Less of me... More of Him...

My life is FULL y'all!

In some ways, this is amazing! It is full of love, and beautiful children, a great husband, fantastic friends, more things than I possibly need... and most of all a God that is forgiving and merciful. I am blessed beyond measure.

But here is the thing... it is also full of a lot... I mean LOTS... of things that are just fluff, filler, not important things.

That needs to change.

Back in November I started to get a little nudge from the Holy Spirt... you know the kind? The one that you know you should listen to and really commit to figuring out what exactly it is the Lord wants you to do, but you are terrified of what He is going to ask of you, so you ignore it. That was the one.

It went a little something like this...

Him- "Hey remember that time, 5 years ago, when you spent a year fasting 9 areas of your life? It was life changing! Ridiculously hard but amazingly wonderful? Ringing any bells?"

Me- "Yes. Hard- not doing it again."

Him- " But remember how much you grew in your relationship with me? How much you learned about yourself?"

Me- "I do. But I already did it... I don't need to do it again."

Him- "You do. You are in a different place, you are a different person. Your life is full of the wrong things. You need to get rid of all the extra... just you and Me."

Me- "sigh... I'll pray about it."

So I did. I have been praying about it... a lot. To be super honest, I did not want to do it again. It was super duper hard, and I did learn a lot about myself... but believe me... when you focus on areas of your life that struggle with... the things you learn are not all sunshine and rainbows. But then there was this verse that just kept sticking with me...

He must become greater, I must become less.  -John 3:30

So about 2 months ago, I asked some women to praying for me. I also asked my husband and my children to pray for me. I asked them to pray about my decision and for the Lord to make it clear what my "stuff"  is. I also asked some women to come along side me through this journey (these are women that will either hate me or I will owe big time by the end of this thing). I re-read the book that gave me the original inspiration, Seven by Jen Hatmaker. I also re-read my entire experience from when I did it before (thanks to my beautiful friend Kariann that had my entire blog/journaling put into a bound book). And so here I am... doing it again.

Here is the gist of it in case you didn't know me or didn't know about it the first time I did it...
I am going to fast 8 areas of my life. I will fast each area for a month, take a week off, then start the next one. This makes this entire fasting process end on December 30th. I know the Lord is calling me to do this, but I'm not going to lie... I am terrified. This is HARD for me. It grows me and stretches me and golly I know I need to do it, but (insert 2 year old tantrum) I don't wanna!

Some people might ask "Why again?" I know... I asked God the same thing! Here is where I am at with that answer... I am a different person. I am in a different season of life. Last time I did this I didn't have teenagers or a newborn...now I have both! That is a whole new ballgame in itself. My married life is in a different place, I am in a different place with the Lord, and I have an entirely new set of "stuff" filling up my time and energies... and it needs to GO!

So each month I will blog about my experiences and things that I am learning about myself. I found this helped hold me accountable last time... I have to tell someone if I am cheating... so you, the people of the interwebs that read my little nuggets of words thrown into blog form, get to help hold me accountable. And in case no one reads it... I have a great team of women, 6 to be exact, that will hold me accountable and join me in some of these months in their own way. For them, I am ever so thankful. Missy, Amber, Jess, Pamela, Jenny, and Jen... these are my friends that I hope are still my friends at the end of December. People that I value their advice and all bring something different to the friend table. I have chosen 8 areas to focus on this time, so every month will somehow revolve around the number 8. Here are the areas I have decided I will focus on this time:

1. Possessions
2. Clothes
3.Waste
4. Food
5. Media
6. Me/Stress
7. Spending
8. Prayer

That's it... those are my areas. I hope to spend the next 9  months getting more of Him, and less of me. I would appreciate prayers. Possessions starts tomorrow!

Thanks for joining me on this journey!