Caffeine- is it a barrier between you and God?

ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE?   Hmmmmmm is that the way it goes?

^{Matthew 19:26 26} Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”  Ok…I did not think that was right! LOL

Coffee,Tea,Soda pop, hot chocolate….what do these things all have in common? CAFFEINE!  What do you think about consuming caffeine? I personally am…well…not really addicted to caffeine but I certainly do enjoy it. I am very much liking it! LOL  Maybe I am addicted? I enjoy it and do not want to give it up…I just do not really “jones” for it! Ya know what I mean? Yes…I get cravings for it….but I do not ever feel I “need” it.  So am I addicted? I don’t know…..

At any rate….what do I think about all of this that I have heard recently over things such as caffeine keeping us from experiencing a clear strong connection to God/Source? As I stated in my last blog post I do eat cleaner because I feel that all of the “junk” in processed foods can muddy your thoughts and keep you from experiencing the best connection possible with God…so if that is true for me then I guess it should follow that caffeine should be avoided as well.

I guess I do believe that anything that messes with the brain or body to the extent that you can feel it cannot be a good thing and definitely is not conducive to having a clear mind and therefore being able to connect to God.   Ok….

So….am I going to stop drinking all things with caffeine in it?

I can say this…I take this seriously enough that I will be cutting back on my caffeine consumption just as I have cleaned up my eating habits. It cannot hurt..it can only help and I am all for it.

We will see if this helps me to connect any better with God. Will meditation be easier? Will discernment be easier? clearer?

This remains to be seen…I will let you know!

PEACE!

Why Organic?

I am asked,  quite often, “why” organic? Why do you want to eat organic? What is the difference for you….

 

Well, for me it is deeper than just a change in eating or living, it is a spiritual thing. I feel by eating cleaner foods my pathway or connection to GOD is clearer. So..I try and eat unprocessed foods and chemical free meats and poultry. It is a deeper more personal thing for me.

What is it for you?

And a side benefit is that I am getting much fitter!

Non toxic chemical free living…..$1.00 special

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Finding my Purpose…..

In 2007 I had a spiritual awakening, it was not a bolt of thunder but it was as eye-opening as if it were. It took many months of living in a deep valley before God layed it on me, and when He did He really did! I had no doubts that I had a message from God…..only thing was if I thought that once I heard from Him things would just be layed out before me…….well!! then I was in for a rude awakening. It was neither layed out before me nor easy going from then on out. As a matter of fact it may  have been even harder and the valley deeper…if not just for a little while longer.

I chronicled this “awakening” in a note on my FB page that you can read about here. This awakening lead to my understanding of what my purpose in life really is. As I said. it was not easy but then I am not sure that finding ones purpose is ever an easy process….that is not my experience anyway!

So…you may ask at this point….”so, Christine…what is your purpose”? Ok…here is who I am……..

I am a

Advocate for singe parents and run a non-profit to assist them

I advocate healthy organic living ( THIS is something I enjoy…not sure it was part of HIS plan)

I am a writer

Through these things I will make a difference and that is my purpose! To help others through philanthropy and writing……

I hope you will find your puropse…if you are looking. I will say that one way to hear God speak is to turn on the radio and listen…I mean really listen! You may see a pattern and if you do you can be sure it is not a coincidence…there are no such things! It is ALL God! pay attention!

Mountain of God……

Original post on my Facebook page…….

I have a interesting story about this song. In 2007 God sent me to live far away from my family,(1008 miles to be exact) including my 4 adult children and my grandchildren. I am not the type of person that can be away from their family. But I went. I was gone for 7 months. During the course of this time, I cried alot and I was MAD at God. I did not understand why I was sent away! The main reason we left was financial and it was NOT fixed by leaving as we thought it would be.

While away I learned so many lessons, but I did not open myself up to the lessons nor did I even understand them until one day about 4 months into our relocation I realized that about 4 out of 5 days when I was driving into work, no matter what time it was ( I worked odd hours) I would hear this song. At first I just liked it, then I started really listening to the words…ALL I could think was…GOD are you talking to me? He was and He let me know in no uncertain terms that HE was.

All of a sudden not only did I start understanding WHY I was sent away but I started understanding that HE was going to take me home when the time was right. Like it or not it was necessary for me to stay in this valley for awhile longer. HE wanted to make sure I learned my lessons and learned them well. At first I really thought they had to do with finances…that  could not be further from the truth.

God showed me how I was letting PEOPLE run my life rather than HIM. Whether it was my family or people from church or friends. HE showed me that one way or the other, for better or worse, and usually it was worse, I cared more about what others thought than HIM. I was not putting HIM first and if I would HE would Bless my life AND those around me. At first I thought this was a lesson about being too possessive of my family and children…or about wanting and never having good friends, then HE said to me…”SEE!!! There ya go, you think this is about THEM” YOU DO NOT GET IT!” HE shoved this in my face day after day and finally I started to get it. I do not think I totally understood until I was back in Indy, but I was fully on my way and definitely on the right track. While away I made the commitment to HIM that HE would come first in my life and I KNEW that did not mean church..I never had a problem going to church. At least it did not mean “GOING ” to church. I knew that I had to commit myself to be OPEN to listening to HIM and following HIS lead. I knew that it would include A LOT of forgiveness on my part, there were a few people, and YES, some at my church, that I needed to forgive. And still I need to let go of some…some have been harder than others.

Anyway, through this song God said to me He had not forgotten me and that I was going to get what I needed I just had to trust in HIM and have FAITH. And I did…once I made the connection I had nothing…I mean this literally, nothing but FAITH and TRUST in HIM to bring me out of this valley and bring me home. Through this I have learned my purpose in life…..sometimes it takes being in a deep dark valley before you can see what your purpose in life is.

Thank you God!

For the following 3 months I made the resolution to make HIM first in my life ( I thought I had been…LOL) I made HIM first above all else and things started happening. I never understood WHY I was not happy at my job. I quit, I trusted that GOD had HIS plans set and that part of that was for me to stay home and get the ball rolling for our return home to Indy. Once I did this things started moving swiftly. Our finances turned around dramatically and I made resolution with God to be a different person when I returned to Indy and not let anyone influence me from what I felt were HIS intentions for me.

We did return home and we now have been home for 16 months. I can very honestly say that after some problems with listening on my part…I am now on the right track and following what God’s intentions are for me!  It has not been an easy road at all and the journey is not over yet and I hope it never will be. For the first 8 months I was like a fish out of water, all I knew for sure was that I needed to LISTEN to HIM whatever that meant. It was not easy because I did not feel lead to have as much to do with my home church as I had, which seemed a huge contradiction to putting HIM first in my life. The trials….? I did not listen to Him entirely, I started back to church, at my home church and things seemed off. I thought..OK I will not jump back into Sunday school but I will attend services each Sunday, but things were not right. I then decided to try and throw myself further into it and head up a big event at the church and God made it clear to me that this is not what I was supposed to be doing. I was actually sorta pushed into it by a friend and then dumped by said friend when she informed me that she never attends said event so why would I think she would be there? It is a long story but to make a short one of it, I felt pushed into something that I was lead to believe I would have help with and then I was dumped to do it alone. After a little confrontation my friend helped a little bit but I really just decided to do it without her since she made it clear to me that she never attends.Hmmmm well..HE did let me know that I was not supposed to be doing this so what did I expect?  DO NOT feel badly about this turn of events! All was as it should be, in the end! I should have listened but since I did not God used this to teach me a lesson…the same lesson that He was teaching me all along…….I was caring more about others than HIM and HIS purpose for my life…..just like I did before He exiled me to Florida. I was proving that I had not learned a thing! HE took pity on me because I had a sincere heart ( I like to think) and so I made the decision to back myself off from the church and those involved. That was in May 2008. So far it is proving to have put me on the right track, the track that I think God was trying to get me on when he sent me to Florida in April 2007. Praise the Lord I am hard headed! OH..and regarding work? LOL that is the BEST part of my hard headiness! I went back to the very thing that HE told me was my downfall! I went against everything HE told me, I took control, even though I couldn’t make a decision to save my life, which should have told me SOMETHING! I went back to the career that put me in a position to be taken advantage of by everyone, it seems, that I ever met!!! LOL I put myself right back in the very place that had caused me to have bitterness towards others!! Okay, so that all did not work out. GOD made sure that my life had some serious obstacles which made it impossible for me to continue in that career!! HE IS AMAZING! OH..HE might have given me roadblocks but out of it HE gave me 2 beautiful grandchildren! HE loves me

So, I had many lessons to learn. I stayed very open minded and started listening to a lot of Christian, spiritual, and secular self help, self improvement and just feel good DEEP stuff. I even attempted Deepak! I have a library that is worth THOUSANDS! And through it all I kept evolving into a different person. I like to think I am evolving into the person that GOD meant for me to be when I returned from Florida in the first place. I know the road I am on is not easy and I also know it is going to take years to accomplish what HE has in mind for me. One thing I do know is HE makes sure I stay on track and if I get ideas of backsliding into the people or back to the mind thought or whatever, HE slaps me in the face..pretty hard. HE knows I am hard headed, HE knows that I have finally put HIM above all else.  HE knows there are obstacles, my opposition comes mostly from people. I take comfort from HIM. He knows I still have people I need to forgive and HE is working on me..hard. HE doesn’t let a week…almost not a day go by without reminding me that they might have done wrong but it is so much worse for me by not forgiving! I think that I will not progress much further unless I can let go of what they did.

The best part is that THEY are so self righteous they have no freaking clue! OKAY- that was a great example of the fact that I have not let it go yet

I make a promise to GOD and anyone reading this today..right here. I FORGIVE everyone that has transgressed against me whether they were aware or not and I will work as hard as I know how to let go and let GOD. And I ask forgiveness from anyone that I have transgressed against!

And so…my JOURNEY continues………

Hormone free/Antibiotic free meats……

I have always thought that beef,pork,and poultry were,as allowed by the government, laden with hormones and antibiotics.  I was lead to believe that if I am to find meats without these additives that I would have to search for special butchers or farmers that grow their meats this way. Through talking with others I have found that the majority, well really it was 100%, of the people who I talked to and asked about this said that they thought that all USDA meats and poultry were produced with the use of hormones and antibiotics…as well as who knew what kind of additives. Recently I started noticing in grocery stores labels on Poultry and Pork that said that the government does not allow the use of hormones or antibiotics in the production of poultry and pork.  Is this true? I decided to do a little bit of research on my own and this is what I discovered.

According to the FSIS ( food safety and inspection service) Hormones are never allowed to be used in Pork or Poultry, so if a label says “no hormones added” on pork or poultry then it has to be followed with the statement “Federal regulations prohibit the use of hormones.”

Beef on the other hand is allowed to be raised with the use of hormones so if a producer wants to claim “no hormones” it has to provide documentation which shows the beef has been raised without the use of Hormones.

While antibiotics are allowed on red meats and poultry there is no mention of pork. If a producer labels a red meat or poultry product as “antibiotic free” then they have to produce documentation which supports the raising of the red meat or poultry without  the use of antibiotics.

I am not sure what the regulations are for pork regarding the use of antibiotics. I know antibiotics are used on pork but am not sure of the regulations since they omitted pork from the list of meats allowed to use antibiotics.

Being able to label a meat product as Organic is a whole other story that I will have to go into in another post! The USDA Agricultural Marketing Service has a whole other website with information on how to classify meat as “organic”.

I do know that we were told that the reason the butcher where we buy our meats is not classified as Organic is because they will use antibiotics on their animals IF they get sick. Which is rather humane after all……..apparently, according to what they told us, the only way to be classified as an organic meat producer is you have to not only feed them organically but you have to use no hormones ( which my butcher does not use) and you may not use antibiotics.…even if the animal gets sick.   I will read the website info from the USDA and see what they have to say about Organic meats and their classification/qualifications.

Look for this post soon!

What is Organic living…..to you?

To me Organic Living is all about living as close to natural and as God intended as I can. Organic is, to me, getting back to nature. When I think of living my life organically I think about what I put into my body and into my mind.  I start by thinking about what it is that goes into the food I eat, where do I buy it from and how is it processed? because I do not own my own livestock I buy from others within the community and so I want to know how they process their meats, poultry,dairy and produce.

I also consider what I put into my mind by looking at where I spend my time and what I read or listen to. To me it all goes hand in hand..food…body…spirit…mind …. soul…one feeds the other. So I consider everything in my life when thinking about living Organically. I am not a die-hard by any stretch of the imagination, but I do not believe you have to be in order to live a healthier life. The fact that I consider where my food comes from and I think of what goes into my mind as well as how I take care of my body…that to me is living a healthier life. I know it is a far cry from the way I lived my life last year at this time, so it has to be good.

I know there are people out there that go a lot farther than I do when considering how to live Organically or healthier lives, and that is ok! We all must do what we have to in order to live longer healthier lives. I do not try to be perfect in one area, I try to be better in a lot of areas! To me…that is what is going to get me to the end in a better and happier condition than I would have otherwise arrived!

To each his own…but let us start somewhere!

Fast Food Chicken…what is really in it?

This article was originally posted on Organic Authority……..I thought it was a great article and do not want to forget it anytime soon! So I posted it hear for posterity!!

REAL CHICKEN Frying chicken is fairly simple, if a little messy. You dip pieces of chicken into a mix of egg and milk, roll them around in flour and spices, then cook the chicken in sizzling hot oil until the pieces are brown, crispy and delicious. But wait! Don’t forget to add a dash of dimethylpolysiloxane, an anti-foaming agent made of silicone that is also used in Silly Putty and cosmetics. Now add a heaping spoonful of tertiary butylhydroquinone (TBHQ), which is a chemical preservative and a form of butane (AKA lighter fluid). One gram of TBHQ can cause “nausea, vomiting, ringing in the ears, delirium, a sense of suffocation, and collapse,” according to A Consumer’s Dictionary of Food Additives. Five grams of TBHQ can kill you. Sprinkle on thirteen other corn-derived ingredients, and you’re only about twenty shy as many ingredients as a single chicken nugget from McDonald’s. And you were using pulverized chicken skin and mechanically reclaimed meat for your chicken, right? No one in his or her right mind would cook chicken like this. Yet every day, hoards of Americans consume these ingredients in Chicken McNuggets, which McDonalds claims are “made with white meat, wrapped up in a crisp tempura batter.” However chicken only accounts for about 50% of a Chicken McNugget. The other 50% includes a large percentage of corn derivatives, sugars, leavening agents and other completely synthetic ingredients, meaning that parts of the nugget do not come from a field or farm at all. They come from a petroleum plant. Hungry? Scariest perhaps is the fact that this recipe is a new and improved, “healthier” Chicken McNugget launched in 2003 after a federal judge called the deep-fried poultry bites “a McFrankenstein creation of various elements not utilized by the home cook.” Also terrifying is the fact that these McFrankenuggets are overwhelmingly marketed to children who love their fun shapes and kid-friendly size. While McDonald’s is of course the poster child for fast food ire, if you look at the nutritional information for chicken at any fast food restaurant, the ingredient list will be dozens of items longer than the egg, flour, chicken and oil recipe you might use at home. Eating fast food is a habit, but it is one that you can break? No doubt you rarely plan to have a delicious meal at Arby’s for dinner, a lingering lunch at Carl’s Jr. or a special breakfast at the Burger King in the airport. It just happens. You are late, tired, hungry, broke, or all of the above. You have no time, and you must find something to eat before you crash. All of a sudden a bright, friendly sign beckons from the side of the road: Drive-through! In five minutes you are happily chowing down on an inexpensive, filling meal. But don’t be fooled – the true cost of fast food does not come out of your wallet, but out of your body, your health, and your years on this earth. You can break the unhealthy fast food habit: educate yourself about the true ingredients of fast food items, plan ahead for your meals, carry healthy snacks like nuts to ward off hunger and cook healthy chicken recipes at home. Convince yourself that fast food is the most disgusting stuff on the planet and is harmful to you and to those you love. After reading this, that shouldn’t be too hard. Full ingredient list for a Chicken McNugget (from McDonald’s website): White boneless chicken, water, food starch-modified, salt, seasoning (autolyzed yeast extract, salt, wheat starch, natural flavoring (botanical source), safflower oil, dextrose, citric acid, rosemary), sodium phosphates, seasoning (canola oil, mono- and diglycerides, extractives of rosemary). Battered and breaded with: water, enriched flour (bleached wheat flour, niacin, reduced iron, thiamin mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid), yellow corn flour, food starch-modified, salt, leavening (baking soda, sodium acid pyrophosphate, sodium aluminum phosphate, monocalcium phosphate, calcium lactate), spices, wheat starch, whey, corn starch. Prepared in vegetable oil (Canola oil, corn oil, soybean oil, hydrogenated soybean oil with TBHQ and citric acid added to preserve freshness). Dimethylpolysiloxane added as an antifoaming agent. Full ingredient list for my mother’s fried chicken: Bone-in chicken pieces, egg, milk, flour, canola oil, salt & pepper.

Organic produce delivered right to your front door?

How would you like  fresh, wholesome…..organic produce delivered to your front door? Gosh that sounds great to me!! I found a place here in Indianapolis and in Cincinnati that delivers fresh produce to your home!  It is Farm Fresh Delivery!  You can check out their website here!

Farm Fresh Delivery even has its own product line, Feel Good Foods, I have not tried them myself but think it is definitely worth it to.

They have a weekly newsletter “The Healthy Times” featuring recipes, nutrition, and cooking tips!

What can you get delivered from the store? Organic Produce, Milk, Cheese, Bread, Farm Fresh Eggs, Frozen Meats, Spices, Honey, Chocolate, Fresh Ground Coffee, Tea and more!

Even though I have not had the pleasure of trying their service I can say that I get my meat and poultry from Moody Meats….Moody supplies Farm Fresh with some of their meats and Poultry ! I love Moody Meats!!