By Pastor Yomi OGUNTUWASE
(yomioguntuase@gmail.com, +447946506659)
1. Core Idea: Stimulus vs Response
Stimulus = What happens to us Response = How we choose to react
The main message: We cannot always control what happens, but we can control how we respond.
2. Biblical Foundation
Philippians 4:13: “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”
Meaning: Our strength to respond well does not come from ourselves alone — it comes from Christ. We are empowered to choose faith, courage, discipline, and resilience.
Acts 3:6: “In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk!”
Meaning: You are not designed to stay in despair, hopelessness, or spiritual paralysis. You can rise up and walk into purpose — by choosing a new response to your situation.
2 Corinthians 4:9 “Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed.”
Meaning: You may be knocked down (stimulus), but you are not finished (response). You can rise again.
John 5:6: “Would you like to get well?”
Meaning: Healing often begins with a decision. Jesus highlights personal responsibility — do you want to change your response?
3. Key Life Principle
“Whatever the stimulus might be, you can choose your response.”
This is the foundation of being proactive:
• You are responsible for your attitude
• You are responsible for your reactions
• You are responsible for your future
4. Powerful Quotes Explained
Eleanor Roosevelt / Gandhi
“They cannot take away our self-respect if we do not give it to them.”
Meaning: People can hurt you — but they cannot control your inner world unless you surrender it.
Stephen Covey
“It is not what happens to us, but our response to what happens to us, that hurts us.”
Meaning: Pain is real — but prolonged suffering often comes from how we mentally process and dwell on events.
Definition of Responsibility
Responsibility = “Ability to choose your response”
Humans have this gift. Animals don’t. This makes us morally and spiritually accountable.
5. Proactive vs Reactive People
Reactive People
• Blame people or circumstances
• Mood depends on weather, treatment, environment
• Say: “This is how I am because of what they did.”
• Controlled by feelings and events
Proactive People
• Act based on values, not emotions
• Take ownership of their reactions
• Say: “I choose my response.”
• Carry their own “weather” internally
6. Viktor Frankl – The Living Example
Viktor Frankl (Holocaust survivor) taught this life-changing truth:
Between stimulus and response, there is a space. In that space is our power to choose.
Even in Nazi death camps:
• He lost family
• He was tortured
• He was stripped of everything
But he realized: They could control his body, but not his mind — unless he gave permission.
This proves: You can choose not to be a victim — even in horrific conditions.
7. Emotional Discipline
Important truth from your notes:
• Emotions are temporary
• Pain becomes prolonged when we keep replaying it
• Healing happens faster when we don’t live in distorted thinking
We don’t deny pain — but we don’t live inside it.
8. Spiritual Growth Through Hardship
Hard experiences aren’t meant to destroy us — they are meant to:
✅ Forge character ✅ Build inner strength ✅ Develop spiritual maturity ✅ Teach us self-mastery
9. Final Truth of the Teaching
You move from victimhood to victory when you can say:
“I am where I am today because of the choices I made — not because of what people did.”
And this is the essence of being proactive.
10. One-Sentence Summary
You cannot control the stimulus, but through Christ, you can always choose your response.
*Oguntuwase, a nutritionist and a reflexologist, is a Pastor of Christ in Me Ministry, Windsor UK.
