Tag Archives: Christianity

Gain Perspective

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Today I anxiously went to get the mail. I was looking for my author copies of Daily Guideposts Your First Year of Motherhood and they were there! As I’ve told you I’m excited about this project. Though I’ve written for years and have been featured in a number of publications, this is the first time my work has appeared in a mainstream book. And the book’s arrival today was perfect, after dealing with loss all around me. This morning I attended my second funeral in a week; I ministered to a woman yesterday who’s still broken after her mother abandoned her 18 years ago; and for the last few days I have been having a major discussion on Facebook about mothers who abandon their children, sparked by an article of a woman who did so to pursue her own dreams. This book, which speaks about pressing forward in the challenging face of new motherhood, reminded me that we can do anything God has commissioned us to do with some help and a Godly perspective.

In addition to the devotionals, Motherhood, has a subject index, to help you easily find topics you’re looking for, and a special concerns section, which includes hard stuff like post-partum depression, dealing with loneliness and keeping your marriage healthy. My own devotionals center on a change in my outlook. I tell you why a crying baby is a good thing; how to get a vacation while in the midst of mothering; how two women criticizing my mothering helped me; and why I had to fire a good babysitter. Remembering the stories I wrote and anticipating reading those of my colleagues helped me focus on what I have: a great opportunity to grow and nurture even with loss, that around me and even personally; not being able to go when I want, where I want and doing all I want are temporary, losses so worthwhile because of what I gain from pouring into my boys.

So join the discussion on Facebook and make sure you buy Motherhood. Just click the link here on the site. You don’t have to be in your first year of motherhood to get it. Buy it for a new mom you know; buy it to revisit how you may want to mother your other children; buy it to give some fresh perspective to a young mom you know. I believe you will be pleased.

Copyright 2011 by Rhonda J. Smith

The Valentine’s Day Gift

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Each time I was pregnant, I craved burgers. I devoured patty melts my first go around, Wendy’s double cheese burgers my second go around and White Castle burgers with my third pregnancy. While I had a great love affair with burgers, I declare I wouldn’t want my husband to try to woo me with a burger, even though this is what White Castle is encouraging.

Did you see this ad? While I commend the fast food chain for capitalizing on broke people who like sliders and people who just want to show their loved ones some love, I just don’t think White Castle is special enough to give as a Valentine’s Day gift. White Castle is something you crave in the moment, get in the drive through when you’re in a hurry, buy when you can’t afford something else or grab when you don’t feel like cooking. White Castle just doesn’t seem special enough for the special person in your life.

The more I thought about how I would feel if my husband took me to White Castle for a Valentine’s dinner, I thought about how God, our first love, feels when we give Him the spiritual equivalent of a White Castle dinner: When we only read our bible when the moment hits us, only say a couple of words to Him as we rush out the door, or go to Him when nothing else has worked or when there’s nothing else to do. While these are probably not the pattern for most of us, I’m sure we have been guilty of at least one of these at some point in our Christian walk. I know that I, trying to balance all that strong black women are expected to balance, have given God some White Castle love. Yes, we all have extenuating circumstances, like perhaps sickness and caring for a new baby, but when we constantly let life get in the way of our fellowship with the person who gave us life, we have to make some adjustments, including planning better so God gets our very best.

This Valentine’s Day I want you think about how you plan to upgrade your gifts to God. I’m not necessarily talking about giving more money to Kingdom work, though some of you may need to do that. If you’ve been giving Jesus White Castle burgers with your time and talent, I want you to figure out how to give Him filet mignon. I want you to give Him whatever your best is. And as you know, He is worth every ounce and then some.

Read what an exSuperwoman is doing with her gifts this Valentine’s Day at Confessions of an ExSuperwoman.

Copyright 2011 by Rhonda J. Smith

Friday Feature: Free Flowing

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It’s so easy to give up after trying hard at something and not seeing the results you expected. I know. I’ve done this in trying to improve my digestive health. The change in eating certain foods, the increase in enzymes and even more water just didn’t seem to be working for me at one period. I finally realized that more water and fruits and vegetables for me meant more than the average person. My major increase helped, but I was still having a bit of sluggishness until I discovered that I needed to do the following to keep my colon free flowing:

    1) Avoid mucous-forming foods (also known as acid-forming foods), like cheese. Mucous can get caught on your intestinal walls and block the free flow of waste through and out of your system.
    2) Drink room temperature beverages with meals. Many of us love an ice cold glass of water, but cold and food don’t mix well. Cold drinks can solidify your food and keep it from flowing freely.
    3) Drink 32 ounces of room temperature purified water first thing in the morning. This helps my digestive tract get going after its rested overnight. I also have a friend who drinks a hot cup of water first thing in the morning. She says this does natural wonders for her system.
    4) Drink a freshly squeezed juice or vegetable drink in the morning. This also helps my digestive tract get going immediately.
    5) Drink a hot beverage after a meal. I like to drink tea. Hot drinks help to “melt” foods, helping them break down and allowing them to move easier. Sometimes for an extra boost I select fenugreek tea, which loosens mucous and is a natural diuretic.

If you are on the quest for better help, please don’t give up. Sometimes we strong black women think we have too much going on to work so hard on an issue like digestion. After all, we’ve dealt this long with a sluggish system; we can survive, some of us might think. But you don’t know this. God gave us everything we need for life and godliness. Taking care of our bodies in every way we can gives us life and helps us to be godly because we are honoring our bodies, the temple of the Holy Ghost, and the Holy Ghost, God Himself, deserves the best. We should give our best whenever and wherever we can.

Copyright 2011 by Rhonda J. Smith

I Wonder About Love

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I wonder what would happen if we learned to love others as we love ourselves.
If we didn’t constantly remark, “That’s their life. They have to make their own decisions.”
If we had in mind that our words could change others for the better, leave them happy and whole, together.
And what if we took a stand, a dare even, to help those who couldn’t help themselves, didn’t know how to help themselves?
What would this world look like?
Maybe less bitterness and pain, anger, sickness and hate
Perhaps free from the need to take a place or a pill or have a procedure peddled to us that risk our health, our very lives, and fatten the peddlers’ pockets

What if….?

Think about that.
Act about that, in your own God-given way.

Copyright 2011 by Rhonda J. Smith