Meet RevLa's Big Sister

Its hard being the Big Sister of RevLa

I can't say for sure but I do believe its hard being the oldest sibling in the family. Since I'm second oldest I know how to be a big sister but I still have a sister ahead of me and when I want to I can just defer to her. So what better way to begin 2013 and to continue to honor the black woman then to honor my big sister. Looking back over our childhood I can see just how I could have been a pain to her. I can even see how she had to justify this weird little sister who was always strange and didn't fit in. Now we know it was the anointing of God on my head for the work that I've been called to do, but then it was just downright weird.

Nevertheless my big sister put up with me and loved and protected me even to this day (cause lets face it I'm still marching to the beat of a different drum...ha,ha,ha). So I would love to introduce to you the honored black woman to open out our new year my sister LaVerne Gooding-Jones. Why should she be honored you wondered? Did she invent the cure for cancer? Or did she solve the recession? Was she voted as the first female president? Really what makes this woman so special that she should be honored in my blog?

Let me answer that with just one statement....she's my big sister and she loves me!!! Simple but true. I could go on about all of her many accomplishments. I could tell you what a faith warrior she is and how active she is in her church. I could tell you how people love everything about her. I could tell you how she takes care of our 102 year Grandmother. How she is such a loving and devoted wife, mother, grandmother, great grandmother and a advocate for her extended family. I could tell you about her acting abilities, her lovely singing voice, her poetry, and how she makes the worlds best potato salad. I could go on and on about how smart she is and never had to study a day in her life and still made all "A"s.

However if I did that I would be bragging so I'm just going to say this. I honor her because she is my big sister and even when she is mad at me and want to choke the life out of me and bring me back with CPR she has always loved me and would fight any demon in hell who attempted to bother me. Just that simple. So on this first month in 2013 I crown my big sister with the honor of being one of the most outstanding Black American Women that I have been blessed to know.

Sis I know its hard to be the big sister of Radical RevLa yet you never gave up on me no matter what I attempted to do and in your own way supported my every effort. So I will end this tribute with something that you use to do for me every night I asked you to when I was a child. You would sing my song....I now sing it to you

(In my best Elvis Presley voice)
Wise men say only fools rush in but I can't help falling in love with you!!!
You are so beautiful to me dear sister!!!
And even though you gotta love me...you did it because you wanted to not because God told you that you had to.

I LOVE YOU
 DEAR WOMAN OF GOD
 AND
 MY BIG SISTER!!!
 

102 Years of Wisdom

My Wise Grandmother and myself at her
100th year old birthday party

I had another great black woman that I wanted to talk about this month but then it darned on me that she could start out next years tribute. You see I've been given the revelation that black women should be honored continually and not just featured for only one year. Therefore expect to see us honoring wonderful black ladies both well known and many that no one have ever heard of. So to end this first year of honor I would like to feature my great and wise grandmother Ms. Alma Matthews.
Why feature her you must be thinking to yourself? What has she done? Great questions and I would like to start right there. First of all this year 2012 my dear grandmother celebrated her 102nd birthday. She is still very healthy and does most things on her own. She has always taken good care of her spiritual, mental/emotional, and physical health. She taught senior citizen exercise for many years. She cooked her own food and would not eat out very often. She drank water and while she did have her coffee but not more than a cup or two. She made sure that she laughed often and had her pleasures that brought her joy. For her it is working large picture  puzzles. 
She would not allow herself to be caught up in gossip, a lot of "he say she say" foolishness. She raised her children well as a single mother and her grandchildren as well. She cooked, cleaned and taught them how to be good citizens and work hard for what they wanted and needed. Last but not least she is and has always been a child of God. She has held a weekly bible study for over 62 years. She was active in her church and still continues to be even at this age. She taught all of us how to have a personal relationship with Christ long before we got caught up in any church. She often told us that if we know the Lord for ourselves then no one can put anything over on us. We can walk into any church and learn and fellowship and be able to know what is true and what is not.

We would learn how to discern the Holy Spirit for ourselves and know not to play with God. We learned how to respect God and others. My grandmother has not only talked the talked but for 102 years she had walked the walk thus becoming an example of what we need to learn as we travel here on earth. She has done her job given to her by God and still continues to do what's needed. As a black woman she has always carried herself with grace. She made  sure that she looked nice and would not allow anyone to speak in a negative way about her or her family. She taught us that it was up to us as black ladies to never allow a man to disrespect us or call us out of our name. That men were like buses there was always another that would come and until God brought you to your true mate then you never allowed yourself to get caught up in a situation that was not positive or edifying.

We love her dearly and so honored that God place us in her family. We have all attempted to live our lives in a way that will make sure that we lived to her outstanding standards. She was third generation from the freed slaves. Her great grandparents were the last of the slaves and became indentured servants. She is wise beyond her 102 years and has imprinted on every one of her family. Being that she is now the matriarch of a family of over 100 with more on the way.

So it is just befitting to give praise and honor to the most outstanding black woman that I know
Thanks Grannie as I call her and you have got to know that she has to be a great lady to deal with me
Dear sweet Radical RevLa
OK the sweet part was a bit of a stretch....ha,ha,ha
Gotta to love me....really you do!!!

I honor you Grandma with Black Woman of the Year 2012
Ms. Alma Matthews

Grannie gave a speech at her 100th birthday party she opened with "I've lived so long that now my grandchildren are senior citizens"....and you wondered where I got it from???

 

Radical RevLa: I Get It!

Sometimes to make it work you have to do it yourself


Anyone that knows me would say that I'm not a big Oprah Winfrey fan.  I do admire her and her accomplishments. I do feel that as we celebrate the year of the black woman that she is a great example of that woman who has dared to defy the odds. I'm just not a talk show type of person and so therefore I was not a big fan. So when she decided to end her long running very successful talk show to pursue her own network this I found fascinating.

Being the radical woman that I am I have always been my own person and marched to the beat of a different drummer. This was the part of Ms. Winfrey that I did admire. She has been a trail blazer. Many females no matter what race or color they are could look to Ms. Winfrey and design their life as she did to achieve their desired goals. As a minister I know that it takes the Love and Faith in God to get to where we need to be in life. We also need to see others achieve it as well knowing that if God could do this for them He would do it for us as well.

So really RevLa why are you writing about somebody who always have something written about her? You stated that you were not a big fan. Great questions that I will answer. You see Ms. Winfrey has been successful in everything that she set her mind to do. She had been so successful that it looked very easy. While I do understand that it took hard work to us it just looked like she had the goose who laid all of the golden eggs. Now she is tackling yet another big project.

Everybody knew that this next project would fall in line just like all of the rest. Just think about it. While I'm not sure that she is the first but I do know that she is one of the few black women that owns her own TV network, this is major. She has now really stepped into the ring with the big boys. She is the powerhouse behind an entire network. Once she launched this project she made sure that she had all of the pieces in place. She made sure that her true friends had been blessed with their shows. She lined up the movies etc. Now I will not be able to say that I have watched her network but some of my children have and liked it.

However the news that's out about the early days of the network showed that it was not the instant success that we all thought it would be. For the first time Ms. Winfrey appeared to be struggling. Her friends didn't appear to be behind her. Her goose was now just laying regular eggs. People were buzzing that her network was a flop. But still I haven't stated why I'm writing about her. This is it in a nutshell. What I've seen is that while it may appear that something that should be so easy is struggling. That your friends should be able to help you take your dream to another level. When people are talking about you in the negative or secretly laughing at you. Then you just go back to doing what you do best.

Ms. Winfrey put on her high heels and started working her network doing what earned her the queen of daytime. She just started doing it herself. She threw herself into it and started getting her interviews and just did the work herself. Where her network is in the stats I do not know but I do know that the network now has a fighting chance. Where do I fit in all of this? I was called by God to start the Christian Social network "FEELING GOD". After the success of 2r1n Christ Marriage and Relationship Ministry in two short years was thriving I thought that the social network would be a no brainer.

However this proved to be the hardest thing that I've ever done. We have struggled so hard to keep this network going. While some of my friends and family have made every excuse under the sun why they cannot support this effort it has continued to grow very slowly. I thought this ministry was going to take off and have a life of its own. I thought that by now we would have over a 1000 members. I thought that the pages of the network would be visited by tens of thousands of people and to my dismay none of these stats have been achieved. So in my despair I was asking God if this was worth the effort? Should I count my losses and just let it go? Did it help anyone?

He brought me to the "OWN" network and let me see how she was doing it herself if need be. He showed me that once given an assignment that we have to do it no manner how hard it turns out to be. That even if we are the only one contributing to it, or the only one reading it that it must be done. He assigned the project to me to do for a reason. By seeing this great black woman take her time, ignore what was said and to turn her network around inspired me to "JUST DO IT".
SO DEAR MS. WINFREY I GET IT!


So I thank you Ms. Winfrey for your example and I will pray for the success of your network. I pray that you will have stats that out shine any other network around. We also honor you as the wonderful black woman that has helped us become the women that we are today.
As for me I see that the key to doing anything is to remember to seek Christ for our directions and to do the work ourselves as we guide others to come and become a part of it.

I'm finding that I am enjoying honoring the black woman this year. While I thought it would just be a simple direct mission it has proven a lot more complex and wonderful.

Radical RevLa: They Did Us Proud

A True Winner And A Breathtaking Beauty

Truly Stunning and Gracious A Winner In Our Hearts

How wonderful to celebrate these ladies I'm about to present as we place focus on the Black Woman this year. Who could not be proud of Viola Davis and Octavia Spencer for their work in film this Oscar season. While they were both nominated for the aware only one of them won. We congratulate Octavia Spencer for her win but we also congratulate Viola Davis for her gracious hug and happiness for Meryl Streep for winning. Both ladies showed their class during this award season and each time out they looked stunning.

They received an "A+" on the best dressed list for wearing gowns that were perfect for them. Their styles worked on their personal body types and they had the right accessories. Viola did a sister one step better by wearing her natural crown and glory showing that the black woman in her natural look is extremely beautiful. The above picture says it all. The color that she is wearing is rich and blends well with her skin. She looks every bit of the royal queen that she is.

While Octavia won in her catagory and should have. The performace that she did in the movie "The Help" was great and you will never forget that charater. She has looked beautiful on every red carpet during this season. Being her body type and size she showed us just beautiful and curvey a black woman is. That we don't have to hide our bodies. She too was on the best dress list and was breathtaking from head to toe.

This tribute to these ladies is not just about how they looked (but let's face it we do like the fashions..lol) but how they handled the roles that they had in the movie. "The Help" in my opinion should have won. That was a great movie and its the kind of movie you want to see over and over again. Its the type of movie that you should show your children so that black children can see what their grandmother's had to put up with. Its a part of our culture and we should not be ashame of our history. These ladies are great actresses. And personally while I love Meryl Streep who I think is a great actress I really think that Viola Davis should have won the oscar. Not because I'm honoring the black woman but I just feel she played a strong role in a very stong movie. (as I said just my opinion)

What a great way to begin our honor of the women that we are. You see for those who always say we are just the angry, head shaking, hands on one hip, finger pointing, ebonics talking black woman these two great jewels have shown the world that we are far better than that. 

Again its my greatest pleasure to give honor to those ladies that look like me and take pride in what they do for a living and for humanity.
This is the year of the American Black Woman!!!