Handling pressure in our lifestyles in this day and time often spells the difference between success and failure. Obstacles lie in wait and are always stumbling blocks with one purpose in mind, and that is to deter you from any discernable options for positive intent. One of my boys I mentor to, recently asked me what’s expected of him to transition from a boy to a man, and how could I help him achieve it? It didn’t take me long to answer him. I paused for effect, both for his benefit and for the necessity of the questions to be perceived as important issues that needed to be addressed legitimately. I told him: “I would like for you to be a better you…where self-respect is a formidable prerequisite for confidence. I want you to speak with authority and with conviction to articulate for impressionable verve. I want you to be a respecter of women. I want your sensitivity to be awakened to allow kids following in your footsteps to be educated by inspired love. I will fight your flaws without weakening, won’t tolerate misbehavior, and little by little reveal to you what is admirable and everlasting…furthermore, I will set an example where you will see me extol virtues to remind you that life is really about living for God, and give you continuing precepts for integrity and moral turpitude.”

I sat back and watched him digest this, watching and waiting for any signs of disinterest. I found none. There’s a lesson in this, and the dichotomy given in this essay is to bring to your mindset proof-positive that you are not an accident – you were, and are destined to be just what God gave you the talent to be. Now, the questions being asked all over are those that point to what are you individually and collectively doing to stem the tide? And what about untapped potential not being realized to build the Kingdom; or, how can you really go about living sound lives, and illuminating your steps to walk steadily and with purpose? Here’s my analogy, and my opinion has a lot to do with surmising that the only accurate way to understand ourselves is by what God is, and by what He does for us. I’m reminded from time to time that we all have specific talent and different sensibilities that we bring to the table for nourishment of our souls. Moreover, there are others that need it more…and it’s how we administer to our fellow man the true properties of that agape-type love that can be the real manna for sustenance.

Yes, there’s purpose in all that we do…a purpose for you being here. But because you’re not perfect, and the environment you may be living in is not idealistic in proportion, nor infallible in nature you are prone to fall. If you profess to disclose the uniqueness of your personality, and what areas of it that can be used to give to others and uplift the downtrodden, then you will be on course to allow the circle to become unbroken. Can we profit from pressure? Can it be an effective process for anything good? Pressure perfect stand up please! I answer these questions for you with the bulleted points below:

§ What is needed is a fixed determination to pursue goals with tenacity, and to do so one must –

1. Eliminate bad choices and opt for all of what has been articulated above
2. You must recognize your destiny and seize the moment!
3. Always have a diligent plan of action
4. Allow it to produce character within yourself by coming to agreement for the price you’d have to pay to conform.

§ Often we are mired in the malady of the bad habits that are not of a divine nature, thus deepening our inequity and passion for sin. I purport that –

1. We must love more, fellowship often, and worship Him continually
2. Embrace tenets within yourself to espouse all that is tangible for building self-worth
3. Use the three-pronged approach where you develop your own stylistic rules of engagement in lieu of popular opinion, i.e., enhancing self, family and community.
4. Recognize the lasting values of a purposeful life toward righteousness, and lastly…
5. Know that pressure is needed to realize how obstacles can be the genesis needed to get it right!

In closing, pressure should bring out the best in us. I want so much to have others evaluate me for all good intended purposes that are assessed by my works. The daily rituals and attempts we go through are primed with directions that should not be foreign to us in a biblical sense. We all arrive at forks in the road where choices will have to be made; where we will be reminded that the egotistical ‘self’ should look for a new home…that pride has no place where humbleness shouldn’t reign, and where humility is much more than par for your course. Pressure perfect in the process is getting comfortable with change, challenging choices, and conquering all the trials and tribulations of life to count it all joy, and asking for wisdom!