Birthing Possibilities

There was a time when waiting was unavoidable. You waited in the doctor's office with nothing but old magazines. You waited for a bus, watching people come and go. You sat through a power outage making up stories with your siblings, because there was little else to do. In those quiet moments, curiosity had room to breathe. Today, waiting lasts about three seconds. A phone appears, a video starts, another follows and half an hour disappears before anyone notices. Children are growing up with more information than any generation before them, yet less patience for it. They can swipe through hundreds of short videos in an afternoon, but ask them to sit with a good book for twenty minutes, and it can feel like punishment. The problem is not that screens exist. The problem is they rarely know when to stop. Holidays make this worse. Without school routines, devices quietly become the default. One episode becomes five. One game swallows an afternoon. At first, everyone is happy,😊 the hous...

There was a time when childhood looked different.  Not necessarily easier, but different. By the age of twelve, many children knew how to light a stove safely, sweep a compound properly, wash their clothes, run a simple errand without getting distracted, and greet adults with enough confidence to hold a short conversation.  Today, many children can navigate a smartphone better than their parents, yet struggle to boil an egg without supervision. It is an odd contradiction. We have become remarkably good at preparing children to consume information, but not always to contribute meaningfully to the world around them. These holidays offer a chance to correct that with everyday life. One of the greatest misconceptions about teaching children practical skills is that we are preparing them for hardship. In reality, we are preparing them for independence. A child who learns to cook is not being trained because life will be difficult. They are being equipped because one day they will b...

The holidays are here again. Parents breathe a sigh of relief. Children explode with excitement. Teachers finally get a chance to rest 😒😥. Alarm clocks are ignored, and for a few days everyone enjoys the feeling of not having somewhere to be by seven in the morning. If you ask most children what the holidays are for, you will probably hear words like sleep , play , visit cousins , watch television , or finally relax . None of those things are wrong. After months of assignments, examinations, and early morning school rush, rest is deserved. The koko is that holidays have a habit of disappearing. One moment the calendar seems full of endless days. Before anyone notices, school resumes, uniforms come out of storage, and someone says, "Where did all the time go?" That is why the Bible repeatedly encourages us to be wise with time. Ephesians 5:15–16 reminds us to "be very careful, then, how you live... making the most of every opportunity (time)." While Paul was speak...

Daniel hardly slept. By morning, nothing about the situation had changed. The figures in the file were still wrong. His manager was still expecting an answer. The possibility of losing a promotion was still very real. Only one thing had changed.  His mind was made up. When he walked into the office, he placed the file back on his manager's desk. "I can't do it."  His manager frowned.  "You realise this could affect your future here?" Daniel nodded.  "It might." Nothing spectacular happened after that. There was no applause.  No miracle. No dramatic announcement that his faithfulness had been rewarded. He simply returned to his desk and carried on with his work. I have noticed that obedience can sometimes feel ordinary. We expect great moments of faith to come with music and celebration. Most of the time, they don't. They look like small decisions made by ordinary people who have chosen to honour God when no one is watching. That brings me to Je...

Everyone in the village trusted Daniel. If you needed someone to keep your spare key while you travelled, you called Daniel. If the youth fellowship was collecting offerings for a family in need, Daniel handled the money. If there was a disagreement between neighbours, people often asked him to listen before they took the matter to the elders. He had earned a reputation for being honest and dependable. One Tuesday afternoon, his manager called him into the office. "I need your help," the manager said, passing a file across the desk. Daniel glanced through the documents. The figures didn't add up. "There are a few expenses we need to... reorganize before the auditors arrive," the manager explained. "Nothing serious. Just move these payments into next quarter. By then everything will balance itself out." Daniel looked up.  "But these expenses belong here." "I know." "Then why move them?" His manager sighed, leaned back in hi...

In the first part of this series, we looked at a simple truth: the people around us shape us, even without us realizing it. The question now is what we should do with that knowledge. The psalmist begins the very first Psalm with a warning about association: "Blessed is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked or stand in the way that sinners take or sit in the company of mockers" (Psalm 1:1). Notice the progression. Walk. Stand. Sit. Compromise is hardly a sudden collapse. It is usually a gradual settling. We first visit an environment, then become comfortable in it, and eventually call it home. Even Solomon, renowned for his wisdom, illustrates this painful truth. Scripture tells us that his foreign wives turned his heart after other gods (1 Kings 11:1–8). The wisest man who ever lived was not immune to the prolonged influence of association. Neither are we. Thankfully, the Bible also gives us examples of relationships that elevate rather than diminish. Joshua lea...