Finishing up week ONE and Starting week TWO

Declutter your life- Week 2 

How are you all doing? I am so excited to FINALLY send out this email and find out how your new adventure is going!! I hope your week was a success, in that you felt a little lighter, a little more purposeful and a little happier! I hope you are feeling closer to your Father in Heaven and his love. I have gone back and forth between feeling totally inspired and excited, then feeling the adversary trying his usual tricks to discourage me from growing. But good is definitely winning! 

Before we get to the survey, let’s talk about the rotating challenge for this week…DECLUTTER your life! We are going to ask ourselves two questions. Where are the minutes in my life going? Are there negative things in my life that are keeping me from feeling the Spirit, and God’s love as strongly as I could be? God’s love is constant and always around us. It’s up to us to reach out to him! His arm is already outstretched. What is in our way? 

I made 4 new years resolutions this year and within 24 hours I had already broken two of them (no m&m’s or soda)!! Haha! Oops! But the other two are going strong. The first goal I set is to go to the temple once a week (a huge blessing…and so far, I’ve done it!) and the second was to declutter my life! 

That night, I deleted all the games from my phone. There were only a few (Words with Friends, Trivia Crack, Scramble with Friends) but I found that my life was being sucked away in 2, 4 and 6 minute intervals. That stupid little red badge in the corner of the icon was always telling me it was my turn and it was also giving me a little stress thinking that the other person was waiting for me to take my turn. Deleting those games felt SO good and I haven’t missed them at all! I’m sure my friends understand why I disappeared (I hope)! I also began to realize how much of my time I was wasting watching TV shows in the evenings when hubby was at work and kids were doing homework. I love to watch decorating and cooking shows and Shark Tank but I was getting sick of watching other people create beautiful things and live out their dreams instead of living out my own! So, I’ve cut down significantly on those things as well and I’m so happy with the positive, creative and uplifting things I’ve replaced them with, especially doing this challenge with you all! I know that this challenge would NOT have come together if I hadn’t cut those things out of my life. 

I know sometimes we need a little break and to relax and unwind, for SURE… and there are days, months (years) where we are coping with extremely difficult situations and we are just in survival mode, and that’s just fine! However, sometimes we are just in a rut, or being lazy! It really hit me that our time really incredibly valuable and every morning we get to decide if we are going to be productive, positive, and creative, or if we are just going to get by. 

Maybe you are doing a great job with your time management, but you have cluttered areas in your home, car or office that could use some attention. Being in clean, organized surroundings can also help us feel the Spirit more clearly.

Even more importantly, do you have big issues that need to be addressed? Are you watching or doing things that are blocking you from feeling the Holy Ghost and God’s love as fully as you could? Do you have underlying emotional issues that are hurting your spirit? Get rid of them!! What are you waiting for? For years and years I suffered from bulimia, thinking that since it wasn’t explicitly a “sin” that it wasn’t hurting anyone. It was just a personal problem/issue/decision. I never knew how much it was hurting my spirit until I was finally free!! All that time I thought I was as happy as I could be. I had no idea how much that one thing was holding me back and dampening my joy. But I didn’t have to wait until I was healed to feel the Spirit working on me and to feel God’s profound love for me, but I did have to start taking steps in the right direction. With a lot of prayer and faith (though there were many times I thought I was a lost cause) my steps led me to a full and lasting recovery. You deserve to be free of anything that is holding you back! This week could be a big step in helping you be free! You deserve it and you have help, lots of it! All of the things we are doing in this challenge will help you with any struggle, but don’t be afraid to get professional help too. I had several counselors  who listened to my struggles, and taught me truths that were essential to my recovery (and went on medication for a year). I know the Lord led me to them and I know he can help you know what your next step will be. You can do it! (I am always available to talk about ANYTHING, ANYTIME if you need a friend. I mean it! 480-236-2326)

Give yourself a point for every day this week that you don’t do the things that used to waste your time, or distract you from the Spirit, from bigger, better goals (I REALLY hope you will keep this up the rest of the 12 weeks!). You could give yourself all 7 points if you make a big step forward in getting help with a problem. Maybe tell someone about your struggle (a spouse, a friend, a parent, a bishop). Set an appointment with a counselor or follow through on promptings you’ve received about how to get better. It will feel so good!!

A SCRIPTURE for you this week: While in the temple on Thursday, I was praying about all of you doing the challenge and wanted to know what Heavenly Father would have you know this week. He totally inspired me to look at Alma chapter 32 (Book of Mormon). I already knew this was a great chapter on faith and planting the seed, but my heart skipped a beat as I read about “THE TREE OF LIFE!” I didn’t remember that being in there! Please read this chapter, especially the last 5 or 10 verses where it talks about the TREE, where it is, and how it gets there and how to take care of it! I was kind of freaking out about how perfect this chapter was for us and how much our loving Father is aware of our little group. He is definitely interested in what we are doing and is cheering us on! I want to talk more about what you learn from this and how you can apply it to your life later on in the week. Please read it!! 

It’s been so fun to meet some of you this week and visit with old friends doing the challenge and what they have experienced so far. I see some great things on the horizon!

Go to this link and take the SURVEY! Please complete by midnight tomorrow (Monday) night, so I can get the results out on Tuesday! 

The MYSTERY challenge is IN the survey! Good luck this week!! Keep saying your prayers and you will have help! I love you so much and so does our Father in Heaven and His son, Jesus Christ and the Holy Ghost!

Lots of love!

Sarah 

480-236-2326

www.treeoflifechallenge.blogspot.com