Fasting

Fasting is a great idea...if you're healthy.
NEVER begin a fast unless you're healthy. The fast I'm talking about is a total fast. No food, period, just water, or lemon water.
Improper fasting can lead to sever, lethargy, dizzines, headaches, and nausea.
Women, NEVER fast during your cycle, unless you're super healthy...TRUST ME I KNOW.
People who are anemic, already have low iron. The cycle lowers that even more. Don't kill yourself by doing a total fast, unless you've consulted with a dietician.

J.O.Y. Jesus Over You

Tye Tribbett has an awesome song entitled "Still have Joy." It's a very charismatic upbeat song.
While conservatives would frown upon it's repetitive nature, its off the wall rhythm and fast paced beat, I love the words. Maybe because it's a celebration of being grateful for God's mercy in their lives, and perhaps I can relate to the sentiment: "After all thatI've been through...I still have joy" I like to thnk of joy as an acronym: J: Jesus O: Over Y: You
Here are the lyrics:
[Verse 1:]
Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him
Though He slay me, I'll trust in the Lord
Though talked about and misunderstood
Yes, I've been lied on, but still have my joy

[Bridge 1:]
Weeping may endure for a night
But I'm glad that I still have joy

[Hook:]
After all that I've been through
I still have my joy

[Bridge 2:]
Oh, oh, oh
This joy I have, the world didn't give it
This joy I have, the world can't take it away

[Hook:]
After all that I've been through
I still have my joy
I still have joy…still have joy

Lyrics Mania

Ignoring Our Brothers

Queens Light House Temple is a fairly new church that Corona SDA birthed. It's a pretty small church. And for now they are in alittle house in Queens Village.
Great things cme in small packages. Look at how the Christian movement began with a few desciples? I expect great and wonderful things from this church? Why because, I feel fulfilled on all levels each time I attend.
I am warmly greeted each time I go. The people are heart felt and very friendly ad sincere. The pastor doesn't mince words, and is unafraid of preaching it like it is. He is very practical in he delivery of the message, and I kid you not, every time I visit, it's as if I am being directly spoken to. I know that when I am prompted to visit, it's because the Lord is telling me to go. He's prepared a Word for me, and I gladly recieve it.
when I decide to stay for lunch, the food is off the chain, and since there is such a small company of believers, people ususally go home with left overs.
I really enjoyed today's sermon. It talked about the 2 that walked past the bloody and beaten Jew by the side of the road. Basically, the preacher (today an elder preached instead of the pastor) wanted to know if we too are like the 2 that walked on the other side.
Are we ignoring each other? Are we leaving our memebrs bloody and beaten by the side of the road? In some cases, this is EXACTLY the case. Domestic violence in the Adventist church has steadily increased over the years. In one case a husband tried to get his wife killed. It made the local news in that area. A nearby Baptist church sent her food and money and ministered to her needs. The SDA church spoke to the parents of the offending party and suggested that he needed a Steps to Christ. The woman and her children now attend the Baptist church. Read full article here
I believe we are more interested in turning the other cheek and neglecting each other because "That's their business" "I'm not taking sides" "They're grown people." "They can work it out."
Often people aren't ready to share their hurt because they're afraid of being disbelieved or gossipped about. And sometimes, when they open up about a concern, ANY concern, they are told that it isn't that big of a deal or given seriously poor advise. See an excerpt from the same article above:

"Among the concerns reported by women interviewed was the fact that when they had turned to the pastor for help, the pastor had offered poor advice. One pastor told a woman who came to him for help and counsel to “stand up for herself more.” The pastor encouraged her to tell the abuser not to hit her, and to tell him “no” and “fight him off” if she did not want to have sex. The survivor took this advice, and the abuser escalated the violence to the point where the woman nearly took her own life."

"Perhaps the greatest issue of all regarding ineffective help for women was not being taken seriously by church leaders in whom they have confided. One woman found the courage to share with a church leader her severe abuse, and the person replied, “I find that hard to believe. Roger is such a good guy.” She felt the person’s response implied that the abuse was her fault and that she was making the situation up. This woman subsequently fell into a depression that lasted for years."

Wow, I wish we had more Ellen Whites in this world. Pastors and church memebers are too concerned about hurting people's feelings rather than calling sin by its real name and rebuking it in the Name of the Lord. I'm thankful for the few that choose to stand like the brave.

African American Public School Kids / Christian Education

Well today was a very pleasant day for me. I had 2 classes of children today. One group was a Special Education group. I was f"forewarned" that they would be rowdy. The back ground to this school, is that the population is one where, Indians, Hispanics, Pakistanis, Muslims etc make up the majority. Blacks are the minority. these are elementary kids too. Today I had grade 4-5
I've been to this school twice already and I weep when I leave. I don't want to leave!
These children are so well mannered. I have to say unfortunately, that the Special Education children in THIS school behaved LIGHT YEARS better than the African American/Black Bebe's kids that I've taught in other schools. And I kid you not. I try and figure out Why? Why are Special Ed Indians and Pakistani 4th and 5th graders children better behaved than Older, 6th grade Mainstream African Americans.

Is it the home environment? Is it the mentality? The upbringing? Special Ed kids, are placed in special Ed b/c of learning and behavioral problems....why are these kids behaving more rationally than the main stream black kids? Why Black people? why? I am so embarrassed, and disappointed.

In my 6th grade Main stream African American class, I saw behavior that included the following:
Throwing Paper
Name Calling
Swearing, Cuss Words
texting
Boys seated on females' laps
Instigating,
hitting,
running,
chair pushing,
and general ruckous, that despite repeated warnings,
timeouts, and reasoning, only steadily grew worse.
hitting people upside the head with books.
Stripping...seriously, the boy was about to be half naked.
Talking back, running out into the hallway.

This sounds like Special Education behavior right? Right? Yea, it does but these are Main Streamers.
Let's take a look at the Special Ed Indian Children:
Talking Out of turn or calling out answers
One kids may have had ADHD, and was very jumpety.
ONE kid threw paper once.
But they listened. They all took their turn to read. They didn't break out in a Chris Brown chorus or run down the halls during class.

But these are EXPECTED behaviors, and what perplexes me is that the SP Indian kids were quiet and completed the entire assignment.
The other main-streamers hadn't completed the first page in almost 2 periods.
A poor reflection on the teacher? Maybe, but not in this case. I suppose kids act out more when their regular teacher is gone. That may be a factor. B
You see being a sub, I've been all over this city and seen the similarities that exist amongst African American children. . And it can't be ignored. There is a common problem amongst African American children in Public Schools.
The standards are different. The expectations are lower.
Did you know that in order to figure out how many new jails to build, and how much funding should go towards it, researchers need only to look to grade 5 reading levels. African Americans make up a large portion of the penitentiary system, and from what I've seen in the PRESENT fifth grade situation, the future isn't looking too bright.

I'll never forget the news report of a toddler that took a desk and used it to trash the entire classroom. Yes, you guessed it, a black four year old in a public preschool, after the teacher gave him a simple assignment that he didn't want to do. The image of the classroom looked like a complete catastrophe. Like, a window was opened and a tornado wrecked the room. The black board was swinging by its hinge, the desks were toppled over, papers scattered everywhere. There was hardly anywhere to step. If this is Main stream, I PRAY I never have to sub in a Special Ed African American setting. NO THANKS!
With the black men behind bars, leaving baby mommas behind to raise kids, no wonder, this imbalance of God's plan creates such a steamy hot mess! The home needs TWO parents. Not one. and 2 parents WORKING TOGETHER, NOT AGAINST EACH OTHER (I've gotta blog about this point sometime soon).

I believe that standards are different in Adventist schools too. Are private Seventh day Adventist Institutions better than their public counterparts? PERSONALLY, I believe back in the day , they may have been, but today, they're not all that. Oakwoad is lovingly referred to as HOKE-Wood. Why? There is a serious promiscuity problem. I'd send my kid to a public college in a heart beat. SDA institutes cry broke all the while. And because they are funded soley by tithes, you better believe there are some serious lacks. If di people dem doan pay de tithe, A wey you a tink sey de pickney dem fi read? Air? transaltion: You don't pay your tithe, the school has no resources to educate.
An issue is that we don't pay tithes like we should, so our schools suffer. Pay your tithe people, Get a calculator if you don't know what TEN PERCENT IS!
Don't forget budget is five percent
Another issue is the fact that Non Adventist parents seeking a good private school environment will send their child to an Adventist school. Then the family's values are exposed to the other children. The perfect example would be my daughter.
She's four. She attends a private SDA preschool. I'd gotten her to do a coloring activity to keep her busy. I turned around and noticed her fingers were marked and when looking more closely, saw she had colored her fingernails with the purple marker.
I asked her what was going on. She said to me,
"Mommy I need colors so I can be pretty"
She's done this same thing with my hair scrunchies and rubber bands, doning them one her little ankle and draping them on her wrist.
"Mommy I am pretty now" She says.
"I have to wear jewelry , all my friends wear jewelry" (Aren't kids the cutest? Little sponges they are).
Her 2 dearest friends at school wear jewelry. The school can't turn a kid away from school because they wear jewelry. SO they are admitted, money accepted, and the arduous task of correction correction correction becomes mine.
(Some Adventist kids wear jewelry, and I've heard of a school turning away a student because they had dreadlocks, but I'll save that for another post)

Too Normal?

Is it just me, or has anyone else noticed how plain and simple or generic Adventists are becoming?
First the logo changed from the 3 angels with trumpets and a globe to this BASIC design. A Flame and a cross and a Bible. Are you kidding me? The 3 angels have been oblitereated and respresented by 3 lines? This thing has irked me for years now, but who am I?

Next, thing I discover is that Sabbath School Lesson Illustrator, isn't even Adventist. What? Is this really true? Wait wait wait... I stand corrected. The term is no longer "Sabbath School Lessons" its SSMaterials (Sabbath School Materials).
I'm blown away. What are SDA's hiding from? What was wrong with the first logo? NOTHING.
Why are the Sabbath School Lessons, woops my bad...Materials...why are they no longer tools of instruction, but now mere objects?
My cotton jeans are materials, my synthetic kicks are materials, my braided extensions are materials...the Sabbath School dare I say LESSON is and always will be a LESSON. Why the name change? What is really going on here?
These days, you can't tell who is SDA from who isn't, who's a Christian from who's not. We all look the same, in dress, manner and ...now DOCTRINE? Are we becoming more and more like the world? In the attempt to minister, are we compromising? I wouldn't be able to tell if someone was an Adventist if they smacked me upside the head. ROFL From the pulpit to the PEWS, people, it starts at the top and trickles all the way down. Let's maintain whatever identity we have left for Christ's sake!...I mean it, we need to! Christ needs us to keep our identity.

Wow, I couldn't even Google the old Adventist logo, it's probably been wiped off the face of the earth. If anyone remembers WAY BACK in yesteryear when the REAL symbol of our church was evident, please post it for those who may not have been around. I really wanted to make a side by side comparison. The old logo, which is BY FAR SUPERIOIR to the present ATTEMPT ata logo is far better, and IDENTIFIES Adventism from amongst the Protestant churches. I may have to draw it. lol
Until later, Nades :-)

The need for prayer

This morning's lesson was a pleasant reminder of the need to pray. This life can be wearisome and if we're not careful, we will allow the cares of this life to steal our joy and cause us to lose our focus.
Christ prayed to His Father constantly. He sacrificed sleep to sustain himself spiritually. Moses and Elijah even came to speak to the Savior.
If He prayed continually, we CERTAINLY need to now. Especially in light of the fact that we are in perilous times.

I Love Me My Haters

Haters are people who are jealous of you no matter what. No matter how nice you are, or no matter how you try to ignore them. Once they see you, there is just SOMETHING about you that they HATE or DESPISE or LOATHE or SCORN.
There are 3 solutions for haters.
Put them in their place
Ignore them
Pray over them (I saved the best for last)

If you pray over them. You don't have to worry about a thing. You will then be able to live your life, ignoring them like they don't even exist. You going about your life will perplex them and
confuse the enemy's plan for your life. The end result will be them being put in their place, not by you, but by Christ. Isn't He the best person for the job anyway?

On a personal note, at present, I have PLENTY of haters in my life. People who hate on me b/c of the blessings in my life, and those who just don't get it. Whomever they are, God sees and knows all, and I am still praying for them. I pray blessings on my haters. B/c it's the lack of a blessing in their life to begin with that caused a void to manifest and turn them into what? HATERS.
I also thank Him for Haters, b/c with my dear haters, they show me that I am so valuable and precious to them for them to talk about me in their spare time, and break Sabbath just to gossip about me, and spend day time minutes on me, and spend night hours when they could be sleeping on me.

And yes, haters, you are THAT important to me to actually write about. You are valuable to me.
I hope others who are hated on will also see that they are a precious commodity for someone to go out of their way to hate on.
And a message to all HATERS, although we'd all love for you to appreciate rather than Hate, we understand that this is a growing process and it takes stages to develop. So we'll give you time.

If you love me, you'll get jealous

I once had a man tell me that if I loved him, I would get jealous if he's around another woman. Getting jealous is normal, but here's the thing that got me...
He actually told me that he would go out of his way to flirt with other women to try to get me jealous, and if I didn't get jealous it was s sign that I didn't love him. (ROFL)
I begged to differ. I told him that I was self confident, and knew what I had to offer and that no association with anyone would make me feel as if our relationship was at jeopardy. And that if he felt my lack of jealousy was a sign I didn't love him, that he and the other woman he is flirting with deserve each other.
I am in a class of my own, like no other, and if he thought it necessary to go out of his way to do something that vile, that I didn't want him anyway. What kind of character is that? Certainly not one I wanted to associate with.
Jealousy is something that is a natural emotion, one put in us by our Creator. But my thing is, I refuse to become jealous over an intentional attempt at pain.