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The EFFECTIVE Woman
brings out the best in you as a woman.
You are welcome to the Effective Woman's forum.

The Effective Woman forum is a support group for all Women at all levels i.e singles, engaged, or married. The aim is to help bring out the best in every woman at all level and class. Every woman possesses an inherent virtue that must be tapped into. The virtuous woman as described in proverb 31:10 says it all.So it is very important as a woman to be effective in all ramification of life.
The Effective Woman's forum also provides avenues where we all can learn, teach, contribute and open door for one and one counseling on matters arising such as, Time management,Marriage, Family, Raising Godly children, Relationships, Career, Business, Fashion,Health and other aspects as the need arises.
As a member of this group, no one should ever feel alone and together we will all emerge as strong women that we are.
Please feel free to invite families, friends, colleagues and well wishers into this great and wonderful group.
You are welcome as we celebrate the world of a woman together.
Thank you all.

Friday, 10 March 2017

HEALTHY DIET

Healthy Diet

A healthy diet is not a short-term strategy for weight loss. It is a long-term commitment to biblical and commonsense principles of healthy eating.

Diets don’t work for most people! If you are looking for a quick fix for losing weight, this article is not the one for you. Why not? “Diets”—as understood by the customary definition of restricting yourself to small amounts or special kinds of food or supplements in order to lose weight—most often result in gaining more weight.
An AP article on dieting sums up the reasons diets fail as follows:
  • “Diets can be boring and there’s always a temptation to return to old habits.
  • “Serial dieters may also become discouraged and give up when their weight plateaus.
  • “People who lose too much too soon don’t learn to make the overall lifestyle changes—eating healthier foods and exercising regularly—that are necessary to keep their weight stable” (“Dieting Usually Fails in the Long Run, Study Finds”).
There is, however, a “diet” that can be very healthy and that brings lasting results if you also engage, no matter your age, in a balanced program of moderate exercise and strength conditioning. That healthy diet is defined as the wholesome foods that a person habitually eats.
It’s a diet that lasts all your life, doesn’t make you hungry, gives you abundant energy and burns fat. But it’s a healthy diet that must become your way of life, not an exception between junk food binges and not a fantasy expectation of supreme health by taking a magic elixir.
There are thousands of conflicting web pages about health, fitness and dieting. There is, however, one book that speaks authoritatively about key principles that ensure health for all people, whether rich or poor, on all continents.

Obedience to God’s laws

God cares about our health. The Bible tells us we can come to God to be healed from diseases if we obey God’s commandments and statutes (Exodus 15:26Deuteronomy 7:15James 5:14-15).
If we follow His specific instructions about a healthy diet and apply the principles of His laws to our present environment, we will experience better health than those who do not. And as you will read below, one biblical key in establishing a healthy diet is to avoid eating “food” that is designated as “unclean” in the Bible. Although described by God as a matter of holiness (Leviticus 11:44), the avoidance of eating animals designated “unclean” (Leviticus 11; Deuteronomy 14) has also been shown to have health benefits.

Avoid eating impure things

We are what we eat! No one reading this article would knowingly eat poisonous mushrooms. They actually aren’t “food.”
An ornithologist would advise you to not eat the meat of a red-tailed hawk because it’s also poisonous. Most of us are also educated enough to not include roadkill or animals discovered dead from an unknown cause as part of our diet. The fact is that everyone recognizes there are animals and plants that, if eaten, can cause sudden death or a disease leading to death.
God categorizes many of the above items as “unclean.” Most would gag at the thought of drinking blood, which is also something God commands us not to do.
Our Creator, who designed our gastrointestinal tract and bio-assimilation system, fully understood which animals and plants could be safely ingested as nutrients to be transformed to supply life-giving energy.
But His creation also included things that could never be considered part of a healthy diet. That which God labels as good food is “sanctified”—identified and set apart in the Bible (1 Timothy 4:4-5); that which is impure or toxic to our health is also designated in the Bible (Leviticus 11). From the beginning God instructed mankind to choose from “every moving thing that lives” in the same way we choose from “green herbs.” Just as there are toxic plants, there are also toxic creatures (Genesis 9:3-4).
Even before the Flood, God made it clear there were clean animals and unclean animals (Genesis 7:2). And nothing had changed over 17 centuries after the Flood when we find Daniel, one of the three most righteous men mentioned in the Bible, refusing to eat the polluted food from the king’s table (Daniel 1:5-8).

ROLE OF WOMEN


Role of Women

What makes a successful wife and mother? Where can you find a job description and practical principles for making the most of these challenging roles?

Human history gives a very confusing picture of the proper role of women in the family and in society. In some cases she is the dominant figure, while in many cultures and throughout much of history she has been viewed as second-class at best, and little more than property or chattel at the other extreme.
What did God really intend when He created Eve?

In the beginning …

The Bible gives many examples of women, including those who were righteous and those who were wicked, those who were strong and those who were weak. Through these examples, we can glean lessons about God’s intended role for the women He so lovingly created.
If we go back to the beginning, in Genesis 2:18, we see Eve was created after Adam as a “help meet for” (King James Version) or “helper comparable to” Adam. What does this mean? Was she just an afterthought?
After creating Adam, God gave him the task of naming all of the animals. It seems clear from verse 20 that this was to show Adam that none of them were “comparable” or suitable for him. To show Adam how special the woman was, God created her from a part of Adam himself—his rib, thus indicating that husband and wife truly are one flesh in God’s sight.
Then we read, “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh” (Genesis 2:24). Together they were complete and whole.

A “help meet”

The expressions “help meet” or “helper comparable,” found in the King James Version and the New King James Version respectively, are sometimes viewed negatively. But God did not intend woman to be a weak or inferior person. The Hebrew word translated “help” or “helper” is used 21 times in the Old Testament, and most of those are in the context of the help that would come from God Himself. God’s help would not be weak or inferior!
The role God created for Eve was that of strengthening the family. Adam was not complete by himself, and Eve was given the ability to help him build that completeness. The woman’s role is not lesser or inferior, but it is different from the man’s. And God does not leave her without additional instruction in Scripture on her proper role.

Understanding submission

For many today the word submit is a highly offensive term. Some go so far as wanting to take it entirely out of their wedding vows, in spite of God’s instructions. Through the apostle Paul, God tells wives to “submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord” (Ephesians 5:22). What does that mean?
Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary defines submit as “to yield to governance or authority … to yield oneself to the authority or will of another … to defer to or consent to abide by the opinion or authority of another.” Submission is yielding, consenting to the authority of another, in this case to her husband. Submission as God intended is something that must be given, not something that should be demanded or enforced. Within marriage, it is an act of love and respect!
God clearly gave the man the role of leader in the family (Ephesians 5:231 Corinthians 11:3). It is important to note that husbands are charged with submitting to the authority of Christ. (God gives the husband further instructions for his role in the family, which we will discuss in an article on the man’s role.)
A wife is not to submit to her husband’s abusive or ungodly behavior, and a husband must not demand submission from his wife to yield to any of his abusive or ungodly behavior. But when both roles of submission are being righteously lived, it is far more likely that there will be peace and harmony in the marriage.

An example to follow

The Proverbs 31 woman has often been held up as the premier example of a woman, wife and mother. What can we learn from this section of Scripture about the woman’s role?
In verses 11 and 12 we read that she has her husband’s complete trust, because he knows she will not do anything that would damage their family. This kind of trust and understanding would not happen without an open line of communication between them. In her submission to her husband she works together with him to fulfill their family goals.
So we see she is trustworthy.
The phrase “her husband is known in the gates, when he sits among the elders of the land” in verse 23 means her husband is a respected member of the community. This is instructive because it would be less likely if she were to bring shame on him by her words or actions.
She is honorable.
The praise from her husband (verse 28) reveals the strength of their relationship and his appreciation for her work. She is genuine and has a heart of service. She is a keeper or protector of their household—their family (verse 27).
Her love and care for her children is also evident. She looks out for their needs (verses 15 and 21) and makes sure they have good food and appropriate clothing. The fact that her children praise her (verse 28) shows they have been taught respect for and appreciation of the efforts of others.
She is a loving mother.
This strong woman has an impact well beyond just her own family. She is fair to those who work for her (verse 15), helps those less fortunate (verse 20) and is always wise with her words, never falling into gossip or foolishness (verse 26).
She is a godly woman.
This woman also has a good head for business. We read that she buys a field, makes a profit and then invests in a vineyard (verse 16). She even has her own business (verse 24) and is competent with all the aspects of manufacturing and marketing. She is diligent and industrious, and we can see why her husband trusts her so much!
She is wise and resourceful.
What we find is a picture of a strong, confident and godly woman. She recognizes her talents and uses them well. While she is involved in many activities both inside and outside the home, the center of it all—the hub around which everything revolves—is her family.

New Testament application

We see some of these same characteristics in Paul’s instructions to women in Titus 2. He encourages the older women to “admonish the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, to be discreet, chaste, homemakers, good, obedient to their own husbands” (verses 4-5).
What about the concept of being a “homemaker”? Does the instruction for a woman to be a “homemaker” mean that she is never to work outside the home or participate in other activities outside the home? Is the Proverbs 31 woman in conflict with Paul’s instructions to Titus?
The Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Commentary says that the Greek in Titus is more clearly understood as “guardians of the house.” To be a guardian is an important job. It means to be entrusted with the safety and protection of something or someone else.
That “something” is her family! Whatever activities a woman participates in—working outside the home or volunteering or pursuing hobbies—the primary focus of it all should be the protection, strengthening and building up of her family.