The Christmas Spirit

In August I decided to go on a year commitment to not buy what I don't need. I was doing fantastic until November when my birthday came and I got a few presents. Oh boy the joy of getting gifts was just so nice. I felt like I hadn't had something nice in a really long time, however it had only been two months in reality that I probably hadn't bought any new item of clothing or such. I felt like a shark with blood floating around me. The feeling of "I want THAT, I NEED that, I GOTTA HAVE that." was upon me. It hasn't made things better that Christmas is just around the corner and stores are so aggressive in their amazing deals and marketing. "This store is having a great sale",  I would say. "This arm hair extractor with a built in waffle maker is never going to be on sale, EVER again!  The feeling of a bottomless pit has settled quite nicely in my soul. That is exactly what I was trying to alleviate myself from by doing this year challenge of not buying what I don't need. To be content with what I have. Don't get me wrong there is nothing wrong with buying something nice for your self. However, if it comes in between you and God, we have a problem. I have struggled with the feeling of never having enough for a long time. Any time I am not in the word of God (the Bible) or giving myself time to pray and meditate on God I get super squirrelly. I get this anxious feeling and I am never satisfied. No matter how much I think either buying stuff will fulfill me, or eating stuff (this is my other struggle in life!) will fulfill me. All these feelings came to a halt when anxiety came upon me when I didn't have "enough" Christmas decorations up at my house. SERIOUSLY?  What is Christmas about anyway?!

The world we live in is so distracting and sneaky at robbing us from true peace and joy. All of the distractions of this life take away from what Christ really wants us to experience this Christmas season AND ALWAYS. His UNFALING love and his indescribable peace. I don't need decorations to have the Christmas spirit in me because Christmas should be about rejoicing that Christ was born. If I want to have that "Christmas Spirit", or just peace through out the year, all I have to do is spend more time with God. Material things are nice, but not when they make me feel the opposite of what living a life free in Christ feels. The few times in my life that I've really devoted myself to truly seeking God more than anything in this world;have been some of the most inexplicably joyful, peaceful and fulfilling moments of my life. To think that everyone that seeks God and his peace can have it is amazing to me. We can have it every single day of our lives if we wanted it! But we are only human, and that's okay.  He understands how difficult it is for us, and that is comforting. It is so difficult because there are a million distractions in this world. 

Consider this passage. 7 "But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. Philippians" 3:7  

When we finally get a taste of God's peace, our souls can't settle on the garbage that is of this world. I keep running back to Him even if I fail him over and over and over again. He will NEVER fail me. Or YOU if you let Him! 

Stay blessed and stay saucy! And a very Merry Christmas to you! 

-Libier 

Starting New

I never in all my life thought I would really come to know peace. My life has been beautifully traumatic, I've been shaped by the waves and crashes of life. Fair? NOPE. Needed to shape me into who I am today? Probably. 

God doesn't let us experience anything that He isn't 100% sure we can endure in His strength. Even if we're too prideful to ask for His help He is always there waiting, probably stepping in like a defense line backer protecting us from the unimaginable. Things that never came our way because God was protecting us from these horrible boulders coming at us to take us out. Yet we only see what does happen to come our way and our attitude becomes one of complaint and "why me" ( I'm speaking of my experience... It usually takes me a while to have a thankful attitude toward challenging times..) 

Our little minds and little faith think that our lives are going pretty good because of our own doing - "I succeeded in this and that makes me a super amazing human being.. mwaahahaa" we say- We pretend to  have it all together. Until a real catastrophe comes in and tears us a new one and we are left looking upwards wondering where God has been all along. God's wrath is not some fiery hell hole that we have to endure in this life. It is our own choice: not trusting Him and not letting Him into our daily life that becomes His wrath, because apart from God we can do nothing that truly matters. God's wrath is the absence of Him in our life. It's something that WE can prevent by just saying, "I'm trying to trust you LORD." "I want to love you with all my heart." "I don't know how, but I want you to show me." The tricky part is that we need to be ready for all of the undoing that God has to do, to give us the ability to trust and let Him.  We have to die to ourselves and make many changes in our life to truly say that we are all in with God. This is not easy. We have to die to ourselves and to all of our preconceived desires of this life. The more we exercise trusting God and having a thankful attitude for the challenges that come our way, the easier it becomes to trust and to be thankful for some "catastrophe". God can bring a blessing in the darkest times. We just need to hold His hand. 

A part of trusting God and wanting Him to change our hearts has to do with surrendering who we think we are, and who we atta be. Everything that we think we deserve and want is not often what we need. God doesn't mess around. If we're truly coming to Him wanting His help and surrendering to Him we have to make a choice, to die to ourselves and see what He has for us.  Whatever His plan is, it’s probably a thousand times better than what you or I have in mind. Maybe we can't see it yet, but it's there. God promises us good news. He is a kind and gracious God that is faithful and never fails. 

Even with all the events I've had to endure in my life I can say that God has shown me a peace beyond anything I could of ever imagined. I would not trade that for the world. God will break us and put us back together much better than we ever were. I want to trust God with all of my heart. I know that I don't do that at all times. I need help, I need encouragement. But I know that for the 1.3 minutes that I can say I had 100% faith in God He has been faithful to me. And I know He will to you as well. TRUST. 

Stay blessed and stay saucy! 

Just Be Still

I'm looking at the most wonderful view right now and I can't help but feel so small in the midst of all these trees and the mountain range! It is so apparent to me RIGHT this very second that I am NOTHING in this big world and that I am EVERYTHING in this big world. I look at the mountains and beautiful scenery and it makes me think about my life. I realize that life is how I live it. I can get all caught up in the thick of thin things and spin in endless circles worrying about what is "important" in life. The position of a chair, trying to convert someone to like MY baseball team, worrying if I have what it takes to succeed in the world, blah, blah, blah, blah-blah!

Looking at this amazing and endless picture makes me KNOW that God is in charge. God is the big boss of my life and what I think is super "important", God probably doesn't even think about! It's making me want to slow down just a little bit. It's making me want to be free of thoughts and free of judgments, and free of anything that is attached to the world. It makes me want to just sit in God's peace. For I know that when I allow for alone time with God, wonderful things happen.

I eat healthy, exercise, shower daily, all these things to make myself a better person. However, I seldom have time to just sit and be still. This is my challenge for the new year. To just sit and be still and allow God to be the boss.

Stay blessed and stay saucy!!

Stand In Awe!

Today I wanted to just sit outside and look up to the sky and just be. Just sit there and feel how amazing this life is when I allow for silence and peace. I wanted to turn off the i-phone and just concentrate on one thing. But of course, my want was pushed off by "life"-a makeup session I was running late to, a crying baby wanting food and mommy, and the fact that I had to throw the 'diaper genie smelly cargo' away in the big trash can. I put my baby girl in a safe place and ran outside to throw out the trash and in that moment my body just froze, even though I was in a big fat hurry and my mind wanted to just throw out the trash and jet out, I couldn't! I looked up to the heavens and the beautiful picture that God was painting for me in the midst of the amazingly smelling trash bins crossed with that fresh morning air, yumm-O!

 I stood there for what seemed like an hour, (in reality it was only probably about 3 whole minutes). Alas, in that time I felt the warmth of the sun beaming on my face- I smelled the crisp air of the morning- I heard the beautiful sound of the birds singing me a song written specially for me- I looked at one of the most beautiful pictures I have seen in a long time. Fall colors displayed in all their glorious-ness. Yellow, vibrant orange and brown leaves on an amazing tree in my neighbors yard, paired with the blue sky and the clouds. I took thousands of snapshots of this picture in my mind so I would never forget it. I let the world pass me by for three whole minutes and I thought nothing, I said nothing, I did nothing. I have been wanting to enjoy more of what God has created for me and wanted to try to slow my roll a bit so as to enjoy being in silence. I want it but it's very difficult to happen when I get all wrapped up in the "things" that I need to do. I was grateful for that force pulling me to stay and just be in awe. I am looking forward to being able to set aside time to be able to just sit in awe more often.

What I took from this mini-three minute vacation, was that I CAN have that and I'm sure I'd probably be more at peace on a daily basis if I were to allow myself these moments.

Today look around for the beauty of the world. You can find it in the midst of a smelly trash bin, trust me, I know!

Stay blessed and stay saucy ya'll!!!