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Ellie Marrandette: A Place to Belong

A very special thank you to my dear friend Carol Balawyder, who wrote this lovely review of my fourth novel, A Place to Belong. It is rare indeed for such a busy person to put her work aside to assist a fellow author.

Carol is an incredible writer in her own rite and I highly recommend her captivating novels as well. ❤

Carol Balawyder

Most of us at one point in our lives struggle to find our purpose in life. A Place to Belongis Katerine LeVay Cunningham’s (Kate) personal battle in search for her purpose in her life.

It is not enough that she is married to a wealthy movie producer who adores her and that her marriage is one full of romance and tenderness. Following her husband on his movie shoots does not satisfy her personal needs for fulfillment.

A Place to Belong is the third of a trilogy (although it can also standalone) and when we meet Kate she is in NYC with her loving British husband, Robert, who is directing a movie on the American Revolution. Throughout the novel the relationship between Kate and Robert is a romantic, tender one.

However, Kate is haunted by her past and until she puts to rest the secret, perfect crime which she has…

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Is the SBC’s Tent Big Enough for ALL Marginalized Christian Women?

What a powerful post linking the correlation between sound Christian doctrine and sound nutritional teaching. Michelle Lesley is a powerful Christian writer. I respect her for she stands courageously for Truth and so do I. I praise God for her strong testimony for the Lord.

As a Christian nutritional counselor I profess physiological truth when it comes to health. Sadly there are many more in this world who will follow what their “itching ears want to hear” than will follow Spiritual and physiological Truth.

Case in point: I’m not sure if you noticed the headline advertising “hot dog water” recently on the news lately? This hot dog water was being sold for $38 a tube – hopefully as a joke, but touted for weight loss. I’m not sure how many people actually bought it but in the mid 1990s, 41 signed up for Oprah’s fake hot dog and ice cream diet in two days! “itchy ears” again.

If I sold and promoted junk food as a weight loss program, I’d be rich by now. I continually battle false diet teachers who have a celebrity name or have a doctorate who profess unhealthy , unrealistic, quick weight loss, eliminating food groups and outright untruths to sell product. But professing the truth of Genesis 1:29, Genesis 9:3 and 1 Corinthains 10:23 as a legitimate health plan, doesn’t make one wealthy. I will continue to write and stand for mental, physical and spiritual interity, truth, praying you wil never become a sheep following blindly. Seek and hunger after the Word of God always, blessings,

Michelle Lesley

It started with Paige Patterson’s gobsmackingly horrible and unbiblical advice to an abused to wife to return to her husband. Then it was the lurid remarks he made about a teenage girl, with which he regaled a congregation during a sermon. Next came the allegations of his mishandling of two separate sexual assault cases at two different seminaries.

In response to all this turmoil, Beth Moore added to the conversation some vague stories of various unnamed men in Christian circles who had, in her perception, condescended to her or otherwise not treated her as an equal, leaving the impression that there is widespread, systemic misogyny within modern evangelicalism. Jen Wilkin, from a more biblical – yet, troublingly, similarly vague – perspective, joined the chorus, and has been afforded a wider audience for the “they can’t be pastors, natch, but we need more women in church leadership” platform she…

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When All Else Fails . . . Eat Healthy?

Proverbs 3:21, “My child, don’t lose sight of common sense and discernment. Hang on to them,”

How many times have we heard the expression, “When all else fails . . . Read the Manual!”  ”When all else fails . . . PRAY.”   or  ”When all else fails . . . Eat Right!“ Actually we should read the Bible, pray and keep our bodily spiritual temple Holy FIRST, don’t you agree?  

My friend Samantha posted these amazing thoughts the other day on her blog, http://manfonhealth.wordpress.com . Routinely I find many correlations between nutrition and spirituality, it’s why I began New Creations Ministries.  Samantha confirms this manifest so beautifully! I wanted to share it with you today.

The One Thing We Haven’t Tried

A wise man once said:

“Let thy food be thy medicine, and thy medicine be thy food.” -Hippocrates

Hippocrates is commonly known as the FATHER OF MEDICINE. He believed that the human body had an innate ability to heal itself. I cannot help but ponder why it is we have ventured so far away from this ideal of Hippocrates…Let FOOD be thy MEDICINE!  What a concept right!? Using the terms FOOD andMEDICINE interchangeably (Who would’ve thought)?!  As a society, we have veered so far off this path that it has become almost impossible to remind ourselves of the importance of food.

I think back to my old (pre-nutrition enriched) self and am reminded of some of my old thoughts. I use to think  eating healthy was just a way to lose weight.  I never really believed “You are what you eat.” I would go from one extreme diet to another. I even remember back to a time when I would eat a bowl of cereal for breakfast, an apple for lunch, and a Lean Cuisine for dinner. At that time, I considered this menu to be a healthy one! After a few weeks of eating like that and obsessively exercising I was sick for a solid week or two. Yet still, it neverfully registered with me that what I was doing was bad for me. ” I’m appalled by my “old self” ways, but really I was just IGNORANT!

Nutrition has been put on the back burner in today’s society; we are not taught the importance of nutrition.  We go from hearing about one fad diet to the next, or about the next quick fix for weight loss which never seems to work long term.   A lifestyle change of eating right and exercising has the power to prevent degenerative diseases, cancer, obesity, aging, autoimmune diseases, psychosis, colds, flus…the list is endless!

Today, our society tends to laugh at holistic/natural medicine and write it off as quackery.  A “Pill for every Ill” has been the adopted motto of today. Headache, stomach ache, depression, can’t focus…No worries, there’s a drug for that! Does anyone ever stop to think, “What is in this drug that I’m taking?” or “WOW, this drug has over 20 dangerous side effects?” Each year, there are an average of 106,000 deaths due to adverse drug reactions. 106,000 deaths! And by no means am I hating on doctors, because they work wonders and save lives each and every day! But what I am saying is, first and foremost, you control what you are putting into your body.  Less than 6% of today’s graduating physicians receive any training in nutrition.  We need nutrition education instead of all of this medication. We have to be the change we wish to see in the world!

HEALTH IS A CHOICE!! Only you can take responsibility for your health which is why it can be a struggle sometimes. You have to make the choice to change your life!

Fruits and vegetables have crazy amounts of vitamins and minerals which equal healing power! YOU ARE WHAT YOU EAT. Think about it, if you were to plant a tree tomorrow and never gave it water or nutrient rich soil, it would NOT live for 100 years like you would hope and the same thing goes with our bodies! We have to start putting nutrients in and it is up to you to do just that!

I was amazed once I started researching fruits, vegetables, herbs, vitamins, minerals, etc when I found that for almost every pharmaceutical drug, there is a product of nature that has the exact same healing benefits, without the chemicals and those 20 odd side effects! Vitamins and nutrients enable our bodies to heal itself.

Since I’ve adopted eating healthy as a LIFESTYLE and not as a “quick fix,” I have felt better than ever! In the past year alone, I have not been sick one time. I have not taken one pharmaceutical drug or over the counter drug (Yep, no Tylenol! Who would’ve thought that was possible?! haha)

Imagine the money you can save just by eating right and getting yourself healthy. No more/minimal doctor bills and paying for drug prescriptions.

We are living amidst a SICK nation where annually there are:

650,000 Heart disease deaths

550,000 Cancer deaths

106,000 adverse drug deaths

Cancer and disease statistics have not drastically changed over the past five decades, therefore we need to try something NEW!  The statistics for the healing powers of nutrition are out there, they have just been chosen to be ignored. While good health has been proven to work, it does not make a lot of money for the corporate world.

I’m going to leave you with this thought by Orthomolecular expert Andrew Saul,

“We need a new paradigm..a whole new way of looking at things. We need to BOOST health with NUTRITION. It’s really the one thing we haven’t tried.”

Romance in Books – A Guest Blogger Invite

Tomorrow is Valentine’s Day and romance is in the air.  Here’s a suggestion: instead of giving your Honey a box of fattening chocolates, how about presenting her with a romantic book?  Perhaps one of romance bookpoetry which you will read to your Beloved over strawberries and champagne . . .  just planting ideas  . . .  After all, as it states in Proverbs 15:17,  “A bowl of vegetables with someone you love is better than steak with someone you hate”  aah, that King Solomon could sure spew romance.

I’ve asked my friend Liam of  http://thelifeofathinker.wordpress.com  to guest today on a subject he knows well.  Please check out his site because I guarantee you’ll enjoy it!  Besides, when he’s world-famous, he’s promised to thank the ‘little’ people (me) who gave him all this attention. 🙂

Romance in Books: Is it everywhere, and what can we learn from it?

Hello, it’s Liam from The Life of a Thinker here, and I was fortunate enough to do a guest post for my friend Ellie on this blog. So, I’m a writer (I write novels, poems, and articles) but an interesting question came my way recently which ties in very well with this blog, and the date…

Romance… Is it in every book, and how can we use it in everyday life?

To answer it briefly, in romance books, yes. But what about other genres? Like sci – fi, mystery, horror, for example? Another yes here. Personally, I believe it’s required in every book. Some form of relationship creates empathy between us and the characters, and is very important in a story, as that’s what gets them turning the page!

Romance, or any type of relationship, consists of friendship, trust, and telling people how you feel (which can link with trust). It is a great connection that allows other people to gain an insight into your thoughts, and offer possible advice which may be useful.

But it’s not just close relationships. It can be friendships too, any form of trust is useful for people. Trust is a useful thing in life. So today, value your friends, as well as your lovers…

The Blog Event:

Thanks for reading the post, I really appreciate it. But I would just like to say a quick word about my upcoming blog event – called “imPRESSive”. I aim to give some blog tips and inspire people to set up blogs. It starts on the 23rd February, so there’s plenty of time to get involved! Here’s a couple…

1. Like “The Life of a Thinker Blog” on Facebook, and confirm you are “going” to the event “imPRESSive”.

2. Follow @lifeofathinker on Twitter, and tweet the Hashtag: #DocPRESS

3. Follow my blog, where I will be posting more nearer the time!

Thanks!

Liam