Diet Coke Diet

 I absolutely LOVE Diet Coke, I could write songs, poems, or books about my love for Diet Coke.  I have vowed time and again to give them up, but I crawl back to them at a time of crisis….like 1:00 on a Friday afternoon, or a particularly late night when I need sleep, but I need to do homework more than sleep.  It would be safe to say that I am addicted to them.  I have made New Year’s Resolutions to give them up, New Year’s Resolutions to never give them up again, and I have repeatedly given them up for Lent…Praise the Lord for Easter!

In February after talking to one of our dear friends, about her husband’s bout with cancer and searching for a way to help, I thought back to our church’s Sacred Assembly they held over a year ago.  In the book of Joel it says,

“Declare a holy fast; call a sacred assembly. Summon the elders and all who live in the land to the house of the LORD your God, and cry out to the LORD.” (NIV)

During our Sacred Assembly we were asked to fast from something and use the time spent fasting to pray for specific needs.   I told Cullen that night I was going to fast from Diet Coke and each time I wanted and needed a Diet Coke I would pray for our friends, their health, their situation, and that their needs were met.

The first week of my fast was serious, my prayers were definitely cried out to the Lord and if anyone could have heard my prayers they would have laughed…because at the moment a craving was flung on me, my prayers would begin.  Eight weeks into the fast and I still struggle with my wants and I turn to the Lord and lift up our friends, but more than my cravings I find myself in the habit of just lifting them up through out the day craving or not. Have I caved...yes, I'm human and I have had three carbonated beverages in the time of fast, but for the most part I've stuck with it.

My Diet Coke Diet has not taken any pounds off, but it has given me an excuse to pray more and with direction.