rare privilege of an opportunity to speak at a Methodist Youth Convention in Oron, near Uyo, Akwa Ibom State. The audience were young people from all over the nation, they numbered about a few thousands. It was talk-show styled. I was the only respondent on the talk-show, and I was being interviewed by a gentleman. The questions rolled after each other in quick succession, the questions seemed to have one goal in mind – to reveal the factors, the experiences and the environment responsible for bringing me to where I am today. My heart was moved in a heart felt prayer for these people, that they would start well, and finish strong. The same way today, my heart goes to every reader of this post. You will not be of them that run and do not win the prize, you will run and you will be victorious. Your purpose and dreams will not be cut shot. You will have a great story to tell, and your life and story will inspire your generation and generations unborn. You will live and not merely survive. You will impact your generation and not be distracted by the lure of a cyclic purposeless existence. Continue reading

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June 16, 2010

Why I Passionately Recommend


It’s been a while I have written as consistently as I normally would. I have been on the move, adding value to what might seem a minority, but what is surely becoming a mighty army of people. Ever so often, I meet someone however, who reminds me of what a blessing my site has been to him or her, and I’m reminded never to ever underestimate the power of this blog and who may be reading. With due respect to that reality, I have yet again decided not to completely close this channel, but to strive to every motivate and inspire my online friends and audience.

The journey of personal development is not an easy journey, but if the needed prices are paid, it can be pleasurable. Trust me, travelling around the world on vacations with different teams of people can be so much fun. Learning their cultures, reading their history,  meeting the locals, sight seeing and all sounds like play, but if you where the cap of a student and a teacher, there is so much that is revealed. I long to share the lessons from the Maldives, to share insights from The Gambia and touch a bit on my breath-taking tour of Cotonou, Ivory Coast and Senegal – remind me I said breath taking :) . But today, I’ll want to share something that almost brought tears to my eyes, and the reason, why I will for the next few decades passionately recommend that you become a part of this global opportunity. Continue reading

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