The Gift You Need To Trash

Christmas time not only brings lights, caroling, cocoa, reindeer and glitter galore but also brings forth celebration of the end of a year. This year we not only bring closure to 365 days but to a legendary decade!! Hard to believe we lived through ten years of events that will one day be discussed and debated in schools around the nation!

In ten short years technology continued to grow at a rapid speed, we were even able to get the very first photo of a black-hole in space! The first Apple Tablet was released, a once expensive luxury that can now be found for sale at a reasonable price everywhere you go. We saw the world coming together to show love and support through “challenges” like the Ice-Bucket challenge that brought awareness to (ALS) and raising a jaw dropping amount of 115 MILLION DOLLARS for a once unfamiliar cause. Charitable challenges were not the only thing that brought the world together. How could we so easily forget the Harlem shake, Planking on everything...yes, literally everything. Gangnam Style, the dance that broke language barriers and connected the world. That silly WHITE and GOLD dress debate and of course, we all got to be apart of history when Epstein didn't kill himself. We saw vines and memes evolve over time until we were recently left with Salad Cat and Baby Yoda. What a time to be alive!

When I look day to day, it can be hard to see all the beautiful blessings, mountains I have conquered and each thing that has lead me to where or who I am today. When I stop and look at the decade that's passed I choose to reminiscence on the happy memories. I fell in love and married my best friend, I adopted my son, Re-sparked an intense and passionate relationship with Jesus and received my Ministry Ordination.

Every year, at the end, I am blessed with seeing other people's goals for bettering themselves and their lives over social media. I see many fitness related goals, mental health goals and goals that bring peace, happiness and love into their life. The new year brings hope for a new beginning. A fresh start. But before we get to popping bottles and streamers and making enough noise to wake up the dead and scare our insecurities away, let me back it up to a time when I imagine the world stood still, much like our goals on New Years, the old way of life died and a new one began.

Emmanuel, “God with us” The ultimate gift and new beginning. A new hope. Many times we, including me, picture a sweet baby boy born and all in the world is just perfect... for the most part it didn't seem to be an issue and overall nothing changed until Jesus was older and had begun his ministry journey. But for one person in particular, his world came crashing down and the seeds of anger and jealousy began to grow.

I want to take a different perspective than most churches at Christmas time do. Instead of focusing on the birth of our Savior I want to turn our attention to King Herod. I want to open our eyes to something that happened at the birth of our savior. While humanity was given the greatest gift ever from our loving Father who seeks to redeem us, King Herod chose to pass up on that gift and choose another “gift”. The very same “gift” that effects many of us today. A “gift” that we do not want, A “gift” we should learn to have the strength to toss, yet for some reason we refuse to toss it out, a “gift” that through our choices and actions can actually be given to others. A “gift”, that needs to be LEFT BEHIND as we cross into this new decade.

Come February a whopping 80% of people have given up on their New Year's resolution and only 8% actually achieve their yearly goals. Change is never easy. It will always come with difficulty and resistance... if It was easy we would do it more and be able to stick with it!

Starting in Matthew 2:3 we see King Herod was one that could not handle change very well, the Birth of Jesus threatened him, his kingdom and his pride. It ate away at him until he was unrecognizable. He wore his anger and jealousy like a banner of pride. He never learned to let it go...and in the long run it destroyed him.. without destroying his intended target, Jesus. The king even had others on his team who fed off of his hatred and became “lost” themselves, doing the unthinkable; murder. (Matthew 2:16)

My mom used to always say that hate and anger were just cover emotions... there was something else going on that I chose to ignore and would use aggression and hurtful words to cover it up with. If only my mom was King Herod's mom, she could have potentially altered the course of history.

King Herod was furiously threatened with the birth of the Savior, it wasn't so much the physical baby that threatened him. If that were the case he would have a baby to be upset about roughly every 8 seconds! King Herod was threatened by the baby whom had a divine plan laid before Him, as prophesied in the Old Testament. (Isaiah 7:14) We all know deep down his pride, his job title, his followers, his livelihood.... All this was threatened... because in the long run, he knew not only his lifestyle would have to change but he himself as well.

King Herod was so threatened that he lied and pretended to be excited about the birth, sending out the Magi to find Jesus and report back with His location so he too, could worship the child known as the King of the Jews. (Matthew 2:7-8)

The Magi were warned not to return to King Herod. (Matthew 2:12) Once the king figured out he had been disobeyed and now looked like a fool he grew angrier and demanded every boy within a certain region, age two and under be killed. (Matthew 2:16)

Can you imagine having such hatred for someone that you would rather see them dead or in the very least harmed, scared or having to face a life altering event?... can you imagine being so threatened to lose what you have that for the next few years you spend your valuable nonrefillable seconds on that very person, their actions, their life, you become so fixated on them that hearing their name brings your blood pressure up, brings flames to your eyes and you can feel a flame of hatred igniting in your heart, yet you don't care to do anything about it? You justify those thoughts and feelings by thinking it's owed to you. You become addicted to how it makes you feel, that boost of confidence you receive when you win that imaginary argument. Over time you don't realize how that feeling you receive from it all, is actually blocking your sensitivities to see how it is really YOU that is being destroyed, not the person you envision meeting your best friends, Mrs. Lefty loosy and Mr. Right hook. You don't realize that it is getting easier to cut people out of your life and for some reason, you are just so dang exhausted all the time. You know how there are always apps on your phone you have to force close or else they run in the background, draining your battery? Yeah, that's hatred for us people. We have to learn how to force close and uninstall that bad boy!

There is a reason that we are told to not hold onto anger. It does the body dirty! There is nothing rejuvenating about it, no health benefits that the body needs or wants! In fact, the exact opposite occurs. Anger raises blood pressure, anger suffocates your ability to sympathies with others, builds our pride up, anger triggers our fight or flight ability and in tern making logical decisions almost impossible. Anger can also cause heart attacks, stroke, insomnia, digestive issues and anxiety just to name a few. That doesn't sound like something I want in my life.

Anger, the gift that keeps on giving. once anger for your cause has you wrapped in it's chains and is working on destroying you, it will then bounce on to someone else. Don't believe me? Read ANY females group chats and I guarantee you will find someone, somewhere spouting off about why they don't like so and so. The owner of the phone might not be engaging in that conversation but you can bet that anytime the person of question's name gets brought up, she will be thinking about how so and so are fighting and she has already formed an opinion on who the winning party is, she might not engage out loud, but the seed of separation has already started growing in her heart and you've been used as a slave of Satan to spread that seed.

King Herod could have given it up. He could have continued to live his life and enjoyed the journey that was laid before him. But instead he chose to waste it and miss out on the joy, fun and experiences that life could bring. Instead of making his life what he wanted, he made HIS life about someone else.. he tried to destroy this person but in the long run, ended up destroyed himself... in a looong, slow, painful battle.

Letting go is easier said than done. I battle with that everyday. There are people that have done me wrong, that I have every right to be bitter towards. But why would I? Give grace, receive grace. They are human, I've wronged people.. those people spend their days snooping my profile and are most likely reading this with a look of disgust on their face. (Hi guys!) While I choose to not think twice about what happened between us, and why I “should” be mad at them. All I can say is this, I'm Sorry, I have issues. But everyday is a new day and I CHOOSE every single day to get up and make the most out of my life, to forgive like I have been forgiven and not dwell on the past. I CHOOSE to set down the chains of anger and not let it control my life. When you choose anger, you are choosing to miss out on joy, love, memories and a life worth living.

As New Year approaches, a new decade creeps closer every second, let's choose to leave the hatred behind, don't bring that nonsense into your 2020! choose to take care of yourself by choosing your mind, body and soul first. That person that you're allowing to run your mind, life, choices and emotions should NOT have that control over you. Especially since they most likely aren't returning that favor of even thinking about you!! As my best friend ELSA sings, LET IT GO!! LET IT GO!!! You have to realize that no matter what you do, you will always be a villain in someone's story. So learn to forgive and stop letting what seems like a big deal bring you down the spiral of anger and hurt.

Now is the time for you to make that choice. Now is the time to be set free. Now is the time to enjoy life. When you truly forgive, you will sense an indescribable peace, and then and only then will you truly understand just how much Jesus loves you, and why he chose every single day to fulfill His calling. Why everyday, He chose to forgive and love you instead. We really don't deserve forgiveness, yet Jesus doesn't think twice. 2020 is my year to be more forgiving, to be less stressed about “he said, she saids” and just enjoy the moment!! I have chosen to be more like Jesus. Are you a follower of Jesus? Love and forgiveness are part of that job description... Who can YOU forgive in 2020? How about that person who popped into your mind while reading this? Who have you chosen to finally stop allowing control over your emotions and mind? Now is the time. This is the year. Take the reins and never look back sis!

May peace be with you into the New Year. May God strengthen you to be released from the bondage of anger. May God heal your broken heart and begin working to heal the situation that is best according to His will and purpose. As the saying goes, “New year, new me.” Make it happen sisters!

From all of us at Galatians 6:2 Society, have a very merry CHRISTmas and a happy, healthy, cleansing, productive New Decade!