Week 43

Recommit - think baby steps.

I never thought ten years ago that I would be living on a mini-farm or that we would have chickens.  I'm sure my son never thought he would be feeding chickens in the morning before starting his school day! 

I am where I am today through baby steps.  Eating a diet of 100% real foods created by God is now routine and very natural for us.  This has not always been true.  If you read my story, you know that my commitment was based on knowing how important diet is to health and wanting my boys to be healthy.  Because I had this motivation that was so important to me, I did not get discouraged and go back to the typical American diet. 

I thank God for all the ways He has blessed me in this area of my life.  I love having a large garden and fruit trees and chickens.  I hope to continue to add more and more animals and plants on our mini-farm, plus there are so many more things I want to learn.  For instance, I want to make my own summer sausage and my own crackers.

Before we moved here when I did not have much land to produce my own food, I researched and found local sources for my eggs, produce, meats, etc.  I still use many local sources for many of the foods we still don't produce.  It takes baby steps, starting with the basics and adding more and more God-made things (and eliminating more and more man-made things).  

Have I slipped up and fallen off track?  Of course, many times, but the key is to recommit and start anew rather than getting discouraged and giving up. 

So this week, take time to sit down and evaluate where you are.  The weekly challenges are baby steps to help you to gradually change your diet from the typical American diet to a diet of foods created by God to nourish our bodies.   

Some challenges have probably been easy for you and they are now regular habits.  Others, you may have skipped, or felt at the time they were impossible to tackle.  Still others, may have been things you did for a week or two but in the busyness of life you forgot about them and quit.  It is this third category that I want you to focus on this week. 

Look through the list of weekly challenges and find one or more that you had been doing, that is not that difficult for you, and recommit to adding it back into your daily routine until it becomes a habit.

Remember, this is a journey.  Just because you have fallen off track, don't give up.  Start again, taking baby steps, implementing just one or two things.  Soon you will look back like me and be amazed at how far you have come!

"Because of the Lord's great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail.  They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness."  Lamentations 3: 22 - 23