Good Bye

Ashley Thaba | Tuesday December 21, 2021 06:00

You can still purchase that book for P100. Contact details below. Countless people expressed interest and desire to understand God’s plan for their life and how to discern His will. Soon, I was invited to begin a weekly column here in The Monitor to teach these principles on a regular basis. After prayer, I agreed to write this column every week at no charge simply because of my deep love for Batswana and my core belief that knowledge is power.

To write a column every single week and not get paid for three years is a serious commitment but I cheerfully took this on hoping if even just one person could be encouraged by this column that it was worth it. I truly believe that God has laid out a wonderful plan for us in His Word, and it is an honour to be an ambassador of His Truth. Sadly, as I looked around, I realised many were teaching a self-centered gospel full of conditions of paying money and respect to an unhealthy elevated “person of God” rather than humbly pointing people away from any person here on earth and rather towards the Almighty Saviour. The aim of this column was to take common questions many people had in regards to trials we all face and problems we all see in the world and analyse them from the Biblical perspective. Over the past three years, we have tackled subjects such as corruption, Gender-Based-Violence, Hearing God in modern times, rape, marriage, parenting, business, depression, living with integrity, absentee fathers, substance abuse, death, COVID, submission, politics, leadership, misconceptions about Christianity being boring, tips on how to live a more fulfilling life, hypocrites, what a healthy church looks like, widows, and a myriad of other topics. Most of those articles are archived on the Mmegi website if you would like to go back and read any of those.

My aim was always to be as open and genuine as possible with a goal to illustrate that the God who gave advice to those who walked the streets of Ancient Rome during Jesus time on earth was still alive and relevant even today. My hope was that many would find solace in knowing He is their Counselor who will never leave them nor forsake them. He can be a voice behind them saying this is the way ... walk in it. My dream was to see our beautiful Botswana transformed one person at a time turning to trust in God with their entire life. My honest belief is that if we had less selfishness, crime, corruption and unfaithfulness in marriage among many other things, we do simply because they feel good to us despite the fact that it hurts others, our nation could be a better place. I wanted to be a voice representing light, representing hope, and representing Truth.

I wanted to challenge us that change is possible when we stand up for what is right and when we selflessly give our time to encourage others live a life according to biblical principles. This will be my last column in the hard copy newspaper as next year the blogs will move online. I will still contribute to the online version of The Monitor, however, knowing this was my last column in “print”, I thought it fitting to formally say good bye in this platform. I also wanted to say thank you to those of you who reached out over the past three years to say thank you or to share testimonies of how a particular column encouraged or helped you. For someone like me who was writing for free simply out of love, those WhatsApps, emails, and even spontaneous conversations around town where some of you would approach me meant so much to me.

They spurred me on that what I was doing was indeed helpful. So, as I close this column today, may I challenge you to examine your life. Ask yourself what you are contributing to make our beloved Botswana a better place. Please may I beg you to at least meditate on this Truth. The person who loses their life will find it. This is a Biblical principle which means when we live our lives not to please ourselves but rather to love others and to the glory of God we actually find the true peace, love, security and joy we earnestly seek. Those are not found in more money or more power. They are found at the feet of Jesus and in following God’s timeless Word. I pray you have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. See you next year “online”.

Ashley Thaba is a popular motivational speaker, family building facilitator, author and Producer of the hit TV show, Talking with the Thabas, which has strengthened thousands of marriages and helped countless families become stronger. Learn more about her work at www.ashleythaba.com or view her work on her YouTube channel: Ashley Thaba. You can buy three of her books: Dive In, Making Marriages Fun, and Conquering the Giants on her website. Email her at askthaba@gmail.com or follow her on Facebook: Talking with the Thabas.