OLDIE, GOLDIE❤️

Hi there!

Happy New month!

How have these first hours of November been?

Welcome to today's gist. 

Of course today's not a Thursday but today's an extremely special day for me and I didn't want to wait till tomorrow to talk about how special today is. 

One of the best gifts God gave to me is the gift of my sister. You know that cliche about sisters being second mother, first friend and all that good stuff? It's completely true with my sister, and then some. For as long as I can remember, in fact for my entire life, my sister has been in my corner; she has dried countless tears, shared a lot of laughs, talked me through my greatest fears, led me spiritually, kept me accountable time and again, forced me to get sense… my sister is special! 

The first time I was going to be somewhere my sister wouldn't be, I cried. Deep crying oo, not just that little drops fell from my eyes, I cried so much I think I developed a headache, and the crazy thing was the "separation" was going to be for little over a week, just about 9 days, yet I was bawling like a baby at being separated from her. I remember my brother saying at the time how co-dependent my sister and I were on each other and how that may not be a good thing. This is 12 years after that incident and if anything, my sister and I are more dependent on each other but we've found that it's not a bad thing. Let me give you a little more perspective; when I was in Jos before my sister came, I would be about to go out and I'd literally call my sister to ask her what I should wear, or send her pictures of outfits to ask how I should pair them. Very recently, I was thinking of what to cook at home and I sent my sister a text message asking her what she thought I should cook and of course she gave me ideas. 

But guess what? I love it! I love having a sister that knows me so well, I love having a sister that I can tell literally anything, I love having this prayer partner, I love having this gist buddy, I love having this safe place to be myself even if I'm annoying 75% of the time, I love my sister so much! And I love being her sister even more!

I'd have said I lucked out with her but the thing is she came to this world before me so it's definitely not because of anything I did that God blessed me with her, I like to say God blessed me in advance when He sent her to this world ahead of me and I'll forever be grateful for that. 

Over the last year, God has really opened my eyes to see just how much my sister believes in me, she's really my biggest cheerleader! The amount of times my sister has told me with 100% certainty that I could do something that I was 100% convinced I couldn't do is really innumerable, I tell her she has pushed me into starting a lot of things because of that. Sometimes I think about how my sister sees me and I pray to God to help me see myself the way she sees me because the person she sees is most times not the person I see, but she doesn't give up, she gently prods me and pushes me into seeing that person she sees. In fact, I recently found out that people who spend any modicum of time with my sister immediately know that I exist; when I found out just how much she brags about me, I was humbled to the point of tears, of course as hard guy wey I be, e no drop but that knowledge really did a lot to improve my self esteem because I found that out when I'd been struggling with something mentally, so finding out just how much my sister is proud of me made me realize that I'm really something, if only to my sister.

In 100 level we were taught, while tracing the introduction of Equity into the British Legal System, that the Lord Chancellor was called 'the keeper of the King's Conscience', that's exactly who my sister is to me; she's one of the people before whom I cannot rationalize stupid behaviour, she'll give it to me as e dey be without even thinking twice. My sister is really interested in ensuring that I grow up to be the best version of myself and she stops at nothing, including hurting me with the truth, to achieve that; I've always said that if there's one person in this world that I am guaranteed to listen to, it's my sister. 

My sister inspires me daily; I watch her go about her life and I get the instant desire to do life better, I see how dogged she is about serving God and obeying Him and I'm motivated to do the same, having my sister by my corner is a constant reminder to be all that God intends me to be.

I could go on and on about the many beautiful things my sister's been to, and done for, me in the 24 years of my existence but I'm just going to stop here for now. 

This post is really just an appreciation, to the God who gave me my sister and to my sister whom God gave me. I say this with complete certainty, there's no one else I'd rather have as my sister! She's worth more than a million other sisters, and I'm so grateful that she's my sister. Well, today's her birthday and I just came on here to talk about my sister so that everyone will know that I have an angel for a sister. 

Oldie, I love you so much and I'm extremely grateful that God blessed me with you. I pray that this year is the beginning of new and wonderful things that God's going to do for you, I pray this is your season of joy and ease, I pray that God blesses you immeasurably, I pray that your hands are blessed to cause everything they touch to become fruitful, I pray God puts a hedge of protection round you, and I pray that God answers your heart desires according to His will.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY OLDIE! 

Thank you for reading, please say a prayer of blessing over my sister, thank you. 

See you next Thursday. 

Love,

Achenyo. 

PS. It's the month of gratitude and I started a 30 day challenge where I will be journalling a minimum of three things I'm grateful to God for, each day. Please join me, thank you.