Friday Feature: Keep It Juicy

Posted on February 4, 2011 by Rhonda J. Smith

It’s Black History Month so we must share our stories, those of the past and ones we are creating right now, even health wise. And health wise, the African American story is not so good overall. Black women contract AIDS four times more than Latina or white women, we have a higher rate of abortions per capita, and heart disease is staggering among us. We have to make a change. That’s what “Friday Feature” is all about, helping us get a handle on our health the natural way.

WARNING:

The following may be somewhat graphic language, even for strong black women, but I had to give it to you straight.

While in grad school, I was working full-time, researching for a professor and excelling in my classes. I was keeping things together, but in more ways than one. One day, with penetrating pain in my belly that periodically had me doubled over in my seat, I had to leave class and go to the emergency room. After laying a few hours behind a curtain on an emergency room gurney, hearing crying and snotting beat-up Joe call and explain to relatives, police and medical workers how he got caught in a homosexual prostitution crackdown in a local park, the resident gave me the news. “You are compacted. Go to the drugstore and get a stool softener and you should be fine.”

I had left class, drove in pain, waited four hours, and heard sadly hellacious stories to be told my bowels weren’t moving. I wanted a real diagnosis, a prescription given, hospital admittance, surgery performed. I wanted to scream that my pain was because I was keeping things together that should have been moving on and out. Compared to Joe, I had a small problem, at least in that moment, but constipation can lead to more serious problems, like a perforated colon and colon cancer, and even “minor” ones, like halitosis.

My natural healthcare specialists tell me that we should eliminate waste after every meal. Hmmm, I don’t know many people who do that and I even know a woman who says it’s normal for her to handle her business once a week. Once a week may be normal for her but it is not normal. We have to flush the waste out. Otherwise, just like garbage that sits and gets smelly and moldy, our insides will get smelly and moldy. We have enough problems fighting sagging, dimpled and wrinkled skin. Let’s work to keep our insides straight.

So, like natural healthcare practitioner Sunyatta Amen says, we got to “keep it juicy,” her way of reminding people of the importance of eating foods that have lots of water so they can lubricate your body and help your food to flow through and push waste out. Nothing can replace actually drinking water, but here are some of my juicy favorites that do well giving my water an assist:

Cabbage
Collard Greens
Leafy Greens salad
Watermelon
Oranges
Apples
Mango
Strawberries
Blueberries
Squash
Eggplant

What are some of your favorite juicy foods? Share yours and if you don’t eat them raw, tell us how you eat them.

Be a World Changer

Posted on February 2, 2011 by Rhonda J. Smith

Happy Black History Month, a time of reflecting on the history and happenings in the black world that impacts the whole world. So I ask you today: What are you doing that will change the world? Being a world changer is your Christian heritage. The world referred to Jesus’ disciples as those “that have turned the world upside down.” I want the same to be said of us. Let this talk transcend the days in February and spill into everyday to change the days we see, for Christ and His Kingdom.

I’d love for you to comment on the blog about how you are changing or plan to change the world.

For a little inspiration, check out these sites:

Biography.com
ClassBrain.com

Deception Demotes

Posted on January 31, 2011 by Rhonda J. Smith

Did you ever think someone should get kicked out of your church or has someone ever gotten kicked out of your church? I know some people think that everyone who wants to be at church should be allowed to stay there. They have issues, but at least they came to church to try to get rid of them. Well, some people don’t come to church to get help for their issues; they come to church to start some issues. That is their ONLY reason for being there. And because that is their only reason for being there, they are singularly focused and easily cause deception to sweep through swiftly. What should be done with these people? What if you find yourself to be one of these people?

This charge I entrust to you, Timothy, my child, in accordance with the prophecies previously made about you, that by them you may wage the good warfare, holding faith and a good conscience. By rejecting this, some have made shipwreck of their faith, among whom are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have handed over to Satan that they may learn not to blaspheme.—1 Timothy 1:18-20

In this passage we see the Apostle Paul teaching the younger minister, Timothy, how to occupy his position in the church and giving him an example of what he did to people walking in deception. He told Timothy to “wage a good warfare,” meaning fight with all his spiritual might by holding on to his faith and following what he knows to be right. For Hymenaeus and Alexander, those who abandoned their faith and spoke bad things (probably about the Christian faith or its leaders), “Paul handed over to Satan.” We know Paul didn’t literally hand these men to the god of all evil spiritual entities, but his metaphor suggests that Paul no longer served as a spiritual guide, a protector, for these men. He cast them away from his arch of safety, allowing Satan to have free reign in their lives. Parents sometimes do this, throwing up their hands to allow wayward kids to go their way. It’s not that the parents don’t love them, but when the kids have gone too far in their deception the only thing that may bring them back where they need to be is the natural consequences of their sin. Paul realized this and simply helped to facilitate that with Hymenaeus and Alexander and so do churches that kick out troublesome members who “have made shipwreck their faith.”

With strong black women historically allowing our own strength, ethnicity and gender to dictate to us how we handle situations, it’s likely that there have been some Alexander and Hymenaeuses among us. My hope is that we put ourselves in check so we aren’t kicked out of a church, a job, a friendship or a position of confidante in a friendship. Let us leave our place of deception to come back and sin no more.

Friday Feature: Abstinence and Trust

Posted on January 28, 2011 by Rhonda J. Smith

Life and death have met me a lot this week—their notions and results of those who have chosen each have caused me to think deeply, more definitively, about my own beliefs, particularly in light of the 38th anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision legalizing abortion. Whenever a hot button issue surfaces, Christians should take a stand, if not publically, in their own hearts based upon the heart of God. His counsel to us—not our feelings or conscience—is what we must follow, but this is not always easy to do, especially for women like strong black women.

In keeping with natural methods of healthcare, abstinence is undoubtedly the only natural way to keep from getting pregnant. This should be the decision for Christian singles, with sex being reserved for marriage. In marriage, ideally you and your husband should agree on whether or not to have a child. If you decide not to have children, the only natural form of birth control is the rhythm method. You could abstain from sex, but you would have another set of issues besides unwanted children, and those issues you don’t want.

But what about those hard issues, like an unexpected (and unwanted) pregnancy that comes from a slip in decision on a lonely night or from a cruel man, a stranger or one in your own bedroom? Is abortion acceptable in these situations? Is abortion the “natural” response to getting rid of something you didn’t expect, want, or plan for or don’t want around to remind you of a bad decision or the violent act? If the mother of a poet I love who loves so many or an evangelist who feeds the souls and bodies of thousands each year decided abortion was natural after they were raped, I and so many others would miss the love of these soul-feeding wonders. And I wonder what soul-feeding wonders were among the more than 50 million babies aborted since the passage of Roe v. Wade in 1973. And I wonder how many mothers thought their decision was natural because they were told that what was in their womb was not yet life or that they had the power to change their destiny and they believed it, wanted and needed to believe that, because they didn’t know or hadn’t considered the counsel of God.

We have believed that we have the freedom to choose in all things. God would not have given man volition if we didn’t have the right to choose, we say. But He says, “This day I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live” (Deuteronomy 30:19). God gives us a choice but then commands us to choose life. I choose life, personally knowing the horror of rape and the turmoil of receiving something I didn’t expect from it. God’s council is true and life affirming even in the midst of personal darkness, death visited upon us. His council is the only one that we can trust and eventually rest secure in (Psalm 56:11, 2 Corinthians 1:8-10).

Don’t Believe the Lies

Posted on January 26, 2011 by Rhonda J. Smith

Sometimes we, who too often believe we are self-empowered strong black women, lose belief when OUR powers wane. We may begin to think we can’t do anything spectacular, impact a soul with the power of the Holy Ghost or change our mind even though we’ve tried dozens of times. We may not have peace in the midst of a storm. Perhaps we get here because we haven’t understood or really yet believed the pure Gospel of Jesus Christ. We can change that.