Rebranding Africa for Beauty and Excellence

 

Source: keza.com via Osayi on Pinterest

I recently discovered the Angazas (and re-discovered KEZA*), and something he said in an interview absolutely stuck out to me. He said he wanted to help “rebrand Africa for beauty and excellence.”

In a world when Africa is synonymous with poverty, tragedy and pain, it is refreshing to realize that there are people out there actually seeing more than just that one single story.

*KEZA is an ethical fashion label. We discover uniquely gifted artisans, expand their design capacity for the western market and connect them to the international luxury fashion industry.

 

 

Leaders are Losers

These days people talk about how we all have to be leaders, and we all have to have goals for our lives…

Don’t get me wrong, I believe in having dreams and ambitions, and aiming for more, but the problem with having random goals is that no one knows the future, and what you think may be a great goal today, may actually end up being stupid later? What if the goals you think will fulfill you will end up making you miserable later?

This is why (in my humble opinion) leaders are losers!

Unless…unless we let God lead us. Unless we take our directions from Jesus. Unless we realize that God is the only one that knows the future, and we learn to trust Him. Unless we are willing to learn from experiences of other people…

This is why I really enjoyed the book* “I am Second: Real stories changing lives” by Doug Bender & Dave Sterrett. We hear some of the most painful and unimaginable stories, and how the people eventually find life. We learn that it doesn’t matter how awful life may seem as long as you finally give it all to God and let God lead you. From tales of drug use, child abuse, rape, painful divorces, we can learn that there is hope. We can learn that God loves us, and we can finally learn to live the best lives…as followers…and we can proudly say that we also are “second.”

Find out more about the book and the amazing video stories here.

*  Thomas Nelson provide me with a free copy of the book to review.

The NO-COMPLAINTS REVOLUTION week 4 | iyasostuff

Wow we’ve made it to week 4… magnifique!

Remember all you have to do is:

1. If you feel like complaining, don’t say anything

2. When you feel like complaining, find something to be thankful for instead.

—

So how have the weeks been so far? Hope you’ve found ways to encourage yourself and not to complain.

One of the best ways to encourage yourself is to encourage others.

So this week…a simple challenge…

Encourage at least one person this week.
Tell at least one person something you like, admire or appreciate about them.

Please share your stories on the wall.

Let’s talk soon

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p.s next week we’ll talk about being nice

The NO-COMPLAINTS REVOLUTION week 3 | iyasostuff

Yay! you’ve made it to week 3…that’s a great accomplishment!

Remember all you have to do is:

1. If you feel like complaining, don’t say a single word

2. When you feel like complaining, think of something you are thankful for, if you don’t have someone to call a best friend, be thankful that at least you don’t have a back-stabbing “best friend,” if your best friend got married and is now too busy for you, be thankful that at least she’s happy… 🙂

—–

If you did not get a chance to read the previous posts, you really ought to check it out.

This week I would like to encourage you to try not to be a superhero to your friends.

Trying to be a superhero only leaves you resentful and hurts those you love.

See a lot of our problems come from taking on other people’s problems. No I’m not saying that you don’t help your friends, but some of us are so good at taking on everyone’s emergencies that we always feel as if the problem of the world is on our shoulders…we’re always running to stop one fire or the other…always exhausted, and always busy…and then we complain…

We complain that some people only contact us when they need help, we complain that we don’t have time for ourselves, we complain that we never have time to do anything fun…we get resentful and the friendships we were trying to save by trying to do everything they asked us to do eventually ends because we are just too tired to do anything…

So this week, make it a habit to say “NO.” Don’t take on other people’s emergencies, just because they chose not to plan well. Trust me they will be okay, and perhaps next time they will be more considerate of your time. Say “NO” to the person who is calling to whine and complain just so they can dump all their negativity on you…

If you keep your lid closed, people won’t throw their trash in your containers.

You’re not their God, you can’t solve all (or most) of their problems…so your best bet is to pray for them, help them when you can, and do your best to keep your sanity!

Have a great week!

Keep inviting your friends…and keep sharing your successes.

Let’s talk soon.

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p.s. Next week we’ll talk about how learning to appreciate others…

If you're sick, it's not Paul's Fault | iyasostuff

Thorn in the flesh

Okay so you’re sick again, for the third time in three weeks and you can’t understand why. Especially since you never used to get sick…you could go for months and sometimes years without feeling any kind of weakness… but recently it seems you can’t help but be sick…and you think it must be God’s will… I mean you wouldn’t be sick if it wasn’t God’s will… RIGHT?

Plus, even Paul (the Bible giant) was sick and God told him that He would not take the sickness away from Paul…RIGHT?

ACTUALLY THAT’S WRONG…

Paul says: 2 Corinthians 12:7 And lest I should be exalted above measure THROUGH THE ABUNDANCE OF THE REVELATIONS, there was given to me a THORN IN THE FLESH, the MESSENGER OF SATAN to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure… 10Therefore I take pleasure in INFIRMITIES, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ’s sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong.

  1. ABUNDANCE OF REVELATIONS: Paul wrote 2/3 of new testament… it was because of the abundance of revelations…that means you need to write at least 2/3 of the Bible before you can use Paul as an excuse.
  2. THORN IN YOUR SIDES/EYES : The persecution of godly people by ungodly people… Numbers 33:55; Joshua 23:13; Judges 2:3 — if I say I was bothered today by a few pain-in-the-butts you would probably know I’m referring to some pain-in-the-butt people… thorn in the flesh is also one of those lingos
  3. MESSENGER OF SATAN: not from God (and don’t give me that crap that oh well God allowed it…God either wills it or he doesn’t…but not everything that happens is His will)
  4. INFIRMITIES: perils of waters/robbers/countrymen/heathen/false brethren…”If I must needs glory, I will glory of the things which concern my INFIRMITIES.” 2 Corinthians 11:23-31 (just a few verses before 2 Corinthians 12:7) — infirmities is anything that causes problems…although it can refer to diseases, in this situation it did not, especially since he had already defined what kind of infirmities he was referring to in a few verses before he used it again.

CONCLUSION:

There’s no excuse for sickness…Paul’s thorn was not sickness or poverty, the only thing he was not redeemed from was persecution for his faith, and neither are we redeemed from persecution for our faith… 2 Timothy 3:12

maybe next time we’ll talk about Paul’s “alleged ancient eye disease”…could it be apollo (conjunctivitis)? ha!

Would you like some help with loneliness and depression? Click here

The NO-COMPLAINTS REVOLUTION week 2 | iyasostuff

Hey Everyone!

Wow!…so WE MADE IT through the first week of January! Yay congratulations! How has it been? Did you find yourself complaining about something? Did you remind yourself daily not to complain? How did it go?

Remember that all you have to do is:
1. If you feel like complaining, don’t say anything

2. When you feel like complaining, think of something you are thankful for, and focus on that…if you’re single, be thankful you’re not in an abusive marriage, if you’re married be thankful you’ve found someone willing to take you despite all your imperfections… 🙂

—————————————————————
This week I would like to encourage you to be patient with people. One of the most challenging things about life is that we don’t understand why people think the way they do or act the way they do…we spend so much time thinking things like: “if I were her, I would have never done that…” or “I don’t understand why people would ever…”

We get frustrated because people are not like us, or people do things that don’t make sense to us.

So my challenge this week is that we let people just be themselves. Stop spending so much time and energy trying to change people. If the guy you’re dating is always late you have two choices. Either you accept him as the late person he has chosen to be, or let him go…but whatever you choose, don’t complain about it.

When you criticize and complain about people it doesn’t say much about the people, it just tells us that you are a critical person…

so this week when you feel like being critical catch yourself, take a deep breath and try to think of at least one thing you like about the person…and if you can’t think of one thing you like about the person…then think about other pleasant things.

Yes some people may be nasty and mean, but the important thing is ARE YOU ONE OF THEM?

Have a great week!

Keep inviting your friends…and keep sharing your successes.

Let’s talk soon.

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Click here for any questions

p.s. Next week we’ll talk about how we can stop trying to be everyone’s superhero..

The NO-COMPLAINTS REVOLUTION week 1 | iyasostuff.com

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

So guess what? January 1st begins our journey…NO MORE COMPLAINING!

Remember that all you have to do is:
1. If you feel like complaining, don’t voice it

2. When you feel like complaining, think of something you are thankful for, and focus on that…if you don’t have a car, be thankful you can walk, if your car has issues, be thankful you have a car…

—
This week I would also like to encourage you to be patient with life.
Some of our biggest frustrations (the reasons we complain) are because life doesn’t turn out exactly the way we expect it…but if we think about it, life rarely ever does.

It’s on the day we are running late that everyone on the road is going slowly. It’s the time we finally have the guy or girl we always wanted that we realize their laugh is annoying, they have no confidence and their feet stink!

The sooner we accept that life rarely turns out the we we expect it the better our lives will be.

Of course being patient with life does not mean that we are complacent…we still have to fight.

– we still must set goals
-we still must learn from our mistakes
-we still must remember that God is a good God and the evil things that happen to us do not come from him…
– we still must fight evil

When we learn to be patient with life, we’ll learn to be patient with people (we’ll talk about that some more next week)

So this first week of January whenever something unexpected happens, instead of complaining, just smile and practice being patient with life.

Please leave comments, questions, concerns on the wall, keep inviting your friends…Let start the new year fabulously!

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Would you like help with depression and loneliness? Click here

THE NO-COMPLAINTS REVOLUTION | Iyasostuff.com

Courtesy abpphotos

Does your life stink? Do you always have something to complain about?

Would you like to have a joy-filled-complaint-free life in 2012?

Then Join the NO-COMPLAINTS 31-DAY REVOLUTION!

For the entire month of January, you pledge to do two things.

1. Voice no complaints (not even under the ruse of “prayer” or “concern”)

2. Be thankful in every situation

 

Simple right? Wonderful…so let’s do it!

Feel free to leave comments here, and join us on Facebook

If you have any questions, just contact me here.