I am glad we are able to resume our talk today. It was a wonderful weekend. I am glad you were able to spend time with your granny. She is full of praise of the kind of child you are becoming to the glory of God. As I told granny, I am not surprised the kind of child you are becoming under God’s tutelage. What would have surprised me is if you are turning out differently. I remember the prayer we began to pray for you since you were in the womb; that you shall be taught of the Lord. I can see the evidence that of a truth, the Lord has taught you by Himself.

I have no doubt that you are settling well into the new term. I have discussed with your teacher as requested in respect of how you told me he addressed you in the class the last time. He apologized that he was just pulling your legs. I told him that while, it may not be out of place for a teacher to pull a pupil’s legs, he must always ensure that he does everything unto edifying the pupil. He cannot claim to be pulling your legs by insisting on calling you a nickname, you have told him you do not appreciate. I believe he learnt one or two things from our discussion. He promised to apologize to you personally in class. Please do not hesitate to let me know, if anything of that nature comes up again. I trust you anyway, my dear child that you will surely speak up.

I will at this point continue our discussion on the 12 Commandments for Your Difference in 2014:

5. Respect Priority: my dear child, get this straight into your fresh mind that there is time for everything; therefore you must live by priority. What does it mean to respect priority? It simply means to put first thing first at every point in time in life. If you are in the habit of putting first thing last, you will always be out of place. A man who does not respect priority cannot maximize his God-ordained potentials.

You see, my dear child, life is designed to be lived according to priority. That is why you were 1 second old, before you could become 1 minute old; you were 1 minute old before you could become 1 hour old; you were 1 hour old before you could become 1 day old; you were 1 day old before you could become 1 week old; you were 1 week old before you could become 1 month old; you were 1 month old, before you could become 1 year old and so on. That is priority at work as arranged by nature. At every point in time in life, you must find your priority and give all of yourself to it.

Do you know why you have to respect priority? You will never have time for everything, which call for your attention at every point in time in life. Now, even if you have time, not everything, which calls for your attention is able to deliver value to you at the very time it is calling for your attention. There are some things, which will call for your attention today and if you give them your attention may become a distraction to you for the rest of your life. But those same things may be priceless contributors to your destiny if they call your attention in the future and you respond. Do not be deceived my child, it is the character of your mates to call your attention to many things at this age, but before you day yes or no see that there is no other time to do it but now and that if you do it now, it will deliver immediate or future values to you.  If you are confused as to how to figure this out, do not hesitate to seek for advice. You know I am always available to hear you out and respond to your call for discussion. You know, you are priority and I have never been too busy for you.

When I was your age, I did not know the meaning of priority or respect for same. I was involved with many things I was not supposed to have time for. It had adverse effects on my development. Unfortunately that was thinking of many of my mates. They had their priorities mixed up. They were eating in secret, what would have been legitimate for them to eat in the open, if only they wait for their time. I began to think now that most of the things, we did in the name of being smart was the height of foolishness. I was asking myself the other day that why did some of us who were sexually active, do it in secret, behind the back of our parents? When we got pregnant or impregnated another person, why didn’t we call our parents and announce the ‘good news,’ the result of our secret affair? Why were we looking for doctors, who were nothing but a disgrace to their profession to do abortion for us? Why were we sad when our wombs were damaged as a result of abortion? Why did we keep this as a secret, which our parents and future husband must not know? If it was done at the right time, pregnancy would have been good news indeed and we would not need the services of those doctors, without principles.

I think I should let you know that lack of respect for priority leaves you with so much needless pains, pangs and marks. Zig Ziglar said and I verily believe him, ‘the chief cause of failure and unhappiness is trading what we want most for what we want in the moment.’ It is sad that I have spent most of the productive part of my adulthood to deal with the impact of my childhood misplacement of priority has on my mind. My saving grace is that God met me along the way and began to work with me in dealing with these issues and their impacts. I write from the depth of my heart today, my child that you must learn from my example. Let me find consolation in the fact that I suffered these things, which were self-inflicted and avoidable, so that any one I come across in your generation and beyond, beginning from you, my dear child might be taught not to suffer same. My dear child, make my joy complete, give yourself to respect priority.

I will like to conclude by sharing with you what I believe should be your priority right now my child. I think three things should be your priority right now: the first is to honour God, your source and your sustainer; the second is for you to honour and obey your parents that it may be well with you and your days may be long; the third is for you to give all of yourself to your studies. If you can make the foregoing your priorities in the presence of many distractions calling for your attention today, every other things will not only fall in place, they will follow and you will be celebrated for the rest of your life.

I am signing out dear child. I have a very important meeting in the office. I feel I should share this with you today before I proceed to my meeting. The truth is that if I succeed in my work at your expense, then I have failed. Why? I would have achieved my success at a cost higher than all the benefits, which will come to be as a result of my success at work. Hmmm…My child, it would have been a very bad investment. And I would have been foolish. It is my God first, my family second and work third.

Do have an INSPIRED day my dear child. We will surely continue our discussion tomorrow. I love you dearly.