It's amazing how quickly even strong conviction can wane.
For example, my determination to live more simply after my trips to India usually bit the dust in a few weeks as I re-wrapped myself in my American comforts like a worn, handmade quilt.
Although I've talked and written about the conviction laid on my heart as I read the book 7 by Jen Hatmaker, it had almost completely worn off when my friend Marci emailed me. She challenged a small group of us to actually live out seven months of "an experimental mutiny against excess". (Jen's subtitle)
Just like Jen, our little group plans to devote one month to each of these seven areas:
Food
Clothes
Possessions
Media
Waste
Spending
Stress
Today I've been working at getting my "want to" back up to speed, and it wasn't easy. I've been on an eating spree that I truthfully have no desire to break. It took some big reminders about the reality of the majority of people in our world to get me motivated again:
Writing a Bang-Up Book Proposal–Karen Ehman
Date: Thursday, February 7, 2013 at 8:00 pm EST.
Think you have a great book idea but absolutely no clue how to put together a book proposal that meets the standards of the publishing industry? Karen Ehman has written five books with three major publishers and is also hired to write book proposals for other potential authors. In this informative and practical call she will highlight the key components that comprise a winning proposal and then give you the tools to craft one yourself. The call includes a sample book proposal template from Karen’s latest book being published by Zondervan. There will be plenty of time for Q & A.
For example, my determination to live more simply after my trips to India usually bit the dust in a few weeks as I re-wrapped myself in my American comforts like a worn, handmade quilt.
Although I've talked and written about the conviction laid on my heart as I read the book 7 by Jen Hatmaker, it had almost completely worn off when my friend Marci emailed me. She challenged a small group of us to actually live out seven months of "an experimental mutiny against excess". (Jen's subtitle)
Just like Jen, our little group plans to devote one month to each of these seven areas:
Food
Clothes
Possessions
Media
Waste
Spending
Stress
Today I've been working at getting my "want to" back up to speed, and it wasn't easy. I've been on an eating spree that I truthfully have no desire to break. It took some big reminders about the reality of the majority of people in our world to get me motivated again:
- Almost one in seven people worldwide don't have enough food to sustain them.
- This makes hunger/malnutrition the number one risk to health globally, greater than AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis combined.
- Some 350 to 400 million children are hungry.
- Approximately 25,000 people die of hunger or related causes every day.
**Source: The Hole in Our Gospel by Richard Stearns
So I brought my very-watered-down plan to dinner tonight to try to get my guys on board with me. I don't even pretend to be as hard-core as Jen, so my plan to trim the excess of food in our house was fairly wimpy.
Barry finally looked at me and said, "It seems like if we make it this easy, we're going to miss the point completely." He and Nolan upped the ante for our family.
Starting Tues, Feb. 12th, our family is going to limit ourselves to seven foods for 7 days. (Hardcore for a short time makes it attainable for us!) The following three weeks we'll follow my wimpier plan. Every night we'll learn about and pray for a country whose people suffer from hunger. I'll spell out all the details here next week.
Would anybody like to join us for the first 7 days? I'm planning to blog every day that week, and I'd love for us to do it together. If you blog too, we can link up to encourage our little group!
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There's an extra this week! My friend Karen Ehman is leading a conference call to help you write the book you've always dreamed of writing. Here's the scoop:
Date: Thursday, February 7, 2013 at 8:00 pm EST.
Think you have a great book idea but absolutely no clue how to put together a book proposal that meets the standards of the publishing industry? Karen Ehman has written five books with three major publishers and is also hired to write book proposals for other potential authors. In this informative and practical call she will highlight the key components that comprise a winning proposal and then give you the tools to craft one yourself. The call includes a sample book proposal template from Karen’s latest book being published by Zondervan. There will be plenty of time for Q & A.
You can enter to win a free call today by leaving a comment with the one food that you'd have to have on your list of seven! Please also include your email so that I can contact the winner. You can enter through midnight on Friday. **Please post on the blog rather than sending an email. Thanks!
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18 comments:
Would LOVE to be in on this call. Okay, one food I would choose would probably be yogurt. But, then I'd also have to have frozen fruit b/c I mix frozen fruit into the yogurt... Unless coffee counts as a food, then it would have to be coffee. Hard question, Amy!
Amy it’s funny you sent this email. A year ago God called me to a 7 week study in Deut. To get intentional in five areas of my life, this year He has called me to break it down to 7 days. I gasp when I read your email, I’m in and I love the idea, also I have been feeling the call to get all this in writing. I do have a work book for this study that a friend helped me with. I would love to win the conference call with Karen; I’m reading her new book, Let It Go right now and it’s wonderful!!!! Thank you for your help!!
Love
Vanessa
I am halfway there to sign up with you! I too wonder does coffee count as one of the 7? Dark Chocolate would be hard to not include. I believe I could make it with fruits and vegetables. I know that I would feel better. Thanks for the challenge. Melody
Hi Amy! Can you tell us more about the challenge? Does it simply mean that for a week you can only eat 7 types of foods? Thanks!
Yes, please enter me in the contest for the free call from Karen Ehman. My e-mail is tamwgarrett@yahoo.com. Chili has to be on my list of food.
Tamara Garrett
Laurel,
Yep! Jen Hatmaker, the author of 7, ate only 7 foods for a month. Our family is just going to eat 7 foods for 7 days.
I'll write more about it next week (the purpose, etc), but our 7 foods that we decided on are chicken, rice, egg, whole grain bread, spinach, pears, onion. We tried to choose things with good nutrition but also that we could pair together. We're only doing it for a week, so we might have chosen different foods if it was for a month.
Amy
Would love to be on the call as well, The one food I would have would probaly be catfish live in the south and even though I don't eat it often I can eat eat daily and would have to have something I really liked... salaamgreen@gmail.com; Salaam Green
It will be great to win the call with Karen so one can learn how to put a book proposal together . Thanks a lot Amy for this chance and I wish the winner all the best , my email is dyuhndim@gnail.com
one food I would choose will be spiced fish nuggets with a Greek salad
Hmmm...one food that I would include would probably be chicken, mostly because of the variety of ways to fix it!
I'd love to win the call too as I finally started writing my book! Yikes...saying it out loud is scary! My email is holly@hollybarrett.org.
Thanks, Amy. Can't wait to hear how the experiment goes for your family.
I would love to be entered in the drawing for the call.
As for the one food, that would be spaghetti.
I love gathering around the table over a spaghetti dinner with my family to discuss how our days went.
My email address is: debra(at)debraweiss(dot)net.
I applaud the commitment your family is making - I don't think it is wimpy. Any step we take at the Holy Spirit's leading is a mighty one! My one food would have to be peanut butter!
E-mail kateposthuma73@gmail.com
This is pretty amazing, actually, I just finished writing the first draft of my book proposal yesterday and was thinking about who could take a look at it for me. The idea is rebuilding the temple – which is us. I know you hear this often, but this is God’s book. I didn’t even want to be a writer, yet here I am. We all need to look inside at the things that are creating a separation between us and God, most of us don’t even realize how the world has pulled the wool over our eyes, we think were good, but I wonder, often, if God thinks that. Hmmm….sounds like a subject for a book!! haha. Thank you for the opportunity! Lisa
Would love to hear all Karen has to say!!
As far as the food...since I'm married to a farmer, I'd have to have beef on the list!!
I love your commitment to the 7 days! Wow!
The one food I would have to have is eggs - simple to prepare, good protein, and the ability to create some variety - egg salad, scrambled, fritatta, etc. But coffee would be close 2nd....:)
As for the book proposal call - I would love to participate! I've been following what I believe is God's call for my life after my sister disappeared and I felt led to the work I do today to shine the light on women and children who are missing among the homeless that often become victims of human trafficking. This work was born literally as a result of a repeated prayer about what to do throughout such a painful and difficult time. But I've kept track of all the divine signs and God winks that I have followed for over 13 years has been in my heart for several years to write a book and share this journey about this hidden social problem and how God has literally used my pain and my mess - to become a bigger message. I have been praying about 'the next steps' and ironically saw this opportunity in my email this morning from Next Step Speaker Services!
Would love to be selected to participate.
Libba Phillips
email: libba@outpostforhope.org
Hi Amy,I would like to be entered to be part of the conference call with you. I have felt God tug at my heart to write a book about the lessons He taught me while my husband was deployed first to Iraq and then to Afghanistan. When my husband was fighting the elemnts of the desert to survive and make it back home to us, I was fighting my own 'desert battle' at home. I would title the book "Lessons Learned While in the Desert". Thank you for this opportunity. Sharmen Oswald
soswald@lexington1.net
I know it sounds weird but I would have to have banana pancakes on my list of seven.I'm not politically correct about food!
I would love to be in on this call Amy. My one food would be coffee ( even if it is decaf). My morning just seems sad without it.
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