Friday Feature: The Wonders of Celery

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My Grandma Thomas could make the best baked chicken with just salt and pepper, but her secret was adding the right amount of vegetable oil, onions and celery. When I first tried to duplicate her taste, I didn’t have celery. The chicken was good but wasn’t Grandma Thomas great. Next time I made sure to have celery. It gave the chicken that flavor boost it needed where I can now say my chicken tastes like my grandma’s. Even though celery gives my baked chicken that extra flavor I wouldn’t use celery for anything else. It would rot in my refrigerator, not knowing what else to do with it besides cutting the stalks into sticks to eat with blue cheese dressing. And that’s what you do at dinner parties or anywhere else where they serve a vegetable tray; I had no interest in buying molded cheese just to make my celery palatable so I could consume it before it went bad. But since being on a mostly raw plant-based food plan, celery has become a staple in my fridge.

Celery goes in all my green juices and smoothies (one of which I try to consume daily) and my raw burgers. In my opinion, celery tastes awful by itself but teamed with other foods, celery is a great enhancer. Who knows, but maybe because celery is so greatly enhanced with vital nutrient that it can greatly enhance other foods? Celery

Is high in:
Potassium
Magnesium
Manganese
Sodium (natural sodium that’s essential for our bodies)
Phosphorus
Iron
Calcium
Vitamins A, B-complex and C
Amino acids

Is a:
Diuretic
Laxative
Natural diet aid (curbs appetite)

Reduces:
Blood pressure

Helps:
Restore normal blood sugar levels
Prevent stomach and colon cancers
Treat respiratory issues, like asthma and bronchitis
Ease the pain from gout, rheumatoid arthritis and rheumatism
Stimulates sexual drive
Calm the nervous system

I hope you will try celery beyond the tiny pieces you put in soups and other food mixtures. Let it not only enhance the taste of your food but the level of your health and, thus, the level of your life.

Not My Own

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What Do You Think? Wednesday

In the midst of fruit snacks, brother spats, show and tell and tattle tells, I wrote the sermon, at least most of it, for a message at Kingdom Builders Christian Church in Redford, Michigan last Saturday. God had been speaking to my spirit for two weeks “speak life.” This is what He wanted me to tell the women. This is what He wanted them to do. This is what He wanted me to get. He wanted me to speak life, the one He has for me that is wrapped up in Him: Continue reading →

Dare to Date

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This season of mothering has been intense for me as my children’s personalities, likes and dislikes are becoming clearly evident. At times it can be scary for me, wondering if I am guiding them right, bending their wills to the will of the Lord without stripping them of the essence God gave them to worship Him. As a recovering strong black woman I fight against trying to control situations. I want to be clear about the difference between training my children to give them a good foundation and simply trying to make them do what I believe is best for them. Though I always seek to operate according to God’s Word, sometimes the lines are blurred when raising my beautiful strong-willed boys. Though I have a few years before they will be of typical dating age, I have recently been thinking about whether or not to let them date. My great concern is their spiritual, physical and emotional integrity. I know that I can’t prevent them fornicating, but I also know I don’t have to make it easy for them either; I don’t have to give my blessing to an supervised one-on-one interaction where temptation may just be too great for them or the girl they are with to control themselves. These are some of my early thought about whether or not I will allow my boys to date (and my husband feels the same way). Read my latest EEW column, which begins below, for more of my thoughts on this:


Whether to let our teens date can be a hairy decision for us Christian parents. We have to consider issues like if our children are mature enough to handle the emotions that come with being in a relationship, if we are providing easy access for them to sin and how they will handle a likely breakup. My oldest child is almost 10 so I have a few years before I really concern myself with his dating, but for some of you the time is now and perhaps more intense as prom season is upon us.

Should you let your children date? Is it biblical to do so? I can’t say for sure, but as I look back on my tumultuous dating life and my hand in helping my goddaughter decide about dating I just don’t know if I will let my sons date. The cons seem to outweigh the pros, not in number but in the potential impact the cons could have on them. Do I risk a lifetime of heartache for a few moments of seeming pleasure for them? Do I let them experience what many term a teenage rite of passage just so they won’t feel left out? To bring perspective to this issue, I talked to Christian parents who have made firm decisions, some to allow their children to date and others who forbid dating. I share their words and scriptures I have been meditating on to help you decide what is best for your children. Read more here.

My One Thousand Gifts List

#561-570
More clothes to giveaway to a couple with a new baby
A beautiful card and monetary gift from a beloved couple
A challenging sermon about racial reconciliation
A pastor who hears from God
Christen babysitting the children
A dinner date with Flynn
A blog custom-written for someone God had on His mind
A Bible study with Joshua in Nehemiah
Joshua asking can we have a “word of the week,” a new big word to learn
God’s grace in caring for the children while Flynn was at DBI

Friday Feature: Cleansers and Builders

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For nearly 20 years I have been on a quest for good health and have amassed great knowledge on what works for my body. But as God would have it, much of what I have found doesn’t just work for me but for others so I am always delighted to share with you what I know in hopes that it will help you. One theory I learned recently when on my raw food program—The Garden Diet*—was that fruits are cleansers and vegetables are builders. Storm Talifero, the creator of the Garden Diet, doesn’t even like to mix fruits and vegetables in his drinks, not even an apple to vegetables, which many juicing nutritionists believe is the only fruit that can safely be mixed with vegetables (drinking a combination of fruits and vegetables can disturb the body’s chemical balance and cause the mixture to rot in your gut). Talifero believes the mixture of fruits and vegetables gets the body confused about whether it should be trying to rid the body of toxins or to build itself up. I don’t know if I subscribe to the categorization of cleansers and builders because I haven’t searched the science behind this theory, but I did follow Talifero’s separation ideal and from a recent three-day fast I got amazing physical results that I wasn’t even looking for.

Throughout the day beginning in the morning I would drink either a fruit only juice or smoothie and in the evening I would drink a vegetable only juice or smoothie. I also attempted to drink more than half my body weight in ounces of water. As I expected, I had great mental, emotional and spiritual clarity, but what I didn’t anticipate was a whopping four pound drop in weight. I know this was water loss, as typically the first six pounds of weight loss is water. However, whenever I have fasted any other way I have never lost that much weight in that short period of time. Will I keep it off? I think so as I continue to eat mostly raw foods and begin an exercise program (Remember, since January 23, I have lost 17 pounds, which is now 21 pounds with the recent drop of four pounds). My goal for this year was 30 pounds. I praise God that I am more than half way there and that’s motivation enough to work to keep those recent four pounds off and reach my goal.

*The Garden Diet is not a Christian-focused health program. In some of the literature Talifero’s wife, Jinjee, who runs the program, mentions God and her thoughts on spirituality, which are not an orthodox Christian view. However, I believe the program is great for its health benefits and recommend it on that basis.

But God

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What Do You Think? Wednesday

I was a liar and loose, totally set apart for Satan’s use.
I did what I wanted when I wanted
Didn’t care what others thought about it.
I was a maverick
Set in my ways
I planned my days
Then Christ stepped in.

Once you were dead because of your disobedience and your many sins. You used to live in sin, just like the rest of the world, obeying the devil–the commander of the powers in the unseen world. He is the spirit at work in the hearts of those who refuse to obey God. All of us used to live that way, following the passionate desires and inclinations of our sinful nature. By our very nature we were subject to God’s anger, just like everyone else. But God is so rich in mercy, and he loved us so much, that even though we were dead because of our sins, he gave us life when he raised Christ from the dead. (It is only by God’s grace that you have been saved!)(Ephesians 2:1-5, emphasis mine)

But God saved me and He continues to save me:

I would have cussed her out, but God
I would have socked his jaw, but God
I would have stewed in anger, but God
I would have rolled my eyes, but God
I would have killed my kids, but God
I would have stared a hole through you, but God
I would have nagged him to death, but God

But God is the difference between literal and figurative heaven and hell—a life eternally without Him and a life right now without Him. Through Jesus’ death, we who accept Christ as Savior and Lord, have God’s Spirit to help us say yes when we want to say no, shut our mouths when we want to open them, smile when we want to frown, speak life when we want to offer words of death. Jesus, as Savior and Lord, is the difference that we need. Praise God for But God!

What is your but God moment, the moment that God stepped in to remind you of who you are and how you are to behave and then reminding you of the power you have to obey? Please, tell me what you think.