At the mention of today's topic I know it won't be a popular one but necessary for the beginning of my series on 31 days of Discipline. To be honest I've never done well at fasting, usually most people associate fasting with giving up food and with me being hypoglycemic, it made it difficult. That was my first excuse then I heard of other types of fasts and well I didn't have an excuse, I just wasn't disciplined!
First of all fasting means giving up something you enjoy or need for a designated period of time. In the Old Testament, fasting was common for entire nations who were seeking God's help or direction (2 Chronicles 20:3, Jonah 3:5). In the New Testament, Jesus fasted (Matthew 4:2) and taught His disciples about fasting (Matthew 6:17-18). Fasting should be a normal part of our lives; it allows you to focus your time and attention on God. When combined with prayer and time in God's Word, fasting strengthens your faith and helps you become more confident of God's power.
Our family is in a new season and it began with fasting but let me give the back story first. My husband had been training for a full marathon and then one morning, August 13th, he wakes up and has this crazy idea that instead of doing a marathon he wants to train for an ironman! Let me paint the picture a little better for you... My husband and I are happily in love and been married 8 years, he is on staff at a church of approximately 3500 people, he is the full-time youth pastor, just started a discipleship program as well, we have a 3 year old and a 1 year old and then he wants to add the training for an ironman! If you are not familiar with what an ironman is, it is one of a series of long-distance triathlon races consisting of a 2.4-mile (3.86 km) swim, a 112-mile (180.25 km) bike and a marathon 26.2-mile (42.2 km) run, raced in that order and without a break. Most Ironman events have a strict time limit of 17 hours to complete the race, where the Ironman race starts at 7:00 AM, the mandatory swim cut off for the 2.4-mile (3.9 km) swim is 2 hours 20 minutes, the bike cut off time is 5:30 PM, and all finishers must complete their marathon by midnight. Let me just say training is intense and demands a lot of time! At first I thought my husband was joking, you see he only even started exercising a little over a year ago at the news that he has inherited his dad's high cholesterol and is currently at risk for a heart attack. People don't just wake up and decide they want to do an ironman! Have I painted the picture clear enough yet? Now, my husband was honestly seeking my opinion and approval. I obviously never want to stand in the way of anything my husband wants to set out to achieve so the negotiations began. You see I know this means some early mornings, late nights and long Saturday's training so I had two stipulations in order for me to be fully supportive and on board.
First stipulation: For the duration of training (9 months) there is to be no tv! Yep you read that right, no tv.
Wasn't sure if my husband would go for that one - he loves his ESPN and we always enjoyed our shows together like "Biggest Loser," "The Amazing Race," and other similar reality shows. I had been wanting to get rid of cable for quite a while now. Honestly it is such a time zapper and easy convenience to get distracted and not focus on things that really matter. I'd get so aggravated when the tv was on and children got ignored or we didn't spend quality time together. I was always saying I didn't have time for... But the reality was I didn't make time, instead I'd choose to veg in front of the tv and be unproductive. I wanted to reclaim my life! Surprisingly Micah was up for the challenge. Second Stipulation: Well we'll just have to talk about that in another post!
So we have successfully not watched tv since August 13th and I've been amazed at the time I have to get things done, even if it's just having a little "me time" after the kids are down, it is so worth it. Honestly I don't think we are missing anything by not having the tv on anyway, it was getting hard to find good wholesome shows anyway.
And there you have it, the discipline of fasting - we are giving up tv in order to increase the value of the time we do have together as a family. My family is worth it, and so is YOURS!
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