A few years ago, God sort of began to wreck me a bit. With a move to a different church and then with a few well-timed books, my outlook slowly started to change. I’d say reading Crazy Love and Radical both did quite the number on me in regards to where our time and finances were going and how I looked at our possessions. In the midst of that, Dani and I started The Sisterhood of the Traveling Belt. I won’t say that all my materialism has disappeared but God is still at work.
I’d read Jen Hatmaker’s book Interrupted and then watched as her new book 7: An Experimental Mutiny Against Excess debuted. I followed Marla Taviano’s read-along but still didn’t read the book. For whatever reason, I just didn’t feel it was my time. And then Katrina from The Poorganic Life posted about needing another blogger to help blog through the book this summer and it was like a light bulb moment and I knew I needed to be involved. It was time to meet 7.
The point of 7 is to look at 7 areas of excess in our lives and then cut it out all while realizing how we could help others with the excess and be more grateful for what we did have. It’s right on par with what God had been doing in me. She’s like a soul sister I’ve never met. I mean, really. Eating more whole foods. Wondering why we dress up for church. Putting a cap on what we spend. Watching too much TV. All these things and more hit home. Jen took it a step (or 800) further and spent 7 months on each of the 7 areas doing some cut-throat activities that challenged her. One month she only ate 7 ingredients in all her meals. In another, she only wore 7 items of clothing. And on and on it went.
So Katrina is having us read the book and then do 7 mini challenges for the summer called Summer of 7. She has put together 7 bloggers that will all attempt a week of challenge from each category and then we each take a week to blog about one area. Mine is possessions. I feel it’s pretty fitting.
The rules are pretty much up to each person. She realized pretty fast that with everyone’s schedule it’d almost be impossible to enforce the same schedule for everyone. I’ve put together my own schedule. My plan is to roughly do the challenge from Saturday to Friday and then post about it the following Tuesday. Here’s what we’re looking at:
June 2-8 FOOD – I feel like I’ve been on one big food challenge since we went gluten free the past few months. I’ve learned so much about food and I honestly don’t feel like food is a huge sore spot of excess for me right now. So for this week, I’m doing no take-out, no desserts and only water to drink. Those are probably the 3 areas in which I do see excess.
June 10-16 STRESS – I’m going to do the 7 prayers in the book. We will be on vacation this week so I think it’s the perfect time to de-stress.
June 17-24 POSSESSIONS – I’ve been wanting to do a major clean-out of the house and I think it’s time. I want to take a day to do one room and then at the end I will do something…either a yard sale for Jen Hatmaker’s homes in Haiti, donate to Goodwill or give to individuals as needed.
June 25-30 CLOTHES – I will wear 7 articles of clothing all week. To be honest, being in the same jean shorts and a t-shirt all week isn’t that challenging for me, so I’m going to also go without makeup all week too. Hello, my name is Amy and I’m a Mary Kay consultant.
July 1-7 SPENDING – I’m planning to only buy groceries this week. No Amazon, no Target, no Wal-Mart, no CVS, etc. Now this is something FOR ME. If the girls need Tylenol or something, I’m buying it.
There will be a gap here. It’s birthday week in this house.
July 21-July 27 WASTE – I’ve been wanting to start composting and I think this is the right week to start.
July 28-Aug 3 MEDIA – No blogging, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Reader, general browsing, no TV and no cell phone use except for calls/texting.
OK, so I would LOVE it if some of you would join me? Surely there are some of you that want to cut some excess out of your life and like a good challenge? Don’t want to do all 7? Sure! Pick one area that is a sore spot (not the easy one!) and join up. Katrina has a linky over here where you can post an intro and then sub-pages so we can link up our individual category posts as well. Below is the *same* linky that you can enter it without hopping over to hers!
Wow that sounds like a great challenge! I look forward to your posts!
Becky recently posted…Duck Dynasty
Have you read the book yet? You would love it!
I haven’t yet. Honestly, I hadn’t heard about it until your post! I will check it out. One of my goals this summer is to read more. 🙂
Becky recently posted…Duck Dynasty
This is a super quick read. I read half of it in one evening 🙂
I will have to get it and read it!
Becky recently posted…Duck Dynasty
Ah, the no make-up thing . . . I really should do that. Why do you gals have to keep suggesting ways to make this harder? Thanks a lot.
Katrina recently posted…TSo7: My Schedule and the Button
Make-up has a funny place in my heart so it may not be a “thing” for you 🙂
I’ve read the book, and intended to read with Marla and the read-along but didn’t really take time to apply everything. Work got really crazy at the same time and I went into survival mode which means grabbing everything you could possibly need for the week in one trip to Target or Harris Teeter – not hardly the frugal route. As I’m preparing for my mission trip to Jamaica in July I’m really focusing all summer on possessions and am planning a major purge the week we come home from vacation, which is the same week you’re planning. If you want to do the yard sale together I’m in! Our street is prime for yard-saling.
dani recently posted…Some Splainin to Do
Yes! I’m doing a little dance. Would love to do that together! And go ahead and plan on all the girls selling lemonade and baked goods 🙂 My girls have been begging to do that…
Yes! That will be awesome – and will give them something to keep them preoccupied while I sell all their junk – haha. Perhaps they could use their proceeds for Compassion since that’s something they’re familiar with. We’ll talk more when I get back on the 17th.
dani recently posted…Some Splainin to Do
I really am so happy to be doing this challenge with y’all!!! I like your schedule…hoping to work on my own today!!!
Kristi recently posted…Taking on more for less
Amy,
This post hit me the wrong way I think. You know me, I like balance and these feels out of balance to me. And the scripture that came to me instantly was, I have come that you may have life and have it more abundantly. I know there is always a time that the Lord prunes us. Make sure he is doing it and not man or yourself! And of course, I’m checking my own self out if the Lord is trying to tell me something in this post, but right now, I don’t feel peace at all about it. I would have written or said this in private to you, but I’m feeling pretty strong about it and that there might be somebody out there that also needed to hear this.
Love you and I’m so proud of you!
Mom
I know the Spirit definitely pricked me about joining in. I don’t think this is any different than the 40 days of fasting, just doing different things every week. I will keep praying about it though, definitely don’t want this to have the opposite effect of what I’m intending.
I want to hear how July 19th-26th Media works for you. That seem like it would be the tuff one for you. But I also believe you are a VERY strong willed women. Good luck, I will be reading.
I have done these types of breaks before. I gave up Twitter for a whole 40 days I believe. I know I *can* do it. For me, it’s a matter I do WITH it.