I don’t know what to talk about first? This healing bone broth recipe or my opportunity to meet Charles Stanley! Both are exciting in different ways but I’ll start off with Dr Stanley. Many of you know who he is, and for those that don’t, he has been a preacher for over 60 years and you can find his television show “InTouch” on TV (and radio) each week. If you are scratching your head right now wondering why this could be exciting, let me explain why this meeting meant so much to me.
The short and sweet version is that 20 years ago my life was a mess. And not just in the physical. I had already been dealing with over a decade of chronic illness(es) by this point, but emotionally my life was also in shambles. I had come from a very difficult (some may say abusive) childhood and this left me with many emotional scars.
For me, his sermons were the equivalent of someone throwing me a life preserver if I were drowning. Many nights I would fall asleep with his sermons playing on my phone next to my pillow. His messages enabled me to find peace through the darkness as well as guidance. I had always thought about wanting to meet him, and for years I knew exactly what I’d say if I ever got the opportunity.
My husband Bob and I watch him without fail every Sunday, and every Sunday I would say the same thing. “One day Bob, I want to meet Charles Stanley”! I was simply filled with enormous gratitude for what his words have helped me accomplish in my life. Well, I was able to do just that, and even better I got to hand him the heartfelt letter I wrote him (that is what he’s looking at in his hands).
I had the opportunity to tell him I even dedicated my book to him and through his teaching of the Word, I felt God’s love for me. And as I found out, God’s love can heal our hearts as well as our bodies.
The church staff had known I would be visiting ahead of time so I was able to give that little bit of back story to the woman on the phone. I found out the odds of meeting him were not very good. People come from around the country each week to attend his services. But as it says in Matthew 19:26, “with God all things are possible”.
When we arrived my husband and I were walked to our seats. We were told that if Dr Stanley decided to meet and greet people that day we could stand on the reception line but that most of the time he went back to his office after preaching. I sat quietly in my seat and prayed. Ten minutes after we were seated, the same woman returned and told us to please get up and follow her.
To this day I am not sure if God spoke to her heart on my behalf, but she walked us to Dr Stanley’s office before the sermon where I was able to meet him. I am very grateful to her as well as honored and thankful I got to tell one of the most influential people in my life “thank you”.
“Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart.” (Psalm 37:4)
Now onto some healing bone broth! Bone broth is wonderful for digestive issues including leaky gut (or intestinal permeability) and food allergies, It contains collagen, glutamine, minerals like calcium and magnesium as well as chondroitin sulfate and glucosamine. Both are great for inflammation of the joints. If you don’t have a local health food store that sells it, you can always make it yourself with my recipe below. For more healthy recipes you can visit me at www.eatpraygetwell.com.
Ingredients:
2 lbs. organic chicken or beef bones
•1 bag of carrots diced
•6 ribs of celery chopped
•2 garlic cloves chopped
1 onion chopped
•32 oz.organic/yeast free chicken broth (for extra flavor)
1 1/2 cups water
•2 tsp. salt
•¼ tsp. black pepper
•½ tsp. garlic powder
•¼ tsp. parsley
•¼ tsp. thyme
cilantro (optional)
Instructions:
Place all ingredients in crock pot and simmer for 24 hours. Let cool before refrigerating.
Erin’s book can be found here -A Journey from Chronic Illness, Brokenness & Junk Food Junkie to Wholeness & Wellness. If you suffer from auto immune disease, chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia, candida, food allergies, acid reflux, depression, and more…this book is an eye opener! This is not your grandmother’s cookbook. In Eat Pray Get Well, Erin invites you into her journey from a childhood filled with rejection and emotional abuse to chronic illness into her adult years. She shares how God used both of these debilitating tragedies to reveal His grace, healing, and blessings in unimaginable ways. Eat Pray Get Well is entertaining, inspiring, and most of all will help you gain the tools needed to help heal your body and soul. All recipes are free of gluten, wheat yeast, processed sugars, peanuts, and follow the Kaufmann diet.
To visit Erin go to www.eatpraygetwell.com