for the past 6 months (or 3 years if i'm honest!) i have felt a weird sort of nudge from God. one that leaves me with more questions than answers and frankly a bit scared. three months ago i heard about this lady named jen hatmaker and her book 7. something about it settled deep into my heart. i would chat with God about it from time to time. a few weeks ago a dear friend brought it up to me. she lives half-way across the country and i miss her deeply. she asked me to do it with her then sent me the book. how can i resist that - especially since i had not talked with her about the book?
most people think i'm crazy and that is okay. she doesn't, well atleast not most of the time! but today we begin this journey. for the next 30 days i will be eating only certain foods. i'm not going as crazy as jen does with 7, but after two weeks of thinking about it and praying through it here is where i landed: 10
spinach
berries
oatmeal
apples
potatoes
nuts (mostly almonds)
chicken
rice
whole grain bread
eggs
as far as spices: i've allowed myself up to 3 spices (no ketchup, mustard, bbq, etc) and i can have one salad dressing for the whole month.
so why? well, honestly the subtitle of the book is "a mutiny against excess" and frankly i need to experience a bit of that myself. you see, when we got married we set out to live a simple life. i think i've gotten a little bit away from that. i once had about 10-12 meals and i rotated between them. now, i set out to make a monthly meal plan and make sure to not repeat a meal. do you know the stress i create for myself, not to mention the time i spend on creating it when i could be playing a game with my kiddos? or the grocery budget that is probably higher than what it should be so that i can treat my family to this amazing month of creative and unique meals?
i'm also hoping that i am able to view things a bit differently. maybe a wee bit more like God might. i'm not very good at completing these kind of tasks and i have 7 months of this ahead of me. i'm hoping to experience freedom in Christ and freedom from the "american dream" that grabs hold of us and doesn't let go.
here i intend to pop in and journal...feel free to join me if you'd like:)
most people think i'm crazy and that is okay. she doesn't, well atleast not most of the time! but today we begin this journey. for the next 30 days i will be eating only certain foods. i'm not going as crazy as jen does with 7, but after two weeks of thinking about it and praying through it here is where i landed: 10
spinach
berries
oatmeal
apples
potatoes
nuts (mostly almonds)
chicken
rice
whole grain bread
eggs
as far as spices: i've allowed myself up to 3 spices (no ketchup, mustard, bbq, etc) and i can have one salad dressing for the whole month.
so why? well, honestly the subtitle of the book is "a mutiny against excess" and frankly i need to experience a bit of that myself. you see, when we got married we set out to live a simple life. i think i've gotten a little bit away from that. i once had about 10-12 meals and i rotated between them. now, i set out to make a monthly meal plan and make sure to not repeat a meal. do you know the stress i create for myself, not to mention the time i spend on creating it when i could be playing a game with my kiddos? or the grocery budget that is probably higher than what it should be so that i can treat my family to this amazing month of creative and unique meals?
i'm also hoping that i am able to view things a bit differently. maybe a wee bit more like God might. i'm not very good at completing these kind of tasks and i have 7 months of this ahead of me. i'm hoping to experience freedom in Christ and freedom from the "american dream" that grabs hold of us and doesn't let go.
here i intend to pop in and journal...feel free to join me if you'd like:)
Yes!!!!!!!!!! Might I say that your list is top-notch? Truly, I'm impressed. If I ever take the food plunge, I may just steal your list. ;) (And thank you from the bottom of my heart for listing "berries" as a sort of berry catch-all.) :) I can't wait to hear how this grows you. I still can't shake 7. I just told Cory yesterday that I'm gearing up for some version (??) of the Food month. We'll see...
ReplyDeleteWow, that sounds really intense!
ReplyDelete