Obviously you would have experienced some ups and downs in this time, how do you manage your challenges? Due to our combined faith in God we have similar goals and approaches to challenges. When we face challenges we use open communication to discuss them with one another and then we pray together for guidance and wisdom. During our marriage we have become great friends but we have also learnt each other’s strengths and weaknesses. This has assisted us in managing challenges as we have been able to problem-solve by accentuating our combined strengths as a couple.

You both work, you have a beautiful bouncy 1 year old boy and Andy studies, how do you balance everything and manage to maintain some time for yourselves? We balance life by firstly prioritising the important things in life. We also acknowledge that there are seasons in life so something may gain importance later in another season.

We prioritise couple time because we believe it’s important for our child to see his parents as a ‘united front’ and loving each other. We are able to do this because we have built up a great support network of people we can trust who make it possible for us to spend time together. We also make sure that we are sensitive to each other’s needs and try to help each other out. We consider ourselves a team, so if one is tired or needs time out, we make the necessary arrangements.

Finally, what advice would you give to a couple about to walk down the aisle in regards to marriage? Include God in your marriage as He can provide you with hope and wisdom for success. Do all you can to meet your spouse’s needs. Don’t assume that your spouse can read your mind, share your needs with him/her. Be prepared to negotiate in your marriage. Nurture great expectations for your marriage. If you both expect to have a good marriage and work towards a good marriage then you will experience a good marriage. Lastly, I would advise couples to always be respectful towards one another as this will contribute to the success of your marriage.

By looking back on how we humans used to interact among ourselves in obtaining products or services to make our daily lives better through our history, we might be able to see how Money under an accepted international commercial exchange system between our contemporary societies, can be defined as one element of our civilized society,

Through time, we have heard of amazing cultures flourishing for hundreds of years, even thousands of years and at the same time vanish in periods of less than 50 years or in other words of one living generation. We have heard how such cultures have prided its foundations on war and destruction of others. War was seen as a means of living. A number of wars were motivated by land expansion, labor (slavery) or obtaining specific goods. Although we have heard that systems of exchange for goods or services have existed for thousands of years in such cultures, especially since the beginning of agriculture, such systems were unique to each culture and expanded to others for means of war rather than agreed commercial exchanges. The consequences of such wars not only were the killing of thousands of human beings and cultures, but the one of the most horrendous consequences of those wars was slavery. For thousands of years humans were subjugated to work inhumanely only for the benefit of mere existence and not choice of freedom. By seeing that slavery was a fundamental element of existence for such cultures as it represented its labor, we might say that today’s society by not accepting Slavery as a definition of labor can be labeled as a civilized society. Certainly in our most recent history we have heard people treated as slaves. Nevertheless, The Consensus of slavery is not accepted by the dominated powers that rigid out today’s society.  And therefore such elements need to be considered as contemporary detriment of civilization, especially that it has been less than 200 years since slavery has been abolished which, compared to the slavery history, is an insignificant number.

The concept whereby a human being is able to receive pay for his/her work with tangible accepted elements such as notes, cheques, bank transfers and managed such payment through other kinds of representation such as credit card, bank products etc in order to obtain items for his/her existence, is the concept where Money finds its definition as an element of exchange and a person finds their dignity.

The fact that a person or culture does not have to invade another person or culture to obtain items to survive and the fact that there is a concept where a human being validates their existence by working and receiving payment with MONEY for their efforts and not being an slave of others. It is the argument that says that today’s system represented an accumulation of money represents a more civilized society than in our past.

Certainly such a system is not perfect, as seeing the conditions of how millions of people live,  yet today’s societies can be seen as more human compare to the known human history.

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I have read lots of books and articles about networking and, frankly, they are scary.  We have to keep our business cards in our left pocket so we can shake hands with our right hand, all the while reciting our elevator pitches in the guise of light banter.  I kid you not.  I have read exactly this, and scarier still, have seen people doing it.  The whole idea of it makes my skin crawl and not because I am not comfortable in a room full of strangers.  I think that’s kinda fun.  I am no wallflower in the corner.

My issue with join the dots networking is it seems to achieve so little and the idea of networking ‘drinks- sessions’ seems more pointless again.  If you want to go out for a drink, call some friends and do just that.  If you want to network, maybe the speed dating version is the way to go as there is no pretence about it, it is what it is, and at least it is time efficient.

My preference though is to network as I live and learn. Incidental, accidental networking rather than networking as an Olympic sport.

I met a woman on a plane recently.  She was sitting next to me and I had to explain my sobbing as I was reading ‘The Last Lecture’ and not coping very well.  That gave us something to talk about and we decided we had things to discuss and arranged to meet.

I met a man when I went to a lunch to hear someone I was interested in speak.  Note, I went to learn something, not to network, so it would have been a good use of my time even if I didn’t make any new contacts.

I made another ‘contact’ at a community activity with one of my sons.  We were rolling up our sleeves and getting involved in something that mattered to us, and lo and behold, there were like- minded people there who could and did become part of my business ‘network’.

Networking is simply meeting people you might be able to work with, for or refer other people to or refer them to others in your network.  Seeking them out as a singular focus is a little like saying ‘I am going out tonight and I am going to meet my future spouse’.  Most people meet their eventual spouse at work, on planes or at community activities where there are other like-minded people (so like-minded they marry them!)

 It is not surprising then that engaging in life, going to things that interest you for the sake of it, rather than for who you might meet there, and being open to meeting new people as you go about your business rather than forcing yourself and your business card on them at functions can have huge ‘networking’ benefits.

But this approach still requires you to get yourself away from your desk and go to things, or invite people to events or a meal, or to recommend the services of someone you know to someone you have just met or commit to seeking out half a dozen learning opportunities a year and attend them, or….

It matters little what you attend, just follow your instincts and your interests.  Sure, take business cards in case anyone asks for one, but talk to people rather than network with them and your network will expand organically.

You should measure the success of your attendance at an event by whether you learnt something, enjoyed the venue, had a nice meal, sat next to someone with nice manners or whatever represents a nice passing of time for you or meets your reasons for going out in the first place.  How many ‘contacts’ you made or business cards you collected and handed out is no measure of anything worthwhile.

Here our writers will pose some food for thought and you are invited to have your say! We do ask that all comments are kept within the context of what Christian Notes is all about – write with integrity and with sensitivity to others in mind.

A whole host of articles will be covered – from business ethics, familylife, workplace issues and a whole lot more!

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