Spiritual Quote of the Day

“We must mirror God’s love in the midst of a world full of hatred. We are the mirrors of God’s love, so we may show Jesus by our lives”
– Corrie ten Boom

Natasha’s Quote of the Day: Devil’s Advocate 4.23.12

“No longer will I play the ‘devil’s advocate’ in any situation. Why on Earth, in Heaven or even in hell would I want to advocate for the enemy, think or speak like the enemy, or do something that the enemy would want me to do? I am a servant and ambassador for God, period. I serve no other role. I will think and speak no other way. I will do no other thing. I am an advocate for love, peace, joy, happiness, kindness, strength, grace, patience, forgiveness, dignity, truth, and the Light within. All of that negative stuff, the enemy can keep.” – Natasha L. Foreman

Copyright 2012. Natasha L. Foreman. All Rights Reserved.

Natasha’s Thought of the Day: Love of Self and Others

By Natasha L. Foreman, MBA

First you have to know how to identify love and know how to love one’s self, if not you can’t fully or authentically love another person.

Love is not defined by or limited to material possessions, to superficial routines and traditions, or even just saying the words, “I love you.”

Love goes beyond treating someone how you want to be treated. You should treat people the way you would want them to treat the person you love most.

Love is, well heck, love is perfectly defined and described in
1 Corinthians 13:4-13

That IS love. If you aren’t practicing and giving that type of love every single day, then you aren’t experiencing love, you aren’t being loving, and you have your work cut out for you!

Let’s ALL get to work!

Copyright 2012. Natasha L. Foreman. All Rights Reserved.

One Year Later: The Impact of HB 200 on Human Trafficking in Georgia

By Natasha L. Foreman, MBA

It is an honor and privilege to pass on this invitation from Georgia Women for a Change, who request the pleasure of your company for a Reception and Conversation

“One Year Later: The Impact of HB 200 on Human Trafficking in Georgia”

According to their invitation, “A panel of experts from the US Attorney’s Office, the GBI, the Dekalb District Attorney’s Office and programs serving victims will tell us what has changed since the Governor signed this historic legislation.”

Following this panel discussion, Sen. Renee Unterman, Rep. Buzz Brockway and Rep. Edward Lindsey will briefly describe where we go from here.

Join Georgia Women for Change and others who are determined to end human trafficking in Georgia, and worldwide.

Date: Thursday, May 3

Time: 5:30 – 7:30 pm

Location: King & Spalding
1180 Peachtree St., Atlanta 30309

R.S.V.P. rsvp@gwomen.org

Complimentary Valet Parking or self park for $16

Georgia Women for Change thanked King & Spalding and LexisNexis for making this event possible.

I thank all of them for caring enough to bring this issue to light so that others could actively participate in protecting women and children everywhere!

Copyright 2012. Natasha L. Foreman. Some Rights Reserved.

Georgia Women for a Change ~ P.O. Box 55553, Atlanta, GA 30308 ~ 404.875.8184 ~

17th Anniversary of Oklahoma City Bombing

Today is the 17th anniversary for the Oklahoma City Bombing.

Please join me and us in praying for peace around the world.

Thanks Valerie for making sure that we never forget!

Natasha’s Thought of the Day: Another Perspective on Loss

By Natasha L. Foreman, MB

In life we have loss. Some things lost naturally and some taken away. Now let me be clear this article is not addressing loss due to physical death; that is altogether a separate article. I’m referring to things we buy, trade, apply for or discard, and yes, even possibly (ending) relationships.

We try to protect ourselves from loss by natural disaster and even the disaster of theft, but sometimes we find that what we appreciated, valued and loved is now gone.

It hurts but it happens; how we deal with it can alter our life considerably.

Perceived or actual theft can really chap your hide. There will always be someone who wants what you have.

They’re not willing to work to get there own; they would rather take what they didn’t earn.

It’s easier that way.

No different than someone not being satisfied with what they have and are fixated on getting what they perceive to be better; a quickness to discard old for new.

We do it with phones, gadgets, cars, televisions, clothes, jewelry accessories, jobs, and yes even people.

We’re always looking for better and then trying to find something wrong with what we have so we can swap them out. Sound familiar?

Many people have no commitment to be committed, and feel no obligation to always be dignified and respectful. So people take what they want, use what they want, discard what they no longer want, and the only person who cares is the person who has experienced the loss—the person discarded or blindsided by theft.

But understand that no one can truly take what’s rightfully yours. I know it sounds like a load of hogwash, but it’s true.

If it can be taken to never be returned then it wasn’t meant for you to have for the rest (or most) of your life.

If it’s yours then it won’t be moved; or if taken, then it will be recovered.

Think of a stolen car that is recovered versus one that the owner never sees again. You have the opportunity to reclaim what’s yours or position yourself to get something else, possibly even better.

In the case of love and the people we love, if they leave out of desire for ‘better’ through total pursuit of their own, or by the luring of another–if they leave you then they were only yours for the time you had them. A reason or a season, but not a lifetime.

If they felt you weren’t good enough then guess what? They helped you by leaving because now you are free to have something else– something better, with a greater reward. They have freed you to live the life you are expected to lead.

We should never be dismayed for long, worry too much, or question repeatedly the why or how, for life should be seen as an investment in experiences and lessons learned with a return on the investment being wisdom.

This is how I deal with loss. I break it down as I go through my healing process. I look at it even before its happened.

I ask myself, “if this thing/person is with me for less time than I would hope for, am I okay with that, and what can/will I do to cope with and heal from the loss?” I’ve ‘lost’ enough in life to do an emotional risk assessment for potential ‘loss’. I also ask myself, “if this was damaged, lost or stolen next week, how devastated would I be?” If my answers are negative then I need to reconsider making that purchase.

This emotional-attachment assessment helps on many levels.

In life it shouldn’t be about trying to hold on to anything, it’s valuing it while you have it and knowing you are strong enough to thrive even if it’s gone. Most importantly, you have to remember that you can’t take it with you when you pass away.

So maybe you lost your car, jewelry, business, house, or job, and yes, maybe even the person you thought was the love of your life (but they thought differently) —think of all of the possibilities that can come your way.

As one door closes another one is bound to open. Keep the faith. Keep trusting and believing that as Pastor Bryan Crute says, “your best and brightest days are still ahead!”

Copyright 2012. Natasha L. Foreman. All Rights Reserved.

Black Men and Suicide

By Natasha L. Foreman, MBA

I just read a very interesting article that was published last month online by Dr. O about Black men and suicide.

There was an emotional video that accompanied it, showing the dramatized story of one young man who contemplated suicide because he thought life’s pressures were too much, and that the dream path his mother encouraged him to follow (education and career) would be easier to attain, and brightly lit, when his perception of his reality was completely different.

I don’t want to spoil it for you, you have to watch it for yourself and share with others.

This short film clip and Dr. O’s article touches on a poignant fact that mental health professionals attempt to get all of us to learn and understand; that although we may be products of our parents, we are not them.

So no matter if they abandoned us, committed suicide, were/are abusive or addicts, WE don’t have to follow their paths or the decisions they made. But many people, including Black men struggle with this (especially when outside forces are telling them the opposite) and instead fall deeper into their depression.

According to Dr. Sherry Molock, Psychology Professor at Howard University in Washington, D.C. and Director of Clinical Training for the University’s Psychology Department, poverty and unemployment contribute to the increase of suicide among Black men. Dr. Molock was quoted as saying, “Some of the men I work with have no hope for the future; they simply live day by day.”

To add to this point, Dr. O quoted
Reverend Cecil L. Murray, former pastor of First African Methodist Episcopal Church of Los Angeles as saying, “Despair is increasing, and that despair is economic, political, educational, and social.”

Reverend Murray also spoke of the broken home in the Black community and that young adult males are, “left without a hands-on mentor. Also recall that the divorce rate is 50%; the rate of birth out of wedlock approaches 75% in impoverished communities, so the wheel of difficulty keeps spinning more rapidly.”

Dr. O posed six theories that he presented for this dilemma:

1. Learned Helplessness (major theory of depression)

2. Primitive Rage and Abandonment Anger (abandoned by either one or both parents so males give up on life)

3. Financial Stress (no jobs for uneducated Black men; which means you can’t provide for yourself or your family)

4. Unresolved Early Childhood Abuse (unresolved verbal, emotional, physical, and/or sexual abuse endured by males and/or females)

5. Chronic Medical Problems
(no health insurance means no regular check ups, which means a higher probability of disease)

6. Chronic Mental Health Problems (no health insurance means no access to professionals who can evaluate and treat mental health issues including bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, etc.)

Dr. O goes into further detail what these six theories mean exactly, and then goes further into the exploration of suicide prevention, intervention, and five points to ponder about depression and suicide.

To read the article in its entirety and to view the video visit:

http://www.askdro.com/2012/03/black-men-and-suicide-enough-said/

Please share this post with others you know; depression, suicide, abuse, and other issues are considered taboo in the Black community, so many of us refuse to discuss the things that haunt and sometimes kill us.

Copyright 2012. Natasha L. Foreman. Some Rights Reserved.

Natasha’s Quote of the Day: Courage

“Courage is not absence of fear, but rather the judgment that something else is more important than fear.” -Ambrose Redmoon

Reader Comment About Tulsa OK Race-targeted Shootings

Below is a comment I found online and read, that was posted by a concerned citizen who fears a repeat of past events, current-day. Please read what she wrote, then intelligently share your thoughts:

Kimberly S.
April 7, 2012 at 9:45 pm

Readers;
There is a bad feeling in the air! It’s the same feeling I felt a long time ago, when Martin Luther King was shot down, and I had to walk to school where on every corner there was a Soilders clad in their Army fatigues, in a stance with weapons ready to shoot!

There is a feeling in the air, like when President Kennedy was shot, and you saw people walking around like zombies, crying! Yall, Black, White, Africans, Puertoricans, Irish, Muslims, American Indians, who ever; wake up; that nasty feeling is in the air, making us overprotective of our children, especially our male children.

There is a feeling in the air that makes us distrust our government and what they are not saying and/or doing.

We live in fear that we are being played off against one another for a grand purpose and/or bigger picture!

I fear public, large gatherings, for fear of something breaking out like Tulsa; a copycat type of thing!

I fear another Rodney King incident that hurt everyone who witnessed it either in person, on television, or heard play by plays on the radio.

It feels like the morning of 911. I walked among the people, and I saw people crying, people who were in shock & afraid, thinking of only getting home to loved ones, and there again, there was this feeling in the air yall !

What will happen this time? Is this near the end of time that it talks about in ” Revelations”? It says no one knows the hour that all of this will be gone! At the end, ” None of this nonsense will mean anything, except how you lived and how you treated your brothers & sisters all over the world, of every color, faith, and creed!

We all need to wake up! It’s later than we think!!!!!

Copyright 2012. Some rights reserved.

Sean’s Thought: Trayvon Martin Case Part 2

Below is part two of a series that my friend Sean wrote about the issues surrounding Trayvon Martin’s murder, and the events that have taken place since. Please read, reflect, and then share your thoughts:

When one decides to look the other way on what is right and just in the name of justice for a wrong doing they have proven without a doubt that they are no better than those they have protested.

Back to the Trayvon Martin case, my fear of ignorance spreading like wildfire to the sheep that have followed this case in the bias media form of laying crumbs out for ants have been founded. I find it hard to believe that people just shake their head in agreement to the Black Panther Party putting a hit on Zimmerman. I find it shocking that few have called Spike Lee out for posting on Twitter the address he believed was Zimmerman’s because he was “angry”.

When is ok to say no justice no peace? So many people have turned injustice into Justified Ignorance and Hate. Would we stand by and support the KKK putting a bounty on a Black man accused of killing a white kid like being reported about the Black Panthers?

Would we stand and support a media that reports stories for their fantastical nature rather than its accuracy of reporting? Once the word is out it is out it can never be changed and the minds of the ignorant will continue to go unchallenged.

How many of us have sat in our living rooms or our cars and spouted our racist views about cases like this without ever considering the impact on your kids, teens and young adults?

Many adults would swear on a bible that they would never put a loaded gun into their children’s hands because they or someone else might get hurt. When we spread the disease of hate we are loading our children themselves with bullets that can only hurt them and others. Why would we load our kids with some much more dangerous than any gun?

People need to understand that gaining a victory while giving up your moral and ethical ground is not gaining a victory at all. What happens if some young teenager decides that $10k would be great for his family and kills Zimmerman? Would the same people who are screaming so loud wish to have those who set this act in motion punished too or will we turn our eyes and say “he had it coming”?

What happens if then if the KKK puts out a hit on an accused Black, Hispanic or even Asian male for killing a “innocent white person”? Do we turn the other cheek and say “eye for an eye”?

The point of today’s thought is to say demand justice for those who have been done wrong but do not lose your principles, morals and sense of humanity in pursuit of it. The slope we walk as a people (that means all races) is a dangerous one when we start justifying evil to combat evil.

Just A Thought my friends!

Copyright 2012.