Day 1: 5:00 a.m. is really early

It's day 1 of the Summer of 7 stress/prayer challenge.  I'm officially just going to call it the "Prayer Challenge", because that's what I'm focusing on.

I was suppose to get up at 5:00 a.m. and guess what I found out... 5:00 a.m. is VERY early!  And I confess, I hit snooze and slept until 5:39.  It did feel good once I got up to sit and listen and read my Bible and enjoy quiet and sunshine and coffee and Jesus.

I decided that for this week I will pause at 7 specific times each day to pray for 7 specific things.

8:15 a.m. - Kids/Education

10:15 a.m. - Poor and oppressed

12:15 p.m. - The Fatherless

2:15 p.m. - Mothers around the world

4:15 p.m. - My marriage

6:15 p.m. - Church (my local church and the church as a whole)

8:15 p.m. - Outreach Team (A ministry I just joined)


P.S.  I was very glad this morning to put on different clothes and I was most excited to put on some big earrings.  Funny thing,  most of the clothes I'm wearing are clothes from the 7 challenge except my shirt.

Day 12... I think

I think it's Day 12 of the Summer of 7 clothes challenge, but I could be wrong.  I'm losing track.

Last week in one of my posts I said I was being moved to action.  One of my best friends asked me, "What kind of action?  What are you doing?"  I love this friend!  She is not afraid to ask me the hard questions.  She will not let me get away with just talking about action.  She will make sure that I do what I say I'm going to do.

"Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind." -Romans 12:2

This verse really speaks to the action that is happening right now.  I am working hard to be transformed by the renewing of my mind.  I am turning away from the pattern of this world.  You might be thinking, "That's lame!  She's totally avoiding real action!"  But here's the deal, I want this 7 experiment to change me... and I want to stay that way.  I don't want it to be some thing I did during the Summer of 2012, and then I went on with life as usual.  I want to be changed.  I want to be transformed.

"We are what we repeatedly do.  Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit." -Aristotle

I don't want to just do a few acts of kindness and charity so I can feel good about myself.  I want to create new habits so I can be more useful to God and hopefully do good for other people... for the rest of my life.  

In his book "The Hole in Our Gospel" Richard Stearns writes, 

"The most common view held by Americans is that poverty is the absence of things.  If only the poor had things like nutritious food, medicines, better houses, clean water wells, adequate clothing, agricultural tools, and seeds, they would no longer be poor.  This is why we throw a dollar in the panhandler's cup, give our old clothes to Goodwill, and take short-term missions trips to other countries to dig irrigation channels, teach English, or build schools.  But this kind of charity, while it has it's place, can backfire on naive 'Good Samaritans' who discover that those who receive their gifts are soon back asking for more of them.  They saw an easy way to have their needs met and became dependent on the givers for their livelihoods.  While providing things like these in urgent situations is sometimes necessary, it neither addresses the underlying stubbornness of poverty, nor is it sustainable; it just creates a dependency.  Frankly, giving things to the poor does much more to make the giver feel good than it does to fundamentally address and improve the condition of those in need."

This is why my plan of action is to transform my mind and my habits.  Because they way he described the American giver describes me... and it makes me cringe.

 

Day 11: Cleaning out

I went through my closet today as promised.  The undertaking was not as big as I thought it would be.  Probably because I've been purging things ever since I read "7" some months ago.  So today I came up with 23 things to get rid of.

I know... it doesn't look like much.  It really isn't.  But when I counted all of my clothing including: nice shirts, t-shirts, pajamas, workout clothes, sweats, sweaters, shoes, boots, coats, scarves, dresses, jeans, tank tops, shorts, and swimsuits, I have about 85 items.  I still have a few coats I could give away, but I just couldn't do it today.  I'm a work in progress.

But I am making progress.  Last month I gave away 5 of my 6 purses.  Which means I'm a 1 purse lady now.  Boy does that make life easier.  Not having to dig through purses because I've put my wallet in one of the 6!  I've weaned my scarves from 6 down to just 2.  I went from 4 sweaters to 2.  

Slowly but surely I'm letting go.  My "stuff" will no longer own me... I will own my "stuff".

I'm the problem

I noticed something funny today... I'm the problem.  With the laundry that is.  I usually have mountains of laundry.  I mean the dirty clothes is usually overflowing.  But I looked at my baskets today and this is what I saw:

Wait!  I want you to see an aerial view

This just isn't the norm in my house.  These 3 bins are usually full to the brim to the point of overflowing onto the floor.  And I promise I didn't hide the dirty clothes anywhere.  I haven't been doing laundry any more than I normally do, which only means one thing... I have the biggest problem with clothes in my house.  This whole Summer of 7 challenge is opening my eyes.

You know what this means?  Tomorrow I'll be posting pictures of all the clothes I'm giving away.  Clearly this needs to be a more permanent lifestyle change.  And I guess I can't pass the blame to my family anymore

Day 9: The sleepover

Noting too exciting happening with my clothes today.

But my son is going to a sleepover at his buddies tonight.  It seems we overlooked a very important clothing choice in his 7... PAJAMAS!!!  He usually sleeps in his undies at home and sleepovers are a very, very rare occasion.  He does have jammies, but he is a legal beagle.  I asked, "Are you sure you don't just want bring some jambes?"  His response: "Yes I'm sure!  I'm sticking to my 7."

So, he'll just sleep in his sweats.  I'm proud of him!

Day 8: Blah!

OK, now I'm starting to get bored of these clothes.  Actually, I was feeling really excited this morning, because I had found a new combination of clothes. (Which is hard to do when you only have 7 items of clothing)  It was all good until we got into the car after our Friday doughnut run.  Viv yells out, "Hey Mom!  You got something on your arm."  I look and this is what I see:

A lovely blob of chocolate right on the sleeve of my white shirt.  Very cute!  "Oh well" I say to myself.  I'll take it off and just wear the blue shirt I was wearing over it.  So I take off the blue shirt and what do I find?

Chocolate.... on the back of my blue shirt.  How does that even happen?!  The ironic part is that as we were leaving the store, Lola was commenting on how clean I stayed while eating my doughnut.  Not so much I guess.  

No biggie, I'll just wear my black shirt... that's in the washer.  Or my hoodie... that's also dirty.  So for now I'm wearing a tank top, which is one of my 7 approved underclothes.  This wouldn't be so bad if I lived in Hawaii or Florida or Arizona.  But I live in Washington... the cold part.  The part that is still 50 degrees in June.  

This makes me glad that I've extended my challenge to 2 weeks.  Today I am forced to be uncomfortable, and really it's not that uncomfortable.  I'm just kind of a wimp.  I mean, I was able to come inside my warm house and put my clothes into a washing machine.  

But when I walk down the driveway to get my mail and the cold breeze hits me, I get a reminder of the many people who have little or no clothing.  I think about the people who slept outside last night.  I think about the kids who might be embarrassed to be wearing the same clothes to school today that they wore yesterday.  And when I have the tangible reminder of these things my heart hurts for them and I am moved to action.

On the band wagon

I just talked my son into doing the next week of "7 clothes" with me.  It really wasn't that hard and it comes as no surprise that he would be excited about doing something like this.  He is big on not wasting things, especially when it comes to laundry.  And have you seen his shoes??

This picture was taken probably a month ago.  They're even worse now, and he still wears them to school.  I'm not sure whether to be proud or appalled. Anyways, it will be fun to have him doing the challenge with me.  His 7 are:

1. Black puffy jacket

2. Red Mario shirt

3. Black astronaut shirt

4. Gray sweats

5. Jeans

6. Karate pants

7. Karate shirt

I told him he didn't have to include his karate clothes since he only wears them twice a week to karate, or he could have them count as 1 item.  But he insisted on including them.  He's such a legal beagle in that way.

I'm cheating

I have a confession to make... I'm cheating on my 7 articles of clothing.  And it's with this necklace.

It may not look special, but it so is!  This necklace was made by African women, out of beads made from old magazines.  A good friend gave to me some years back.  I thought it was cool.  But it wasn't until last week that I realized how amazing it really was.

Last week I finished the book "Kisses from Katie" by Beth Clark and Katie J. Davis.  If you haven't read it, READ IT!!!  In the book she tells the story of some women in Uganda who live in an incredibly poor village.  Many of these women are single mothers.  Desperate to provide for their families, some of them would sneak out after their kids were asleep and prostitute themselves.  One story is told of a woman who would brew alcohol to sell in order to make money.  But if it didn't sell, "she took the mash from which it is made home to her family and they would swallow it until they fell asleep.  She was making her children drunk so they were unable to feel the pains of hunger."

Can you even imagine how painful this must be for these mothers!  So they teach the women how to make these necklaces.  They provide a way out.  A way for these mothers to provide for there families with dignity.  

So yes, technically I'm cheating.  But I live in a place where I often complain about too much laundry, nothing to eat (even though my refrigerator is full and my cupboards are stocked), and feeling overwhelmed by the demands of life.  But really, the demands on my life pale in comparison to the weight these Ugandan women are facing.  

But every time I wash my hands and see myself in the mirror and see the necklace around my neck, I think of these women.  I think about how many women are hurting and needing and living in the most desperate situations.  And I think about how I need to stop thinking about me and start getting my eyes more on Jesus, so I will be more surrendered to Him, and be ready for Him to use me however he wants.

Summer of 7: Day 4 of clothes

Really loving only having 7 items of clothing to choose from.  It makes life so simple.  Last night I was folding laundry and was thinking how much easier it would be if my family all only had 7 items of clothing all the time!  Not sure that would really work out in the long run, but it really got me thinking.

I went to hang up some of my clothes and guess what?  I have 5 of the exact same shirt!  5!  Wouldn't it be creepy if it was 7?  But anyways, who really needs 5 of the same shirt.  They are all different colors, but still.

I know it's only been a few days, but I'm not even missing my other clothes.  Not even a little bit.  It got me to thinking, what if I only had 7 of each clothing item?  7 pairs of pants (including sweats and/or work out pants) 7 shirts, 7 pairs of socks etc....  Interesting....

Summer of 7: Day 3 of clothes

Day 3 has been pretty good. Took the kids swimming at the Y and wore my swimsuit.  I weighed my options: Cheat a little and have an enjoyable day with the kids or be a legal eagle and go stir crazy in the house and break my promise to Viv.  I voted to cheat.  Everyone is happier because of it.

On a good note, the tight jeans from yesterday are much more comfortable today.

One interesting part of the day was doing the Muscle Toning class at the Y wearing my Converse.  I mean, it could have been worse.  But boy was I ever thankful that I usually have the option of wearing some nice running shoes.  The Converse weren't terrible.  But they were very flat and my toes were all squished.  Plus, this is my vain side coming out, I looked a little ridiculous.

In the end the shoe thing is meaningless.  There are children in parts of the world that walk many miles every day with bare feet just to get clean water or food or to get to school.

Lord help me to stop thinking about myself so much!