7. {a giveaway}

**As of 2/29 Giveaway is still OPEN (due to this being a super crazy week....my baby is turning ONE...all that to say, there is still time to enter....go for it!  Info on the bottom!**

Seven.  It's such a fun number isn't it?  I'm a fan!  So take the number seven.....then add the words, "an experimental mutiny against excess."  Yikes!  Part of me wants to run the other direction, the other part of me needs this so desperately.

Let me introduce you to my new friend.  Jen Hatmaker.  I was at the beach celebrating a friends wedding by staying at a beach house with another couple.  We had a great weekend and my friend Katie introduced me to Jen Hatmaker.  I borrowed Katie's copy of "Out of the Spin Cycle" to read in the swing out back our beach house and it spoke so deeply to my new mama heart that I ordered it as fast as I could upon returning home.   I also started following Jen on twitter and immediately became a big fan.

A little while later Jen twittered asking if any of her twitter friends would like to read a copy of her new book, "Seven, an experimental mutiny against excess."  Thankfully my sane side responded with yes, please!

I can not even begin to tell you how good this book is.  Maybe it's the season of life I am in.  Maybe it's I'm tired of the just "too much."  Maybe it's the fact that this is the message that we all need to hear.  I'm going to go with option E and say it's for me and for you.  May our hearts be open to receive this word from Him.

7.  What is this 7 all about.  It is about 7 things.  Things such as....Food. Clothes.  Spending.  Media.  Possessions.  Waste.  Stress.  It's about taking a different thing each month, evaluating it, and letting the Lord stir in your heart what He wants to say to you regarding each area.

I read this book front to cover, but it is definitely a book I now want to go back and actually do.  As in read a chapter a month and actually do it.

So how do we remove the excess in our lives?  We take food for example and we eat 7 foods for one month.  That's right 7.  And only 7.  Do you know how many different kinds of foods we eat each day.  I just put dinner in the oven and the recipe says "mix first 6 ingredients together"  and that was just the beginning! There were 3 more ingredients to go.  If I were doing 7 right now, dinner alone would fail me.

And Food is just the beginning.  Clothes.  Wear 7 clothes for a month.  Spending.  Only spend money at 7 different locations for the month.  So on and so forth until we've let the Lord Jesus work his way through these areas in our life.

7 is good.  7 is for me.  7 is for you.  I highly recommend it.

In the words of Jen in regards to fasting, "It's the means to the harvest.  Jesus, may there be less of me and my junk, and more of you and your kingdom.  Here we go."

You ready to jump in?  Jen and her people have graciously given me a copy of this amazing book to give away.

Want to win?  It's easy!  Just leave a comment telling me which area you especially want Jesus to come and do a work in.  For me, it's the spending.  We have a pretty tight reign on our finances and walk the Dave Ramsey way, but I know there is more we could do.  I want to invite the Lord to come and do His thing and have complete and absolute control of our finances.  And waste....yes, I'd love to become "greener" and plant a garden...that's a dream of mine.  Okay...it might be harder than I thought to tell me just one, but go ahead and try!

posted by Kristin @ February 24, 2012