Luke 12:31

Today I'm doubling down again with my girl Jenn from Jenn's Adventures for Speechless Sundays and Morgan at "quite" the blog for Saturday Morning Blog Hop (Yes, it's Sunday... i know...)

Speechless Sundays are for those things that leave us inspired, encouraged, and yes- speechless.  While the post itself may be speechless, it is not a requirement =)

I would like to shed some light on what my family and I have been going through and why I chose to go on a social media fast.

(confession: I did not fast.  I browsed blogs, Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest the entire time.  However, my time was significantly less than normal and my participation through comments and tweets was minimal.  At least in my opinion. -whoops!).

A lot of times I feel obligated to participate in social media.  I feel like if I don't, I'll be left behind and won't ever be able to catch up with everyone on current events, celeb happenings, trends, etc...  

Once I gave myself permission to be an observer and not a participant, I felt relieved and eventually renewed.

As a Christian, fasting for me means to sacrifice something I enjoy so that the void could be filled with God.  When the fast involves food, it usually means I rely on God and prayer to overcome discomfort and cravings.  

The purpose of this fast was to spend less time on social media and more time in prayer and Bible readings with my family.

My son has been sick for the past 6 months. Since July he has had 7 ear infections.

Seven.

As soon as we'd finish his round of antibiotics, he'd be good for about a week to 10 days.  

Then BAM.  More cold symptoms and overnight- an ear infection.

As a mom I often pray I could take on my son's suffering.  I am willing to take on his ear infections so that he won't have to suffer.

I prayed to God to bring healing to Phillip so that he may know what it's like to just be healthy and thrive.  

That is when God asked me to fast from blogging.  And social media.  

Over the past 2 weeks, I learned how to focus my time more on God and my family.  

While I didn't accomplish all I wanted to with the fast (social media is so darn tempting) I realized that it's not as great of a necessity as I thought it was.  

I also learned that I try to do to much and that I needed to slow down and focus on what's really important to me. 

For that reason, Carl and I decided to scrap all our New Year's resolutions (shocking, right?) and focus instead of building our relationship with Christ.

Our 2013 goals are still to join a ministry and a small group, as well as complete our devotions.  But all the other goals have been released.  

We know that by focusing on our relationship with Christ and each other, everything else will fall into place.  

Instead of focusing on our budget and fitness goals, we will be sure to spend our money wisely and to treat our bodies with respect.  

We won't get wrapped up in how many pounds we lose or how much money we save.  Yes, those things are important to us, but not top priority right now.

Our top priority is to strengthen our walk with Christ.

Ironically, since we've made that decision, we've been tested like no other.  One of our cars broke down, we've been confrontational with others, and our bills are piling up.  

Not the best way to start us off, huh?

But I know that as long as we stay focused on our #1 priority, the details in everything else will disappear.