God is raising up worshippers

Worship is coming to a place of intimacy where nothing else matters but your love and affection for God. It is our highest calling as a people, just simply exalting our maker. We have reached a time where God is calling upon and raising up true worshippers.

 People who are able to exalt the name of God even when things are not going well for them. People who continue to say Jehovah you are awesome in my life may your name be praised even when they have no rent money or their career is not going according to plan.

Worshippers who will talk about the might and goodness of God to others even when sickness is crawling at their door. People whose lips are constantly offering praises.

Worship is all about God! Are you ready and willing to worship God in truth and in spirit?

Revelation 4vs 8-11

YES!! you are doing the right thing!

They are said to be slowly going extinct but I know they are there. Seems the respect they were once given is also slowly eroding and if you dare to admit you are one you are looked at with disbelief or laughed at. Yes, I am talking about VIRGINS!

 The in thing these days even among Christians is having sex outside of marriage. The whole idea of waiting seems absurd to many. But I just want to encourage someone who has chosen to wait that you are indeed doing the right thing. Do not let society or your body dictate what you do with your purity. Abstaining is not easy, but what good thing ever came easily?

 Some say being a good girl does not pay but to you who is waiting remember that is exactly how the world wants you to think. Think about Josephs’ predicament for a moment, when Potiphars’ wife was throwing herself at him. Someone would have probably told him to sleep with her as he would not lose anything by doing that. But what we do not see is that we would be going against the will of God, our Father. The One whose opinion matters above everyone else’s’ opinion.

Do not be weary, do not become faint even when your body cries for relief I know you can hold on. Not through your own willpower but through the Holy Spirit who continually gives us strength .It’s not easy but it’s possible and in due time you will enjoy sex as God intended.

Galatians 6vs 7-9

	Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.
	For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.
	And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.

Stealing her innocence

 At a time when her friends are playing house, with the pretend Daddies, Mommies, kids and the whole family setup she is caught up in the reality of it. Her mind does not even comprehend what is going on, but the decision has been made for her. Her heart is not on the formalities going on around her, the little girls’ head is raised not in pride that her family is gathered because of her, no! She is looking at her little age mates from across the neighbourhoods that are busy playing, jumping around the yard. That’s where her heart is but her Mom told her today is a special day so she has to be extra good, she cannot play with the other kids. At age eleven she is being ‘sold’ into marriage, she is paying the price for her family’s’ poverty simply because she is a girl. By giving her into marriage they have not only robbed her of her innocence. But by just performing that one act of marriage they have deprived her human right to education, health, opportunity and equality to name but just a few.
The union of marriage is supposed to be a formalized relationship between consenting adults. Whereas child or forced marriages occur when a child is coerced, threatened or tricked into marriage without her informed consent. A child is classified as anyone under the age of eighteen. Child marriage seems like an outdated practice yet it is happening in our time. It’s a practice that is thrusting children into marriage without them knowing the dangers of matrimony at a tender age. This means that more girls are prone to diseases like cervical cancer, increased risk of sexually transmitted diseases, death during child birth and many other complications during pregnancy.

Globally 14 million girls under the age of eighteen are married off every year. This means that every two seconds a girl is being forced into marriage somewhere in the world. Statistics from UNICEF (Monitoring the Situation of Children and Women) show that in  Zimbabwe one in every three girls gets married before they reach the age of eighteen, that is 30 percent of women are married  before they reach the legal age. Some factors which lead to this include cultural issues for example if a girl gets home late, it is culturally ‘acceptable’ for that girl to be chased away from home. If she was with her boyfriend she is supposed to go stay with that guy. Her parents do not even look into if the two were in that relationship for the long haul or not. Simply because she came home late it is assumed that the guy has deflowered her and has also shown disrespect to the girls’ family by bringing her back home after dark.

In most cases poverty has been seen as the underlying factor as parents marry off their girl child to old rich men, just to get money to put a boy child through school. Outdated you might say, but it’s happening in this century.

Nyari Mashayamombe Director of Tag a life Foundation which deals with issues relating to children’s rights says that child marriages are a cause for concern in Zimbabwe. “Child marriages are very prevalent in Zimbabwe not only in rural areas but even people from affluent suburbs are affected just that not much is talked about it. Yes the prevalence is higher in low income earning suburbs this is mainly due to the fact that girls there have less exposure to good role models they can look up to.  In most cases the girls Mothers’ who fall into this practice would have been married off at an earlier age so when it happens to their daughter they think it’s normal. If the, Mom got married off at a young age chances are her daughter will go the same road. But the underlying factor is usually poverty,” said Mashayamombe.

For child marriages to end a multi facetted solution is required. Attitudes need to change for parents to know marriage does not mean heaven and bliss for their child. At the same time the girl child has to be educated to know getting married early will not solve their problems but can actually add on to whatever troubles they might be having. The community also has to be educated so as to change some cultural practices that deter progress for girls. Child marriages mean high development costs and limited life options for girls so all efforts to empower the girl child are rendered null and void.

“We need to step up and put child marriage as an agenda for development. Yes not every child is intellectual but there are so many opportunities open for girls nowadays. We need to keep the girl child in school for longer so that she becomes more independent. We need to empower the girl child,” reiterated Madamombe.
The Zimbabwe Constitution states in Section 26 that the State must take appropriate measures to ensure that children are not pledged in marriage but this right is not being recognised. The Convention on the elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) states that marriage before the age of eighteen should not be allowed as children would not be having the full maturity and capacity to act on their own rights.
Girls who delay marriage stay in school longer and it has been proven that the more a woman pursues her education, the more options are available to her to advance herself positively. When she advances herself, she benefits not only herself but her family and community as well. As Zimbabweans we need more women role models to inspire future generations. Musha mukadzi, kwete mwana!

Of marriage and the indepandent woman

I recently turned a certain age, thank God I’m a woman so I do not have to tell you how ‘old’ I really am(I plead the whole a woman never reveals her  real age amendment, lol).I had  been dreading turning my age and it seems I was within my reason for dreading it. No sooner had my birthday come; I got a visit from my auntie. I’m sure you can imagine the conversation that we had right?

 Well let me tell you a bit about myself to help you along then you will definitely get the drift. I’m single (biggest hint), I work and in a profession where it is perceived that if you a part of you are ‘loose’ and will never settle down. Maybe because women in my profession are opinionated, work odd hours travel a lot and generally are outspoken about any issue. I’m  a Journalist (though still trying to find my feet).I hang out quite a lot with those of the opposite sex though I have never brought one of them to meet the aunties officially(they can never understand that we are just friends,shamwari yechikomana??).Do not forget that I have reached a certain age.

So you can imagine how worried the elders get when they see that their daughter does not seem in any hurry to bring the son in law home in other words they want the cows to come home. I can just imagine the conversation that took place for them to finally send the aunties on me. I guess parents finally get tired of hearing praises on how well their daughter is doing at school, or how nice that their daughter is now working or she bought a car and they just want us to get married. It almost seems like getting married or at the very least having a grandchild for them even its out of wedlock is a duty you have to perform to fully please your parents. Especially if the girl from next door keeps popping them and she is younger than you.

But with the times we are living in the aunties have their work cut out for them. I look back and it seems most of the girls, now women I went to school with 85 percent of them are ‘living single’. Not saying they do not date or anything but most are not yet married. Could it be that that sitcom we used to watch spoiled us? Some would remember it, Living Single which starred Queen Latifah? Girlfriends who lived together, working and having the time of their lives?

 We always wished that when we grew up we would have that .We worked extra hard to have that life, the cars, the job, the flat, the status of being an independent woman (well maybe the full list is not there yet but we are on our way).Could it be that we have become so set on getting the list that we forgot that “marriage” can be part of that list so the aunties have to remind us? Could it be that the men themselves are the ones who are now scared off by how we are perfectly able to take care of ourselves? Could it be that instead of seeing the vulnerable people we still are despite the veneer of power we shield around us, the men think that we can do it all on our own? Or the men are just weaklings who cannot dare to be with a woman who has great ambition? Or is marriage now completely off the plate? That would really break the aunt’s’ heart to hear.

So the auntie comes with the ‘asi pane zvirikunetsa talk’ to find out if I need help to find my other half. I ask her what prompted this whole talk and among other things I find out that Mai Jenny from the neighbourhood who always has something to say about everybody has been whispering that ‘mwana anoda kubetserwa pamwe pane chivanhu chinoda kugadziriswa’.

I could not help but laugh over this as we had dinner with my girlfriends and it seems almost every one of us had suffered through the auntie talk. What we concluded about this whole reaching my age thing and the big auntie talk is exactly what I told my auntie. I am well aware of my age, I know society’s’ perceptions about the right age to get married or have a child. But above all I am aware that marriage is for forever and the sanctity God places on that union. Therefore I will await patiently until I meet the man who completes me.I will not marry to please society, my parents or because my ‘biological’ clock is catching up with me.I am happy to be working towards my dream and in good time I shall be married and make you proud, more than you are now!

 

 

 

Daddy Dearest.

Heaven-sent!!
You are the epitome of what a man is supposed to be.
You are my hero, my living legend.
It can not be easy, with all that you have borne
But unlike your weaker counterparts you have shown what commitment is.
Through thick and thin, through good and bad, through the tears and smiles,
You have stuck by.
You are truly an amazing man.
Heaven-sent.
Countless times have I told you im grateful?
But it can never be enough.
The strong woman I am today is all thanks to you.
God grant you countless more years so I can show my appreciation.
You have set a very high standard on my expectations
I pray that God created another, who matches you in character. One who is worthy to behold all you have bestowed upon my heart.
And all that’s rubbed off from your greatness.
Ababa- when they called you Peter they knew,
For you indeed are a ROCK!!
Solid and true.
Love you Daddy_
                             from a woman who will forever be your little girl.

Im THANKFUL!

We went to the graveyard this week to bury a young child.
Surrounding us were graves of babies who had only "survived"-a day...a week...a year.
It made me so sad to realise how fleeting life is.
It is just but a wind,here one minute and gone the next.
It also made me so THANKFUL!!!
Thankful for the years God has kept me.
For the years he has blessed me with.
For the years i've spent with every member of my family.
For the friends i"ve had.
The ones who have come into my life for a reason...a season....or who have stuck by(or who will stick by)for a lifetime.
For the loves who have come into my life.
The ones who have made me smile,who have made my heart beat and my pulse quicken, who have brought tears to my eyes  with joy and sadness.
Thankful for the one who broke my heart and not only made me stronger,but made me acknowledge that i also need JESUS in my relationships.
For the deep anguish and sorrow I've known in my life because it made me realise who God is in my life,that He alone is in control.
Thankful that i know now that without Him im lost.I'm thankful for Gods' awesome presence in my life.
Because now i can celebrate LIFE!
I can celebrate LIVING,not just surviving
Thank you God.
For what you have done so far.
For the hope for more love and joy.
For the belief in better days ahead.
For the celebration of my life,
Thank you!!!