♥ Hey friends! I’m taking the rest of the year off from writing original posts, but amazing things are still coming for you! My 2016 guest post series continues TODAY with writer/blogger Christen Spratt! ♥
If you saw someone open a bag of M&Ms and start popping them in their mouth and swallowing them whole, you might think they had lost their ever-loving mind.
You might even ask yourself… what’s the point of eating M&Ms if you aren’t going to taste them? (Then there’s me over here freaking out and thinking… if you are going to eat those empty calories, you’d better be enjoying them!)
In a world of fast food, social media and text messaging, it is a rarity that we savor our food, savor a moment, or even savor a conversation. As a society, we don’t really take much time to savor anything.
Savor, according to Dictionary.com, is derived from an old French word and simply means to “taste, breathe in; appreciate, care for.”
Let me clarify, savor does not mean you took a picture of a beautiful sunset on your phone, edited the photo with a great filter, then posted it on social media and hashtagged it with something deep, like #blessed or #breathtaking.
Nope, not savoring. Not even close.
In Philippians 4:8, Paul writes:
“Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.”
He is encouraging us to savor the true, honorable, and just. He wants us to taste and breathe in the pure, lovely, and commendable things. He desires for us to appreciate anything of excellence and worthy of praise.
Bottom line…Paul is instructing us to savor.
Ironically, this message came from a lonely jail cell, not a 5 star resort. From there, he could not stop to “smell the roses”— and I doubt he had a view of the sun setting from behind those cold, dark walls.
This message comes from a deep, almost desperate, place in his heart… a place that wonders if he will live another day or if he will even leave that wretched cell alive.
The imprisoned Apostle is challenging us to dwell in the pure and lovely things while we still have life.
Paul also understood the influence of thoughts on a person’s life. He knew the things we allow to occupy our minds will inevitably be reflected in our speech and therefore, our actions. He follows up the command to “think about these things” with further instruction:
“What you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put into practice…“ (Philippians 4:9)
We are directed to not only dwell on the pure and lovely, but then put them into action. He knows the combination of those virtues, when put into practice, is sure to produce a wholesome thought pattern, which will result in a life of moral and spiritual excellence.
As previously mentioned, Paul gave us this wisdom from his prison cell, and “prison” will look different for each of us someday. It is probable that there may come a time in which we will wonder if we’ll get to live another day or ever leave the hospital bed.
When we reach this point and look back on the days we’ve lived, it’s my hope that we won’t feel as though we missed it or weren’t present.
It is my desire that we align our lives with the heartfelt instruction from a wise man in a prison cell. It is also my desire that we savor.
Instead of devouring the M&Ms, I beg you to savor them. Enjoy the crunchy shell and smooth creamy center. Enjoy the chocolatey flavor. Chew them slowly and take it all in.
And today I ask you… when was the last time you savored anything?
When was the last time you stopped to smell the roses, literally? When was the last time you put down your phone and fully engaged in a conversation? When was the last time you savored the fingerprint of God?
I challenge you to go savor the life God has given you.
About Christen
Christen is the wife to Shane and a mother to four… (one from her teen pregnancy, one with epilepsy, one with SPED needs, and the fourth may or may not be related to the Hulk.) She is a recovering “perfect wife/mom,” up to her eyeballs in all things motherhood. She is passionate about authenticity and breaking down the FaKebook walls. Christen frequently writes about the FaKebook phenomena, parenting, marriage, and faith while keeping a canny sense of humor. She doesn’t have a Pinteresting life, she doesn’t cut sandwiches into dolphins, she doesn’t have a perfect marriage and she regularly shares all this good/bad/ugly with her sweet readers over at christenspratt.com. She can also be found on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.