First of all I would like to say thank you to everyone who responded and commented on the previous Episode
Today we show people who have it worse this January. First it is the people of the United States of America as they are going through a government shutdown. Also Jeff Bezos who is getting a divorce and his wife could potentially take half of his net wealth of $137 billion. Theresa May who had a devastating defeat in the vote in the House of Commons with regards to the Brexit deal on Tuesday night. A teacher at the Laerskool Schweizer-Reneke who got suspended over a picture that caused a racial stir in South Africa. Zimbabwean people whose economy is dropping at an alarming rate to such an extent that even KFC had to close shops for the lack of business.
This is a rant caused by the constant nicknaming of January as “Janworry” by people who are often broke during this time of the year as the result of their over-spending in December. Lungisa N Joctrey took it upon himself to give a piece of his mind on the issues.
Very much often people set up what they call New Year’s Resolutions. I have no idea how this practice began, but I am sure some life hacking “expert” suggested it to hundreds of people who were listening to his “expert” advice. These hundreds of people then spread the word and told their friends, families, and work colleagues about the wonders of setting up New Year’s Resolutions. There is no doubt that in 2017 many people made New Year’s Resolutions for 2018 and again in 2018 resolutions were made for 2019. What is amazing is that most people are very vocal about their resolutions for the new year. They tell everyone they would meet how they are going to get out of debts, quit smoking, get married etc
The question that remains is that, “Do New Years Resolution really work?” My intention today is to show that New Year’s Resolutions are a scam and many people have been held prisoner by the idea that they have to make a resolution for a particular year in order to achieve a particular milestone in life. Today I am going to attempt to answer five questions:
What are the New Year’s Resolutions?
How did New Years Resolutions begin?
Do they Work?
Why you shouldn’t use New Year’s Resolution?
What should you do instead of New Years Resolutions?
I WHAT ARE NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTIONS?
New year’s resolutions are promises which are made by people at the beginning of each year, that they would accomplish certain things in that particular year. Many of these promises are made out of a sincere heart. You would hear one saying,”This year I will pay all my debts and I will quit smoking.” Someone will tell his wife, “This year I promise that I will be a faithful and a caring husband.” or “I promise that I will not touch weed this year.” As I said many of these promises are very sincere. The question is not whether these promises are sincere or not, the question is, will they ever be kept. Are we truly going to see the fulfillment of these promises? Time does tell.
II HOW DID NEW YEARS RESOLUTIONS BEGIN?
As I said earlier that I have no idea where, when, and why did the new year’s resolution begin. Which begs the question as to why am I even talking about their origin if I don’t know where this tradition came from. Well, for the sake of my dear lazy friends who only consume what is being said and never bother to go and check if the information is correct. I am putting a link to the source of the information which I am going to talk about. I stumbled over history.com
The tradition of new year’s resolution is very old. This tradition can be traced back to the ancient Babylonians around 4000 years ago. It is said that ancient Babylonians would make promises to their deities whenever a new year began. Their new year was not in January as is the case today. The beginning of the year in January is due to some Roman nonsense which the world couldn’t shake off. It stuck with us like a woman’s lipstick on a shirt of a cheating husband. Okay back to the ancient Babylonians. The Babylonian year began some where around March.
The Babylonians promised their objects of worship that they would return what they have borrowed and also to pay all their debts. It was believed that when one would keep these promises they would be favored by their false gods. I mean come on, who doesn’t know that the Babylonian gods were false.
Romans
After Julius Caesar started his nonsense and tempered with the calendar and making the year start in January so the Romans began to celebrate new year’s day and they follow the Babylonian tradition of making promises but this time to Janus the false god after whom January is named. Of course these promises did not come with empty hands. They made a promise while they gave gifts to these false deities.
Christians
Sadly, it is very easy for Christians to follow through and perform foreign and unbiblical forms of worship which are inherited from the pagans. Some how Christians, the Methodist in particular, started to do what was known as watch-nights on New Year’s Eve or on New Year’s day. This is where prayers were offered and resolutions made for the New Year.
It is clear according to the History.com that new year’s resolutions have a very strong and undeniable religious origin. This make me wonder if atheist play the new year’s resolutions game considering the source thereof.
III DO THEY WORK?
New years resolutions never work. It is always up to the person making them to work and keep the promises they have made. Sadly, year after year people think that making a promise would change their bad habit. I have seen many people promising to do better but in the end they fail because deep down in their heart there is no true conviction and no commitment to the promise they have made. Many have promised to quit alcohol but then make no effort to keep away from alcoholic friends or to join alcohol anonymous kind of group in search for help. I have seen people who were able to quit alcohol without any new year’s resolutions but with a made up mind and a commitment to change. Their desire to change was seen in their daily lives until they succeeded. They made physical and evident changes around them. They quit hanging out with wrong friends and they made new friends who would help them reach their desired state of life.
IV WHY YOU SHOULDN’T USE NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTIONS?
You should not make new years resolutions because they are a waste of time. If you are not making important steps towards changing today, you will not change even on the following year. You need to make resolves today and start today to work on what you want to achieve.
There are Christian friends who have not read the bible from cover to cover. They keep postponing. “In January,” they say, ” I will start reading my bible until I finish it in December” January comes and also excuses accompany it. February comes and go. Before you know it, December is upon us and the bible has not been read from cover to cover as was promised. So new year’s resolution makes liars. My advice is if you are committed to read and finish the bible from Genesis to Revelation in 365 days. Start today. If you start in 2019 January 3, your reading plan will end in 2020 January 2. If you start in May 25, your plan will end the following year on May 24. So stop the nonsense of New Year’s resolutions and save your self sometime. You’ll thank me later.
V WHAT SHOULD YOU DO INSTEAD OF NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTION?
Instead of wasting your time with new years resolutions, you need to set goals and plan decisively on achieving them. You must want to achieve that goal and the journey to achieving it begins now. You must be prepared to leave your comfort zone and actually get dirty working with your hands or with available tools to achieve what you want. You must set a time frame for you goal. You don’t want to work for the rest of your life and getting nowhere. You must know how long it should take you to work in what you need to achieve. Have a comprehensive plan, with each step clearly defined.
Say your goal is to lose weight, and today is the 3rd of January. You could say something like : “By 3 June, I should have lost 50kg. To achieve this I shall run for 20 minutes every day. My diet will consist of vegetables only and I will eat meat once a week. I will weigh myself every Wednesday and record my progress. I am starting this afternoon.”
I hope you will quit this bad habit that takes you nowhere, that is, if you are a new year’s resolution kind of person who gains nothing by them.
How to Deal With Peer Pressure by Lungisa N Joctrey The music in this audio file is provided by YouTube Library
HOW TO DEAL WITH PEER PRESSURE?
Hello and welcome to the The SpokesDude Podcast
episode 002. My name is Lungisa Joctrey, thank you very much for joining me. Let
me start off by saying, if you haven’t yet, you are welcome to subscribe to The
SpokesDude Network on iTunes. You can also go to our website http://thespokesdude.com and subscribe
there. When you click on the subscribe button on iTunes or on the website, you always
will be notified when a new episode or post has been released.
Well, let us waste no more of your time and get on
with the business of the day. Today we are talking about “Peer pressure.” How to deal with peer pressure?
Dealing with this topic we are going to answer a few
questions on peer
What is peer pressure?
Are there different kinds of peer pressure?
Is peer pressure good or bad?
If bad who are the victims?
If bad, how to overcome peer pressure?
Let’s get to it
then.
WHAT IS PEER PRESSURE?
Merriam Webster Dictionary defines peer pressure as, “
a feeling that one must do the same things as other people of one’s age or social
group in order to be liked or respected by them.”
Another definition I picked up from google search is, “influence
from members of one’s peer group.”
ARE THERE DIFFERENT KINDS OF PEER PRESSURE?
Peer pressure come in different forms. Some forms are
well known and can be easily identified and other are subtle and affect a large
number of people even those who think they are free from peer pressure.
(Non- Verbal) Asch Paradigm
I recently
watched on YouTube three instances where an experiment was conducted to
determine how an individual person would make an obvious wrong decision just
because everyone is making it, even though that individual knows that it is
wrong.
Right Answer/Wrong answer Experiment
The first
two experiments I watched were practically the same. The one involved adults
and the other teenagers. The majority of participants were ordered to give the
same wrong answer so to determine how the test subject (who clearly had no clue that this
was a setup) would react. The group was shown two images. One on the
left and one on the right. The image in the right displayed three vertical lines
and the one on the left had one vertical line. The group was required to
compare the line on the left image with the three lines on the right image to
determine which of the three line was of equal length as that to the left. The
test subject eventually gave the wrong answer just as the whole group
The
experiment was altered a bit, one more person was added who was instructed to
give the right answer. With the partner who would give a right answer just
before the test subject took their turn, the subject gave right answers.
The elevator experiment
We all
know that when we enter the elevator we turn around and face the door. No one
teaches us that. We all know it. It happens naturally. The experiment gets a
large group of people who are spread from floor to floor and they each walk
into the elevator, pick their floor number and stand facing the back of the
elevator. Now again there would one test subject. Eventually about 80% of the
test subject slowly turned to the back of the elevator just because they felt
uncomfortable doing what others were not doing.
The traffic light decision
My observation
of this kind of Peer Pressure is when we are in the city and we have to cross the
road at the traffic light. I have heard a lot of angry car horns hooting at
pedestrians who crossed the road illegally just because they followed two or
three people who had carefully calculated their act to get to the other side
despite the traffic. When some people see these brave idiots cross the road,
they simply follow as sheep behind the shepherd, without even checking the
traffic light.
So human
beings have a tendency of depending on other people’s decision making, when
making they own decisions. It does not matter whether these people are
acquaintances or complete strangers. The philosophy is when you come to Rome
you do as the Romans do.
Verbal Peer Pressure
This is a
common type of peer pressure. An individual is persuaded by others into doing
something they don’t want to do or something they know to be wrong just to
avoid being ridiculed. They are told that taking drugs brings relaxation and
clears the mind. They would cave in to the prompting of their peers or social
group and participate in the practice that would otherwise ruin their lives
rather than clear their mind.
Adult Peer Pressure
Many
people think that only teenagers experience peer pressure. The adults also get
to feel it and cave in to it.
One buys a new van just because each of his friends has one. Another will shop at a particular shop just because most of his acquaintances or his neighbors shop there. When I grew up you’d hear the adults say, “what would the people say?” or “what would the pastor say?”
Yes, adult peer pressure is even recorded in the bible in Matthew 21:23-27.
“And when he was come into the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people came unto him as he was teaching, and said, By what authority doest thou these things? and who gave thee this authority? And Jesus answered and said unto them, I also will ask you one thing, which if ye tell me, I in like wise will tell you by what authority I do these things. The baptism of John, whence was it? from heaven, or of men? And they reasoned with themselves, saying, If we shall say, From heaven; he will say unto us, Why did ye not then believe him? But if we shall say, Of men; we fear the people; for all hold John as a prophet. And they answered Jesus, and said, We cannot tell. And he said unto them, Neither tell I you by what authority I do these things.”
IS PEER PRESSURE GOOD OR BAD?
Peer pressure can be bad and also can be good. It simply
depends on the context of it. We know that it is bad when people are bullied to
do wrong things. Whenever peer pressure is mentioned that is the idea which
comes to mind. We all sort of thing negative of peer pressure and for right
reasons.
There can be instances where peer pressure is good. Like
getting people to keep the local area clean. That kind of peer influence is
good and it benefits everyone. It is also good to get people to think more about
helping those who are in need. These are just examples of positive peer
pressure.
IF BAD, WHO ARE THE VICTIMS?
Peer pressure affects everyone in general but in most
cases negative peer pressure affect teenagers and it has driven some to either
drop out from school, to get in a criminal life, or to commit suicide.
IF BAD, HOW TO OVERCOME PEER PRESSURE?
My
thought on this question is that, people should be educated on these issues. Teenagers
and old people should be made aware of that we are responsible and accountable
for everything we do. When we make decisions we should think carefully on
whether we are doing the right or we are just please strangers who would abandon
us we get into trouble.
Many people do not pay attention to what they hear or read. They tend to make important decisions based on the little information they have received without listening to the full story and thus get into trouble.
This is true in many areas of communication.
Social Media Posts
Signing of Contracts
NewsPaper Headlines
Bible Text
It is very easy to get into trouble when one enters into an agreement without first reading and fully understand the terms of that contract. On Today’s Episode we are looking at that issue.
I am pleased to announce that after so much time without posting any of the blog posts or the podcast Episodes due to the time I spent at Bible College, i am now ready to re-launch The Spokesdude Podcast.
To be an expect in any thing requires commitment, and daily practice. A top sportsman or sportswoman becomes the best not by chance but by that they keep on training daily and avoiding certain habits in order to improve their perfomance. The same principle applies to us as Christians, especially to leaders.
For anyone to be a successful preacher or pastor, it is necessary that they give themselves to prayer and studying of the Bible. This should be their daily practice. These two things are none negotiable. They are critical in the life of any church leader. For us to be able to teach well and shepherd the flocks of God faithfuly we must always meet our Master in prayer, to report our concerns and our progress in the work we do and also to request more grace to help us carry on with serving Him. We must soak ourselves in the word of God and be instructed of the Lord by means of his written word. We should learn from the example of the apostles, in that, when matters of food and waiting of tables arose in the church, the apostles set themselves apart by refusing to get involved in such matters and suggested that deacons be appointed for the purpose of waiting tables and managing distribution of food. The apostles said, “It is not reason that we should leave the word of God, and serve tables… but we will give ourselves continually to prayer, and to the ministry of the word.” (Acts 6:2,4). There are certain things, though they be good, which are to be abandoned or avoided in order to excel in the most important duty into which one is called.
Paul affirms that the written word of God is critical for our lives. After showing in 2 Timothy 3:16, that all scripture is inspired by God. He then shows us that the same is profitablefor doctrine, for reproof, for correction, and for instruction in righteousness. This is all necessary, so that, “the man of God may be perfect, and throughly furnished for all good works.” (2 Timothy 3:17) This means that the Bible is enough, for our perfection and to have us totally equiped to do every good thing required by the Lord from us. We cannot raise healthy churches if we ignore the word of God. To ensure that the church members are growing, pastors must be committed in prayer and be full of the Bible and then train their members to do the same.
If we as pastors commit ourselves to do thus, there won’t be a need to fake miracles or even to resolve to magic and manipulation in order to woo the crowds for the purposes of gaining a large following.
