LONG Scandal

This has been a great time for family and friends to take a few open punches at me. When the "Long" scandal hit the radio and TV stations, my family and friends who are NOT saved decided to express their thoughts openly to me, regarding "church and leaders"

This did not surprise me as i have been hearing their comments for years now ;-) Gotta love them. lol

I was deciding whether or not i wanted to blog about this until today. After reading and watching a few videos on you tube, i decided to express myself just a little. I don't want to say too much but I will say this…

My problem is not so much that "Bishop may be gay or bisexual" (which ever you prefer to use) But more so that the media is focused on the wrong thing. Web blasts and titles appear to emphasize on whom rather than what or how.

In my opinion, sexual encounters among men should not be equal credence to sexual abuse or use of parishioners under the pretence of guidance and mentoring. To make this a "gay" thing only takes away from what this really is.

I'm not here to comment on my personal thoughts of this man. For I will admit, I once highly admired him BEFORE discovering who he really was behind closed doors. Unlike many of you, i have been aware of his "differences" for a long time now.

I watched the video of Long's service at New Birth this past Sunday, and after hearing so many comments on how confused his members left the service that evening due to his humour and cockiness on the pulpit, I concluded that it was not in his control to perform how he usually does. This man was obviously very nervous and therefore acted out in an unfamiliar manner to the thousands who regularly sit in his congregation every Sunday.

People this is NOT a joke. This is real.

It truly breaks my heart as a child of God, to see so many men and women use their influence to force or talk young people into having sex. Using their position of their authority to persuade a young employee/person in various forms of misconduct, is very disturbing.

This man is second-to-none when it comes to mega pastors and is a historical figure.

When God comes down on his children, he does so on His TIME.

Many may be wondering "Why now" or "If this was true why would these guys wait so many years" That is NOT our place to question this, people. There are many reasons why one would wait or be afraid to come forward. Especially young boys! For obvious reasons, of course.

God has a funny way or should i say a "real" way of exposing things. He speaks to us on a constant basis. If, or course, we have a relationship with Him. We know right handed RIGHT from WRONG. However our/their flesh takes over. They sit back and think "But i am enjoying the perks, the gifts, the lavish lifestyle, the position and power too much to stop" So God says "Ok son/daughter than you are on your own"

God assists in bringing us to our highest peek and makes sure we get there if He is apart of the plan. He observes and takes note of all our falls along the way. He helps us get back up each time we do fall. He assists in making us stronger and brings us to a higher light and level. But then we take advantage of Him and start doing our own thing. We no longer pray or read our word. We start living according to our flesh and not spirit. We pretty much slap God in His face. To be blunt. So when we are on cloud 100000 thinking we got it all under control under our sin, God says "Oh yeah, now you went or are going to far and i am going to show you that I AM REAL"

So my people STOP giving the devil so much credit. Saying "oh Satan is after our leaders and churches" YES of course he is, he has always been. But what does that have to do with what God is doing??? Why can't it be God that is doing this?

Yes, there is nothing illegal about sleeping with a 21 year old boy or girl. There is also nothing illegal about being gay and this does not make him a child molester. However people, he is a married spiritual leader with four children. Let's please keep this in mind. Not so much that it was boys and not girls or their young ages but the fact that he is a leader to thousands and has a wife who i am sure is going through hell right now. Please keep in mind that NO CHILD would want to hear this disturbing news about their father. Just imagine what it must be like living in their shoes right now. This is a very sad story.

After this woman witnessed her husband lead a march not too long ago against gay marriage, she would assume her husband has got to be 100% innocent. If this case/scandal is true, i can NOT imagine just how much self hatred a person needs to have to fight against the very thing he represents.

My friends- let us not focus on the fact that "a man had sex with young boys" There is nothing surprising about that. Look around you. It's everywhere. But this man is a bishop. A leader. A legend who is leading thousands to Christ while living a double life. Truly, what is Christ thinking? If the members knew for sure he was gay, would they be following him? Seriously would they?

I have read comments from people saying "Well no man or woman is perfect" (this seems to be a constant excuse in the churches today) Ok, i don't think we are asking for a perfect leader. While, yes i do agree we are not perfect, but if you are clearly battling with such a spirit for so many years, GET help!

Is this apart of Gods program when he assigns His leaders and Sheppard’s? Does God expect us to fall? YES OF COURSE he does. But is this falling? Or is this simply making a mockery of who God truly is. Committing this sin simply because YOU CAN! (so you think)

I know first hand that miracles are REAL and i also know that God is able to heal this man and the many that are living in deep rooted sin such as this. As leaders, we must recognize that somehow a spirit has taken control over our minds and thoughts and has led us to lust and desire ungodly things. These men lay their hands on thousands of people who are battling with demonic and ungodly spirits and if they are not prayed for after they pray for these people then that spirit can easily manifest in them as well. Trust me friends, this is REAL. I'm NOT making excuses for this man. I'm just keeping it all real. I pray that Bishop Eddie Long takes this time out to repent (which will prove that he is sorry) and removes himself from the pulpit to heal and receive the deliverance he needs in order to lead.

We wonder why so many young men who were born and raised in the church are growing up gay? Well come on, do the math. This spirit is poured down from the HEAD. Was Satan not the chief musician? Well look at most of the worship male leaders and gospel singers! This is a curse from HELL. It is a spirit that WILL SPREAD if it not rebuked.

Living a double life while attending church services on a regular basis is not surprising. We are all somehow guilty of this. Whether it is gossiping… lying etc what is disturbing is the many years this has been going on for and if it was not exposed, how much longer would it continue?

For a moment, just think of the families involved.

For another moment think of the young men involved and how they could have easily grown up to be great God fearing men. But truly, what are the chances now? Imagine the extent of counsel these men will need. To be misled in the hands of one of the worlds leading Bishops, where does ONE turn too?

My heart is broken.

Women Food And God

Why are you eating?

After reading this blog i decided to just go ahead "copy and paste"
I was looking for information to assist me in writing my blog on why women obsess over food and weight so much and came across this interview with Oprah and Geneen Roth. Amazing story.

But.... only one thing; why are people so afraid of saying the word GOD?? I mean seriously. I just don't get it. We beat around the bush so much to not step on anyones toes. "Well you can call him a higher power..."I don't know what to call it..but its a higher person...a creator" You will hear it all but many people run from saying the word GOD. There is nothing else to call him BUT GOD! That is who he is; GOD. Our creator. Sustainer. Deliverer. Keeper. Protector. Friend. Father. Healer. He is GOD!
Ok now that i got that off my chest. Here is the story.

If you want to go directly to the page please visit www.oprah.com

Over the years, Oprah has been very open about her struggles with weight. "You all know my story—the highs and lows and ups and downs. My skinny self, my fat self," Oprah says. But after all these years, Oprah says she's finally found the answer. "I have come across something so profound that I think [to everybody] who's ever felt that it's a losing battle, here is an opportunity to win. This has literally broken me open when it comes to my relationship with food, because if you struggle with your weight, what we're about to share with you today might be actually the first time in your life that you begin to understand the real reasons you are fat and allow those reasons to be a miracle for your life."

The discovery in question is author Geneen Roth's new best-selling book, Women, Food, and God. Readers say it's helping to free them from the vicious cycle of yo-yo dieting by getting to the core of why they're overweight.

Geneen says she was a crash dieter herself for many years, gaining and losing more than 1,000 pounds, but after finding herself on the brink of suicide, she had a breakthrough. "First of all, not dieting. Dieting leads to self-hatred and self-loathing, making you feel crazy about yourself," she says. "The other breakthrough is that your relationship with food, rather than being the curse, and rather than being the thing that you want to get rid of, is, itself, the doorway to the life you most want."

Having issues with weight is always about more than the food, Geneen says. "Your beliefs show up in your relationship with food. So if I'm eating when I'm not hungry or bored, I'm basically saying I can't feel these feelings. 'Life is too much for me. There's no goodness in my life except for food right here, right now,'" she says. "You're basically eating because you've given up on something, some part of yourself."

Oprah says she had an aha! moment when reading about how people's relationships with food mirrors their belief systems. "I realized that is what I have done, and so many other people have done, for years. You think that, 'I am so small that the pain is going to overwhelm me,' but really the truth is you've already experienced that pain," she says.

"Yes, you have, and what food does at that point is it doubles your pain, rather than make it go away," Geneen says. "You're still in pain about what you were in pain about before you ate, but now you've added a whole level of more discomfort which is: 'Oh, I can't believe I ate this. What's wrong with me? Am I ever going to get my life together? Is it ever going to get better?' Then you're feeling like a failure on top of the discomfort you were feeling before."

Lots of people understand why women and food are mentioned in the title of Geneen's book, but why God? Geneen says she isn't talking about God in the religious sense. Instead, she's talking about what she calls the source. "We each have this longing—we've had moments of awe and wonder in our lives. A lot of us don't call that God, but we know that something is possible for every one of us besides our daily lives, the daily grind. The way we get caught with errands and emails and taking care of other people. We feel that this possibility exists," Geneen says. "I'm talking about wonder and mystery and possibility ... or the feeling you have in nature. The feeling that everything is possible."

Oprah says that in reading Women, Food, and God, she has learned that a woman's relationship with food is directly related to how close she is to the source. "That's really what this book is about," she says. "The issue isn't really the food. It is about your disconnection from that which is real which we call God."

In Women, Food, and God, Geneen delves into why women turn to food even when they aren't hungry. "Obsession gives you something to do besides have your heart shattered by heart-shattering events," she writes.

The emotional struggle that accompanies overeating is familiar, Geneen says, whereas the "heart-shattering events" are often new and raw. "People are afraid that the pain will destroy them. Or the heartbreak, or the discomfort even. ... We don't actually know that we can feel those feelings without being destroyed by them," she says. "Getting up and living day-to-day and going through the stuff of day-to-day, that's difficult. But somehow we believe that food is cushioning it."

Oprah says even she turns to food when life gets hard. "There's still anxiety when I have to say no to someone," she says. "I still worry, 'What are they going to think' ... [That happened to me recently and] I did not eat a pound of potato chips. I ate a pound of lettuce. But it's the same thing. I've switched the drug from potato chips to lettuce."

In that moment, Oprah says she started questioning her actions. After saying no and standing up for herself, why was she so anxiety-ridden that she had to eat a bowl of lettuce? "I went back to what you had said in the book,” she says. “What I'm really feeling is every time I have ever been beaten by my grandmother. ... What I recognize as I'm stuffing myself with the lettuce is I still have that feeling of if I don't do what pleased the other person, then somehow that person has the power to annihilate me."

Conquering issues with weight starts with learning to love yourself, Geneen says. "People say, 'I hate myself and I hate my thighs and how do I start looking at myself and loving myself?' And sometimes I'll say: 'How would you treat a child who needed your love? Would you just whack them around and just say: 'Wrong! Bad. Look at your thighs, look at your legs'? No. Kindness. Only kindness makes sense. Only kindness ever makes sense."

One common problem women have with weight is the feeling that once they hit a certain number, their entire life will improve. Alexandria says this was her struggle before Geneen helped her conquer her food issues for good. "I lost that notion of dieting and counting calories to really questioning and looking at my believes about my life," she says. "I trust that the hunger that I have, that I can feel my feelings and be with them separately and I can nourish my body with what it wants and trust it."

Today, Alexandria says it feels as if someone turned up the volume on her life. "This work really helped me kind of click some of the pieces of the puzzle into place, and it was about a year ago when I first started doing this work with Geneen—that's when it really accelerated using this as a doorway into my deeper self," she says. “I know I don't have to be finished with this work. I'm not a project to be constantly fixed and worked on. I'm whole right now as I am and everything we have, we need, is right in front of us at this moment. “

To jump-start the change in your life, Geneen says there are seven principles that should guide you. However, Geneen warns against turning these into a diet. "I call them eating guidelines, but I also call them the 'if love speaks' instructions. Because people make them into rules right away, then they have to rebel against them and break them," she says. "So don't make them into a diet."

Over the years, Oprah has been very open about her struggles with weight. But after all these years, she says she's finally found the answer.

Ladies, i don't think there is much i can add to this. Wether you are obsessing over food, smoking...etc you can apply this article to any of the above.

YOU can be the best YOU right NOW!

Girl Talk

Just Imagine and Blake-Miller Counselling & Consulting Present

“Girl Talk”

“Girl Talk” is a forum for women to discuss some of the important issues of life. “Girl Talk” will provide an opportunity to learn something new surrounding the area of discussion for the night. It will also allow women to share some of the resources they might have picked up along the way related to the ‘topic’ for the evening.

The Next ‘Girl Talk’ is scheduled for Friday October 22, 2010 @ 7:00pm
Cost: $5
Location: The Sandman Signature Hotel 55 Reading Road, Toronto, ON

The discussion for the 22nd of October: "The Men Speak"
We have a panel of men, from all walks of life who will be answering questions on love and relationships.

Check out the attached flyer for more details or log onto www.colleenblakemiller.com

Straight? or Wild?

Which do you prefer? What is in? What is out?
(Ok, you can get your mind out of the gutter now lol)

Hair! Curly, straight, short, long, to the left, right?? Which one?
Well it is not about what is in or not or what everyone else is doing. Is it what fits you best.

Many trend-setters today are going for classic hairstyles straight out of the 60's, 70's and 80's. You see shorter bobs and cuts now more then ever!

If you have long hair I'm sure you ask yourself almost every morning "Should i wear it up or down...curly or straight?"
The options are truly endless and in this day and age, pretty much any hairstyle or cut you want can be YOURS!

Of course first impressions count. For me, they are most important for things like; job interviews, business meetings, business events or meeting the in-laws. For many years i was married to my "flat-iron" Actually i would say at least 10 years or more. For the longest time until my 30's i was convinced men preferred women with straight hair (hey i was young lol)
But, i always had the option of changing my visual impression when meeting someone new, si it did not matter much to me what anyone thought.

I had the opportunity the past couple days to do a small survey out of curiosity to question a few men. Co-workers, family members, brothers and friends.
I asked, " Do you prefer women with curly hair or straight?"

The men that answered "curly" were almost all from an ethnic background. Spanish, Portuguese, Indian, black, Mediterranean....love curls! While the Caucasian men said "straight" Well more then half did.

Now, for all the women i surveyed, their answer was "curly" I was shocked! The only women who answered "straight" were women who like myself, had naturally curly hair.
When i asked what their impressions were on both, they answered;

Curly = "Fun, sexy, wild, young, playful...."

Straight = "Sophisticated, classy, older...."

I kind of get the feeling women want to be seen as "fun and younger" Hmmmm

Now, i sure did not straighten my hair daily years ago to seem more "sophisticated" LOL! It just felt "prettier and longer"
Today, i have it cut very short and totally LOVE my "locks" I have come to adore and appreciate my natural clolr and hair.

Although both curly and straight are FAB, truly it is about YOU wearing the hair NOT the hair wearing you!

I do admit however; for some strange reason when I'm getting ready for a business meeting i straighten my hair. But that is now only once in a blue moon. I still do not know exactly why, but i do.

Curls are beautiful and women would kill to have naturally curly hair. So ladies, love and appreciate your curls. Care for them.
I would like to introduce you to the best products in the entire universe:
MOROCCAN PRODUCTS!!!!!!
Ohhh my goodness...they are .....hhhmmm if i could eat it, i would!
I have not used moose or any form of hairspray/gel in a few years and my hair is healthier then it was when i was a teenager!

If you have curls, get to a salon that sells these products ASAP!
Wait don't get me wrong, this product is equally as amazing for women with straight hair!

So ladies, straight, wild...i LOVE it all! Women are beautiful in all forms, shapes, colors.

Luv ya!