Author Archives: Rhonda J. Smith

Obedience is Key

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God has a calling on each of our lives. He placed us on earth to fulfill that calling, wants us to flourish in that calling, so He equips us not just to fulfill but to flourish in whatever arena He places us. Sometimes we doubt, I know I do, if we have what it takes to parent appropriately, to minister accurately, to speak the truth compassionately. God has given us everything we need for life and godliness—for how to live and to do so in a manner pleasing to Him. Our key is to obey Him. Obedience opens every door that God has ordained for us to walk in. Obedience to God, and not our strong black women ways, will take us to and keep us in the place God has for us. We just have to believe that obedience is all we need. Read more about this in my latest EEW Magazine column, which begins below:


God so amazes me. When Dianna invited me last year to be the EEW parenting columnist I knew this was something God had for me. I had been a long-time reader of EEW and desired to contribute to its voice, but I never felt like there was a place for me. Every column had a columnist, and I was never inspired to contribute in the magazine’s other areas. When I understood that Dianna wasn’t just inviting me to write a column but to be the columnist I was excited and a little afraid. How will I connect with the readers? Will I be able to come up with enough topics? Will they read my column when my oldest son is only 8, hardly the age to make me a parenting “expert”?

These doubts kept me where I should be, at Jesus’ feet, asking, begging Him to cause me to succeed. He is the inexhaustible God of wisdom and from Him I have received an abundance of topics and biblical and practical direction to share with you. He has given me so much that in January I had enough column topics to cover publishing dates through September, and God has since extended my storehouse through December. This week I had planned to talk about how we can help our children respond to the culture war against Christians who believe in the biblical definition of marriage being between one man and one woman. I thought this was particularly fitting in light of the recent backlash from Chick-fil-A owner Dan Cathy’s expression of his belief in traditional marriage. But a word God gave me last week is what I have to share with you this time. Read the rest here.

My One Thousand Gifts List

#701-710
A successful video shoot
Vince Yarbrough for filming and producing the video
Justus hugging me at the knees
Justus and Nate waking up on their own early
Getting children and me ready for church without many complications
Jesus dying for my sins and being raised up so I would have life
Joshua for initiating reading the Bible stories (in the children’s Bible) about Jesus’ death and resurrection
Going to bed early
Waking up with Jesus on my mind
Gardening in the morning without interruption

Friday Feature: Avocado Health

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Last month after more than a year I stopped being a vegetarian who was mostly a raw vegan. I eat meat again! When I first ventured back into the omnivore world I could only eat small amounts, my body only used to food that digests easily. A month later I can sometimes eat two chicken legs at one meal and not feel initially overstuffed, but as the food makes its way through my digestive tract I begin to feel heaviness in my gut. When this happens I know for the next few meals I need to eat little to no meat. To help me feel full and get the protein and fat I need, I often choose to eat an avocado.

Avocado is considered a super food because of its more than 20 nutrients, which include Vitamins C and E, carotenoids, selenium, zinc, and omega-3 fatty acids. Avocadoes, full of good fat, increase your “good” cholesterol (HDL) levels. They have anti-inflammatory properties, all the 18 amino acids needed for the body to form a complete protein and can be used in a number of ways. I eat avocadoes alone, on salads and sandwiches, in smoothies, spread on toast, on nachos and in what has become one of my favorite quick snacks or even a meal: 5 Minute Guacamole.

5 Minute Guacamole

Ingredients

  • 1 ripe avocado (Gently squeeze the skin to see if there are soft, but not really soft, spots. Really soft spots mean the avocado is overripe and may not taste good.)
  • 2-3 tablespoons of salsa (Choose one without any chemicals and other additives and that has standard guacamole ingredients of onions, cilantro, hot peppers, like jalapeños, and lime or lemon juice.)

Directions
Cut the avocado around the long way and remove the seed. Scrape out the entire avocado, including what’s stuck to the skin, and place in a bowl. Mash with a fork, leaving some chunky pieces. Add 2-3 tablespoons of salsa and mix together. Serve with nacho chips and enjoy.

I like to add raw olives to my guacamole and dip my mixture up with nacho chips. Like plain avocado, you can use this guacamole on a sandwich, spread on toast or as a topping to a loaded nacho. We can enjoy food and still get the health benefits we need while doing so. Here’s to your fast fixing and good eating!

Seeing Clearly

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What Do You Think? Wednesday

On the way to get my new glasses with the stronger prescription I saw a police car and tape cordoning off a barber shop. I later learned that the police were at the Visible Change barber shop after a three-person shooting. Folks in the barber shop got in the crossfire of one gun-wielding guy chasing another who ran into the shop. If only they had become, and not just run into, Visible Change, the man on the run might be alive and the gun-toting guy might have a better life, but they couldn’t see. I carry no gun, am not on the run from anyone, but I understand their blindness, just really beginning to understand that sight comes from within. This has to be given to us, supernaturally so we can see naturally what’s really going on.

Faith is the substance of things hoped for; the evidence of things not seen.
If you have faith the size of a mustard seed you can move mountains.
And a child shall lead them.
And a child did lead them, last week; thousands of them followed the Lemonade Kid for refreshment, not from a physical thirst, but for quenching their dry places of hopelessness, despair, belief in the power of one, in the power of faith, in the power of God.

And even I couldn’t see THIS, even when the Lemonade Kid was 2 and made up his first worship song with the only lyrics “Hallelujah, Amen;” even when from ages 2-5 his favorite pastime was preaching to an audience of none or just his parents; even when at 3 he prophesied to me, twice, “Walk in the power of God” in between sermons with Cat in the Hat verbiage and our founding pastor’s voice; even when at 3 he would wake in the middle of the night to preach a word he had on his heart: “Put in the love. Put it in the heart” being one of his most mind-boggling words.

“He’s going to be a prayer warrior, praiser and preacher, in that order,” my sister said of her first nephew. I smiled, had heard the same but not in order, and his life from toddler to now reflects each of these.

But even I had a hard time seeing these, the supernatural converging with the natural, trying to make me a believer in what my eyes didn’t normally see.

Order my steps.
Guide my feet.
Take my hand.
Open my eyes.

This is the Christian’s constant prayer—my prayer—but without allowing the supernatural to converge then convert the natural, we only discount our prayer for what we could always naturally see. God wants to give us supernatural favor to take the place of our natural flavors. “Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good; Blessed is the man who trusts in Him” (Psalm 34:8)!

Last week I began to see, not just with my new glasses but with Holy Spirit lens. The Lord gave me the right prescription for supernatural sight. Without His prescription we will deny our children’s calling, divert our dreams and dance in the safe spaces, around the same circles. We must pray “order my steps; guide my feet; take my hand; open my eyes” then believe what we ask God to do and watch Him do “exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us. . . ” (Ephesians 3:20). Praise Jesus for the power of God in us—the Holy Spirit—helping us to see clearly, the way we were meant to see.

What are your thoughts on the natural clouding the supernatural in your life? Please, tell me what you think.

God’s Idea Impacts the World

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When you Google him 74 news articles appear. He has been on all the major news stations, including CNN, and on radio shows across the country and Canada. The Detroit mayor has called him. He’s gotten tickets to Detroit Lions and Tigers games. Detroit policemen and firefighters, U.S. Navy officers, University of Michigan basketball stars, U.S. Congressman Hansen Clarke, and Detroit City Councilwoman Joanne Watson all came by to see him. He’s gotten shirts, hats, hugs, balloons, calls, cards, letters, volunteers, donations from across the country and from two other continents (Africa and Europe), a hosts of “likes” and “shares” across the Internet, and a bunch of offers too many to name. I am talking about the “Lemonade Boy”; I am talking about my 9-year-old son Joshua Smith.

On the Google search my Joshua comes in just behind Cleveland Orchestra flutist Joshua Smith and NBA player Joshua Smith. He’s right there at the top with folks who have spent a lifetime crafting their careers. He’s there from a single idea that came to him a few months ago. One reporter asked, “So it was just a spark of an idea?” I responded, “Some people call it a spark. I call it inspiration from the Holy Spirit that he got as a result of prayer.” The true genesis of his idea has gotten little, if any, press at all, but I share with you how it happened and what God wants to happen to all of us when we commit our ways to Him.

You may have heard that Joshua was “troubled” when he heard on the radio that there was a crisis in our beloved Detroit. He thought the city would no longer exist “like Pluto” is no longer a planet. He asked me “What can we do?” I instructed him to pray. So every night after hearing about the city’s financial troubles—with jobs and services being cut, Joshua committed to praying for Detroit. Before this time, Joshua had come to me concerned that “I don’t know how to hear from God.” I told him to continue to seek God and God will speak to him. When Joshua said, “I want to sell lemonade to help the City of Detroit,” my husband and I agreed to support his vision. But we, too, thought it was a spark of an idea. We now know beyond a shadow of a doubt that Joshua’s idea to raise money to donate to our city to cut the grass and pick up trash in our neighborhood parks was God’s idea.

How else do you explain his story going viral in a day and eventually reaching three continents?
How else do you explain the accolades, including a college scholarship for a fourth grader?
How else do you explain his getting tickets to see two ball games he had been begging us to see but we couldn’t afford?
How else do you explain a boy selling refreshments inspiring the world?

Because of God a suicidal woman from Laredo, TX says, “I can now go on.”
Because of God a hopeless Detroit woman says, “You give me hope.”
Because of God a volunteer group, whose founder is from a tony suburb, cut the grass at the parks.
Because of God a little boy from a dim city shined his light throughout the world.

God takes the foolish things of the world to confound the wise (1 Corinthians 1:27): a lunch of two fish and five loaves to feed more than 5,000 and unlearned fishermen and crooks as His starting crew to spread the Gospel are two of the greatest examples of God’s supernatural power (Matthew 14:14-21;
Acts 4:13; Matthew 10:1-31).

He tells us to be willing, and He is able to use us: “Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths. Be not wise in thine own eyes: fear the LORD, and depart from evil” (Proverbs 3:5-7).

Through us the world is blessed and this allows God to get the glory: “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven” (Matthew 5:16).

We don’t discount the human accolades; we just put them in their proper place: under the sovereignty and grace of God. And for that we are most grateful.

Fox 2 News Headlines

My One Thousand Gifts List

#691-700
Clear notes for my “Power of Motherhood” message
Adjustment of my schedule so I didn’t have to travel in polar directions
Going to Bible study
Good Friday service
Brother Abdu Murray for giving a thought-provoking Good Friday message
Discipleship fellowship at the play “Favored”
Being able to support Chevelle by purchasing tickets to see Joseph in the play “Favored”
Sweet fellowship with God where He gave MORE direction for the parenting column
Grocery shopping for Flynn so he could sleep in
A beautiful Spring in the backyard with the boys

Friday Feature: Cheesy Kale Salad

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Cheesy Kale Salad

I thank God for simple nutritious meals that I have needed this whirlwind week of supporting my son, who the news media has dubbed “The Lemonade Boy.” We have been busy with Joshua’s fundraising efforts and I have not had time to prepare my choice meals with the exception of The Cheesy Kale Salad. This recipe is adapted from The Garden Diet menu plan:

Ingredients
1/2 bunch of kale
1/8 cup of apple cider vinegar
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp cumin
1/4 tsp coriander
1/8-1/4 cup of nutritional yeast
1/4 cup hemp seeds
1 1/2 tablespoons of Extra Virgin olive oil.

Directions
Slice kale into thin strips and place in a bowl. Add vinegar and salt and toss. Add hemp seeds, cumin, coriander and yeast and toss. Add olive oil and toss. Serve and eat this simply delightful dish.