"So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.
See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ."
Colossians 2:6-8 (New International Version)

Just as the Bible warns us not to be taken captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, in our relationship with God and Jesus Christ, we must be careful in our business opportunities.

There are a certain amount of things that we have to take by faith when it comes to God and Jesus because we can't know God's mind and we didn't live during the time that Jesus walked on the earth. There is also a certain amount of faith that we have to have in the person that is sharing a new business opportunity with us but we must also keep our minds and eyes open and do a little research.

Just as we need to read the Bible for ourselves and do some of our own studying so that we aren't being taught untrue things we need to do research on the businesses that we are looking at.

When someone is sharing from the Bible, make sure to read it yourself. Read the surrounding scriptures to make sure that a verse isn't being taken out of it's original context and someone is giving it a total different meaning than it was supposed to have.

When deciding about a new business, check into the people at the head of the company. Do some research on the company and the product. When we started looking at the nutritional supplement that we ended up with, I went to National Library of Medicine and looked up the fruit name, the scientific name of the fruit and some of the nutritional components of the fruit. I also researched some of the doctors that were saying this fruit has health benefits.

You cannot receive all of the answers to all of your questions, when it comes to God or a business but don't go blindly into either one. Be sure to learn what you can, use faith where there are no answers and always pray over everything.

One Nation Under God

Yes, I know these words were added to the Pledge of Allegiance after it was written but the thought was there when the United States was being formed.

"The country's first two presidents, George Washington and John Adams, were firm believers in the importance of religion for republican government." --official Library of Congress statement

We’ve come a long way from the forming of the United States and we have lost sight of why they left England. The pilgrims left England to form a new country because they wanted freedom of religion. The thing we loose sight of though is that they didn’t want the freedom to choose between God, Mohammed or Buddha. They wanted to be able to worship God in the way they felt the Bible was teaching them, not to be told they have to worship God the way the Catholics did.

The Separation of Church and State was not meant to separate God from the United States. As John Adams stated, “The general principles upon which the Fathers achieved independence were the general principals of Christianity… I will avow that I believed and now believe that those general principles of Christianity are as eternal and immutable as the existence and attributes of God.”• “[July 4th] ought to be commemorated as the day of deliverance by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty.”–John Adams in a letter written to Abigail on the day the Declaration was approved by Congress

The Separation of Church and State was meant to give people the right to worship the One True God of the Bible, in the ways they felt the Word of God was telling them too. They didn’t want the country to be telling them that they all had to worship the same way the Catholics did. They wanted to have the choice to form Baptist churches, Presbyterian churches, Pentecostal churches, etc.

We need to remember and be thankful for the people that have given their lives in the armed forces to gain and protect our freedom and the freedom of others. Most of all we need to remember that our armed forces are currently voluntary. We need to support them and show them how much we appreciate and love them for putting their lives on the line to continue to keep us safe and to help others to find their freedom.

May we again learn to be One Nation Under God!

Photo / Layout: Nichols

Food Synergy

Most of us realize eating the freshest, most natural forms of food are the best for us. As Elaine Magee, MPH, RD states in her article Food Synergy: Nutrients That Work Better Together , "Different components in a single food can work together to benefit our health..."

That's why it's so important to even eat the skin of many fruits and vegetables such as apples, potatoes and mangosteens. You find most of the nutrients in the skin.

Because different components in a food work together in a certain way, we need to be leery of products that say they have more of a certain component than other products because if they are adding things or taking away things then we aren't getting the benefits of how that particular food is supposed to be working in our bodies.

Elaine Magee, MPH, RD also states, "We do know that eating food as close to its natural form as possible is by far our best bet for improving health and preventing disease."

Be sure that the foods you are eating or the natural products you are using are truly as close to nature as they can be.

Mangosteen Science and Research

Good day to everyone. Today my post is directed mainly to XanGo distributors and anyone wanting to learn more about the mangosteen fruit.

XanGo came out with an announcement about a new website: The Whole Fruit. This site is wonderful.

It contains a lot of information on the mangosteen fruit. I highly recommend that you take time to look around the site. You can learn a lot about the science and research behind this powerful fruit.

God Will Not Take You Where He Will Not Protect You

"The will of God will never take you where the Grace of God will not protect you."

You know how your friends and family send you all those emails with the cute little sayings and the cute little stories. So many of them, that you delete most of them without ever opening them.

That's what happens to me and I usually delete most of them but I was glad that I opened the one with the above saying this week.

As you may have all ready read in my previous posts, things have been a bit rough around our house lately. Reading the above statement brought me back to earth. Or should I say, put my eyes back onto the One that created the earth.

In times of trouble and heartache, whether it's in our business or personal life, we have to remember that God is not going to take us where He can't carry us. Sometimes that's really hard to remember when you are in the midst of trouble....like sitting at the hospital realizing that my husband is dying and might not be able to be saved.

We may not be where we want to be but God knows what He is doing. He is helping us grow or teaching us something. We have to remember that God is all knowing. He can see where we are headed. We can't see what's in our future so we have to trust God and listen to Him. He loves us and will always be there to help us through times of trouble.

So after the week I had last week, it was good to open one of those many email stories to be reminded that, "The Will of God will never take me where the Grace of God will not protect me." (paraphrased)

Heart Attack for the Seemingly Healthy - Part 2

Yesterday, I started sharing about my husband's recent heart attack. After he became a vegetarian he was in fairly good health. He suffered from some gastro-intestinal issues which causes some slight pain and bloating. He tried to catch a falling 40 lb. computer monitor and tore up his elbow almost a year ago and he was still having some pains in his left arm from that. Other than that all of his blood work and blood pressure indicated that he was in good health. Well, reality hit us full in the face very early Tuesday morning.

My husband started complaining that he must have done something to his back because it was really hurting...that was Monday morning. I picked him up from work that evening and he said again that he really needed to get to the chiropractor because his back was really hurting and if he couldn't get in that night we HAD to get him there the next morning before work.

He was also complaining that the spot just below his rib cage was really hurting. He has been dealing with that pain for the last couple of years. His gall bladder had been taken out because the doctors believed it was causing his pain but a few months after his surgery the pain came back.

At approximately 1:00 a.m. Tuesday morning, my husband woke me up and said that I had to take him to the hospital. The pain was much too intense for him to handle anymore. We still didn't realize that it was a heart attack because the pains were all located in areas that he deals with almost daily, just much more intense this time. Now we are wondering if the pains he has been experiencing over the past several years have more to do with his heart than gastro-intestinal issues and work injuries.

My husband didn't have any pains directly over his heart until he was actually at the hospital. The doctor asked why we waited so long but when we described the symptoms he was having she understood why we couldn't make the determination as to how serious this was.

My husband had a stint put into the large main artery on the front of his heart. They also ballooned a smaller one that branched off of the main artery. After hearing what my husband’s normal diet is, there were very little changes made. As a matter of fact, we got tickled at the dietician when she told him to cut red beef down to two or three times a week. We don't eat red meat but once every 2 to 3 months. He was also told not to add salt to his food. We can still use it for cooking but he can't add any additional. He only adds salt to french fries and baked potatoes.

I wanted to share this information with you so that you are aware that even if you seem to be in good health you never know what is happening inside your body. There are more factors influencing your health than just diet and exercise; genetics and stress to name a couple. Make sure you are aware of the signs of a heart attack and realize that you can get pains other places that directly over your heart and shooting down your arm.

Realize that even though you eat well, exercise, go to the doctor regularly and have great blood pressure and cholesterol levels, you can still be a candidate for a heart attack.

This is not to scare anyone but just to make you aware. Remember to let your family and friends know how much you love them each and every day. God Bless You!

Heart Attack for the Seemingly Healthy

I'm sorry that it's been several days since my last post. We have had a rough week around our house. My husband had a massive heart attack around 1:00 a.m., Tuesday morning. I would like to share with you the story of a seemingly healthy man's experience with his heart attack.

Over the course of my husband's life, he has suffered with many different medical conditions. He had a severe heart murmur from birth. He has suffered from migraines and sinus headaches. He has suffered from multiple gastro-intestinal issues such as Irritable Bowel Syndrome and Diverticulitus, to name just a couple. He even had a bout with precancerous cells in his early 20's but he has never had anything that would make you think he was a candidate for a heart attack.

He has been very active and athletic all of his life. He used to ride his bike at least 5 miles a day. At least once a week during the summer, he would take a 13 mile bike trip to a friend's camp. He would water ski and then ride the return 13 mile trip back home.

He participated in a competitive marching band, playing the tuba. For anyone that hasn't participated in a competitive marching band, we are talking about long hours of practice; both music and marching while carrying a tuba. He also marched in Drum and Bugle Corps during the summer which makes even the hardest high school marching band practice look like a walk in the park. During his time in Drum and Bugle Corp, he would experience episodes where he would have seizures after a performance.

In his early 20's he was on a business trip to Denver. He became very ill and went to the emergency room. When he came back home he took the results of his blood work to his doctor. The doctor told him that he was in great shape for a man in his 80's on life support. That's NOT good news for a 20 year old. He was also told that he had precancerous cells in his body.

After doing some research, he decided the best way to fight his susceptibility to cancer was to become vegetarian...and he didn't mess around with it!

He took a radical approach. He started out by consuming ONLY water for a month. Then he added fruit juices for a few weeks. After the fruit juice he added fresh fruits and finally vegetables. After a couple of years he added small amounts of cheese and egg to his diet. This is the type of diet he lived on for the next 20 years.

Over the past five years he has added some chicken and occasionally fish. About once every two or three months, he might break down and have a steak.

So as you can see, his diet has been a healthy one for over 25 years. He goes to the doctor for his yearly exams and all of his blood work comes back great. He doesn't have high cholesterol. His blood pressure runs right in the middle of the normal ranges. He doesn't have any blood sugar problems. He hasn't exhibited any signs of a heart murmur since his late teens. He doesn't smoke so a heart attack was the last thing we were expecting.

We almost waited to late to get him to the hospital because all of the signs he was presenting were symptoms of other issues he was struggling with. The doctor told us that if we had waited one more hour, they wouldn't have been able to save him.

Tomorrow, I will give you more details of his symptoms and his current prognosis.