9 Out of 47

So today is day 9 of 47 days of Lent. As I said before, I gave up diet coke (I've had a 20+ year addiction to it) and posting on facebook (due to the fact I spent too much time posting previously).

The first couple of days I spent more time reminding myself to not reach for the diet coke or not to "like" a friend's post just because it had been habit to do so before. Giving up diet coke wasn't actually that hard. I replaced it with water and it was fine. Drinking diet coke at work was more about the motion of putting a drink to my mouth every 5 minutes, so switching it up to water hasn't made that much difference. It was usually by the time I got home that all I wanted to do was relax on the couch for about 30 minutes once Ella went to bed with a cold, fresh diet coke. This is where I was finding the biggest challenge. The at-home-diet-coke had apparently become a part of my routine and I'm not much for breaking routines these days.

So far I am still diet coke free. It's actually getting a little harder than when I was all "gung-ho" just 9 days ago for this challenge. I've found that I was turning to diet coke during a frustration job at work or when Ella got wild or even when I just needed a moment to deal with what life was handing me. Diet coke was my "dealing with it" mechanism. I had no idea. Needless to say, I'm having to actually cope and learn to figure things out without my go-to drink. It's hard, but not impossible. Well, not when I'm doing it for Christ. Let's be honest, if I was doing this for me, I would have handed myself 1000 different reasons as to why it was ok to have a diet coke and caved many days ago. This is just another example that we can't do anything without Christ. We should walk WITH Him in all we do.

Giving up facebook hasn't been bad at all. I hate that I'm not saying "happy birthday" to friends or telling them "I'm praying for you" when someone posts a struggle or tragedy. That part is hard and I almost convinced myself that telling someone I was praying was worth breaking my commitment, but decided that I could pray without posting. So I have been. It's actually been nice to just observe a few comments here and there, but not involve myself. Life before facebook, email and texting was so much more simple and really it was BETTER. I'm not sure I want to dive right back into facebook once Easter comes along.

So here we are, wrapping up day 9 of 47 and I am, without a doubt, counting down the days until Easter to drink my diet coke again. My family life is stronger than it's ever been and my relationship with Christ is better than I can ever remember. So until Easter, I will be drinking water, staying of the computer as much, reading lots more scripture and praying. It's not a bad life. Maybe it should just stay this way. God is good.