Golden Days

Daisy Adora Ilonzeh

Description

This book is about a God coming into our brokenness and sadness and making us whole and happy. It is about God holding us tightly despite our insecurity that causes us to doubt that he is for us.

This book is about being born into a violent, broken home. The insecurity that arises from that. The secure God that loves me, keeps me and has raised me up to be his. The struggle to hold on tightly to Christ despite, my failures, sins and mistakes. Realizing that his grace has kept me despite my short-comings.

And accepting to be happy despite all of life's sorrows.

Sujets

• Religious
• Lettres et linguistique
• Insecurity
• Biography
• Healing
• Christianity
• Joy
• Autobiography
• Happiness
• Grace

Informations

• Publié par: WestBow Press
• Date de parution: 22 juillet 2022
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781664263994
• Langue: English

Extrait

GOLDEN DAYS
 
 
 
DAISY ADORA ILONZEH
 
 
 

 
Copyright © 2022 Daisy Adora Ilonzeh.
 
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
 
 
WestBow Press
A Division of Thomas Nelson & Zondervan
1663 Liberty Drive
Bloomington, IN 47403
www.westbowpress.com
844-714-3454
 
Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.
 
Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.
Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.
 
All Scripture quotations are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved
 
ISBN: 978-1-6642-6400-7 (sc)
ISBN: 978-1-6642-6401-4 (hc)
ISBN: 978-1-6642-6399-4 (e)
 
Library of Congress Control Number: 2022906976
 
 
 
WestBow Press rev. date: 05/10/2022
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Dedication page
Introduction
Chapter 1 Disappointed Hope
Chapter 2 Sweeter Than Honey
Chapter 3 Doubts
Chapter 4 Cup of Salvation
Chapter 5 Valleys & Hills
Chapter 6 Evergreen Pastures
Chapter 7 Purity
Chapter 8 Tongue like Gold
Chapter 9 Mended with Gold
Chapter 10 Deep Calleth unto Deep
Chapter 11 The Greatest Happiness
Chapter 12 Heirs of Grace
Chapter 13 Recreational Thanksgiving
Chapter 14 Golden Days
Chapter 15 Simple as the Gospel
Acknowledgements
DEDICATION PAGE
This book is dedicated to all who will grab a copy of this book, the Lord had you in mind. To those who will come to Christ because of the words in these pages.
To Pastor Cornell, a faithful worker and apostle of Christ. May God continue to keep you, you have the best gift of teaching and edifying.
To anyone that has been affected by brokenness, and to anyone who is insecurely holding on to a secure Christ. The Lord sees you.
To my imperfect family, including myself, forgiven by Christ. I love you, in a better circumstance, I would choose you all over again.
To Mia Bakery, Brooklyn, where I struggled to write the first two pages of the introduction section. I had the best bought pecan pie there. I remember going for a second. Also to Wework Company, where I wrote almost every Monday without fail; thank you for the space.
To the known God that saved me and allowed me to live and write about my little story and about His grand salvation. You have watched over me since I was in my mother’s womb and You still continue to do so. Your providence is unmatched. Your love for me is wild.
Thank you.
INTRODUCTION
Golden days are here! Those were the words I heard in my head as I struggled to rise up from my bed in the late summer of 2019. I knew those were not my words; I am not naturally built to imagine good things. At least not a woman like me, not the way I was raised or brought up into this broken world, that is in need of fixing.
Prior to that morning, I had dialed into a bible study conference. The host and Pastor, Dr. Cornell, was talking about the “Topical Bible Study Method.” He taught us that this method of bible study was about choosing any topic of your choice and studying it, throughout the bible. He told us that, if we chose a topic that we had no interest in, we would easily lose interest in the study. Like a single lady that has no interest in being married, need not focus on choosing the topic on Marriage. She would immediately lose interest.
Then suddenly a dialer, interrupted the flow and asked, “What is the difference between happiness and joy?” The host answered, that happiness is based on what happens around you; if it’s all good, you are happy. But if something changes for the worse, you are no longer happy. But joy is different; it is an inward, good feeling that is constant even if things aren’t; no bad news can take your joy away.
He went on about what joy was. Then the callers meditated on what Joy was; which made them to praise God over the phone for like over ten minutes. They said things like, “Praise God” and “Thank you Jesus.”
I was silent, I did not participate with them. I felt out of place for not doing so. But minutes later as they were still praising God, I laughed at the thought of joy. How could I not, after the thought of the good revelation I had about Jesus and his healing power!
Then the host said that, the bible mentions that there are different manifestations of joy; some shout for joy, some make a joyful laughter. We were so filled that day. We felt God as we meditated on joy! What felt like an interruption from a dialer, turned out to be something good. Something we could hold on to for that day, for life. The host explained being sensitive to what the Spirit of God is doing; he encouraged us to also be sensitive to God’s Spirit; we do live in a day and age that we are not always sensitive to the Holy Spirit.
So, it was the bible study that ushered me into hearing more of what God is doing in this season and days to come! I knew nothing of what golden days meant. Thankfully I searched the web and it gave me eventually almost nothing on the subject. I almost felt hopeless. But there was just one hope as to what it might have meant. It likened it to golden years. It meant a period of great happiness, achievement and prosperity. I would say, great happiness means joy. I am in need of joy, we all are.
There was this struggle and fear that, I would not be able to be this joyful at all times. Or that, I would fail God, through my actions. There was this fear that, I can’t hold on to his promises for my life; that something would take me away from his promises. I thought I would forget it; forget him. What if pain, doubt or sin comes again and overshadows this joy?
1
DISAPPOINTED HOPE
“ The creatures cause pain by being born, and live by inflicting pain, and in pain they mostly die. ”— C. S. Lewis
“He used to beat me, even when I was pregnant with you,” said my mother; she was also shocked that I recalled one of their fights, at a young age. When my mother said this, my reaction wasn’t that of a shocked person; I was calm and quiet. I only felt sad about my parents fallen marriage. I was used to it by now. I knew not for what reason the beating happened, I did not have to know; it could have caused my mother’s life and my unborn life as well.
Psychologists say that, “Unborn babies can recognize their mother’s voice and emotions.” This means that, I must have been afraid when I was unborn. My trauma began in my mother’s womb; in her amniotic sac, the place where I should have felt the most protected, I was not.
I wonder the pain that mothers have to endure, when they introduce their beloved babies into the world for the very first time. The birth pangs into labor; when the nerve cells send a signal to the mother’s brain to release a hormone, oxytocin from a pituitary gland which then causes more contractions until the child is born.
It must be really hard to endure the moment of pain, but afterwards, it is rewarding. I never heard of a mother that ever regretted bringing a child into this world however broken it may be. Mothers might mention of their regret, but the sight of a precious child would remind them of a need of the child.
In the late 80’s, I was born in the late summer. My parents are both from the Eastside of Nigeria. My father came from a royal family. His father was the king of a small village and he had nine wives and multiple children; his Mother, Philomena, a very beautiful woman, caught the attention of my grandfather. Her gentleness may have caused him to marry many more wives after her.
My mother never spoke much of her father; only that, he was a choir director. He was also verbally and physically abusive towards her Mother, Victoria Nwankwo. My grandmother, Victoria, was very ambitious and wealthy. She took great care of her family. She was also a devout Christian. She passed away on August 28 th of 2021. The whole family and people who knew her, mourned differently; we were fortunate to mourn with hope, that she will be with the Lord.
My mother gave me two brothers. One of them, named Francis and the other one, Richard. Richard and I do not share the same father. Francis is my elder brother; I always saw him as the gold in all of the pain and hurt. One look at him and I see the beautiful union of my parents. It kept me going; it must have been a healthy coping mechanism.
My parents got married at a young age. The marital relationship between them was short-lived. The separation between them, however old, must have changed my life, in ways I didn’t know it must have.
In my childhood years, I can’t frankly remember anything about a peaceful, happy home. I can’t remember my parents going out on dates or holding hands and being affectionate. All I remember is, the loud bang of a door and my mother locking it, with us on the inside and my dad on the outside. I could remember fear.
My teacher wrote a letter to my father complaining that I was reckless at school; that I interrupted the other students who were prepared for class. Coming to think of this, it must have been because of a disorderly home. Children pick up fa