Stepping Out In Faith....SAY YES!

I had a busy week, last week & there was a moment....after I got off the phone, with a client...that I just sat back & APPRECIATED where I was. I thought...on what life could be like if I would not have said YES to God...when he was calling me to something MORE. My week has involved discussions for five fundraising galas, four different liquidation auctions, and 5 different real estate transactions. Sometimes those discussions weren't the most exciting, but I had to sit back a minute... This could have been a TOTALLY different story than what I'm typing.

I am THANKFUL. Thankful for the opportunities...YES! Even more THANKFUL though....for the peace of mind I have now....for the flexible time schedule to have MORE time with my family...for the new friendships I've made, that I would have TOTALLY missed out on....for this REAL spiritual development that God is doing in me...there is SO MUCH to be thankful for.

I'm really GRATEFUL that The Holy Spirit kept nudging me & nudged me in just the right ways to get my attention....even when those nudges were NOT so fun... I mean REALLY... Sometimes I would kind of like it if there would just be directional signs. BUT God needs to develop our character in Christ...for what is yet to come.

Turning the focus to YOU (yes, YOU, who is reading this)... If you have reached a point where you KNOW you are supposed to SAY YES to God....just go on & do it!

You will have no clue what it looks like.
It is totally different than anything you are capable of imagining right now.
You will survive on the other side of it.
He has equipped you for exactly where He is taking you.
It won't be easy. In fact...sometimes, it will be down right scary.
Sometimes, you will want to change your mind.
Sometimes, you will want to pull a blanket over your head & not speak to anyone....for DAYS.
You will cry.
You will laugh.
You will overthink & over-analyze.
You will make bad decisions on accident.
You will make bad decisions....that seem like the right ones.
You will trust people more than you should.
Then...you will not trust people enough.
You will have everyone and their momma....& sometimes their daddy...tell you how to do things.
People will criticize you.
People won't get you.
You could drift away from friends.
You could lose friends.
You will gain friends.
God WILL put the people in your path that are needed to carry out HIS missions.
You will LEARN things about yourself....that you just flat didn't know.
You will LEARN things about things that you didn't even know existed.
You will LEARN things about EVERYTHING!
You will do & accomplish & experience things you NEVER thought were even a possibility.
You will GO ON THE JOURNEY OF A LIFETIME...YOUR journey!
It will get complicated....BUT...if you REMEMBER TO PAUSE & PRAY....the clutter will just peel away.
You will prosper.
You will shine.
You will touch lives.
You will change lives.
You will transform into who God is calling you to be.
You will begin to break the boundaries you have up that keep you small....and it will be A LOT of FuN!

For me...the MOST REWARDING part of ALL of this, is that: I am slooooooowly LEARNING how to ACCEPT God's grace over my life, and that JESUS carried EVERYTHING that is holding me back RIGHT NOW...to the cross. He has SAVED ME from it! What I toil & worry about is on me...because it is not of God.  I INVITE The Holy Spirit to MOVE & WORK in my life & ask that He nudge those who interact & work with me, in ANY capacity.

I'm in the mood for GRATITUDE :).... To end this post, in this moment....I think I am the MOST thankful that I can look at my children...& tell them to pray, and when they pray LISTEN...to whatever their inner self is telling them, BUCK UP (no matter how long it takes) & step out in FAITH, & SAY YES to what every instinct in you is telling you to do (not your logical thinking head ;)). Those instincts are gifts & no matter what...THANK GOD. Give it ALL to Him. Praise Him in the rain & praise Him in the sunshine.

Buck Up Baby & Ride With Jesus! It'll be the ride of a lifetime!

Operation Get Healthy: Slow Progress

So....it's been a couple weeks since I finished my 24-day challenge with Advocare. Here is what I want to share.....

The stricter diet was TOTALLY do-able, but hard. I mean....FOOD is SO ingrained in EVERYTHING....our decisions, our comfort, our schedule, our ability, our knowledge, & for some (not me :)) what we take pride in. So....RIGHT before I started this 24-day challenge....I took a looooooooong, hard look at my diet, the food we bought, & what I was feeding my family & KNEW that I needed to make some adjustments.

I remember buying The Daniel Plan & Journal & although I REALLY wanted to make it work & for my will power to stay strong......I just didn't have enough FAITH in myself that I would stick with it, unless I was held accountable..... Like.... REALLY accountable. By, paying for the challenge, taking the BEFORE pictures & knowing I wanted my AFTER picture to look better than the first & REALLY giving the program a chance....NO EXCUSES! One of my best friends believed in this, had been asking for me to try it for some time & was WILLING to take my phone calls, text messages, & honest opinions about EVERYTHING from diet plans, to my doubts, to my struggles, to: "What the heck is in this stuff?" IF I was going to do it....I was going to REALLY do it....NO cheating.

I finished the challenge. Was really happy with my results & although....quite exhausted (mentally) from the whole experience....was pretty proud that I did it. For the last two weeks (after I completed the challenge)...I fell off the wagon....GLADLY to be quite honest. I MISSED my coffee, my occasional fried calamari or cheese sticks, my friend Little Debbie.... I think I'm painting the picture... I mean... I was more conscious & felt a little more guilt, because I KNOW that it's really not good for me, but I just wanted to eat 6 miniature Milky Ways SO BAD!

So....although I ate MUCH better than how I normally would....I ate quite a bit of things I had cut out the previous 24 days. It took about a week and a half for me to physically feel the difference. Luckily Ashley (my coach) & my husband did a really good job of reminding me about my results....about the simple fact that I COULD do it & that the BIGGEST thing I changed was my diet....which ULTIMATELY for me was my PRIMARY reason for doing all this in the first place. I had become quite AWARE of how, what we put in our bodies - directly affects our long-term health, our mental focus, our ability to have a better quality of life & keep us around as long as the Good Lord needs us to be. I'm in a line of work that PHYSICALLY needs me PRESENT....like....I can't "work from home." I have to be front & center & ON. IF I want to be SUCCESSFUL, which I do...I have to take care of the KEY tools that allow me to help SUPPORT my family & that is my voice, my mind, & my body. The BEST way to teach your children is by example, Kyle & I have to get US right & our children will follow suit.

I tell you all this, because I want everyone to know that you have to WANT to make a change. The program can only help you as much as you help yourself & that not everyone will BE READY at the same time. In fact I was ready at the beginning of January....for the past two weeks I WAS NOT ready & not REAL interested in focusing on it, but now I am again & that's okay. It really is all about forward progress...baby steps. I love this quote:

There's a whole new group of Advocare CHALLENGERS starting this coming Monday. IF you WANT to look into this...I ENCOURAGE it. I am focusing on the last 14 days of the 24-day challenge again, because I feel like I NEED that structure to MAKE PROGRESS towards my NEW GOAL, which is: Losing 20 more pounds & making some sort of exercise a daily routine. I don't know what that will be. I want people to know that they can RandOmly talk to me about health & food & taking care of the HOME of the The Holy Spirit that is inside us....KNOWING that this whole "Gettin' Healthy" journey I'm on...is not easy. I stumble....A LOT sometimes. I have trouble following the plan exactly sometimes... I don't exercise much at all.... I'm just trying....

I do not know sometimes WHY I share all of this with all of you. A big part of something I truly feel like I UNDERSTAND now is that we HELP each other by sharing our experiences, but me sharing THIS journey still kind of takes me by surprise. I mean....I put my big girl picture on Facebook :/! Yeah....I am totally not proud of that BEFORE pic, but sure am of the after....

My weight a few days after the challenge ended I was down 15 pounds. Over the last two weeks I gained about 3 of those pounds back & about 2 inches of the 14.5 I lost. Not a HUGE gain, but a steady gain over the last two weeks. 

So NOW...my choices are to either continue to slowly gain OR to slowly chip away at it.... That is why I continue on this journey. I'm not gonna tell you to Buck Up & do anything, because I was at a point sometime in the last couple weeks, where I would have seriously thought about givin' someone the finger if they even TRIED to tell me what to eat, BUT.... I will ALWAYS ENCOURAGE you to PUSH yourself to BUCK UP in ANY area of your life. Just stretch yourself outside of something you know... to DISCOVER something you don't. Your ENCOURAGEMENT is APPRECIATED. I can get mighty grumpy without some of my comfort foods....JUST SAYIN'! 

OPERATION GET HEALTHY: Day 8

I can't believe it is the 8th day!!! For reals! Today The Daniel Plan Journal talks about FITNESS. I had every intention of doing minimal stuff from the beginning & then when my little boy got the flu...it just wasn't gonna happen, because when Little Man slept...he was sleeping on me & would wake at most slight movements. I know I need to add some FITNESS to get the most out of both the 24-Day Advocare Challenge and The Daniel Plan. Pretty funny how I'm randomly urged by another friend today, to join her kid-friendly fit club here in town. Funny how things work out... I probably still can't go right away, but now I have a REALLY close-to-home option that has a SAFE environment for kids. Can't beat that.

I don't really have a lot to write about today. I have my moments where I miss MORE FLAVOR. It has a lot to do with me NOT knowing how to add HEALTHY flavor to my cooking - which then takes me to a little point of frustration, but I've been good at channeling it & thinking about how much better it is for all of us. I'm trying to be PATIENT with myself - knowing that EVENTUALLY I'll LEARN how to make things taste better with healthy ingredients. My hubs has been pretty patient....usually eating the same food I am & some days it's just better than others.

To ALL those people that have been supporting me & those that are in my circle to ENCOURAGE...
IT DOESN'T HAVE TO BE PERFECT. Just TRY to make it better than it was the day before. If you keep doing that...you'll be making little changes that turn into big changes.

Hmmm....I just glanced back my journal & this is something interesting that I will share. Back when BUCKET LISTS were the new rave...I made one & on it was: "To run a FULL marathon." Well...since then...it's went from a FULL to a 1/2, to a 10K, to a 5K. Now I know that I should start at, where I have now brought myself. However, it was interesting to me that I shot BIG...knowing it was possible & slowly, but surely I've let the zest for it dwindle down a bit. Interesting how that faded... The question from the journal was: "What is your Big Fitness Dream?"

Buck Up Baby & Ride With Jesus!! God Bless!

Day 24: "Transformed By Truth"

Welcome back readers!! For new readers, we are taking a day by day journey through Pastor Rick Warren's book: The Purpose Driven Life: What On Earth Am I Here For? I have read the book once & I LOVED it SO much that I'm reading it again & sharing my experiences & how I've begun to apply what this book teaches to my life.

This chapter discusses the IMPORTANCE of The Bible. I'd like to tell ya'll a story. I have a VERY dear friend that has studied, Studied, STUDIED the Bible & I really didn't know how STRONG of a BELIEVER she was, when we first became friends. I mean...I look to her as a TEACHER to me. I had asked her to help me at one of my auctions (NEVER worked at one before) & she just swooped in where she was NEEDED & did a great job. I'm an EXPERIENCE kinda gal & when I took the BIG step to go at the auction business FULL-TIME I saw God workin' in ways I had never seen before & havin' things revealed to me & saw how certain things were SO connected to each other. Whew! I can get on the phone and talk to her for HOURS & one day she asked me what kind of Bible I had...I told her. Well next thing you know she brought me a Catholic Bible that had four different versions of God's Word in it. I've said in a previous blog that I just had a HARD time falling into a way to REALLY read The Bible. The BEST thing that worked for me (and it wasn't workin' all that well) was to read it cover to cover & I wasn't half way through it yet.

Well...she gave me this Bible and it sat on my table for at least a week and a half. Finally, one day I went to it. I was gearin' myself up to have one of those HARD conversations & I needed MORE than what this book & my devotional could give me. I opened up the Bible & the heading in the text was about dealing with anger. It drew me in. Then over the next couple days I continued to do that (I know many people will tell you that is NOT the best way to read & understand The Bible.) I kept feeling myself DRAWN into it. Now I feel drawn to the book of Matthew & it will be the first WHOLE chapter I finish since I started reading it again. Just now as I was TRYING to find what book of the Bible I was in that talked about dealing with anger I was again...DRAWN to Hebrews Chapter 11, which talks about remembering the heroes of faith. I NEEDED to read that. I NEEDED to hear the multiple stories of God's disciples that walked out in NOTHING BUT FAITH...even when it didn't makes sense...AT ALL...to do it.

I re-read the chapter & had all kinds of bullet points on what would be a good idea to share with you, but I think I'll end this way. When you start walking out into faith, asking for a relationship with God, calling upon The Holy Spirit & having FAITH that help is coming...you will see changes. You will start feeling NATURAL tugs. I had some natural tuggin' goin' on when I finally opened up my new Bible.Once you start surrendering yourself, He will REVEAL more to you.

Two of my favorite things from this chapter: "Decide that regardless of culture, tradition, reason, or emotion, you choose the Bible as your final authority." & "Daily Bible reading will keep you in range of God's voice." This chapter also discusses the importance of sharing our journey with others...our thoughts...our concerns...our experiences.... That is why I ENCOURAGE you to SHARE whatever it is you are thinking about these posts. It will help us all GROW more.

"Point to Ponder: The truth transforms me."

Daily Bible Verse: "If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." John 8:31-32 (KJV)

Daily Question: "What has God already told me in his Word that I haven't started doing yet?"

From my journal after reading the first time: 1-Completely trusting Him and letting go of worry: I can tell I'm getting better, BUT when worldly pressures come down - the anxiety comes back. (THIS has gotten EXTREMELY better since the first time I read this chapter.) 2 - Reading the Bible cover to cover. (Working on that & have some guidance that has been working for me.) 3 - Learning more - specifically about my church. 4 - I started forgiving people on "my list," but I have not started forgiving each one: Some I need to forgive & some I need to ask for forgiveness. (I've talked to MOST everyone on "my list," but haven't talked to everyone yet.)

Buck Up Baby & Ride With Jesus. If you don't have one, go get you a BIBLE. It'll be the best readin' material, road map, & instruction manual you'll EVER find. God Bless!