The Hopewell House: 7

7

1 Comments

Last semester my friend Natalie and I started a women's small group.

We both were looking for ways to connect with other women in our church, when next thing we knew Dave was talking us into hosting our own Bible study on Sunday mornings.

It's been a really fun experience so far and I'm loving all the new women I'm meeting through this!

This current semester we are doing a study on Jen Hatmaker's book, 7.

I'm really enjoying it so far and really feel like it's going to challenge me far beyond my comfort zone. It's also been a refreshing perspective on what fasting is and how I can incorporate fasting into my own life.

Just a quick synopsis for those of you unfamiliar with the book, 7 is about Jen Hatmaker's seven-month experimental mutiny against excess, tackling seven areas of over-consumption in the spirit of a fast; a fast from greed, irresponsibility, apathy, and insatiability. Each area boiled down to just seven choices for a month:

Food.
Clothes.
Possessions.
Media.
Waste.
Spending.
Stress.

Only seven foods for a month. Only seven pieces of clothes for a month. Give away seven things we own a day for a month. Eliminate seven forms of media for a month. Adopt seven substantial habits for a greener life. Spend money in only seven places. Practice "seven sacred pauses" a day and observe the Sabbath...a deeply reduced life to find a greatly increased God.

For our Bible Study, we've decided to take one week for studying each chapter and then the following week we take the concept and create our own type of fasting for the next 7 days.

This week we reviewed the chapter on Food. Now in Jen's case, she chose seven foods that she was only allowed to eat for a month (no spices, sauces, etc). For her fast, she went with chicken, eggs, whole-wheat bread, sweet potatoes, spinach, avocados, and apples. Her friends who were doing this challenge along with her chose 7 different third world countries and ate diets similar to these countries.

Now since I'm breastfeeding and know that some foods just "work" for me and my supply, I decided choosing only 7 foods might not work the best for me unless I strictly wanted to live off Gatorade, oatmeal, and belVita Oatmeal Cookies.

So instead, I decided to take a cleaner eating approach, to eat more with intention than by convenience.

I guess somewhere mid pregnancy, I replaced my balanced diet with bagels, pizza, and doughnuts because... well... pregnancy. But then it hit me post baby that yeah I was still working out, but I wasn't taking care of my body and probably wasn't sharing the best nutrients with my baby.

It hasn't been the easiest week so far, especially because I haven't done much grocery shopping, but it's been so good for me to really think about the things I'm eating and consuming.

It's also changing the way I pray, not just praying out of convenience, but really taking the time to pray intentionally.

I've also noticed how much less waste there is within my fridge as the well meaning vegetables are now actually being consumed and food that's sat in my pantry for the last year is now being utilized.

I'm really excited to keep reading through this book and to really stepping outside of my convenient norm.

[More to Come]

Has anyone else read through 7? What were your thoughts on the book?

Have you done a similar challenge?

About Post Author

The Hopewell House

Morbi leo risus, porta ac consectetur ac, vestibulum at eros. Fusce dapibus, tellus ac cursus commodo, tortor mauris condimentum nibh, ut fermentum massa justo sit amet risus.

The Hopewell House

7

About Post Author

The Hopewell House

1 comment:

Welcome!

Follow Us

Popular Posts

Blog Archive

About Post Author

The Hopewell House

You may also like

1 comment:

Welcome!

Follow Us

Popular Posts

Blog Archive