6 minutes I came from believing in God to questioning everything. I would never have guessed that would be me; yet here I was, wondering about the validity of everything I had been raised to believe. It’s not so much that I doubted the existence of God, I simply developed apathy towards the whole God Debate, eventually taking the position that any knowledge of God is unknowable and beyond our grasp as we couldn’t know with certainty, and that I wouldn’t let it bother me either way. This questioning had first popped into my mind in the year 2000 when I joined…

4 minutes I keep meaning to blog, but I’ve been so busy studying the word that keeping up with the blog keeps being relegated to the back burner. I love writing, and even when I’m not writing here, I’m usually writing elsewhere. I journal every morning and night. I email often -long emails. I take detailed bible study notes which I then type out as I verify the scriptures we looked at in class within their chapter context.  I remember this quote from watching ‘Chariots of Fire’, a movie made about Scotland’s Eric Liddell, a devout Christian famous for winning gold medals…

3 minutes Dear reader, I’ve been gone for a while. April saw me get on a flight to spend a month in Texas visiting with my sisters with mama joining in as well. The weather is beautiful down there, we spent many a lazy afternoon on a mat under the tree in the backyard trading jokes and swapping stories. From reports back home, it was apparent I had escaped some inclement weather up north where they had snow well into the month. Though we had our own frightful thundering of hailstorms the size of golfballs, that cleared right up and we went…

4 minutes Falling in love is such a beautiful thing, a glorious space to be in. In this season of my life, I feel my Lord tag at me to pull in closer, lean in, to depend on Him even more, to trust in Him and wait on Him, to lean on Him instead of on my own limited understanding. And as I answer this call, I understand better where these loving feelings are coming from. My Father is the source of the love I feel in my heart. I never want this feeling to end, being in love with my Lord…

7 minutes Back in April, I watched a documentary titled ‘Already Gone: Answers in Genesis‘. It articulated why children raised as Christians will quit church by the times they get to college. It came down to their legitimate questions about the doctrine of our faith going unanswered by mature christians who lack insight or revelation on how to answer these petulant questions, which, when answered, should help ground our faith. Premised on the ‘intelligent design’ versus the ‘evolution theory’ debate, the documentary contended that the first time a child asks a question and it’s answered with ‘just pray’, or ‘just believe’, we…

3 minutes But the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience (forbearance), kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control ~ Galatians 5:22-23 Dear Reader, this season I have decided on writing a series centered on character development, specifically, cultivating femininity within the area of character. Why, you ask? Because the area of our character is one of particular interest to our heavenly father; it’s the reason He is continuously pruning and molding us. Several verses in the Bible make reference to God being the potter and us being the clay (Isaiah 29:16; Isaiah 64;8; Jeremiah 18:1-9; Romans 9:14-24) ‘Like clay in…

5 minutes The prodigal story paints such vivid imagery, beautifully shining a light on a father’s deep and unconditional love for his son; a father rending his garments to run up to meet, embrace and welcome back home a lost child. We humans are fair-weathered and we break our promises all the time, whether with man or God, causing us to wander off to create a life we think we deserve. Yet there is no reward in prodigal living. The truth is we are all hungry for love and we have a Father that has plenty of love to give, effortlessly and without keeping score. God is waiting for you with open arms, run into His warm embrace. He is calling you just as you are. Stop resisting and come home.

6 minutes To think I fretted that all God had for me was salvation from damnation and nothing more; O how wrong I was! I’ve been over here doing mad exploits with my Father all year long! I ascertained quite early on that walking this walk with my Savior would mean trusting Him, gingerly putting one foot in front of the other and doing my best to walk as I sense Him leading. I feel blessed that I serve a God that reaches down to mankind to save him; immortal God pursuing mortal man for salvation from eternal damnation, and for participation in His divine plan for the salvation of mankind. He has done so much for me, how can I not love a God like this? It’s His love for me that keeps me at His feet; how can I not but worship Him?

8 minutes How can an omni-present God who is everywhere be this elusive to find? How can a God said to be reaching out to humanity to save them be this hard to find? But He did find me. He fought for me in the battle over my soul and won for me. He didn’t stop there but kept whispering for me to seek Him; He wanted to be found by me! Dear ones, how He longs for us… He created us for communion with Him; we mustn’t keep dishonoring that desire, leaving Him out of our lives. While the truth is that He was chasing after me all along, the plot twist is that I now chase after him, my heart panting after Him as a deer pants for water. Because He has inclined His ear to me, I will praise Him till I have no breath…

6 minutes I remember when I began to suspect that it wasn’t just my imaginings, and that it was really God calling out to me to turn to Him and take refuge in His fortress. It would take another full month before I would put two and two together and realize that it really was God intervening in my life, and that His Holy Spirit was tugging at my heartstrings. Startled, I awoke to the battle over my soul.

10 minutes The biggest lie the enemy sells us is that God is indifferent. I was surprised to learn that I am not the only one that had fallen for the lie, that there were others too, that there was nothing original about the enemy, that he always recycles the same lies to the hapless, the undiscerning. I flash back to the year 2006 when, after almost a decade of a futile search for God, I came to the conclusion that while He is unquestionably good, God really was just indifferent to the finer details of our lives, and that it was up to us to make our way through life best we can, all while hoping He doesn’t smite us dead should we happen to get it wrong. Read on…

4 minutes Christ is often symbolized as a lion in the Bible, imagery intended to communicate leadership, strength, ferocity, power, splendor and majesty. As a symbol, the lion represents rulership, kingship, fierce and powerful. The Psalmist in 76:2 calls God’s dwelling place in Zion –his lair: “his den has been in Salem, his lair in Zion.” It is my prayer that as we make a worthy home for his word in our hearts, may we not forget or overlook each other.

3 minutes Few things bring me as much joy as using the depth of my voice and the cadence of my language to communicate creative interests and ultimately to nurture our growing community here on the blog. I am keenly conscious of the fact that these stories we tell here are not just my perspectives and experiences. Rather, these are our stories culled from all our collective experiences. We take what we’ve been given and enrich each other’s lives through shared experiences, cultivating vulnerability in ourselves and in those with whom we share our stories. Welcome to the blog dear Reader, our journey continues.

5 minutes The word ‘Loving’ has always held a fascination for me for the last decade of my life, I have wanted to use it as far back as I can remember, but the timing to use it was never quite right as it wasn’t all up to me. Additionally, and perhaps more distressing, I myself was struggling with love since I wasn’t connected to the endless source of love and kept running dry as a result.

6 minutes The name, “Loving Lair”, comes from a deep desire to become love, and to create loving spaces in our literal homes as well as our literary world here on the blog. As we create loving lairs for our loved ones at home, we unearth and uncover within us a drive to beautify, displaying an interesting mix of creativity and whimsy. Our aesthetics communicate warmth and tranquility, even as we focus on creating homes that are founded on love.

5 minutes This season marks four years since I started this blog. I’d had the intention for several years and eventually took the plunge and launched Grey Dynasty in the fall of 2015. Over the years, I’ve blogged on sustainable fashion, travel, and matters of faith and lifestyle, sharing my musings aimed at inspiring us all to live a life daringly imagined, as the tagline reads, courtesy of Mr. Grey. I’ve enjoyed sharing bits of myself here and I’m quite content that a piece of me lives on the internet, for indeed that was my goal when I first started -to leave…

7 minutes Welcome to the Sunday blog dear Reader. Today’s post is a new revelation for me on this journey to the throne of God my Father. After last Sunday’s blog on ‘The Case for Christ’, the subject of the resurrection of Christ was looming large in my mind. Surprisingly, I found that once again I knew very little about this topic, and that I’ve never given it much thought. It’s not that I’ve not believed it, no. I’ve simply never questioned it or tried to grappled with the implications thereof for me as a child of the most high. The power…

8 minutes Normally, foundational classes in Christianity begin with Christ and the salvation he brings us. Rightfully so as he is the cornerstone upon which the church is built. Yet here on the blog, I left this post for later. The reason is that, for me, it was the hardest part of the God-story to believe, and the last piece of the puzzle to click into place. I’ve never disputed that there is a creator; the universe didn’t make itself. The Big Bang theory has always sounded absurd to me as I see no way where chaos randomly organize themselves into intelligent…

3 minutes This is probably the subtlest of them all. I hear it preached from the podium all the time. I hear it indiscriminately from my Christian friends. It is meant to encourage. The phrase ‘I’ve got this’ is meant to bolster one’s confidence in their ability to get something done, to overcome something, to not give up, to persevere to the end. You’ve got this. It’s harmless. But it’s also toothless. What exactly is it that we have when we say we’ve got this? Looking underneath the hood, is there anything there that we really have? Philippians 4:13 tells me that…

5 minutes Hello friend and welcome back to my Sunday blog. I am in the middle of a 6-day stretch of off-days here at home and loving spending time with my family while sharing God’s Word. I hope you’re having equally loving times of refreshing in your homes. Last Sunday we talked about how we can allow ourselves to be found by God. We found that simply asking and inviting Him to reveal Himself to us will start us down the path of being sensitized to His presence. As we sense Him near, a need will start to arise within us, an…

3 minutes Even I fell into the trap, the lie of self. For the longest time, I stayed away from grandiose expressions of self; it always somehow rubbed me the wrong way. Having grown up in a Christian home with good solid Christian values, my belief in God has always been firmly rooted in the Bible with God at the center of everything. Evolving from God as the center of everything to elevating the self as the center of our universe is a journey that is so subtle it’s easy to miss the nuances until our house of cards comes tumbling down.…

3 minutes Hello friend and welcome back to my Sunday blog. I’ve had a busy and fulfilling week away at work and just got back home yesterday for the weekend. Today being Sunday, I thought to write a post on our loving Father and how we can be found by Him. Of all the days of the week, today seems like a lovely day to spend some time in His presence so we can be found by Him. Here’s a verse that I find intriguing, especially having recently experienced it myself. Jesus is speaking in John 6:44 “If the Father who sent…

5 minutes It’s the quiet after the storm, and I’m in a good place in my life. Calm waters all around and blue skies up ahead. At the invitation of my Father, I have found my rhythm in my maker and I am learning to rest in Him. In secular terms, we would say ‘Ms. Grey is getting her groove back’. And it would be true, I am getting my groove back. I am resting well in my Father’s bosom, quietly watching the world go by, as a child nestled, nuzzling on his mother’s breast. My heart is quiet and I want…

6 minutes “I will show you what it’s like when someone comes to me, hears my words, and puts them into practice. He is like a man who chooses the right place to build a house and then lays a deep and secure foundation on the bedrock. When the storms and floods rage against that house, it continues to stand strong and unshaken through the tempest, for it has been wisely built on the right foundation. But the one who has heard my teaching and does not obey it is like a man who builds a house without laying any foundation whatsoever.…

4 minutes My Hot-Girl summer in New York City -Lol! I’ve wanted to say or type those words since I heard Wendy Williams say them 🙂 She too is having a hot-girl summer in NYC as she processes her divorce and, girl, is she living it up or what! Dragging ‘em in the most delicious of ways -graceful and dignified. Even as she breaks down and cries from time to time, she gets right back up dipping it and doing it, showing us all how it’s done! My hot-girl summer has so far taken me all over the city and I have…

4 minutes I stumbled upon this poignant this poem by Vicki Kralapp and thought to share it. “Searching to find my place once again lost in this foreign state of happiness. Left with no one to guide me… alone. || I strive to pave my own way now; along new paths, unafraid. I risk nothing,  as most is lost. || I have left the old behind, bruised and bloodied. For my heart has been at war; sanity at last has prevailed. || Amidst the bodies left behind, the old shells of who I once was, transformed as if emerging from a chrysalis. A…

4 minutes Hi everyone, I’ve been tucked away in the Big Apple, spending my time exploring corners to take a bite from. My discoveries have taken me to SoHo all the way to the Upper East side and I’m really loving the versatility of the city. Everyone is actually super-nice and somehow, I’m apparently giving off a vibe that I’m not from The City. With people assuming I’m visiting from somewhere in Europe, it’s easy to play along and just be mysterious; I really don’t owe anyone my story. This weekend has been fabulous! From a shopping trip back to SoHo to…

5 minutes Today was quite the adventure; the task at hand consisted of finding my way from New York City to Philly airport for my Amsterdam flight tonight. Knowing it was going to be a challenge, I gave myself plenty of time for this adventure which I undertook with stamina and great gusto. Armed with a single suitcase, I left home at 11am and made my way to 125th to catch the train to Penn Station on 34th street. For some reason, New Yorker don’t say ‘subway’, they say ‘train’. I swiped my metro card only once 😉 and pushed the barrier…

5 minutes Hi everyone! I hope you’re all keeping well? I am doing amazing. Jan is somewhere off in the world touring while I stayed here in the US watching the summer unfold, and so far so good. A good childhood friend, Liz, went away on vacation to Europe for summer and you’ll never guess what -she gave me the keys to her Manhattan penthouse, rooftop and all, which is where this blog is coming to you from. She and I stayed up all day and all night chatting into the wee hours. Now she’s boarded her 747 Boeing flight to and…

4 minutes I have many dreams for myself and my son. My Father is awakening many previously buried desires within me, desires my now-just-concluded life would not have allowed me to think about. With every new chapter in life comes new opportunities; with every loss, gain. I feel lucky in that -in my humble and probably flawed opinion- my gains appear to overshadow my loss. I used to dream of things that I had no hope of fulfilling until now that my circumstances have changed. As things stand, my son and I were given 90 days to move out of our home,…

3 minutes Hi everyone! I hope you are all doing fine enjoying the sunshine and this fine gift of life that we’re all so very lucky to have. It’s Friday and I’m in my hotel room in Kensington London, warm and cozy in my gown, cup of tea by my side as I type out this blogpost. It’s been a whirlwind of a visit and I have had such a lovely time browsing around the shops and cafés in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. Yesterday I met up with Sonya, who I first met back in 2016 through my friend…

8 minutes Hi fam, I am learning that God deeply desires to communicate with us humans and that through the ages He has always found a way to speak to us. I’ll confess that I have always had reservations about people who walk around proclaiming loudly and with a straight face: ‘God spoke to me’. The nerve -just preposterous. And yet, alas, my father has been speaking to me, thereby inducting me into the ludicrous God-spoke-to-me group. Bear with me as I explain. I didn’t know just how deeply the father longs to communicate with us. As I continue to feast on…

5 minutes Hi Family, I hope you’re all keeping as well as I am, May has started off well for me. I have a light schedule this month with only 4 planned trips to Amsterdam, and all weekends off; I could not have planned it better myself. My Father continues to supply all my needs according to his riches in glory. Deep joy abounds within my heart and I know peace like no other. I’m falling in love more and more each day as my Father reveals to me what true love looks like. My heart is captivated by his goodness as…

4 minutes Hi Fam! I didn’t want April to end without giving an update of my beautiful journey walking along with my Father as I learn to trust him, to count on Him, to turn to Him for my every need… I’m amazed at the amount of grace I have shunned in the past while living a life fashioned along a path of my own understanding. I’m comforted that all the answers I sought were always right there in the Bible, hidden in plain sight! Funny thing is I’d often quote those answers without realizing the real-time living power behind the very…

3 minutes Hello Fam! Permit me to share the joy in my heart as I journey to the Father. It’s been a long time coming as he’s been drawing me nigh for as long as I can remember. With my spirit lulled into a false sense of security, I’ve walked with him casually for many years. Inevitably, he declared it was time to come up higher. And when I didn’t hear his gentle whisper, he dropped the brick. Not once, but twice. The first time was in 2014. Wounded and brokenhearted, I ran away and hid from him, fearing I’d let him…

3 minutes Hello Fam! What an amazing month March has been! I’ve undergone a huge spiritual transformation that I can’t even begin to explain how deep it runs. I’ve been enjoying some quiet time of growth and my walk has gotten so much easier. My love of writing has drawn me out of my ‘secret place’ to share of myself and connect with you all because community is everything; nothing and nobody grows in isolation. Like the African proverb goes, if you want to go quickly, go alone; but if you want to go far, go together. Journey with me to the…

4 minutes I’ve been journaling my whole life. I’ve kept a diary as far back as I can remember. I clear my mind by writing. I unravel mysteries the same way. I grow the same way. I learn and retain better through writing. I write when I’m upset, equally so when I’m happy. I heal by writing. It’s how I make sense of life. Conversely, I enjoy reading well written pieces. I have been known to note names of excellent journalists and notable columnists on my iPad notebook so I never miss a column they write or any of their works -such…

3 minutes What’s your golden rule, your guiding principle on how you treat yourself and others? How do you find your true North amidst life’s chaos? How do you stay true to yourself? The other day while I was scrolling through Pinterest for inspiration, I came across a picture of a card titled ‘the golden rule’. I’ve always maintained that there is one God, one power, one energy, one everlasting, one creator/maker. I’ve always argued that the message is the same whatever religion one might adhere to, with the exception of Christianity claiming to be the only way, a proclamation I find…

3 minutes We are all just walking each other home ~ Ram Dass. No truer words have been spoken. Personally, this quote is a reminder to be kind to each other, for we are all just trying to find our way to a person, to a place, a home, however we define that home to be. I got this quote from a video of a YouTuber I follow under the name of ‘Vegan Earth & Soul’, and with that I was introduced to Ram Dass and his quotes, quips & sayings. I watched a documentary of his on Netflix and was impressed…

3 minutes I was sitting quietly in a quiet corner of a comfy private airport lounge editing a video in Dallas Texas when a young woman and her husband walked in and settled on a couch across from me. I was mesmerized by her presence and for the better part of two hours, I tried hard not to get caught stealing glances at her whenever I could. She had a dreamy yet strong look; I marvelled at her silhouette, her profile. She posed quite a distracted from the project I was working on. I couldn’t help but notice she was exquisitely beautiful,…

3 minutes Lately I seem to have renewed my love for interiors. I find myself looking at our home and switching things up just for the fun of it. Mr. Grey is a guys guys, so he leaves me a lot of leeway to experiment as much as I want with our home. I’ve even recently picked up tools to do some ‘furniture renovations’. I’ve heard quite a bit about chalk paint over the years and I thought it’s time to dabble in that and see what transformations I could achieve. I’m not sure why I did not take a ‘before’ picture,…

3 minutes I’ve been a polymath for as long as I can remember. Many things have held my interest, not just for a while but for a considerable amount of time. Today I thought I’ll share with you some of the interests I’ve immersed myself in and made a career of at one point or another. FASHION My mother taught me everything I know about fashion. She then sent me to college to back it up but every skill I learnt was passed down to me by her. I was sixteen when I made my first outfit for myself, a Bohemian pair…

3 minutes Bonjours mes cheries! This post comes to you from Brussels Belgium, a place I have called home for the past year. I set out for Europe with my husband and son end of November 2015.   Initially I was going to stay for 3 months and tour Europe for a while, but somehow that turned into the rest of the year as the hubby and son travelled back to resume work and school respectively. I toured London, Belfast, Dublin, Brussels, Paris, etc, and soon enough, things worked out that I started flying for work, which allowed me to tour even more…

3 minutes Hello lovelies, hope you’ve been staying inspired; I know I have. Over the years I’ve learnt that it takes very little to get inspired. Sometimes it can come down to something as simple as shifting the mindset. Several years ago my good friend Pierrette taught me the gift of having a party at the drop of a hat with or without company. I always marvel at her capacity to turn any dull day into a fun day just by changing the mood, whether it be by dressing up, playing music, cooking good food or going for a walk. I remember her…

4 minutes Last weekend was amazing! I had my friend, Lady Chanel, come visit out here in Brussels Belgium, the heart of Europe and home to the EU. Lady Chanel and I first met when hubby accompanied me to her meet and greet in NYC back in October. We shared a brief conversation for a moment, yet that moment seemed to last a lifetime. It felt like I was looking in the mirror, it was as if she and I had met in a previous life! Hubby and I were in the UK last month for my graduation while visiting his family for…

4 minutes Hi lovelies, here’s another lifestyle post about where I’m at right now in my life -crossroads. I recently completed a three-year masters degree programme in business administration, with a specialization in finance and accounting. I’ve worked in finance and accounting my whole career so getting this MBA was a natural progression, the obvious next step. I consider myself a lifelong learner, a trait I inherit from my parents who, like most African parents, stressed the importance of continuous education. I’m an avid researcher at heart and a reflexive critical thinking practitioner in any given situation, a habit I gained from years of…