And Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness for forty days, being tempted by the devil. And he ate nothing during those days. And when they were ended, he was hungry.
The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread.” And Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone.’” And the devil took him up and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time, and said to him, “To you I will give all this authority and their glory, for it has been delivered to me, and I give it to whom I will. If you, then, will worship me, it will all be yours.” And Jesus answered him, “It is written,‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve.’” And he took him to Jerusalem and set him on the pinnacle of the temple and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here, for it is written,‘He will command his angels concerning you, to guard you,’ and‘On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.’” And Jesus answered him, “It is said, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’” And when the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from him until an opportune time.
(Luke 4:1-13 ESV)
Our church is doing 7 weeks of resisting temptation for Lent. This is Week 1, and it is fasting. Our home group leader and the booklet we have make it clear we should be smart when doing this, and maybe just give up one meal a day if that makes you more comfortable.
Normally, I eat 4 meals a day: breakfast at 4:45am, "first lunch" (as I call it, haha) at 8:45am, "second lunch" after I get off of work for the day around 2:00pm, and dinner around 6:30-7:00pm. For fasting week, I'm going to do only water at breakfast, skip second lunch, and eat minimally at first lunch and dinner, with no snacking (other than water) throughout the day. My medicine that I'm on won't really allow me to skip a whole day of food without getting really sick, so I figured this was the best I can do. This week will be a piece of cake compared to the weeks I have coming up, haha. I was already tempted to eat at breakfast, too. A coworker brought in homemade chocolate chip cookies, and I was about to go, "Okay, ONE cookie" and then she sent an email around and said they were chocolate chip cookies with NUTS, and I laughed and thought, "Well played, Jesus...I can resist cookies with nuts!"
So it's going to be a struggle. Not eating makes me nauseous/sick, but hopefully the two light meals out of four will be good enough to make me "suffer" but also keep me functioning, haha.
I don't usually like "giving up" things for Lent, because I feel like you're supposed to stop doing a bad habit for good, not just for 40 days. But the point of the first week is to live as Jesus did for just a brief span of time, and the rest of the weeks force me to give up things and instead pray more and read my Bible and just draw closer to the Lord. So I think this is a good thing. =)
For those of you giving up something for the next 40-something days, good luck! I know it's tough if you pick a big thing in your life, like coffee or soda. It'll be over before you know it.
Wednesday, February 22, 2012
Sunday, February 19, 2012
Has it been awhile, or what?!
I know, I know...I've been slacking. Updating a picture blog takes so long, so I am not going to do one of those today, haha. Plus I haven't taken many new pictures in awhile.
So I haven't done a SINGLE post in 2012. There's lots of little things to catch you all up on. Well, those of you that don't follow me on Facebook, although even THERE I've been commenting less and less. It's just been a super busy year! This year brought around training for a new part of my job, and that was three weeks of INTENSE training. But this new stuff I'm doing (still data entry) is much more challenging and makes my day fly by MUCH faster, 1:30pm is here before I know it.
That's right: I work from 5:00am-1:30pm now, Sunday thru Thursday. This is my second week for that schedule, the first week was tough to adjust to. I have no doubt I WILL adjust. It just was rough by the time the end of the week rolled around. I get up at 3:45am everyday, and I'm falling asleep around 9:00-9:15 every night.
It's ultimately a great schedule, it frees up a LOT of my afternoon for getting errands run, doing things around the house, etc. It's been a rough adjustment for Dewey, too, but he'll be alright in a few days. He likes me getting home earlier so he can nap sitting next to me, haha.
We have finally been able to join a home group through our church, The Village. It was such a blessing to get in, tons of couples were interested in joining them, and there were only spots for two couples: and we were one of them! I've met with the girls already, and tonight Andrew meets with the guys. Then we have a big get-together the following week for everyone, and we are super excited about everything! Having other believers to talk to and hold us accountable...this gospel-centered community is something Andrew and I have been spiritually hungry for, and we are so thankful the Lord impressed upon our leaders' hearts to reach out and ask us to be a part of it.
We're also diving into a study of the book of Galatians at church, and Andrew and I are loving learning more about the Bible. We bought a big study Bible to accompany our personal Bibles, and we are going to start doing Bible study with just the two of us during the week. We'll be doing even MORE so during Lent: The Village has challenged us to give up certain things each week: one week is fasting, one week is giving up a few hours of sleep everyday, one week is no social media (yikes!), and one of the weeks is TELEVISION AND MOVIES (triple yikes!!!!!). That will be SUCH a huge challenge for Andrew and me...and I'm weirdly excited about trying it! It will be a great way to channel our energy into Bible study.
We FINALLY bought the rug from Rooms To Go that has been on our minds for close to a year now. It's plush, pretty, and is the PERFECT starting piece to decorating our bedroom. We have found two shades of green paint that are SO much better than the color we originally chose. They are deeper, much more mossy/sage/olive-ish. After that, we will begin the long search for the perfect quilt/bedset, followed someday by a nice bedframe and bedside tables. A new ceiling fan is in order at some point, as well. Also something to put on the walls for some personality.
That's about it for now. We are continually amazed at the work the Lord does on our hearts and our lives as we grow closer to Him. We pray every night for our loved ones before we go to bed: if you have a specific prayer request, don't hesitate to send me a message so I can start praying for you about it. Love you all!
So I haven't done a SINGLE post in 2012. There's lots of little things to catch you all up on. Well, those of you that don't follow me on Facebook, although even THERE I've been commenting less and less. It's just been a super busy year! This year brought around training for a new part of my job, and that was three weeks of INTENSE training. But this new stuff I'm doing (still data entry) is much more challenging and makes my day fly by MUCH faster, 1:30pm is here before I know it.
That's right: I work from 5:00am-1:30pm now, Sunday thru Thursday. This is my second week for that schedule, the first week was tough to adjust to. I have no doubt I WILL adjust. It just was rough by the time the end of the week rolled around. I get up at 3:45am everyday, and I'm falling asleep around 9:00-9:15 every night.
It's ultimately a great schedule, it frees up a LOT of my afternoon for getting errands run, doing things around the house, etc. It's been a rough adjustment for Dewey, too, but he'll be alright in a few days. He likes me getting home earlier so he can nap sitting next to me, haha.
We have finally been able to join a home group through our church, The Village. It was such a blessing to get in, tons of couples were interested in joining them, and there were only spots for two couples: and we were one of them! I've met with the girls already, and tonight Andrew meets with the guys. Then we have a big get-together the following week for everyone, and we are super excited about everything! Having other believers to talk to and hold us accountable...this gospel-centered community is something Andrew and I have been spiritually hungry for, and we are so thankful the Lord impressed upon our leaders' hearts to reach out and ask us to be a part of it.
We're also diving into a study of the book of Galatians at church, and Andrew and I are loving learning more about the Bible. We bought a big study Bible to accompany our personal Bibles, and we are going to start doing Bible study with just the two of us during the week. We'll be doing even MORE so during Lent: The Village has challenged us to give up certain things each week: one week is fasting, one week is giving up a few hours of sleep everyday, one week is no social media (yikes!), and one of the weeks is TELEVISION AND MOVIES (triple yikes!!!!!). That will be SUCH a huge challenge for Andrew and me...and I'm weirdly excited about trying it! It will be a great way to channel our energy into Bible study.
We FINALLY bought the rug from Rooms To Go that has been on our minds for close to a year now. It's plush, pretty, and is the PERFECT starting piece to decorating our bedroom. We have found two shades of green paint that are SO much better than the color we originally chose. They are deeper, much more mossy/sage/olive-ish. After that, we will begin the long search for the perfect quilt/bedset, followed someday by a nice bedframe and bedside tables. A new ceiling fan is in order at some point, as well. Also something to put on the walls for some personality.
That's about it for now. We are continually amazed at the work the Lord does on our hearts and our lives as we grow closer to Him. We pray every night for our loved ones before we go to bed: if you have a specific prayer request, don't hesitate to send me a message so I can start praying for you about it. Love you all!
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