Another Damsel in Distress? (Powerful women of the year 2014)

I know that many of us especially young women have been raised on the beautiful and romantic stories from Disney that always begin with a beautiful but tragic female character being imprisoned, treated badly by a vicious step mother or somehow being trapped by her cruel circumstances.

All of these women possess amazing character qualities as well as beauty, so as to make their supposed entrapment seem so unjust and unfair. As she is helpless all she can do is await a prince to come to save her. Her life is suspended as she lives in a tower, or lies in a deep sleep, is mistreated by a mean step mother and she is always unable to rescue herself. 

Cinderella, the sleeping beauty Snow white, Rapunzel with the long hair, the little mermaid Ariel, Jasmine, and Pochohantas all of them can only be saved by one thing, marrying the prince or the male hero in their story and then becoming the princess they were always meant to be. Belle even goes so far as to fall in love with a beast and try to change him with love.

Well I am here to dismiss this untruth for you - these stories are false and have entrapped so many other beautiful and amazing young women of this generation from reaching their full potential, as they suspend their lives trying to stay beautiful and awaiting their prince hero to arrive and rescue them from their circumstances. I want to scream “Wake up sleeping beauty, climb down your own hair Rapunzel, Belle the beast can only treat you badly if you allow him to and Ariel be who you were called to be and stop trying to be someone or something else!”.  

The truth of it all is that Disney created these magical stories from the true origins that are sometimes quite horrific tales of a more realistic nature.  We must teach our daughters that in the real world there is no fairy dust or glass slipper and that we must remove ourselves from people that have evil intentions towards us. There is nothing enlightening about suffering while you wait to be rescued. Not to mention the pressure we have placed on our young men to be a knight in shining armor that is looking for a helpless woman to rescue. Men of today have respect and admiration for strong women that are loving and capable of taking care of themselves.

And yes there are happy endings but they don’t always look like a Disney fairy tale. Sometimes the female character does not get married and instead is the CEO of a large corporation, she does and can live happily ever after if she has encountered her true self and purpose. Or maybe she looks like mother Teresa who lived a life of servant hood and rescued others in rescuing herself. She might be the single mother that is truly a hero for taking the responsibility that was too much for the prince that ran away from it all. What ever her life is she must be responsible for her true happiness and not give the responsibility away to another.

Here are a few links to share the origin and to dispel the myths that we have come to believe via our journey with Disney for the past 8 decades.

http://listverse.com/2013/02/13/10-disney-movies-with-horrific-origins/

http://www.policymic.com/articles/45409/5-shocking-origins-of-disney-classics

http://www.buzzfeed.com/adamellis/super-dark-origins-behind-your-favorite-disney-movies

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/12/the-real-story-behind-eve_n_4239730.html

Charmaine 

The Power of a Seed

Recently there is a message that keeps repeating itself to me. I have been gaining revelation knowledge and understanding about the power of a seed. Within a small seed no matter what seed it is there is everything necessary to create, sustain, reproduce and flourish. Seeds create plants, flowers, trees, animals and human beings. Out of these things many other things are created as well. Houses are built because a seed grew, clothing comes from a seed, food comes from seeds and our next generation is all because of a seed.

Wow! The power of a large oak tree is in one seed. The ultimate goal of the tree or plant is to produce fruit that would reproduce more seeds.  A seed goes through an amazing process. When in the correct environment and conditions the potential in a seed is encouraged to release what has been dormant within. From being buried in the nutrients of the soil, to breaking open and allowing what is within to emerge using two points of growth by pushing downwards to grow roots deep and pushing upwards to break through the surface to reach for the necessary ingredients to sustain life, such as air, water and the sun.  Eventually it will weather different conditions, heat, wind, rain, storms growing against all obstacles to become strong and inevitably to produce blossoms and fruit and more seeds.

In the gospels Jesus speaks of the power of a seed. He speaks of the Sower that scatters the seed in four different types of places. Different soil will produce different results in the process of the potential of a seed. In explaining this parable Jesus says that the seed is the word of the kingdom, the soil is our hearts and each example is a different result of the word in our lives.

1. “Some seed fell by the wayside and the birds came and ate them up”- this word was not understood and the enemy came and snatched it away so it does nothing to the heart.

2. “Some fell on stony ground and because of not enough earth beneath it, the sun scorched them and they had no roots to ground them”- this word was received into the heart with joy, but because this word had no potential to grow roots deep in the heart, it was not grounded and the person stumbles when a bit of difficult circumstances happen.

3. “Some fell upon the thorns and the thorns sprung up and choked them out.”- This person too receives the word, but there are other things like the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches that choke the word and cause the word not to produce.

4. “Others fell on good soil and yielded a crop, each seed reproducing different amounts.”- This person hears, understands, receives and goes through the process to produce fruit , some a hundred fold, some sixty and some thirty.

Please note that in all four places it is the same seed being planted by the same Sower, but each one is reproducing a different result.  The difference here is the condition of the heart.

Many of us are not aware of the other seeds that are being planted in our hearts, seeds of discord and negativity, of unbelief and worry, seeds of self and seeds of resistance. Like sneaky weeds they grow and we think they are good until it is too late. They take over and we have trouble finding room to plant good seeds in the gardens of our hearts.

Today I want to encourage you to break up the fallow ground in your heart and to fertilize it and dig up all weeds or nearby plants that could possibly hinder the growth of the seed that desires to be planted deep in your heart. 

When God comes to sow seed how will you receive it? Will you hear and understand? Will you throw it away or let it be stolen? Will you have the desires of the world to choke out the potential of growth that is in that seed? Or will it grow and flourish and reproduce much fruit?

Remember there is much power and potential in just one seed.

Charmaine Hinds / alona hazaka

The Gentle Whisper

She was a woman with a loud voice, created out of the necessity to be heard. She was placed in front of others and had to speak above their murmurs. Her voice was created to carry for long distances and to resound in the atmosphere long after she had finished talking. From the depths of within her was a silent cry that when released did not come out soft and gentle or tender and compassionate. Instead it roared out of her being with intensity and ferocity. Could it be that if she bellowed louder, then somehow they would hear the message clearer? Yet still their vacant blank stares spoke volumes. She was still not being heard.

As she placed her head in her hands and cried aloud she heard a faint Gentle Whisper. “Be still and Know that I am G-d”.

Instinctively her soul whispered back “yes G-d”.

Then unto her came the recollection of her search and how she had looked for The Answer in the fire and in the rain, in the wind, the storm, through the earthquake and in the ocean so deep. But when she had quieted herself to be still enough He came to her in a still small Gentle Whisper.

So now in quiet and solitude she listened to the whispers of His wisdom.

It floated above her and settled within her somehow penetrating her thoughts of judgement and confusion, resting in the bosom of her beating heart, nestled safely in the womb of her soul, allowing her spirit to mould it with truth. Now she could speak. Yet all that she was really ready to do was hear more from Him.

She prayed the cry and it was released as a whisper “how can I tell them?”

“With gentleness and patience, love and grace, with truth and spirit, mercy and forgiveness, all whispered in their ears that hear.”

“For what I tell you in the dark, speak in the daylight; what I whisper in your ear, proclaim from the rooftops” was His reply.

So all of heaven blessed the moment that He commissioned her to speak for Him, to become His mouth piece here on earth.  She would echo His voice and bellow His passion.  Sometimes with intensity and ferocity, but always with Spirit and with Truth as she introduced others to The One she called the “Gentle Whisper”.

Prayer

I have people that contact me at the most in opportune times, they frantically text me, email or telephone sometimes in a panic asking me to do something for them. Though I am a very busy woman , with many things on the go at all times, I oblige and surrender to what they ask.

They need someone to pray with them.
Wow! what a priveledge that they would choose me to be the one that would pray for them or with them and to be able to come in agreement with the powers of heaven!
I stop whatever very important task that I am engaged in at that moment and I do the unthinkable- I pray for that person. There is no greater thing that one can do for another person when they ask you to pray, than to actually pray. To give up some of your valuable time to bring someone or their concern before the Father in heaven.

Not to promise to pray, but to actually take some of your precious time and care for someone other than yourself now.

And what is even greater is that if you take some time during your praying to hear the voice of God - it may very well shift that person or the situation.Yeah!! to think we can shift things on earth when our prayers go to heaven.
Wow, I love talking, but there is nothing like having a three way conversation with someone else and God!!

I believe that if we spent more time communicating with God that this world would be a better place and the people we encounter would be different people.
There is power in prayer.

Take some time and send up a prayer for someone today- greater than that call someone and pray for them outloud, sacrifice an important part of your day, it will be worth it!