So...

Have you ever tried to do what everyone else is doing (even when it's a really, really good thing) and you just cannot seem to do it?  Well, I am in my forties and I am still learning that just because it is really, really good - doesn't always mean I can do it how someone else says it needs to be done.  

There have been so many things over the past ten to fifteen years of living here where I have tried really, really hard to fit into someone else's idea of what life should look like.  Sometimes it has been to make friends, sometimes it has been trying to find a church home that works for us, sometimes it has been to have a clean house or lose weight or go on a sugar fast to grow in my relationship with the LORD.  Sometimes it has been trying to meet everyone's social expectations of us...& we learned through some brutal life lessons, that is just NOT going to happen.

But the thing is, if the plans someone else made doesn't fit in with our needs and/or into our season of life, it is going to be like banging your head on a brick wall.  

For example, when I tried my best to keep to the flylady cleaning routine, I ended up just basically feeling like a failure all of the time, overwhelmed with emails on what I should be doing, and a messy house at the end when I finally said, "Ummmm, I don't think this is right for me".

Or when we tried to attend a church and make friends with a group of people that we just did not fit in with.  

Or trying for what feels like the 554th time to do a sugar fast with a group of people (&by myself) for forty days following a book (which is a wonderful book!) and not being able to do it the way that everyone else seems to be able to do.  

Or trying to do a boxed curriculum with preset days and times and subjects...

DID NOT WORK.  

Every single time.  

And the discouragement that follows - BLEH!!!!

So, I decided something.  Just like it took a long time to find our church home, just like it took a long time for me to find a decluttering and cleaning routine that sticks, just like it took doing some out of the box (for me) things to tackle my weight and exercise needs...this sugar fast - it is going to take a different approach for me.  

I am going to do forty Fridays - fast from sugar - for forty Fridays.  That is what I can do in this season.  And that is ok.