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     I winced as pain coursed through my left cheek. It was my initiation into ‘The Society’. Closing my eyes, I swallowed the blood that oozed from the wound already forming at that side of my mouth.😑
  As a seven-year old child, I was familiar with this pain. Older cousins and friends had had their own share, the result proudly showing, both in the numerous gaps present whenever they smiled, and the shock they felt when they drank cold water.

 Often, folks asked them to say ‘Fufu’, laughing at their answers that often came out funny.
  This was the experience I had been looking forward to. So, I was excited when I started loosing my temporary teeth. Lessons started rolling in from various well-wishers.
 ” Keep your tooth safe, soogbo? If you don’t, lizards would eat it and it would never grow again,” Monsurat advised, as she played Suwe.
” Count seven small stones, and seven pieces of goat’s poopoo. Add the tooth that haf come anside and throw everitin on the roof of the house, you hear?”, Dara added with a serious look on her face.
“Ehn ehn, okay, ayaf yeared. Dami sed I shuud turn my back when I throw o.”
 While looking at the concerned tooth, Abibat confirmed Dami’s instruction. 

“She dinnor lie. Run inside too, if you turn your back lasan, your tooth would not come out forever”. 
        I made sure I complied with all of the instructions. Of course, I didn’t want windows in my mouth permanently. Plus, the teasing I had to endure whenever I failed the ‘Fufu’ test was annoying, and I wasn’t planning on facing that for the rest of my life. 

    It is funny how I ever believed that throwing my teeth on the roof, was the prerequisite for my permanent teeth growing. Being older and wiser, I know better. I have been taught tooth eruption in biology and in no way, is that practice connected to tooth growth. But if anybody had tried to convince me then, I would have argued and disagreed totally.

 
  I didn’t know better until I grew up and got the right knowledge. And truly, same applies in our lives as God’s children. There are so many tradition and laws men have made out there, most of them are untrue and irrelevant to growth. We wouldn’t go beyond these things, if we do not DESIRE the sincere milk of God’s word, and seek to know his word for ourselves.
    Spiritual growth is an active process, takes time, and RIGHT feeding. Naturally as we develop, we would shed ‘baby fat’ and make better choices. We would break free from thought patterns that have become strongholds in our hearts.

 Let’s begin to consciously feed on God’s word alone and not on popular opinion or the culture around us.

PS-Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.
Romans 12:2 MSG

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#MythsAreNotScriptural

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