My dear child, sure you are doing well today. It has been one of my greatest pleasures doing this conversation with you, knowing that it is adding exceptional value to you, your present and future as a child of destiny.

My dear child, I hear things in our world of today, which makes my ears tingle. That is why I am always telling you to remember the child of whom you are and that you are God’s child. I trust God for you that you are destined to reign in life by His grace.

I will share with you today another commandment, which I believe is very important for your difference in this beautiful year.

11. Keep Life Notes: my dear child, I charge you keep Life Notes. Some people call it journal. It is to help you keep record of your own progress. There you will record your ideas, your dreams, lessons from victories and defeats. I have kept a journal for over 20 years of my life and it has been very interesting.

My dear child, I do not keep record of peoples’ wrong against me. That is excess luggage; I do not need that for my destiny. I made up my mind many years ago to travel the journey of life very light. To travel light is to only take the things that I need. Keeping record of wrongs, doesn’t only shrink the size of a person’s mind but also thickened it. If people have wronged me, I believe I have wronged people too. I may have wronged more people than people may have wronged me and I may have wronged people more than I have been wronged, I do not know. This tells me, I am not perfect and I must not expect perfection from the best of men. I have my issues as others have theirs. Every man, who knows he is not perfect, must always desire to be forgiven. If you desire to be forgiven, you must desire to forgive others. If you desire, to be shown mercy, you must show others mercy too.

Keeping Life Notes has helped me to call to remembrance important things to this interesting journey of life. There are things I would have forgotten forever, if I had not written them down. There was a time I was keeping record of every new word I come across with their meanings. If I read the story of an interesting personality, I would write down his/her name and what he/she stood for and the lessons, I have learnt from his/her life. I write down my own thoughts as a teenager. I write down in prose and in poetry. I didn’t know, I could write poems until I began to try my hands on writing down my thoughts in lines. I also write down interesting quotes when I read a book or other publications. When I also listen to interviews of great people on radio and television, I write down their quotes, which speak to me and teach life principles and refer to them when I need them. On June 10, 1988, one of my articles was published in The Punch newspaper. I was eighteen, my dear child when I wrote that piece. It was unbelievable for me. I did not know that the thoughts, I was scribbling in my Life Notes at the private corner of our face-me-I-face-you apartment, number 1, Okedasa Street Ondo could become something the public would read. Since then, I have not stopped writing. It was said of our own Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie that she began to write since she was young. Today, the stories, she was telling to herself in her journals have become the delights of the whole world.

Life Notes helps you to tell your own story of victories over your struggles as a child and young adult. And when defeat stares you in the face, you will call to remembrance by the use of your notes, how many times and how many things you have conquered in the past, which appeared as if it was impossible. You will encourage yourself in the Lord and your confidence will receive a boost to dare a seemingly insurmountable situation.

Another thing I keep in my life notes is the record of the promises God makes to me and how He keeps them. I keep records of the testimony of the faithfulness of God to me and my family. I think this has been a good practice dear child. It shuts the door against murmuring and complaints, when things sometimes do not go as planned or expected. Keeping a Life Notes is good, please buy into it. Human’s memory can be limited in how many things it can call to remembrance, please help it with your Life Notes.

My dear child, I beg to end our discussion here today. We shall continue tomorrow by the special grace of God. I charge you to remember the child of whom you are, you are God’s child. Do have an INSPIRED day.