The staff at Light did a three week fast of your choice.  Our pastors and majority of us did the Daniel Fast.  It was mine & Sean's first time to do it.  We really enjoyed the fast because we are trying to start living healthy and eliminating the foods we do not need.  My main struggle that I had with the food part was not eating chicken.  If you know me, you know how much I love chicken and how much I eat chicken on a regularly basis.  Sean also struggled not having meat towards the end.  Even though the fast is over, we plan on to continue to keep the foods we have been eating in our meal plan.  We have completely eliminated sodas from our choice of drinks.  I am still working on less coffee intake.  It's a work in progress :)

This fast has been helping us realize what we need to do spiritually.  For one, we both have forsaken our First Love and we starting to make Him the true center of our relationship.  This has been a little hard for us because we have had little time to devote to us and our devotion time.  We were so busy during our fast with things in our lives and it hasn't really slowed down.  So we are learning to balance this.  It is an adjustment that we must make but I am so excited to make this adjustment for us and our relationship with our Father.

One thing that has really stuck out to me towards the end of our fast is how I have become completely drunk and consumed in this world.  I have been consumed with others (which isn't bad) and I have been selfish.  It amazes me how I see things and let it consume me.  It may be because I am still trying to adjust to the life here.  I am not sure but I do know that it has taken me a while to get used to life down here.  I love it down here but it is hard when it is your first time to ever 'move' away from home.  Sean has been so great to me.. listening to me when I get home sick and when I reminisce.  He truly is an amazing husband.
 So with all that being said, I have started to really reading the Word daily again.  Right now it's been my daily devo's on my phone and I am thankful for them.  One thing God has really laid on my heart was becoming sober again,  here is a passage:

But as for you, speak the things which are proper for sound doctrine:  that the older men be sober, reverent, temperate, sound in faith, in love, in patience;  the older women likewise, that they be reverent in behavior, not slanderers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things—  that they admonish the young women to love their husbands, to love their children,  to be discreet, chaste, homemakers, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be blasphemed.
          Titus 2:1-5


I love this passage because it reminds me of part of my purpose here on earth.  We are here to stand out of the crowd by the way we live.  I have let myself forget my purpose but now that it is a new season for Sean & I, we are not letting this season go to waste.  We are so excited for God is doing in our lives right now.  We are excited to see the things come to pass that have been promised to us.  We are excited to be serving together as one for our King. 

Who are you? (Wednesday Wisdom)

I AM HIS BRIDE
I AM HIS DAUGHTER
I AM HIS PRINCESS
I AM A CO-HEIR WITH CHRIST
I AM BEAUTIFUL
I AM HIS CREATION
I AM MADE IN HIS IMAGE
I AM LOVELY
I AM WONDERFULLY MADE
I AM FEARFULLY MADE
I AM HERE ON THIS EARTH FOR A PURPOSE
I AM HIS SERVANT
I AM RAVISHED BY HIS LOVE
I AM WORTHY

LASTLY, I BELONG TO HIM!

WHO ARE YOU?

Christmas in photos.

 We finally got to make Gingerbread houses with some new friends!  Ashley is a RE/MAX Affinity real estate agent who is from Alabama.  So we became friends fast.  We had a great time hanging out with her & her husband that night.

 My gingerbread houses.

The gingerbread village.

Sean did a house but his broke.  We had some difficulty this year on the houses but we had fun!

 Our Candlelight Service on Dec 22nd.  Sean and I had to serve that night so we were both in the sound booth.  It was a great service.

Sean's parents enjoying Titan's love.

Our Christmas photo.

Titan loves my mom.  I love this picture.

This is from one of my girls back in Birmingham.  She did a fabulous job!  She doesn't even know that our last name means a tree planted by a river bed.  Psalm 1:3.

Spending last few minutes together on the way to the airport.

A Florida Christmas

This Christmas was different for both of us.  Our original plans were to spend it with Sean's family since it is his year for the holidays.  His family didn't do anything big this year so we were kind of at a loss of what to do.  As Christmas got closer, my mom wanted to come down and be with us.  Then we found out his parents were coming down too!  So our plans changed that were able to see our family.  Sean's parents came down the weekend before Christmas Day and spent the night with us.  They were able to visit our church and attend the Candlelight service.  On that Monday, Sean & I picked up my mom at the Tampa airport and then we drove to see Sean's grandparents for Christmas dinner.  We had a great time that night and I know Sean loved seeing his family.  We didn't get to spend Christmas Day with his family since Sean had to work Christmas Eve and the day after Christmas.  My mom stayed with us for the whole week of Christmas and I loved every minute of it.  It was hard to believe that it's been 3 months since I had seen my mom!  We didn't do much this Christmas but I think it was a good thing since we are trying to save money.

The one thing we did do was go see a couple of movies..  One request my mom wanted to see was FROZEN.  If you know my mom this is a big deal!  So we went to see it on Christmas Eve.  We loved it!  It reminded me of Wicked.  There was more music in the movie than we thought but I love musicals so I have no problem with that.  I realized Idina Menzel was the voice of Elsa half way through the movie and I got really excited.  I love her voice.  Kristen Bell plays Anna and I am a fan of her acting as well.  Can't wait to see The Veronica Mars Movie. 

Christmas Day, Sean and I saw Tyler Perry's Madea Christmas.  It was hilarious like all of the Madea movies.  We recommend it to everyone.  We didn't have a traditional Christmas meal since it was the three of us but we did have steak & some yummy broccoli that Sean and I made.  Sean's parents had to drive back to Louisiana on Christmas Day to be back at work. 

We made some eggrolls while my mom was here.  They are delicious as always! 

Even though this Christmas was different, I really enjoyed it.  The best part about this whole thing is that I got to spend it with my husband and our family.  Gifts were not our focus and I LOVED that.  We did receive gifts and we got to give a few to our loved ones but in the end nothing is better than spending time with those you love. 

The next post will have the photos of this Christmas season for us.