Recently, while celebrating a “significant” birthday with my family and two close friends, I was asked if I had any words of wisdom at age 60.
Yes, it’s hard to believe I am 60 years old.
And even harder to believe that I am admitting it on a public forum. LOL!
I hadn’t prepared anything, and I don’t think quickly on my feet.
But instantly I responded:
“Trust in the Lord with ALL your heart and do not rely on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make straight your path.” Proverbs 3:5-6
I don’t mean this as a cliché. Truly, these are great words of wisdom.
I know when I get caught in turmoil over a decision (no matter how big or small), I need to turn to God for guidance and direction.
He has been my guide throughout my life.
It’s not that I necessarily hear a clear voice telling me what to do.
Rather, I see how He has guided me by protecting me and watching over me.
As expected, I thought of additional words of wisdom after everyone had left:
- The government and media lie. Do the opposite of what they tell you.
- Mercury is dangerous. Stay away from it.
- Injections contain a lot of toxins. Don’t get any.
- We learn from doing. Don’t be afraid to make mistakes.
- You can’t change others, only yourself.
- “Gratitude gets us through the hard stuff. To reflect on your blessings is to rehearse God’s accomplishments. To rehearse God’s accomplishments is to discover his heart. To discover his heart is to discover not just good gifts but the Good Giver.”
As I reflected more on the verses from Proverbs, I thought more deeply about how I see God’s hand of guidance in my life.
It’s a testimony of His goodness that I want to share publicly.
My hope is that as you read my story, it will cause you to reflect on God’s goodness to you in your life, regardless of how you are viewing your circumstances now.
Just recently, I realized He has brought me full circle back to my desire as a young child to do something about world hunger.
As a child I wanted to help alleviate world hunger. Of course, I couldn’t send my half-eaten hamburger to some starving child in Africa. That wasn’t going to solve the problem.
But that desire stayed in the back of my head until I was finishing my bachelor’s degree in applied mathematics.
Then it came to the forefront. And I started looking for ways to do humanitarian work within a Christian setting.
Long story short, I found a graduate program that provided me with an MBA in Economic Development.
I was in the Third World Track. I studied how to help indigenous people start small businesses.
From there I helped found Esperanza Health Center, a Christian Health Care and Counselling Center in the ghettos of North Philadelphia.[1]
It was a semester internship program that blossomed into a four year stay in Philadelphia.
I loved my time in Philadelphia. It was one of the highlights of my life, mostly because of the relationships that I established.
Yet all the while, I longed to be involved in overseas mission work, helping both economically and spiritually.
In 1992, doors opened for me to go to Mexico, where I had the privilege of serving as a missionary for six and half years through my church’s denomination’s mission agency.[2]
I didn’t use my MBA training in the way that I envisioned, and I returned to the USA in 1999 because of health issues.
But I have no doubt that it was God who had led me there. I treasure my time in Mexico and the friendships I established there.
Even though things didn’t work out as I had envisioned, I can see it was all part of His plan to lead me to where I am now.
After returning to the USA, I soon discovered the Weston A. Price Foundation[3] and began following a Wise Traditions diet.
I learned the value and significance of a traditional diet and its connection with holistic healing to improve peoples’ lives, as mine began to improve.
The more I learned about how what we eat and how we eat affects our bodies and health, the more passionate I became about sharing this knowledge.
My road to good health has been anything but an upward trajectory. I had a major setback due to mercury poisoning. [I won’t elaborate on what happened in this article. However, I have included a link below if you want to read my mercury story. [4]]
I am forever grateful for these health issues and “setbacks.” They have woken me up to the fact we’ve been lied to about many aspects of food and health as stated in the first bullet point above.
For example, saturated animal fats are not bad for us. They’re gifts from God. We’d best not despise them.
The more I learn, the more passionate I am about educating people.
In 2018, I was well enough to get further education that would better equip me to pursue my passion for sharing the truth about REAL food.
The food that God gave us, that doesn’t come from a factory, that has not been highly processed and adulterated.
Now, through my blogs, classes, and one-on-one work with people, I am doing something about “world hunger.”
Here in the USA, we live in one of the richest countries in the world. But we’re starving.
We may not be starving for calories, but we’re starving for nutrients.
But if we only ate REAL food, we would be A LOT happier and A LOT healthier.
It brings me joy to help people see the value of eating REAL food and guide them in transitioning to a REAL food diet.
As I said, I hope this testimony has spurred you to reflect on God’s goodness to you, regardless of how you are viewing your circumstances now.
And I hope it’s encouraged you to consider eating more REAL food.
Peace and grace,
Karen
[1] https://esperanzahealth.com/
[3] https://www.westonaprice.org/#gsc.tab=0
[4] Here is a link to an article that contains my mercury testimonial: https://www.westonaprice.org/health-topics/environmental-toxins/using-the-andy-cutler-protocol-to-address-mercury-poisoning/#gsc.tab=0