What Every Beginner Speaker Needs to Know

I'm guest posting today over at Circles of Faith, and I'd love for you to visit.  There's a PRIZE involved as an extra incentive!  Click here to read "What Every Beginner Speaker Needs to Know".  Back on Friday!

7 of 7--What We've Learned

Our little family just had our final meal of 7 Foods for 7 Days.  Are we happy?  YES!

It's been such an interesting week full of ups and downs and lessons.  I asked my guys what their take-aways for the week were.

Nolan said he learned not to complain.  He said, "At one point I heard myself saying, 'I don't like this pear as much as the other kind.'  Then I thought, 'What in the world am I saying?  I HAVE a pear--something to eat--and so many people don't have anything.'  I'm learning to appreciate what I have more than I did before."

I learned a list of things, some profound and some silly:

• I can lose weight eating all I want if I eat the right foods.  Good news!
• I use food as entertainment.  Barry and I had an evening out, and I couldn't think of anything to do other than go to Starbucks or shop.  Sad.  It's my goal to explore more fun, free and food-less things to do in my life!
• Let me just tell you that the allure of eggs wore off first and quickly.  Just the thought of eggs made me immediately think, "Well, maybe I don't need something to eat right now."  
• 7 days of this wasn't bad at all.  I really can't imagine a month, though, so my friend Marci and any others who have done it that long are my heroes.
• I physically feel fabulous!  I'm officially backing out of my pronouncement of limiting the rest of the month to chicken and fish, but I am sticking to a more whole foods diet.  I feel great.  It tastes good, and I need the change to healthier eating.
• I'm so, so, so, so grateful that God created food and that our family has enough.
• My heart is tenderized toward those who don't have enough, and I'm resolved to spread our blessings instead of hoarding them.

I saved Barry's insight for last, because it was the most profound.  He was amazed at how little he wanted to eat when it was limited.  "I suddenly realized that it's abundance that creates greed."  (Wowza!)  He reminisced about his time in Haiti with people who had little, lived simply and were HAPPY.  

Barry's point pierced my heart.  I think it's how we handle our abundance that counts.  Do we hoard it or do we share it?  Hoarding leads to greed and discontent.  Sharing leads to joy and fulfillment.  Oh, how I want to have a heart to share.

Day 5 of 7

A couple of days ago, Barry ran into a dilemma with our 7 eating plan.  As he waited in line in Walgreens to check out, he stood in front of a display that raised temptation.  Do Cadbury Cream Eggs count as an egg in seven days of eating seven foods?

Ha!

I'm proud to say that he walked away, but it couldn't have been easy.

Day 2 was my worst day, and now I've settled into being ok with 7 food options.  That's not bragging since I  also know it's coming to an end soon.  :)  I'm actually feeling great physically, and I feel like I've cleansed my body of some of its junk food addiction.

The biggest thing that's happening is in my heart.  I feel tenderized toward people who live with limited resources.  I'm also feeling tremendously more content and thankful with what I've been given.

This morning Barry has made us spinach and onion omelets.  I'm sitting in my warm house watching a surprising NC snow fall.  Life is very, very good.  7 foods for 7 days definitely doesn't make me any kind of hero.  My stomach still has rarely growled even as millions around the world go hungry.  But limiting my abundance is making me more aware, more grateful and more determined to help others where I can.

True Love

On the eve of Valentine's Day, I'm happy to introduce my new friend, Elisabeth Huijskens.  Not only is Elisabeth a co-founder of Trades of Hope (which  you all know I'm in love with!), but she is the author of the new book Putting Fairy Tales to Shame.  Please welcome Elisabeth!

To the girl who pours over make up and outfits for hours before feeling valued, to the women alone wondering love will ever knock on her door again, to the feminine heart that's broken and beaten, Jesus has written the grandest of love stories. Not only so, but from the very beginning, we have been living, walking, breathing the very center of its romance.

I remember the first time I told a leader in my church about my relationship with Jesus. I admitted that it was a romantic one, and I was surprised when she said that she had never heard of that before. The more open I was about the love Jesus and I shared, the more and more perplexed I was to find that others didn't have that kind of relationship with God. Not long after, when I saw girls and women giving everything that had to be loved by men, that perplexity morphed into devastation. Did they not know that the fulfilling love that their hearts longed for was one step away? They had the Ultimate Groom waiting for them at the alter and they were chasing after love that wasn't even there! That's when I knew that I had to write and write and write for the sake of God's fiercely beloved feminine hearts. These writings on my blog became the back-bone for my book, Putting Fairy Tales to Shame.

Women have been fed devious lies about the real definition of love. We have heard whisperings that we are not worthy of love. We have heard that once we sin we are "impure" or tainted beings. We have heard that having an in-love relationship with a man will be the pinnacle point of happiness in our lives. If I could just be better, prettier, holier… If I could just get him to notice me… If I would just get married… …then I will be happy.

Chapter two of Putting Fairy Tales to Shame reads, "If we are searching for love and still coming up empty, or worse broken, then it's time we step back and re-evaluate the definition of love. The love that we have been taught over the years that has been blinded by lies cannot be the same love that ebbs from the heart of our God. His perfect love is heartbreakingly camouflaged by our sin-filled world."

God's definition of real love is revealed with radiance and poetry in a story starring a prostitute. In the Biblical book of Hosea we find God telling his faithful prophet Hosea to marry a prostitute named Gomer. I don't know Gomer; but I know God designed her feminine heart, just as He did yours and mine. As she chased after the attention and materials of men, leaving behind her faithful husband and children, we can know that she was not fulfilled.

What did Hosea do? He remained faithful. And more importantly, what did God do? He said this, "Therefore, behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak tenderly to her" (Hosea 2:14 ESV, emphasis added). God wants to use the heart ache, the sin, the wilderness that we feel to sit us down, still our souls, and whisper promises of love and unconditional acceptance. Then maybe, with healing hearts His daughters will be able to see that they are beautiful, victoriously free; and that He is currently waiting on bended knee, holding in His scarred hands a wedding ring. This ring represents the promise that He'll come back for you after preparing your place in Heaven with Him (John 14:3), it represents the Holy Spirit that He has given to you (Ephesians 1:14), and it represents the wedding feast that awaits us upon our arrival in Heaven (Revelation 19:7).

Dare to be wholly fulfilled. Dare to be unearthly romanced. Dare to be swept up in a love that will hold you close, guide you in romantic relationships on earth, and free you from past pain. It's a love that is putting fairy tales to shame.

Elisabeth is an author, speaker, and worship leader who desires to use God's truth, love, and presence to help young women become who their Designer created them to be. By determining the lies in our lives and overpowering them with Jesus' love, young women are healing from past relational pain, able to live constantly in God's presence, and learning how to have the best possible romantic relationships with men; all through falling in love with their Savior.

Day 1 of 7

Today is the first day of our 7 day journey of limiting ourselves to 7 foods.

I woke up before dawn feeling deprived.

HUH?

I seriously did, and I hadn't even started.  Pitiful, right?

The fact that I felt deprived without even ever facing real deprivation in my whole life just shows me how accustomed I am to luxury and abundance. Just the thought of limiting myself brought negative feelings. (Not to mention the fact that hubs and I just spent 4 days in Charleston--the cuisine capital of the south.)

I'm not going to publish our menus every day, but I'll give you a peek into what I've eaten today:

Breakfast--2 scrambled eggs, dry whole-wheat toast, water

Lunch--Sauteed onion and spinach sandwich, pear  (surprisingly delicious)

Dinner--Baked chicken, rice, spinach

Here's the upside...I HATE grocery shopping, and our trip to buy 7 foods yesterday happened really quickly.

Here's a strange twist...At the store we visited yesterday, there was no fresh spinach.  Evidently there was a freeze, and spinach is expensive and hard to come by.  What irony!  It made me think, though.  I am used to going to a grocery store that is not only full of food, it is full of almost any kind of food you can imagine from anywhere in the world.  What if food was scarce even in our grocery stores?  What if it was limited?  Truly food for thought and thankfulness.

Tomorrow I've got a special pre-Valentine's treat cooked up, but I'll be back later in the week to report in.  My bold declaration that I would blog every day this week is probably bogus, but I promise to update.  :)

Getting Started

Last week I wrote that starting Feb. 12, our family is going to limit our food intake to 7 foods for 7 days and follow with 3 more weeks of limited foods.

The natural question is one that my friends are asking--why?

The challenge came from reading the book entitled 7, but here are our reasons:

• As Jen Hatmaker has said, we want to simplify life so that God can be amplified.
• We want to be reminded that an overwhelming number in our world have limited foods accessible and are hungry.  Here are some links for inspiration:  The Poverty Diet (what American hunger is like), What the World Eats--photo essay from Time (pay special attention to picture #3)
• We want to take time to learn about countries where hunger is an overwhelming problem and take time to pray.  I'm going to make 30 cards with 30 countries and several facts about that country.  If I can figure out how to share those cards, I will!
• We want to spiritually grow from experiencing less.

Some of you were curious about the foods we chose.  Our family is varying just a little from the ones that Jen chose, but we're not doing it as long as she did so nutrition became slightly less important.  Our 7 foods are:

• Chicken
• Rice
• Pears
• Spinach
• Whole wheat bread
• Eggs
• Onion

After our first week is over, we'll limit our foods to chicken, fish, fruits, veggies and whole wheat bread.  (I know this isn't a big deal to lots of you, but our family currently does too much pre-prepared, processed foods.  It will be a challenge that's good for us!)

I have several friends on this journey with me, and I think part of this will be learning lessons about fasting.  Have any of you fasted?  What lessons have you learned through this discipline?

Winner!

The winner of the free registration for "Writing a Bangup Book Proposal" is Libba Phillips.  Congratulations, Libba!  On Tuesday I'll send you the information about joining the call.

For any of you who didn't win but would still like to join, click here to go to the registration page.  The cost is only $25, so invest in your dream!  Registration will be open through Wednesday the 6th, and the call is Thursday the 7th at 8:00.