We ate a tree: Our journey to the fasted lifestyle, pt.1

The past year and half has been tough.  If you have been keeping up with this blog or our lives at all, we have been in a serious funk.  Which is sad because this started a loooooong time ago.  Way before burdens came.  But I wanted to share what the Lord is doing in our hearts over the past month and a half.

A few months ago we filed our taxes and with taking a loss on our business we were able to get some money back.  We had invested alot of our personal money to the business and did not make near enough to cover expenses.  We got a nice little deposit from the government, invested back into the company and decided what we would do with our personal portion.

Well we have this tree. It is a beautiful mighty oak in our front yard.  We have two actually.  The one I'm speaking about is actually really close to the house and it's messing up our foundation.  I love this tree as I love the other.  They are old rooted trees that provide an amazing amount of shade so our electric bill stays low.  I fought to keep the tree until I found out our foundation was cracking in two places.  Sorry Charlie, that's a deal breaker.  You are out of here!

The one on the right is the tree in question

We decided that's what the bulk of the money will go to as well as a new computer.  Our old one crashed and were borrowing a friends laptop to do business.  (Love you Cat!) We are serious this time! What we purpose to spend our money on, we will. No if's and's or but's!

Well that didn't happen.  We have a little problem.  We don't like spending our money on gadgets, the latest clothing trend, or many material things per se.  We love to eat.  And eat.  And eat.  Not just eat as in make nice meals, but eat at restaurants and fast food. A lot.  Almost once a day in fact.  Whataburger, no brainer! Yes. Chips and Queso, um you know the answer.  Yes.  Fajitas for two, of course. Yes.

By the time we were prepared to contract with a tree service we look at our bank account and there is hardly anything in there.  Hmmmm, how in the world did that happen?  $15 to Whataburger.  $30 to El Bosque.  $12 to Sonic.  And so on.  You see where I'm going with this?

So essentially, we ate a tree.  We ate the money that would provide the service that would take care of the tree.  What do we have to show for it?  Not fun new things that we can play with or wear, but fatter bellies, bigger butts and a skinny bank account.  We have had a problem with this for years.  We eat our money and we are broker than broke because of it.  Yes we are essentially on a meager income as I was laid off in late 2010, but we do not treat our income the way it needs to be treated.

My heart could not take it anymore.  We lack so much discipline in this area!  I said that is it, no more eating out!!!  Yes, I used three exclamations in my spoken sentence.  Conviction had taken up residence in my heart and mind, not just rattled around as a thought of "oh we need to be better".  That was our last straw moment.

The Lord laid it on our hearts to make it a month without eating out at all.  So we began our journey which I will share.

I want to tell you that this is not about weight loss or saving money at all.  It is about obedience to what the Lord has commanded us to do.  Our main goal in this whole process is to seek His face and grow closer to Him.  Eating food is not a sin.  Eating the way we had been was.  We were blocking our hearts to what God has for us. He had to shout to us through this circumstance to get us to listen because we had removed ourselves so far from His presence that it was hard to remember what He sounds like.

I will give you a sneak peek though.  We are almost on week 5 and what a ride it has been!