To Your Health

Psalm 27:7  9-10 (NIV)

“Hear my voice when I call, O LORD; be merciful to me and answer me. ... Do not hide your face from me, do not turn your servant away in anger; you have been my helper. Do not reject me or forsake me, O God my Savior. Though my father and mother forsake me, the LORD will receive me.”

To Your Health

Nobody wants to hear about health; they want to hear about God, they want to hear the day's news, they wade through recipes, they saunter through the food stores, basically going through their day. They go on ignoring their health issues until it bites them in the butt and they HAVE to face what ails them and is making them sick.

I remember as a child being taught about the food pyramid but was it my duty as a child to uphold the nutrition that went into my body? While I believe it was my mother and father's job it became my job after I grew up. While my father worked hard to put food on the plate, my mother scraped by bringing us the meals we’d eat and more times than not beef and potatoes is what was for dinner. 

I grew up and took charge of what went in my body which meant no more beef and potatoes for sure. But I still chose unhealthy processed foods, takeout, you name it, I was the queen of unhealthy habits. Now look at me, this disease wants to own me and I’m shoving back and going to kill IT before it kills me! 

Isn’t that the way it usually happens, you’re young and carefree living high and mighty when BAM, your heart literally pains you and you go to the hospital? Or your head, back knees, teeth, hurt so bad you NEED to seek out medical attention.

Why is it we only care about our health after we’ve failed taking care of it for thirty, forty, fifty years? Our bodies are sending out signals while we’re young and living a careless lifestyle, we just don’t hear or because we don’t have insurance to cover our medical expenses, we put our health issues on the back burner, literally putting blinders on so we don't see the illness while it is destroying our inside. We’ll take care of it when the need arises but right here and now…careless living is what we’re about.

If you have a headache, the first thing you do is reach for a pill. A headache is your system telling you something just isn’t right. Insomnia, that is another hindrance of your body telling you something is just off kilter. A fever, pains, whatever the problem, these are mechanisms that your body is screaming out to you to open your eyes and LOOK at the problem, don’t pacify the ill. But no, we’re addicted to pacifiers; we don’t want a cure we just want the pain to go away and the pills will make it go away.

And we wonder how we became a world addicted to opiates and drugs? Do you wonder how this western culture enabled us to become the most overweight species around the globe? When looking at other countries as a whole, is the first thing you see is an overweight society? Not yet, until parts of America like McDonald’s and Burger King enter their everyday eating, then you’ll see them balloon!

I hate to badger my country but you're okay with the ‘powers that be’ leading you to your death? Toxically vaccinating infants, pushing pills like opiates, Oxycontin, barbiturates to be the remedy to what ails sick people? Filling humans with over processed food, genetically modified fruits, vegetables, and meat? Allowing chemicals like glyphosate to be readily ingested in a majority of what you put into your mouth. You’re okay with a sick and unhealthy nation?

I was never okay with the way we’re being used as lab rats. I also never thought there was anything I could do about the dilemma facing an entire country. Well, I CAN do something, one person at a time! It might be a small start but if fifty people read my blog and actually start to think about their health and nutrition, I made a dent. If they actually take action to better their health, I’ve made a bigger dent. You see, the ocean has beautiful waves lapping the shore, each little or big wave makes a difference in the shoreline!

We might feel inadequate like we are too small to make a difference but honestly, we need to wake up and look in the mirror and begin to make that change we want to see in the world, one small step at a time.

It all begins with your health! If you’re not sick, think about changing your unhealthy diet now. If you are having ailments, wake up and change what goes into your mouth! If you’re just happy the way you are (are you really happy?) do nothing and live. Me, I want to make a difference in the world, one word at a time. Here's to your health! 

Godspeed…

Moving Right Along...Healing

Luke 9:11 And the people, when they knew it, followed him: and he received them, and spake unto them of the kingdom of God, and healed them that had need of healing.

Moving right along… HEALING

While some might see my alternative treatment actions of this disease of mine as bungee jumping without any bungee cords, I see myself as jumping with a safety net; a net filled with cotton balls no less!

You see, chemotherapy is not safe bungee cord. Chemo is a frayed bungee cord that they hand you after you’ve already paid the enormous jumping fee. Then you find out that the bridge is under construction and could topple mid jump and most assuredly you won’t make it alive. You will have a long arduous life wrought with pain and sicknesses of all kinds, but hey, that’s the price you pay when bungee jumping from the Chemo bridge.

As people struggle to understand my approach, I struggle to understand their soapbox that they stand on and think they know all of the facts because of a couple people who survived with the chemo treatments. I have yet to see a success story unless it was caught early on and they had minimal treatments. They STILL had to change their eating habits and lifestyle or guess what, their frayed cord comes back to haunt them, it stings them for years.

I apparently have been living with this disease for YEARS. The lump didn’t just pop up over night. Nope, it isn’t the size of a pea either! I allowed the lump to grow for a year before I got it checked out because of no health insurance and believe me, it didn’t appear at a moment's notice either. If you believe it did, then you must also believe the earth was brought about by a Big Bang Theory.

Just as the Creator didn’t blink Earth into existence overnight, He took his time and made sure everything was perfect, just perfect. Everything was moving right along until an entity came along with a ‘better idea’ of how to run things. We all see how that turned out, don’t we? We are no longer living in a perfect creation.

Remember, before satan came along the earth was flourishing with herbs and spices, and untainted animals. The atmosphere wasn’t full of toxins. The waters were clean enough to drink and bathe in, and the food was good enough to eat. In those days when people got sick, I can most assure you that what healed them was herbal teas. They tiptoed out in the fields, plucked flowers and leaves and boiled them in water to make a tea to drink in hopes it would heal their beloved sick. 

Through tried and true measures, they found what worked and the results were handed down to their fellow man. Then it happened, again satan felt he knew how to run this machine better than man. Greed came out to play and you see before you the game he spun, the Big Pharma who has pockets deeper than any valley. The laughter is echoed as people die but their pockets are full and their lives are monetarily rich beyond measure. Good job, satan!

Many people are conditioned, or brainwashed into believing everything they are told. Me, I’ve always had a way of finding my own way, walking in faith with one hand in Gods' hand, the other with the truth. God didn’t give me a mask to show off to the people so that everyone falls for a disguised woman. No, he gave me a beauty from the inside that shines for all the world to see.

This illness does not define me. My faith defines the woman I am and people who think THEY have a better way to run this factory we live in won’t mislead me. Mankind is overrun with little satans all thinking they have the right cure for this and that when all along the simplistic approach that God handed us STILL works to this day.

When I was first diagnosed, doctors tried to shatter me to the core, people lashed out telling me what I MUST do, or die! Everyone became the speaker on a podium with their wriggling pointing fingers. They tried to place me in the corner of the ring, where I was left to cower, curled up and in tears. I looked up. Right in front of me was a glorious Light shining. From four corners of the earth, it seemed the Light beckoned me to continue to follow Him. He offered the Way, the Truth and the Life. I rose, took His hand and followed.

John 14:6 “Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.”

While fingers are still pointing, people are still on their podium, and there are those who would just rather burn me at the stake for not following along with THEM and THEIR conformity. I will stand tall and I will stand firm as persecution surrounds me. I WILL walk into the Light with no fear in where it is I am being led. I am moving right along in attaining that perfect world that God created for ALL of us to share.

All praise and Glory to God!

John 14:2  In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.

Grateful To Be ALIVE!

Tears from Heaven

Matt. 16:3  “And in the morning, It will be foul weather to day: for the sky is red and lowring. O ye hypocrites, ye can discern the face of the sky; but can ye not discern the signs of the times?”

I’m Alive!

After last week’s heat wave with the heat index topping off at 108 and my body deciding to have a meltdown both physically and mentally, I’m alive, I made it through the week. This week promises to be a little cooler with the eighties and lower nineties across the grid. We’ll have to wait and see on that one.

I woke to find in my news more nightclub shootings, more death and destruction, more disagreements over politics and more friends wanting to bail out of facebook over the political hysteria running rampant there.

My prayer list has grown to the length of my arm (maybe longer) when I go to facebook. Friends that are sick, friends in the hospital, people who need prayer for their loved ones because of illness or death in the family and the list goes on. I can’t complain or gripe about my petty disability when so much is going on around me; no, I’m grateful to be alive so I can lend my heart and soul to prayer for all of those in need.

I have to pray for all those lost souls who think they’re doing the right thing yet you see them wandering aimlessly with hands groping in the dark and you have to pray that they find a peace and stop with all the hate. They’ll get around to seeing the light, one day, maybe not soon, but one day. I pray.

A lot of the problem is that people are ungrateful. They’re angry that they’re not getting their way and they take it out on an already unstable society. Condemnation – a nation enraged, rising to condemn his fellow man. When we have adult politicians acting like children themselves, how are we suppose to have hope in their leadership? I see people condemn the right, hang the left, hate the sinner, love the sin, despise the Muslim, degrade the Christian, on and on and on, the world lacks gratitude.

The republicans hate their pick of a leader, the democrats hate their pick of a leader and America is surprised by the rise of mass killings under the present politician? We are a selfish nation and we only think and pray for what will benefit us. I see prayers for France, prayers for countries struck by a disaster, prayers for whoever you pick and choose, but forget the innocent victims and families because… why? Are they not of your religion or faith? Shame on you!

Job 8:13 “So are the paths of all that forget God; and the hypocrite's hope shall perish:”

We are no longer grateful to be alive! We’re not happy that we can use a bathroom to take a hot or cold shower. We don’t appreciate water or the fact that we can go to our freezer and get ice for our warming drinks. We certainly are not grateful for our delicious food choices here in the free country. 

No, none of those things are free and many work long hard hours just to obtain water, food, gas and electricity but that does not stop man from hating his fellow man. Even though they boast ‘hey, look at me, I go to church’ you seriously have to wonder what church is doing for a person so full of hate and a person who lacks a sincere compassionate heart?

Job 17:8 “Upright men shall be astonied at this, and the innocent shall stir up himself against the hypocrite.”

A dear friend said something like “…if the last your loved one sees or hears from you be your rant, is that really what you want . . .” 

I was already writing this post before she wrote that (great minds think alike and all that) but that was exactly what I was thinking when I began this post, do people even care if their rant hurts ANYone, even their family? Their mother possibly, or again, do they not CARE who their rants hurt or affect?

I am disheartened this morning. There was a mass killing in Japan at a handicap facility and this morning I woke with not one single meme exclaiming PRAYERS FOR JAPAN! What is wrong with this picture? Ask the so-called Christian why he can pray for America and France fatalities but not for Japanese or Muslim fatalities. Are the Muslim victims killed by ISIS any different than a Japanese victim stabbed by a disgruntled worker? They, my friends, are MAN! The fellow man you are called to pray for. Go ahead, ruffle your feathers to feel better about yourself.

I am grateful to be alive! If I am only being kept alive to wake and pray for my fellow HUMAN BEING, then I am grateful for the chance. My fellow man needs me. 

Praise be to God!

Matt. 6:5 “And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.”

Helpless!

4 Ezra 2:27 “Be not weary: for when the day of trouble and heaviness cometh, others shall weep and be sorrowful, but thou shalt be merry and have abundance.”

HELPLESS

There is no other word to describe how I’m feeling right now. Helpless! One single word. Oh, I’m feeling a river of emotions but helpless is at the top of my list.

I’ll start with… my dad is dying. Don’t be so negative you might say but as you my readers well know, I’m the optimistic one. I always see the bright spot in any given circumstance and I’m struggling so hard to dig through the gray mire and find some sunshine to cling to here.

A little background: My dad had heart surgery twenty years ago and he’s had a stent placed on an artery of his heart, he’s survived throat cancer, five years clean now, and he also suffers with emphysema. He’s been on oxygen for quite awhile now and last week he was taken to the emergency room because he couldn’t breath, his oxygen wasn’t working. He was told to use the oxygen when necessary and my dad used it 24/7. Little did he know that THAT was doing more harm than good.

A little over a month ago when he had his visit with the Cardiologist, the doctor looked at him and said, “I can’t believe you’re still alive.” You see, all the x-rays show my dad has a heart that looks like a mangled car wreck but it is still driving.

Last Friday, as the doctor did his work, and the nurses did theirs, day after draining day I sat here feeling helpless. You see, I can’t just hop on a plane and go see my father. I’ve made ample use of my phones free minutes on the weekend and the not free minutes during the week. I have called and talked to him, talked to my mother and well… no one wants me home for fear my father will get the impression that he’s dying. If everyone comes and sees him, since no one sees him while he’s alive, coming to visit will surely speak volumes that he is near death.

Tuesday my mother had offered to pay for my trip back home but later when I told her the astronomical airfare prices, she quickly said, “I can’t afford that!” I understood but was hurt nonetheless. I think I overestimated the quote I gave her not knowing $1500 was for three adults, three days, round trip.  And that is not including the hotel I’d need to stay at or the rental car that we’d need. No, going home just isn’t an option.

Then there’s MY disability that would hinder travel. I can’t just be squished onto a tight-seated plane with the arthritis in my back. A three hour car drive to Omaha then boarding the plane to fly two or more hours only to have a layover in N.C. to take off again for another two hours of flying to Baltimore. After the flight I’d never be able to walk off the plane, with limited legroom, I’d definitely need a wheelchair. That is NOT how I want to visit my father, with not nearly enough time to ‘visit’.

Helpless! There IS no solution except prayer.

I had said on my Family Facebook page, “I might never get to see my family again.”

My sister retorted, “That was YOUR choice.”

Yes, I chose to leave Hell! I chose to find LOVE even if it took my last breath I would find and KNOW what love is, what family is all about, what my God had planned for me and I would not look back. Yes, MY CHOICE! That wasn’t my reply to her but something similar. I wrote, “Yes, I wanted to see what REAL love was and I found it.”

A dear friend who I confided in told me, “Joni, you don’t need that family, you have your family right there with you and your spiritual family to uphold you.”

He was right. As hard as it may be NOT going home to put my father to rest. I am at peace knowing that he knows I’ve found what I was looking for and he can die a happy man.

After writing, I don’t feel so helpless. Thank you sweet Jesus!

4 Ezra 12:5 Lo, yet am I weary in my mind, and very weak in my spirit; and little strength is there in me, for the great fear wherewith I was afflicted this night.

Sick Of It All

Ecc.10:13 “The beginning of the words of his mouth is foolishness: and the end of his talk is mischievous madness.

I’m seeing the devastation all around, not just in my homeland; floods, earthquakes, riots, forest fires, drought etc.  It’s easy to point fingers when it is all happening to someone else but clearly there is nothing to joke about when people are dying! Devastation is NOT a political joke, nor should you feel good about yourself in sharing in the ridicule.

Some will laugh and blame witchcraft and ignorantly blame gays for the Houston, Texas area flooding (even in jest it is NOT FUNNY). But will Florida point the same finger when THEY are hit with devastation? Or California when that big earthquake hits or are they blaming these folks for their drought? We live in a pretty sick world that loves laughing and pointing fingers all the while touting scripture that they pretty much don’t LIVE or TRY to live but they go on in their ignorant fashion laughing and blaming OTHERS!

When will man look in the mirror and blame himself for not doing one daggum thing? Never, that’s when because they’d rather laugh, taunt and mock other people for the devastation hitting the world. It makes them feel good.

Like I said before, I’m not affiliated with any political party and I can see clearly every single day why I don’t affiliate with the moronic conservative crowd that thinks their poop doesn’t stink and it is ALWAYS the other parties fault for EVERYthing. I don’t affiliate with the other party because, well, their not the brightest bunch of apples hanging on the tree either.

People of BOTH parties swim in rude ignorant behavior, they are hate-mongers who bask lovingly in all the hate they spew and actually feel good about themselves? I’d be quite embarrassed if I were them but no, they enjoy the hate; they love wrapping themselves in a satanic type blanket and cover themselves in scripture-chocolate-filled parfait.

A sadistic nation of people who call themselves Christian, whom I turn from on a daily basis and just about delete my facebook account daily too because their sickness will not infect me if I don’t let them.

From Bible Gateway:
Revenge belongs to God. If vengeance is God's, then it is not ours. God has not asked us to settle the score or get even. Ever.
Why? The answer is found in Joseph's statement: "You meant to hurt me, but God turned your evil into good to save the lives of many people, which is being done."
Forgiveness comes easier with a wide-angle lens. Joseph uses one to get the whole picture. He refuses to focus on the betrayal of his brothers without also seeing the loyalty of his God.
It always helps to see the big picture.

So who gives people the right to lash out? To hate? To mock, laugh, taunt and tease? It sure isn’t God! They say they know, they say this, they say that. People who blow breath from their mouths because they read does not make a person KNOW! I’m sick of it all!

Do you realize that people split hairs on the things they claim to know but really know absolutely nothing about, in my book? Because I choose not to hate people, because I choose to forgive, because I choose to live as a Christian has me splitting hairs and not wanting to be anything! I’m sick of it all!

They say they know Muslim but they are lying, they know OF them and judge ALL of them as Islamic haters and killers, and judge them as such. They say they know atheists but they don’t know them, they know OF them, and judge them as people who don’t believe in God so they must be judged. They judge the Buddhists that they claim to know and they even claim to know some Christians. Well let me tell you, some of the so-called Christians I KNOW are no better than ANY of these people listed above; they are in the exact same category that they place on the people they are judging.

What makes them better; because their God is better than the other god or goddesses? I’m just sick of it all. This country is going to hell in a hand-basket and it is those very judgmental freaky know it alls who are to blame! YOU are the very reason this judgment is raining down on us. “Judge not lest you BE judged.”

I want to know whose God died and made man judge and jury over it all? (Spare me the "Jesus died." He died for your SIN not for you to JUDGE)

 It seems the so-called Christians feel THEY have a right, the Islam followers feel THEY have a right, name any religion and they all feel entitled to be judge and jury of their fellow man. Only God the Father has the right to judge! And it is because of MAN that all this devastation is showering down on us. Because of YOU and ME! Not because of THEM (whomever you put in a box.)

The real CHRISTIANS are a separate crowd of people. THEY are the ones sharing love, comfort, compassion and understanding. If THEY sit in judgment, it is NOT publicly or socially, it is behind closed doors in prayer! It is THOSE Christians whose words I listen to and turn to, honor and respect on a daily basis. I will not embrace the hate mongers of society as my fellow Christian just because they say this or that is so! Deceivers and deceived they are.

I need to go pray, a nation of beasts needs my prayer.

Ecc. 10:14 A fool also is full of words: a man cannot tell what shall be; and what shall be after him, who can tell him?