Welcome to a Life of JoyIvy

Do you love the reflection of God in you? Happy new month guys! I am sorry I didn’t write at all in the month of November, I had things I wanted to share but I just couldn’t articulate my thoughts well so I decided to not write until I was ready and I think I am. Shout out to my sisterhood for inspiring this post. You guys are the real MVPs.   So a few days ago my friends and I were discussing and I had just shared with them how during worship on Sunday God said to me that he wanted me to reflect on the fruits he had produced in me during the course of this year and also to reflect on the things his still teaching me. And as I shared this with them I expressed how I also wanted them to partake in this assessment so we can share our results with one another, and surprisingly we all had one answer in common and I thought to share my part of that story with you guys. So enjoy! I honestly thought I was done with this until the lord brought it again to my attention that ...

Olatoun’s Story: I was walking home from work, dressed in a pair of skinny jeans and a blue top when I noticed this car driving so close to me and so I looked in the car’s direction to figure out why the driver was driving so slowly but most importantly so close to me. Only for me to notice the driver who was a man probably in his thirties looking at me seductively and stretching out his left hand in attempt to grabbing my wrist while saying “omo ele, (pretty girl) come let me take you home” I withdrew my hand before he could reach for my wrist and responded thank you sir but I am fine. He went ahead and said “don’t call me sir, you can just call me Femi” I responded with a straight face saying Mr. Femi thanks for offering me a ride but I am fine. By this time some people in the street had noticed us and I remember hearing one of the guys on the street shouting “sister eyin na e wole e ye sako” (girl why don’t you just get in the car and stop being so difficult to get) I was so dis...

What has happened to my nation? I remember that day so vividly, my principal had sighted a young boy trying to steal something from the car of one of the female teachers in my secondary school (aka high school). As soon as my principal saw him he raised an alarm which made all the students including myself ran out of our classrooms to the corridor to see what was going on. The young boy was caught and was brought into the school environment. And I remember very well the way we all screamed for him to be beaten, after all he deserved to punished, and of course that happened. He was slapped on the face, I remember my principal beating him with a wooden cane (a typical way a student is disciplined in Nigeria) but in his case not in a good way, he was treated like less of a human and the reason was simply because he attempted to steal. I am not trying to justify his act but should he have been treated like that? Now, I don’t think so but then my answer was a big YES! I remember j...

What have I really accomplished? As I laid in bed and flipped through the pages of my thoughts I ended up asking myself, what have I really accomplished in my life?   And for the life of me I couldn’t point out a thing and what started happening was I then began to compare myself with my friends, people around me and I quickly concluded that I haven’t really accomplished anything and if I am going to be honest I really felt like that. I don’t have my college degree yet, I don’t think I know what I want to do with my life, nothing I try seem to be working, I legit feel like nothing is moving, and the worst part I feel like all the dreams that God has placed in me have been drowned with all these thought and fear quickly overwhelmed me. (Note :  don't  ever compare yourself to anyone, you are you and no one else can ever be you. comparison  is the thief  of Joy. Keep your Joy and let nothing steal it, not even you or your thoughts. You are too perfec...

Some days ago my friend and I were talking about how some Christians in Nigeria are just so religious that they miss the whole point of this whole Christian race which is Jesus but we talked more about how they because of their ignorance of who really Christ is they knowingly or unknowingly push people away from Jesus. I’ll give an example and I also saw this a lot growing up, and I am pretty sure this still happen because I still hear of it till date. We have some specific Christian in some churches in Nigeria that all they do is condemn people because they believe they are not well groomed enough for Jesus, they are not dressed properly, their skirt is too short, if you are a female and you have trousers (pants) on you can’t come into the church because after all haven’t you read in Deuteronomy that a woman must not wear what belong to a man (when in reality they are reading that verse out of context), you have too much tattoos on you to be worthy of the salvation of Christ, your ma...

I feel a little uncomfortable sharing this with you all but ehn…. Whatever!! So I have been studying the book of Luke for a while now and I try as much as possible to read a chapter a day and just meditate and listen to God and see what he is saying to me through this book. Well chapter 14 verse 34-35 was very overwhelming but in a good way. Luke 14:34-35 – “Salt is good, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? 35  It is of no use either for the soil or for the manure pile. It is thrown away. He who has ears to hear, let him hear.” I read an ESV study bible so below each chapter they give more insight to each verses and for verses 34-35 it was “Most salt came from the Dead Sea and contained impurities (carnallite and gypsum). If not processed properly, it would have a poor taste and would worse than useless, being unusable for food and creating a disposal problem. If the conditions of discipleship are not kept, the disciples will become ...

It was a sunny Thursday evening, I was exhausted after a long day from work when on my way home with one of my friends she said to me “have you seen the videos of the accident that happened along Lagos-Ibadan expressway?” knowing that, that is the route that leads to my house in Lagos, Nigeria my immediate thoughts were to call my mum, dad, siblings, friends and my loved ones that I knew plow that road on a daily basis. After confirming that all the people that I knew and cared about were saved I had a sigh of relieve and went on with my day like nothing happened. And it suddenly hit me I just got really comfortable after hearing that no one that mattered to me was affected by the accident, and as that thought was going on in my head I tried everything in my power to push it away simply because I knew it was true and didn’t want to think about it but the more I tried the more I failed and after a while I gave in to the thoughts and realized how COLD my heart had gotten. The sam...

My Victory Over Pornography Hey guys and welcome back. Been a minute here but guess who is officially done with the semester……me!!!! And so this means I will be very present here over the summer till at least school resumes. I try my best to do a good job during the semester but, you know how it is. Anyways today I am going to be sharing with you my testimony over the bondage of pornography. Yeah you read right porn. First of I want to give the Lord Jesus Christ all the glory!!!  because my struggle with porn was real but Jesus love for me was realer (if such word exist). And I know this might not be a big deal to some people because quite frankly we live in a sex-saturated world, and in every corner of the media in our daily life sexual immorality is being normalized. But I know that the creator of we sexual beings didn’t intend for it to be this way. Well come along with me on my own journey of how the Lord set me free from pornography.  It all started when I...

Before you start reading I want you to take a moment and think about this topic.  IS JESUS YOUR DEFINITION OF SUCCESS? I started struggling and still struggling with this question when I started worrying about my future. Thoughts about what I want to do with my life after school, money making, what age I would like to get married and have kids and so on. And trust me I had a plan which was going well until…oh well… let’s just say Jesus came into the picture. If you've been through this phase in your life I am sure you are probably laughing at me right now, I know, I have realized it doesn’t always work that way. But the point of me explaining this is, that was my own definition of success. Getting a degree → then a job → then get a boyfriend → then get engaged → then get married → then have children and then Boom!! Boom!! Boom!! I AM SUCCESSFUL!!! Let’s define the word Success :  the accomplishment of an aim, purpose, fame, wealth or social status. In simple words the def...