The young man puts one of his knees on the ground.
He puts his hand inside his pocket and brings out a small black box.
With smiles, he opens the small box and brings out a round metallic object. Yes, you are right...it is a ring!
The young lady puts one of her hands on her chest and opens her mouth in amazement.
The next question is said..."Will you marry me?"
Indeed, marriage has for long been one of the most important things in a man's life.
Well, not only a man's; but also in a woman's life.
As one increases in age, the reality of life sets in.
One looks at the mirror everyday and wonders how time has flown.
The small boy of yesteryears who would roll tyres in the neighbourhood has now grown up to become a man with moustaches.
That little girl who would walk the streets in pants has become a fully developed lady.
What step is next then, if not marriage?
One cannot but agree that the necessity of marriage in one's life cannot be overemphasized.
The dreams of having the "bone of my bone" and the "flesh of my flesh" are quite fascinating.
After all, the Pidgin folks would say, "Body no be firewood".
Humans are truly not firewood.
They have feelings that are begging to be satisfied.
And what better way to satisfy them, if not via marriage with one's preferred better half?
But, as much as one wants to quickly complete the search for a bearer of "the ring", there are questions that must be answered.
Am I ready for marriage?
Am I fit enough to shoulder my responsibility, not to speak of that of my partner?
Can I sacrifice some of the pleasures of bachelorhood when I eventually become a wedder?
These and many similar questions have been unfortunately ignored by some young and 'hungry' youths.
All they search for is a partner.
They don't care about the circumstances surrounding a marital life.
They prefer to jump inside an ocean before thinking of how to survive in it.
Before they leap, they don't bother to look.
No wonder many people continually have failed marriages.
Before the marriage, they would think everything is perfect in all marital lives.
So, when they start experiencing the unavoidable cons of marriage, they always get shell shocked.
Why?
Because, they always fail to prepare for the liable problems of marriage.
Don't just pursue your aim. Make a plan!
Planning before marriage is not only about getting a good-looking, well-mannered and loving life companion.
It is connected to you...Yes, I mean you!
You should first get matured for marriage.
Well, maturity isn't about how old you are.
After all, age is not a criterion for maturity and more so, there is no fixed age for marriage.
Maturity in this sense is all about how all-round eligibly fit you are.
Whether you want to agree or not, a sustainable level of finance is an important life support of any marital life.
As I'll always say, love may be the vehicle you want embark the marital journey with.
But, the vehicle will always need something to power it...and that is finance; finance that is sufficient enough to sustain your life and that of your partner.
Are you that financially stable yet?
Isn't it hilarious that someone who can't boast of a salary of five figures is searching for a wife?
What will he feed her?
Stone and water?
Dear friend, you may not need to be stunningly rich before you get marriage. But, have a considerably good level of finance independence and capability.
There is no gainsaying that a good attitude (to all conditions) is also needed in marriage.
How well can you endure unfavourable situations?
If things go sour in your marriage, will you be able to stand firm?
When decisions are to be made in the family, will you be humble enough to consider the opinions of your spouse?
Or will your egoistic character prevent you from agreeing with your spouse's thoughts?
As I've always stated, it is very important that you become the right person before you decide to pursue the right partner.
If you still have a personality that is wrong, marrying someone with a good personality won't conceal your bad character. Don't be deceived!
A thief before marriage will continue to steal even after marriage.
A fornicator will still commit adultery after marriage.
Marriage won't take away some bad habits.
No matter how much you try to hide a smoke, it always finds its way out.
Likewise, no matter how much you try to cover up your character, it will slowly but surely manifest.
So, work on yourself first!
If you want a partner who is humble, then avoid being prideful.
If you want a partner who cares, then start caring for others.
If a partner who is faithful is your choice, then learn how to be faithful.
It may be important to eventually become one with the right person. But, it is more important to first make oneself the right person.
Don't get married because your friend has gotten married.
Marriage is not a competition.
If you rush into it, you will rush out of it,
Be patient.
Use the best of your time to become the right person.
Make yourself the kind of person you will want to marry.
Before asking "will you marry me?", look at yourself in the mirror and ask: "CAN I MARRY ME?"
Well, The Voice has spoken!

©VoiceOfAdeBob

TO MEET SUCH A MAN

I sat, with two friends, in the picture window of a quaint restaurant just off the corner of the town-square.. The food and the company were both especially good that day.

As we talked, my attention was drawn outside, across the street. There, walking into town, was a man who appeared to be carrying all his worldly goods on his back. He was carrying, a well-worn sign that read, 'I will work for food.' My heart sank.

I brought him to the attention of my friends and noticed that others around us had stopped eating to focus on him.. Heads moved in a mixture of sadness and disbelief.

We continued with our meal, but his image lingered in my mind. We finished our meal and went our separate ways.. I had errands to do and quickly set out to accomplish them. I glanced toward the town square, looking somewhat halfheartedly for the strange visitor. I was fearful, knowing that seeing him again would call some response. I drove through town and saw nothing of him I made some purchases at a store and got back in my car.

Deep within me, the Spirit of God kept speaking to me: 'Don't go back to the office until you've at least driven once more around the square.'

Then with some hesitancy, I headed back into town. As I turned the square's third corner, I saw him. He was standing on the steps of the store front church, going through his sack.

I stopped and looked; feeling both compelled to speak to him, yet wanting to drive on. The empty parking space on the corner seemed to be a sign from God: an invitation to park. I pulled in, got out and approached the town's newest visitor.

'Looking for the pastor?' I asked.

'Not really,' he replied, 'just resting

'Have you eaten today?'

'Oh, I ate something early this morning.'

'Would you like to have lunch with me?'

'Do you have some work I could do for you?'

'No work,' I replied. 'I commute here to work from the city, but I would like to take you to lunch.

Sure,' he replied with a smile.

As he began to gather his things, I asked some surface questions. Where you headed?'

' St. Louis

'Where you from?'

'Oh, all over; mostly Florida '

'How long you been walking?'

'Fourteen years,' came the reply.

I knew I had met someone unusual. We sat across from each other in the same restaurant I had left earlier His face was weathered slightly beyond his 38 years. His eyes were dark yet clear, and he spoke with an eloquence and articulation that was startling. He removed his jacket to reveal a bright red T-shirt that said, 'Jesus is The Never Ending Story.'

Then Daniel's story began to unfold. He had seen rough times early in life. He'd made some wrong choices and reaped the consequences. Fourteen years earlier, while backpacking across the country, he had stopped on the beach in Daytona. He tried to hire on with some men who were putting up a large tent and some equipment. A concert, he thought.

He was hired, but the tent would not house a concert but revival services, and in those services he saw life more clearly. He gave his life over to God

'Nothing's been the same since,' he said, 'I felt the Lord telling me to keep walking, and so I did, some 14 years now.'

'Ever think of stopping?' I asked.

'Oh, once in a while, when it seems to get the best of me But God has given me this calling. I give out Bibles.. That's what's in my sack. I work to buy food and Bibles, and I give them out when His Spirit leads.'

I sat amazed. My homeless friend was not homeless. He was on a mission and lived this way by choice. The question burned inside for a moment and then I asked: 'What's it like?'

'What? '

'To walk into a town carrying all your things on your back and to show your sign?'

'Oh, it was humiliating at first. People would stare and make comments. Once someone tossed a piece of half-eaten bread and made a gesture that certainly didn't make me feel welcome. But then it became humbling to realize that God was using me to touch lives and change people's concepts of other folks like me.'

My concept was changing, too. We finished our dessert and gathered his things. Just outside the door, he paused. He turned to me and said, 'Come Ye blessed of my Father and inherit the kingdom I've prepared for you. For when I was hungry you gave me food , when I was thirsty you gave me drink, a stranger and you took me in.'

I felt as if we were on holy ground. 'Could you use another Bible?' I asked.

He said he preferred a certain translation. It traveled well and was not too heavy. It was also his personal favorite. 'I've read through it 14 times,' he said.

'I'm not sure we've got one of those, but let's stop by our church and see'. I was able to find my new friend a Bible that would do well, and he seemed very grateful.

'Where are you headed from here?' I asked..

'Well, I found this little map on the back of this amusement park coupon.'

'Are you hoping to hire on there for awhile?'

'No, I just figure I should go there. I figure someone under that star right there needs a Bible, so that's where I'm going next.'

He smiled, and the warmth of his spirit radiated the sincerity of his mission. I drove him back to the town-square where we'd met two hours earlier, and as we drove, it started raining. We parked and unloaded his things.

'Would you sign my autograph book?' he asked. 'I like to keep messages from folks I meet.'

I wrote in his little book that his commitment to his calling had touched my life. I encouraged him to stay strong. And I left him with a verse of scripture from Jeremiah, 'I know the plans I have for you, declared the Lord, 'plans to prosper you and not to harm you; Plans to give you a future and a hope.'

'Thanks, man,' he said. 'I know we just met and we're really just strangers, but I love you.'

'I know,' I said, 'I love you, too.' 'The Lord is good!'

'Yes, He is. How long has it been since someone hugged you?' I asked.

'A long time,' he replied

And so on the busy street corner in the drizzling rain, my new friend and I embraced, and I felt deep inside that I had been changed. He put his things on his back, smiled his winning smile and said, 'See you in the New Jerusalem .'

'I'll be there!' was my reply.

He began his journey again. He headed away with his sign dangling from his bedroll and pack of Bibles. He stopped, turned and said, 'When you see something that makes you think of me, will you pray for me?'

'You bet,' I shouted back, 'God bless.'

'God bless.' And that was the last I saw of him.

Late that evening as I left my office, the wind blew strong. The cold front had settled hard upon the town. I bundled up and hurried to my car. As I sat back and reached for the emergency brake, I saw them... a pair of well-worn brown work gloves neatly laid over the length of the handle. I picked them up and thought of my friend and wondered if his hands would stay warm that night without them.
Then I remembered his words: 'If you see something that makes you think of me, will you pray for me?'

Today his gloves lie on my desk in my office. They help me to see the world and its people in a new way, and they help me remember those two hours with my unique friend and to pray for his ministry. 'See you in the New Jerusalem,' he said. Yes, Daniel, I know I will...

If this story touched you, forward it to a friend!

'I shall pass this way but once. Therefore, any good that I can do or any kindness that I can show, let me do it now, for I shall not pass this way again.'

GOD BLESS YOU MY FRIENDS AND FAMILY

*RIPE PLANTAIN*

All seated in class awaiting the next lecturer for what will likely  be a very long  lecture
Just then that moment arrives that moment when you look in somebody's face and you just can't look away because  you will be looking away from that thing you love,just like plantains, the ripe ones, the ones that have become so yellow with dark spots scattered across its skin.
You notice her face are as spotless as the ripe plantains when you remove its cover and you  fantasize because you know her body will be like her spotless face beneath her dress .
Just then ,she  almost  caught you staring at her but you look down and your eyes meet  her legs, her legs are fine and curved  like putting two plantains in an horizontal position.
She cuts through your heart as easy as knives cut through plantains.
You wish she will talk to you, you wish she will be yours one day, it hurts you ,she doesn't notice you,you know her dogs name but she doesn't know your first name, it hurts you so much like hot oil jumping out of the frying pan and landing on your skin, you should run at this point but you can't your eyes are focused on her ,your plantains are still frying ,you are ready to endure pains just for a moment of joy with her.
Then you hear her call your name, you are shocked,you look at her face again,your heart melts and becomes soft like the ripe plantains you just took out of the frying pan, she only wanted to ask if you had two pen ,you didn't but you gave her the only pen you had, you are a fool but what does it matter? ,your hearts feels this joy like that first bite of plantain,so sweet that you have to close your eyes just to savor the moment ,you encourage yourself that all hope is not lost she could be yours one day ,this plantain must never finish ,you want to continue enjoying it ,The ripe plantain; the beautiful omowunmi.

  ©Lami🔥🔥🔥

Love❤
Love so sweet
Love so kind
Love so calm like the overflowing torrent of the raging rivers
Love so gentle,my heart is melting

Love is like the blossoming of the spring flowers
Love is like the burning without catch
Love is like a jewel to behold
Love is like a star that shoots across the stars
Love is like a ray of light that gives hope unto my falling heart
Love is like the melody of a thousand voice aloft
Love is precious to life

Love.. love..love.. love
Love is irresistible to man
Love is blind but sees afar
Two hearts with ecstasy dancing in Joy
Love is like the patient dog
Though Left alone  still stands so strong

Love feel me more
For my heart unto you I poured
Your thought does bring to me all joy
Even In the dark it lifts me up

Love..love like the colors of life
Love is beautiful like the songs of nature played
Love as calm as a beautiful calm fire storm
Love as open as a closed open house with doors
Love like the seasons of life
Though changes but never changes
Love is life,life is special
Love is not what we weigh in hands
And so love is all
In all honesty, It really brings joy

©Tujahsuccess
The advopoet
Love..❤

He is her crush right from secondary school days,  he is tall,  handsome,  slim and very intelligent,  the head boy of the school,  she admires him a lot and is ready to do anything to have him.  They are not classmates,  he is in S.S 3, while she is in S.S 2, she hates to see him with any other girl as she gets so jealous whenever she sees him with a girl.

This strange affection she has for him continued for long, but she couldn't tell Him about it as she is shy and don't know what he will think of her,  perhaps a desperate and shameless girl, so she keeps her feelings for him to herself,  she didn't tell anyone not even her friends, as they also comment on his cuteness,  she felt they might also have feelings for him,  so she hid her own feelings from them. 

After his SSCE,  this guy left the school,  yet she never stops fantasizing about him, she still thinks about him and imagines becoming his wife one day.

Years pass, so many things happen and she finally forgets about this guy. She is now in the university,  studying Law in her first year. She is eighteen years old now.  One day,  she is outside the canteen waiting for her friend when she sees  a group of guys walking towards her. One of them looks so familiar,  she keeps on looking at them as they get closer,  yes! That is Nicholas,  her secondary school crush,  she is excited. She giggles and feels butterflies in her belly as old feelings resurface. She is not going to be dull this time she said,  she must get him,  she never knew they are in the same school,  fate actually bring them together again she thought,  she is lost in her thoughts and fantasies about him that she doesn't even know her friend is already standing and watching at her silly behaviour in public.

Rose!  Her friend finally calls her,  she comes back to her senses now,  what is wrong with you,  Efe asked her? I have been standing here over five minutes and you didn't even notice,  you are just staring at those guys,  Rose interrupted her,  let's just go, you won't understand

One year later,
....thanks for the money,  food,  foodstuffs,  free sex and everything I got from you in this last year,  well this letter is to inform you about our break up,  I never loved you,  and will never do,  as a matter of fact,  I have a fiance and we will be getting married soon.  I just saw you as a desperate girl that was why I gave in to your advances,  especially the added advantage of being a rich man's daughter,  it's over and over forever,  bye Rose..

Rose fainted after reading the message, and since then have suffered mental depression,  she no longer think well or straight,  her life is a mess,  her academics suffered,  everything about her was sad and sorrowful,  she hardly go out,  she stayed indoors all day,  sleep, cry and think about Nicholas,  she thought he loved her,  but he never did,  she have broadcasted to everyone about her relationship with Nicholas,  all her pictures on social media talks about their love,  how was she to come out and face this people after making so much noise.  She gets angry at everything and snaps at her roommates at the slightest provocation,  when her situation became worse,  and her roommates can no longer endure it, after doing everything to make her cheer up again,  it all failed, they told the school authorities about her situation, the school authority informed her parents about it,  her parents came,  took her away from school,  she ended up in a psychiatric home suffering mental depression at the age of 20.

© Oluwaferanmi Victoria

The fear of love or emotional relationship is called aphenphosmphobia

I've seen more people suffer the pangs of love than the stings of vipers....I've seen more hearts broken in the mines of love than the grains in the mill...

So tell me friends, if a poisoned drink is  offered a sane man and he drinks conscious of the hankering doom, what use is it complaining of rumbling stomach....

If a man with his eyes wide opens falls in love, let him walk softly... Romeo and Jack never made it through the vault of affection... But if you are on the glades of emotions already, best of luck friend...

Right now I'm sitting on  lofty stairs shuffling my gaze between the stars and the pads of my phone wondering why between the pumping of my veins lies that very thing ____aphenphosmphobia

©Olatuja Oloyede

A lady worked at a meat distribution factory. One day, when she finished with her work schedule, she went into the meat cold room (Freezer) to inspect something, but in a moment of misfortune, the door closed and she was locked inside with no help in sight. Although she screamed and knocked with all her might, her cries went unheard as no one could hear her. Most of the workers had already gone, and outside the cold room it's impossible to hear what was going on inside. Five hours later, whilst she was at the verge of death, the security guard of the factory eventually opened the door. She was miraculously saved from dying that day. When she later asked the security guard how he had come to open the door, which wasn't his usual work routine, this was his explanation:
"I've been working in this factory for 35 years. Hundreds of workers come in and out every day, but you're one of the few who greet me in the morning and say goodbye to me every evening when leaving after work. Many treat me as if I'm invisible. Today, as you reported for work, like all other days, you greeted me in your simple manner 'Hello'. But this evening after working hours, I curiously observed that I had not heard your "Bye, see you tomorrow". Hence, I decided to check around the factory. I look forward to your 'hi' and 'bye' every day because they remind me that I am someone. By not hearing your farewell today, I knew something had happened. That's why I was searching every where for you."
Moral Lesson to reflect upon: Be humble, love and respect those around you. Try to have an impact on people who cross your path every day, you never know what tomorrow will bring. Let this story be an inspiration.  Let's share to inspire others; someone shared this to inspire me  and I've been greatly inspired by this story.
        
Author: Unknown

A Letter to My Future Wife.

Hello love,

To my future love anywhere you are, I write the throbbings of a wondering heart. Do you remember several years back when we were about making our entrance into this world? We sat in the sand of a beach in heaven watching the parabola ecstasy of the dolphins in the tides of that crystal sea. That was where I told you I will soon be leaving heaven for earth. I saw those clouds gathered in your eyes as I break the "bad" news but you couldn't stop me, my mind was made up. But you also said you're gonna join me here if I didn't change my mind and eventually leave heaven. But that was the last time we saw because I checked out of heaven that very evening.

It took me nine months to get here and journey was pretty cool. However, right there in the darkness of my mother's womb, I couldn't write you any letter and I also forgot you and my heavenly home. Was preoccupied with what the world really look like. Nevertheless, the strangeness of this side of eternity pierces my heart at first sight and I gave my first infant cry. Got busy with ascending the socio-economic but culturally constructed ladder and I soon forgot all about you and the beautiful life we once shared in the azure realm above. Yeah, I'm sorry I did.

Now, I'm beginning to think that someday, I might need to find you. Anywhere you are, maybe a million miles away or more, as you read this through your mind, just be fine. You've always promised me in heaven to be fine, right? Just calm down, give a sigh of relief and look into the thin lines of your heart, there lies the unseen volumes of my love written in endless pages. Look into the vastness of the sky, try count the stars. If you can't, come with me then to the sea, count every single grain of sand in the beach. If you still can't count, come with me to the field and count every single blade of grass but if you can't count, then you can't count the measure of my love for you. But stay where you are, you know I will find you somehow, someway somewhere someday. It may be years and many years from now but we promised to meet at the crossroad where we shall never part again. But till then, take good care of yourself.

Yours faithfully, Sapient