Leaning on my own understanding.

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Life, in each moment by itself, can seem so confusing, and trying to understand the why’s of life, death, and the struggles in between can be overwhelming.

If we search online, we can find all types of information, but does that information really touch our spirit? Does it heal our emotions? Can it take us beyond our grief, fear, anxiety, or whatever it is we are dealing with at that time?

At times, maybe. Sometimes I think that we have become so accustomed to searching social apps, online medical advice, etc to help us through that we fail to search within ourselves too.

Don’t get me wrong now. I’m not saying that one thing or another is best. I’m just rambling thoughts while trying to make sense of things myself. I do know one thing though, when I rely on my own understanding, I fail and make a bigger mess of things.

So, what do we do when life smacks us upside the head or the death of someone dear comes to an end?

For me, as a Christian, the best way I have found is to go to the Word, spend time in it, pray, praise, and continue to put into practice the things that I have learned from what I’ve read in scripture.

Philippians 4: 4-10 says this. Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again; Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable – if anything is excellent or praiseworthy – think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me – put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.

May the peace of God be with you as you journey through this life and on to the next.

Your sister, Jewels

Are you the kind of leader others follow?

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Leadership; being a leader is not the same as being in charge of a bunch of people. Leadership is done by example, by encouraging others to be the best they can be, by doing your part at helping them along that path.

Is it important to be a good leader in order for your business to grow?  Absolutely.  But, you do not have to be the one in charge in order to be a good leader.

I have known many people who I consider excellent leaders that were not the boss or manager of anyone but themselves.

So, what does it take to be a good leader; the kind of leader others will follow?

There are many blog posts out there that share their opinions on this subject and I have my own opinions as well but, wouldn’t it be better for each of us to contemplate this question for ourselves?

Ask yourself, in my experiences, whom would I consider a good leader, and why?  What qualities did they possess?  What values did they hold on to?   How did they inspire you to be a better you?

I’m curious what you come up with – without naming the person – please share your thoughts on the above questions.

Restoring the body with essential oils.

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This excerpt is from my friend Donna Wysong that I had saved because it explains so much about why essential oils work. Take a pEek and let me know if you would like more information.

Okay, so…if we are going to use these essential oils, we must know how they work…right? When I started using these oils back in November, I had to figure this out. Now, I find it HIGHLY entertaining that when I took a Motrin, or Tylenol, or allergy med, or sleeping med…I NEVER felt the need to know HOW and WHY it worked. I mean, I would pop that pill and be just fine…but for some reason if I was going to put something natural on me, well you better believe I had to know every fact there was to know about it. I wanted to know who the maker of this was, what he believes, is there any negative stuff out there about him, is this company a scam….I mean I searched it all out buddy. We humans are so silly, aren’t we? I mean, I TOTALLY didn’t go research the founder of Motrin each time I popped a pill…but that was just my natural skeptic coming out in me with this whole “Natural” path I was thinking of going down. I mean “natural” MUST be “unnatural”…right? Oh, and “unnatural” (meds), MUST be “natural”. Man my mind was a little screwed up. I’m getting there people, have patience with me.

So, in my research, this is what I found out about essential oils. Essential oils are the vital fluids of plants, or, one may call it their “life” blood. The reason the word “essential” is used is because this is what is needed and necessary for this plant to have…wait for it…. life. Essential oils are made up of tiny tiny tiny (that means very small) molecules. These are so small that they can make their way into EVERY cell and basically administer therapy at THE MOST fundamental levels of our body. Not sure if you have been through any microbiology classes (many prayers were prayed over me to make it through that class), but if you have, then you have looked at cells through a microscope, I’m sure. It’s crazy to know that these oils go straight to that and go to work. Now, these oils are different, than say…your cooking oil. Fatty oils have molecules that are just fat, fat, fat, and they just can’t make it into the cell to work. So, as you can see, these oils are DESIGNED to get into these cells. (Oh, I hope this isn’t too scary, all this microbiology talk…I’ll admit, it makes me break out in a cold sweat and I can smell the classroom right now, and see my teacher, and that test is in front of me that I made a D on)…..sorry, I got a little worked up…let’s move right along.

What I find VERY intriguing is that essential oils were inhaled, applied topically, and ingested by people of Biblical times.  I mean, this isn’t something some long haired, hippy driving a VW van made up in the late 60s. I mean…it’s in the Bible folks. Like, they brought it to baby Jesus. Yep, frankincense…it’s an essential oil. That rocks my world. You know, God doesn’t “make” mistakes. How cool when He created plants, He KNEW that their makeup would bring healing to us. Blows my mind. When God was creating the world, He said, “Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so. I firmly believe that when the Lord SPOKE those things and they were so, His very power went into those plants. Please, don’t roll your eyes at me. That’s just what I believe. Bottom line is, I think these oils are a TOTAL God thing. I believe AND have seen them bring healing to my family and SO many of my friends. I will not debate you on the whole is medicine bad and of the Lord, I’m not saying that, I’m simply saying, I believe these oils were given to us STRAIGHT from God, and I’ve seen them work.

Let’s move right along. So, now that we know how we got them, and how they can make it into the body to begin working…HOW do they work? I TOTALLY knew you were going to ask that. Man you are inquisitive. Okay, take a deep breath, there are about to be some BIG microbiology words dropped here. I need to go find my bottle of Peace and Calming, hold on one sec, I’ll be right back….OKAY, let’s dive in.

Remember me saying that the molecular structure of the essential oils were tiny, tiny, tiny? Well, because of this, they are VERY concentrated. One little drop contains like 40 million-trillion molecules (and that is not me exaggerating, it’s a fact). We have 100 trillion cells in our body and that is A LOT, but just one drop of an essential oil contains enough molecules to cover every cell in our body with 40,000 molecules. So saying all that to say, you do NOT have to use TONS of these oils to get results, some times less is better. Too much of the oil can actually make it not work as well at times because it overloads the receptor sites.

Molecules are made up of compounds. Oh, boy, here we go, put those thinking caps on. Let me tell you about three different compounds that are found in different essential oils. They are Phenols, Monoterpenes, and Sesquiterpenes.

Let’s talk about Phenols first. I’m not going to bore you with the make up of phenols, but I do want to focus on what they “do”. Phenols create conditions where unfriendly viruses and bacteria cannot live. Their most important feature, is that they clean the receptor sites on the cells. If your receptor sites aren’t clean, cells can’t communicate, and then we know what lack of communication gets you, now don’t we? Well your body ends up malfunctioning and guess what…sickness results. The following essential oils contain phenols, and you will see the percentages.

Anise (90%)Clove (80%)Basil (70%)Oregano (70%)Thyme (48%)Calamus or Cane (30%)Cinnamon (25%)Cassia (8%)

Ummm, I want me some of that. Okay, let’s move on to Monoterpenes, shall we?

Monoterpenes are found in most essential oils and they offer a variety of healing properties. However, HANDS DOWN, the MOST important ability of this compound is the fact that they can REPROGRAM miswritten information in the cellular memory, or DNA. If you have improper coding in your DNA, what happens? Cells malfunction and diseases result, including ones such as cancer. Below are a few of the oils that have monoterpenes in them.

Grapefruit (92%)Angelica (80%)Frankincense (77%)Cypress (77%)Galbanum (75%)Pine (60%)Rose of Sharon (54%)Juniper (54%)Spruce (50%)Myrtle (37%)Hyssop (30%)Peppermint (11%)

This is just so interesting, isn’t it? Finally, let’s end with Sesquiterpenes. These molecules deliver oxygen molecules to cells. Just like hemoglobin does in the blood (stay with me now)…These bad boys can ERASE or DEPROGRAM miswritten codes in cellular memory. WHAT? They are thought to REALLY be great for fighting cancer. The main issue with cancer cells is that it contains misinformation and sesquiterpenes can delete that. That all goes down at the same time that oxygen carried by these molecules create an environment where cancer cells can’t reproduce. So it’s like a DOUBLE WHAMMY to the cancer cells. One disables and the other stops growth. CRAZY. Here’s a list of some of the oils containing sesquiterpenes.

Cedarwood (98%)Vetiver (96%)Sandalwood (95%)Patchouli (85%)Ginger (70%)Myrrh (60%)Spikenard (50%)Black Pepper (47%)

So basically all three of these compounds are made to simply restore the body back to its natural state of balance and health. That is just CRAZY INSANE, but I love it.

I will hurry up and end this post, because I have a feeling your brain is on overload. I want to leave you with a verse. Proverbs 21:20 says, “Precious treasure and oil remain in the house of the wise”. After ALL the research I did when trying to decide if essential oils were “right” for me, I deny that essential oils are TOTALLY legit and that I SO wanted to be in “the house of the wise”. I pray for wisdom and discernment ALL the time, and if being wise is having my home filled with these oils…well bring on the oils baby. Fill it up!

All factual information from this post came from Healing Oils of The Bible by David Steward Ph.D.