A Dangerous Fairytale for Future Wives

                       
As little girls, we might have pretended to be a damsel in distress — held hostage by a fire-breathing dragon, and saved by a knight in shining armor. We grow out of pretending, but as women we still tend to gravitate towards romantic books and movies.

Romantic bliss is one part of marriage, but it’s the hard fought battles won with grace that sustain a marriage. Tweet Share on Facebook

The thing we love most about a fairytale romance is the happy ending. No matter what the ups and downs, the guy and girl always make it in the end and achieve romantic bliss. It’s so neat and clean, and perfect. Yet, the romance books and movies are just pretend. They deliver us a modern fairytale: the American Dream that comes with a successful career, two children (a boy and a girl, of course), a faithful and devoted husband, good health, and an abundance of wealth and material possessions.

But what happens when reality doesn’t line up with our hopes and dreams? What if the real story of our life and marriage disappoints us? Is our knight in shining armor who we thought he was when we married him? Can he save us from the dragon?

The Married Have Not Arrived

The problem with translating a fairytale into our personal life is our unrealistic expectations. We want the happy ending in our own lives, and we think marriage will be that blessing. We expect the happy ending — sometimes even demand it. We all have a romance story playing in our head of what married life will be like, but eventually we’ll discover this fantasy world doesn’t match reality. Our lofty, fragile hopes and dreams are shattered. We’re hurt and confused by our husband’s sin (and our own). We never realized marriage could be so hard.

We love the romance books and movies — the fairytale — because our own love life can be a disappointment. We foolishly think we’ve finally “arrived” when we go from single to married. But God knows we’ve only just begun. We need to start seeing marriage through a different genre: the war movie.

Wartime Weddings

We all need a wartime mentality on the battlefield of marriage. When we move past the decisions of the wedding dress, the flowers, the meal options, we are faced with the daily decisions of living out our marriage vows. The sweet romantic bliss tasted on our wedding day is a real part of marriage — seasons and moments that should be treasured — but it’s the hard fought battles won with grace that sustain a marriage.

Little girls aren’t the only ones falling for fairytale romance. Women are still buying it in novels and movies. Tweet Share on Facebook

Whether we’re aware of it or not, the battle begins, not ends, when we make our vows. Our sinful desires will immediately rear up like a fire-breathing dragon. Satan will throw his grenade of lies at our feet. We will have to watch our step, lest we set off his explosive land mines hidden in our own homes. Many times it’s our own unrealistic expectations in marriage that blind us from seeing the bullets flying all around us. We must let go of the childish fairytale, and ask God to open our eyes to the spiritual warfare in our marriage, the battle in which we must fight for faith.

Satan’s Hope for Your Marriage

Satan wants to tear apart the beautiful gospel picture in marriage: the representation of Christ’s sacrificial love for his bride, the church. The enemy will stop at nothing to destroy any image or reflection of Christ in this world. He knows unrealistic expectations in marriage might help him kill what God loves. So, he tries to cheat us by selling us short on what God intends for marriage.

Satan wants us to think marriage is about fulfilling our unmet needs and desires, living the dream sold in romance novels, checking off a box, or finally getting our lives together. He’s slowly, gently rocking us into an apathetic sleep, so that we’ll settle for less. We must wake up and see how our unrealistic expectations set the bar way too low. Our desires are too small when we place ultimate hope in our husband or marriage itself. Our expectations should rise as God uses our unmet expectations — and the resulting disappointment and hurt — to drive us to himself. Marriage is a road that brings us to the greater destination: God himself.

A Love Story Larger Than Marriage

You see, we really do desire the fairytale over the war movie, because deep down we know it is true. We know there is a knight in shining armor who will slay the dragon for us, who will beat all the odds and win the war, who will pursue us in our distress and save us. Like Snow White’s prince, whose kiss brought the princess back to life, so God gives us his divine kiss of life through Jesus.

Our knight in shining armor is a carpenter from Bethlehem. Tweet Share on Facebook

Our knight in shining armor is a carpenter from Bethlehem; and he never disappoints. We think our marriages are meant to suit us and our little earthly desires, but our marriages are really part of a bigger story God is telling through his Son. Our expectations must be shaped by treasuring Christ. Only then will we stop pretending and engage in a wartime mentality toward marriage.

Written by Liz

Liz (@liz_wann) has a B.A. in English and writing from Rollins College. She now lives in Philadelphia with her husband and two little boys. Liz is a stay-at-home mom, editor in chief at Morning by Morning, and writes at lizwann.com.

Motherhood Is a Marathon

                                          

I wanted to do great things for God.

In the spring of my senior year of college, on the brink of embarking upon my own journey into adulthood, my future was undecided — and that was simultaneously terrifying and thrilling. As a philosophy major, my path was narrower than I had realized, but I was sure it would take me on some grand and glorious adventure.

I knew the chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy him forever. “Glorify” sounds like such a grand term. It evokes images of battlefield sacrifices or marathon finishes. So, I thought I had to do spectacular things for God. But years later, I haven’t and I don’t. I must do small, ordinary things for God, and this is, in some strange way, much harder.

As a stay-at-home mom, the most adventurous and remarkable thing I do is manage to leave the house with little ones. There is an almost mind-numbing regularity and repetitiveness to my days. Make meals, clean up, change diapers, put away toys, and then wake up and do it all again. I can grow tired of the monotony — the sameness of my tasks, the dishes I’ve washed countless times, the laundry I’m sure I just folded, the floor that never seems to stay clean. Solomon talked about “vanity of vanities” (Ecclesiastes 1:2), and sometimes I wonder if he had housekeeping in mind. Either way, I can certainly understand what he meant when he said, “All things are full of weariness” (Ecclesiastes 1:8).

I can wonder, as he did, What is the point of it all?

Truly Live, Daily Die

I was a newlywed in my first and final semester of graduate school, trying to satisfy the urge that I had to make something of myself and live up to my potential, when God turned my heart toward the home and the calling of motherhood.

“Calling” is another word that sounds grandiose, but for the Christian, it carries a humbler meaning. Each of us is called to die to ourselves. Jesus tells his disciples, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified” (John 12:23). But what comes next is not what we’d expect, something that doesn’t sound all that glorious at all.

“Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.” (John 12:24)

Jesus is telling us that death is the path to life, humility is the path to glory. This is the path he wore out for us to follow.

Mothers Change the World

When I decided to give myself to the calling of motherhood, it was because I wanted to change the world. I believed that if I wanted to have an impact for God’s kingdom, to do something truly great, then I would pour my life, not into chasing my own success or acclaim, but into raising up the next generation to be lights in this dark world. If I really wanted to make something of myself, I would multiply — not just physically, but spiritually.

This is the calling of motherhood, to fall to the ground and die that we might bear much fruit. This is the glorious vision under all the monotony. The trouble is that it’s an elusive one, so easily obscured in the thickets of the everyday and the valleys of the mundane and menial.

In our daily toil as mothers, we meet with both our curse and our redemption, caught somewhere between the already and the not-yet. Through sin, all things have been subjected to futility, but through Christ, all things are being restored (Romans 8:18–30). To live truly spiritual, God-glorifying lives, we must every day reclaim as holy what the fall made accursed, including the toil of everyday labor and the painful, wearying work of child-bearing and child-rearing. Nothing in our lives is secular or pointless now. All ground on which we tread is holy ground, and all work to which we put our hands is holy work, as long as we live and work for God’s glory.

Not a Sprint

The trouble is it doesn’t always feel holy, and it certainly doesn’t look holy. It looks crude and unrefined and messy. But we are those who walk by faith and not by sight (2 Corinthians 5:7). Motherhood is a marathon and not a sprint. The finish line is far off, and the fruits of our labor are long in coming. Before us, we find little ones who are so helpless, so needy, so self-focused, that it can be hard to imagine them as anything else. But if we can picture the godly men and women they might one day be by God’s grace — the kind of men and women this world so desperately needs — if we can hold firmly, desperately to that vision, we will remember the great purpose behind our everyday sacrificies.

We will remember that we are striving towards a goal, laboring in the home so that it is a place where our children may meet Jesus. We are persevering in our often monotonous work, that we might create a place of peace, of love, of grace — fertile ground for the renewal of the precious souls whom God has entrusted to us. This is our great, glorious gospel-task, which manifests itself in such small and humble ways.

Written by Emily Schuch

Emily Schuch (@emily_schuch) is a blogger and stay-at-home mom of two. She writes about faith, motherhood, and worldview.

Fero Mobile launches Iris smartphone in Kenya

                               

Leading Mobile brand Fero has unveiled its latest smart phone device Fero Iris in the Kenyan market. Fero Iris comes with a unique security feature that allows users to unlock their screens using their eyes.

The device comes with a 5-inch HD display with a1GB RAM, powered by a 2500mAh battery.

Speaking during the launch of the Fero Iris device in Nairobi, Fero Mobile Head of International Marketing Vivek Chaudhary said the brand is focused on introducing innovative solutions that are designed to enhance the customer experience.

Mr Chaudhary noted that with these innovations, Fero Mobile is aiming to increasing productivity among users and give them a new experience.

Nokia relaunches iconic 3310 mobile model

                              

Finnish brand Nokia, a former mobile star, have launched three new Android smartphones and unveiled a revamped version of its iconic 3310 model more than a decade after it was phased out.

Unlike the original, which was known for its sturdiness, the new Nokia 3310 will allow web browsing.

The new version will bring back its predecessor’s popular “Snake” game and distinctive ringtones, said Arto Nummela, the head of Finnish start-up HMD Global which will produce the phone under a licensing agreement with Nokia.

“The telephone will allow you to talk for 22 hours, ten times more than the original,” he said during a presentation in Barcelona on the eve of the start of the Mobile World Congress, the world’s biggest mobile phone show.

Launched in 2000, Nokia’s original 3310 sold nearly 120 million units worldwide before it was discontinued in 2005, making it one of the world’s best-selling mobile phones.

Analysts said resurrecting the popular model was a clever way for HMD Global to relaunch Nokia’s brand.

“HMD launched three new smartphones and an iconic mobile. It is a way to create a halo effect around the other models by reviving talk about the Nokia brand,” said Thomas Husson, a mobile analyst at Forrester.

In addition to the new 3310, HMD presented three new smartphones, the Nokia 3, Nokia 5 and Nokia 6 which will sell for different prices.

The Nokia 6 was already available in China and will now go on sale globally.

XENOPHOBIA:Nigerian Senate threatens South Africa

                                           

Nigerian lawmakers have declared that this is the last time they will condone any xen­ophobic attack on Nigeri­ans living in South Africa.

The two chambers of the National Assembly, which reacted to the renewed at­tacks on Nigerians in South Africa, threatened that they would retaliate any such ac­tions in the future.

The warning came from the Senate and House of Representatives Joint Com­mittee on Foreign Affairs at an interactive session with the Minister of State for For­eign Affairs, Khadija Bukka Abba.

The committee, chaired by Senator Monsurat Sun­monu (Oyo Central) and Hon. Nnenna Ukeje, had invited the minister to brief NASS on the ugly incident to enable the parliament take a stand on the Nige­ria-South Africa relations.

After listening to the submissions of the minister, the committee warned that Nigeria would no longer fold its arms and allow its citizens be killed in cold blood in South Africa, insisting that: “Enough is enough; henceforth it would be a tooth for a tooth.”

At the Senate session, the lawmakers resolved to send a delegation to meet their South African counterparts with a view to addressing the menace.

The resolutions followed a motion sponsored by Sena­tor Rose Oko and four others, who warned that if nothing was done urgently, Nigerians would be continuously sub­jected to more attacks by the unrepentant South Africans.

Senator Oko, who led the debate on the motion, noted with serious concern the re­turn of xenophobic attacks on Nigerians in South Africa as well as extrajudicial killings.

She stated that in the early hours of Saturday, 18th of Feb­ruary, 2017, South Africans re­portedly attacked and looted businesses owned by Nigeri­ans in Pretoria as confirmed by Ikechukwu Anyene, the Pres­ident of the Nigeria Union in South Africa and the media.

The lawmaker lament­ed that one Tochukwu Nnadi was on 29th December, 2016, killed in an extrajudicial man­ner through strangulation by the South African police.

According to her, these in­cidents violated Article 5 of the United Nations Universal Declaration on Human Rights, Article 4 and 7 of the African Charter on Human and Peo­ple’s Rights; and Sections 11 and 35 of the 1996 Constitu­tion of the Republic of South Africa.

Senators who took turns to comment on the matter all made reference to the central role Nigeria played in liberat­ing South Africa from apart­heid government in the coun­try for decades.

The Deputy Senate Pres­ident Ike Ekweremadu, told the Senate that it took the sup­port and commitment of Ni­geria to get South Africa out of the apartheid regime.

The Senate Chief Whip, Senator Olusola Adeyeye, said: “It breaks my heart that after doing so much for South Afri­ca, they have forgotten so soon and have turned around to pay Nigeria with unwarranted at­tacks and killings of our citi­zens.”

Nigeria is Coming Out of Recession.- Presidency

                           

The Presidency on has reacted to the review of the economy by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), saying the report indicated that the economy was coming out of recession.

"There are now indications that the Nigerian economy is well on its way out of recession considering the 2016 overall and last quarter Gross Domestic Product reports," the Presidential Adviser on Economic Matters, Dr Adeyemi Dipeolu, said in a statement.

A review of the recent GDP figures released by the NBS shows a contraction of -1.30 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2016, translating into an estimated economic growth rate of -1.51 per cent for the full year.

Dipeolu said the Nigerian economy actually performed better overall last year as the growth rate was higher with a contraction at -1.5 per cent than the -1.8 per cent predicted by the IMF.

He said the report had raised the hope that Nigeria was gradually coming out of recession with the improving trends in several key sectors of the economy including agriculture and mining.

IGBO LEADERS ARE POLITICAL SLAVES- MASSOB

                                   

The Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra, MASSOB,has said it is impossible for someone from the South-East to become Nigeria’s President.

In a statement by its leader, Uchenna Madu, MASSOB claimed that “Igbo leaders are political slaves in Nigeria,

“The way Nigeria is structured politically, it will be very hard for Igbo man to be president of Nigeria. The structure almost reduced Ndigbo to a minority tribe in Nigeria but history has always proved that Ndigbo is the largest ethnic nationality in Nigeria.

“Even though five states were accorded to Ndigbo in Nigeria but we are the largest ethnic group in every state after the indigenes of that state, in all the Nations of the world.

“Ndigbo are also the largest Nigerian ethnic nationality; even during the yuletide, all the states in Nigeria become temporal deserts and inhabitable because Ndigbo that make every state thick returned to their native hometowns.

“Even with our population and handshake with some geopolitical zones, it will be hard for the Igbo to be Nigerian president because there is a grand plot against Ndigbo in Nigeria. It will still be difficult for Igbo man to be president in Nigeria.”

He, however, noted that the only reason that will force Igbos to agree to Presidency was for Nigerians to support the actualisation struggle “because that’s the only working panacea that attract regional interest to the presidency.”