UNDERSTANDING YOUR TODAY TO UNDERTAKE YOUR TOMORROW A revolutionary book, set to change the way we relate to people, manage our finances, and perceive life, causing a change in our lives and our world. BY EHIKHAMEN SAMUEL OSAGIE Copyright © 2012 by Ehikhamen Samuel Osagie. ISBN: 978-978-919-080-5 ABOUT THE AUTHOR Ehikhamen Samuel Osagie was born to the family of Mr. and Mrs. Andrew Ehikhamen on the 9th day of October 1983, in a suburb at Ijora Badia area of Lagos State, Nigeria. He was raised by God himself for this purpose as nothing his family had points to such a future. He loves to learn, but loves more to teach what he knows. He has always had a passion everyone around saw as a weakness, CHARITY. This attribute has, and is still pushing him to selflessly commit himself to poverty alleviation in Nigeria and the world at large. He is currently the president of SeafonWorld International, an organization that goes from one secondary school to another to educate young Nigerians on financial literacy, with the goal of inculcating good financial habits and reducing the growing rate of poverty and finally force it on a downtrend. He is also the president of Needy but not Poor, a non-profiting organization (NGO) that believes there are no poor people in the world, just people needing love, information, inspiration, hope, motivation, direction, etc. The organization has a vision of reducing poverty in Nigeria by 20% in 20yrs with the help of every Nigerian. Dedication This book is dedicated to God almighty who has given me life and life abundantly through his son Jesus Christ. In times when everyone including myself thought life was useless and that there were not enough reasons to believe there was a God, he was more than faithful. Thank you. This book is also dedicated to the loving memory of my late elder sister Ehikhamen Juliana, who passed away on the 17th day of August 1997. To my parents, she was the best child any parent could ask for, to me and the rest of my siblings, she was the best sister we ever had, to our neighbours, she was the best neighbour they ever had, and to the world, she is the best thing we ever lost. RIP. Acknowledgement This book wouldn’t be complete without acknowledging God almighty for grace to reach my world through my pen. He has also been a great source of inspiration and strength in compiling this book. Thank you. To my mother who has been of great encouragement even when I was supposed to be kicked out and talked down. You gave me hope for a time like this. Thank you and God bless you. I owe a big hug and thanks to my best friend, Patricia Chinke, for believing in me when no one wanted to be associated with me. Thank you. Also to my friends, Tolulope Badejo, Nofisat Giwa, Barnabas Oledinma, Raymond Giwa, John Agwu, Seun Aderibigbe, Mr. Wale, Pastor John omomila, Kenneth Iyoha, McDonald Akhor, Olutoba Atobatele, just to mention a few, and if I didn’t mention your name, please bear with me because I love you all and I am saying thank you. To my siblings, Akomolede Caroline, Aighwokhian Eunice, Ebhohon Rita, and Ehikhamen Joy, thank you for your love and support given to make me who and what I am today. Thank you. And to everyone I have ever come across, I am saying a very big thank you because your encouragements, criticism, help and support put together, has brought about the passion to write this book. Thank you. *********************** CHAPTER 1 If you have received this book for free, borrowed it or got it as a present, I would like to congratulate you in advance for the success that is achievable by studying this book. This book is not one written by the best of expertise, but by the inspiration of God because the bible said in Philippians 2:13 “For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure”. I say so because I had the title (Understanding your today to undertake your tomorrow) way back in 2003 and wrote it down somewhere not knowing what the content will be. I started jotting notes and asking questions in 2004, and finally came up with the three segments of this book which we will be talking about in a moment. So many authors have written great books about these topics, but have succeeded in taking them apart. In this book, I did my best with the help of the Holy Spirit to take the three most important part of life and link them together to give you a pleasant read and to help you see what I saw while putting this book together. Now I want you to put aside your doubts that this is one more time wasting book, and let low your expectation that this is the wonder book you have been waiting for. This book has no power of its own, but will do for you what you desire it to do. If you desire it to be just a book with letters and numbers so will it be, and if you desire it to be a source of inspiration, motivation and reference, so will it be. You would agree with me that to be successful in life, you have to be wise. If yes, then wisdom should be our ultimate goal and the bible agrees with this in proverbs 4:7 “Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding”. If this is true that wisdom is a goal that must be achieved, the question should be “how do we get wisdom?” I am sorry to announce to you that you cannot get wisdom but instead seek knowledge. Note this Hosea 4:6 “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: …” God did not say “Lack of wisdom”. Knowledge is the acquisition of information for the purpose of use. This book contains information you can use and that is exactly how I want you to see and read it. I want you to see this book as a guide, as God talking to you in person through me and sharing his thoughts with you and helping you find peace from within. Now let’s get back to wisdom. Is it possible to see a man sitting in a chair, arms folded to the chest and legs stretched out and call him a wise man? The simple answer is No. This is so because to be called wise, you have to display wisdom, and from here I draw my definition that “wisdom is the appropriate application of acquired knowledge at the right time and place”. When you display an acquired knowledge at the right time and place, it is called wisdom and in it lie’s the treasures of life (Proverbs 3:16 “Length of days is in her right hand; and in her left hand riches and honour”) because it attracts influential and great people that would help you in achieving your every vision to you. You can read this book over and over again until you can recite it from cover page to back page, or even quote me all over town but that will only make you as empty as you were before reading this book. I implore you to practice everything in this book because wisdom is in doing as described by Jesus in Mathew 7:24 “Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine and DOETH them, I will liken him unto a wise man, …”, and that’s not because it will make me popular or make me rich, but will take you to a place of fulfillment where you never imagined. I hope I have been able to give you a reason to want to continue with reading this book, as you do, I hope you find it worth the time and money. A wise man once said “If you forget yesterday, you’ve turned your back on tomorrow”. Now, I realized that so many of us hold on to yesterday and find it very hard to open up to anything today, reasons being that we believe in such proverbs and has made it a part of our lives. The apostle Paul said in Philippians 3:13 “Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before,” Today I tell you “You can forget yesterday, but do all you can to lay hold of TODAY or TOMORROW will turn its back on you”. TODAY is all that really determines tomorrow and not yesterday because yesterday has done its part by determining today. Until you understand today, undertaking tomorrow remains an uncertainty. Even our God is a God of today; he judges per time, he considers the state of your heart per time and he leads per time. In the beginning before creation, Genesis 1:2 “…And the spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters” God’s Spirit moved upon the face of the waters because he needed to get an understanding of the present situation, and that understanding are the awesome and beautiful things we see today including man. This is why I can confidently say, YOUR LIFE STARTS TODAY! The information in this book is needed today and so is every other good and profiting information; especially, in the Bible. Now let’s begin. This book is sectioned in three, and they are Life & Living, Relationships and Financial literacy. Looking at these sections by name, you would want to say “oh I already know these things”, yes you do, but I have put it together by the help of the Holy Spirit in a way you have never read, so please take time to read through and you just might find that one thing you need to get there. ************************* Life & Living ife is the existence of a being, animal or plant. A being can be said to exist if it can feel and be felt, if it can perform the simple act of breathing in and out, grow, and reproduce. In this book, I shall be talking about the life and living of the human being. If life is the existence of a man or woman, what is life measured by? In my opinion, life is not measured by the amount of air we breathe in and out, not by the number of days we live on earth, but by those moments that take our breath away in the course of fulfilling the plans of God. A life well spent is not one that lasted 150 years, but one fulfilled with love, peace and prosperity. Long life is indeed a good thing, but is best when that life is fulfilled. Whether you admit it or not, the statement that “when there is life; there is hope” is one of the true statements I have come to believe in. When a man has life, there is hope for a better tomorrow if he lays hold of today irrespective of his yesterday; a hope for great things, and a hope for any dream to actualize. In life, time is something that we have no control over; therefore in time anything is possible. Talking about life, you would want to think that it requires a whole textbook and more to even start. The truth I found is that life is governed by two rules which are simply feeding and exercising. I know you want to ask why or how, but please encourage yourself to continue reading and you will soon understand what I mean. FEEDING is not the act of eating or taking in food substance to the body, but the intake of appropriate quantity and value of food into the body. When I talk about feeding as regards life, I am talking about feeding the body and the mind. If feeding the body is the intake of appropriate quantity and value of food into the body, then the feeding of the mind can be said to be the intake of appropriate quantity and value of information into the mind. From the above L [...]... “And the LORD said unto Moses, Gather unto me seventy men of the elders of Israel, whom thou knowest to be the elders of the people, and officers over them; and bring them unto the tabernacle of the congregation, that they may stand there with thee.” If you read through the story of Moses, how he led the people of God out of Egypt and through the desert, you would see that God had elders with him all the. .. upon the face of the whole earth.”, when people gathered and agreed to build a tower into heaven, and the only way God could stop them without wiping them all out was to break their relationship by making them speak in different languages Genesis 11:6-7 “And the LORD said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them,... to condemn, but to make the required move to whatsoever thing he observes “Open your eyes to look, but open your head to see.” E S O Be Tolerant Tolerance is the ability to endure the grief caused by another human whether he or she knows it or not To tolerate does not mean you have to absorb everything he or she does to you, but also finding the right time, avenue and approach to share your grievances... particularly on that path for your sake, to protect you from making the same mistakes, to guide you from falling at the same spot as they did, and to guard you from stormy weathers and dangers along the way Their success stories should be your strength and their failures should be your light, because with strength and light, there is only a little more you need to reach the finish line “He that travels... and teaching You begin to see them as too big to be taught, and see yourself as very small to disregard their teaching, whether good or bad Whether it’s meeting a rich or a poor person, it should be seen as a privilege not to be abused If you remember the story of Adonijah the step brother to king Solomon, and how he abused the opportunity of having access to him through the mother in 1Kings 2:13-25,... might want to argue that there are people out there who do not acknowledge God and are yet successful, that is so true, but this is what the bible says about that in Psalm 73:12 “Behold, these are the ungodly, who prosper in the world; they increase in riches.” And it went on to say in Psalm 73:17 and 18 “Until I went into the sanctuary of God; then understood I their end Surely thou didst set them in... between minutes While we were growing up as children, we were made to understand that to change a man, you must first, change his mind This is a fact that cannot be changed even in a million years, and that’s why I would love to adopt the same principle in this book Things You Must Understand as a Relator To be a good RELATOR, there are things you need to understand and digest, and I shall share them... medium of exchange You must have a source of income (Your vision) as your food and a medium of exchange as your seed when you embark on your journey to success Your source of income could be your job, your skill, your talent, your vision or your profession Your food must be one designated by God; it must be one that was given by God to meet the specific need of the specific people he sent you to here on... man and another, one object and another, one plant and another and one man to a God To establish a relationship, there must be a minimum of two parties and an endless number as maximum In this book, we shall only take into consideration the best possible ways to relate to another human as a human Everything you need to relate to God is and can be found in the bible, so go for it with all your being,... instead of your mind doing the communication, your body temperature, your mood, your countenance, your posture and your facial expression does it for you Though not all these things happen simultaneously, but each of them tells you what you need to know depending on the situation at hand Take for example, you walk in at 12midnight to find your Dad seated at the dining with your Mum Looking at them, your . UNDERSTANDING YOUR TODAY TO UNDERTAKE YOUR TOMORROW A revolutionary book, set to change the way we relate to people, manage our finances, and perceive life, causing a change in. 11:16 “And the LORD said unto Moses, Gather unto me seventy men of the elders of Israel, whom thou knowest to be the elders of the people, and officers over them; and bring them unto the tabernacle. path for your sake, to protect you from making the same mistakes, to guide you from falling at the same spot as they did, and to guard you from stormy weathers and dangers along the way. Their