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Showing posts from July, 2022

Praying with Understanding

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Prayer, I believe is a conversation between us and God, either we are giving thanks, making requests or even asking questions. Yet it is not uncommon to feel like a prayer could be such a complicated and maybe even a delicate conversation to have, after all, it's God we are talking to here. There is no way that wouldn't be somehow daunting! I remember learning to pray as a child during family devotions and how nervous I'd get, mumbling through my words, hardly able to get anything coherent out. My auntie, bless her, would jump in the middle of one of my many long pauses to rescue me and carry on with the prayer but once we were done, my uncle would almost chide her for not giving me a chance to learn and develop my confidence. I didn't blame her; I found those long pauses very uncomfortable too! So, I usually understand when people tell me they do not know how to pray and would prefer others to pray for them or they'll just avoid it altogether and some even ask if ...

What Do Single Parents Do When They Are Ill?

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Worry, that's what I usually do when I'm ill. Then again, it's not so much what we worry about, but it's what we do when we are ill and also what we do not do. What we do is minimise the illness or try to wish it away. What we do not do is think of putting ourselves first, we do not prioritise our emotional and physical health, rather we put it on the back burner just to keep going and wanting to give our best. We sometimes forget a happy mum will raise a happy child. These were the thoughts that flooded my mind as I logged off work, lunchtime on Thursday to get ready for the taxi I had booked to take me to the hospital. I do not have the data but I'm certain most single parents (especially those as stubborn as I am) waste time in getting themselves to a doctor to be seen when they are feeling poorly. With six million things to do in sixty minutes, we do not have the luxury of taking time to get that nagging headache checked out or why we have lost our appetite an...