40 days of Water

Today I want to talk about a commitment that my household has made. Heidi and I, and Carissa, have decided that for 40 days we will drink nothing but water as our beverage of choice at meals or at any other time of the day. This means that we won't drink a morning coffee, have a coke with lunch, and that when we travel we will have to do our best to ignore Starbucks. But we are committed to and can do it.

The idea is that for the forty days (Lent) between March 1 and April 9 (the Thursday before Easter) we will be "giving up" or sacrificing all beverages, other than water, to remember those that do not have clean water in prayer. By doing this we will also be celebrating and giving thanks to God for the blessing that He has given us through water.

Water is an awesome symbol of purity to those of us who have Pure water! We believe all people should have this perception of water--as a cleansing and pure element. "...let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water." Hebrews 10:22. We believe that all people should be guaranteed access to clean water to drink and for sanitation. We believe that water is a gift of God.

Each of us will keep track of the beverage we wanted to purchase to drink, or we will assign a value to that morning cup of coffee when we first get to work, and at the end of the 40 days we will donate what we saved to help dig clean water wells in Africa through Blood:Water Mission. We want to help this organization to give clean water to those who don't have a choice. You can learn more about the 40 days of Water by clicking on the banner above or here. If you would like to participate with us in this journey you can download this "scorecard" to keep track of the money you save by only drinking water over the "40 days of Water." You can click on the image below to be taken to a site to download the scorecard file.

So, will you take part in this with us? If so leave a comment so we can pray together for you; or send me an email, privately. We would love to see a lot of people get involved in this and see the fruits of this act of obedience. We will share with you at the end of the 40 days how much money we were able to save as a group of three (if you want to be included in the group just let me know)! We have never kept track of how much we spent on pop or coffee or milk or juice, so this could be very enlightening. (No need to be legalistic, we think it is okay to have milk in your cereal each morning). :-)

I will send a reminder on February 28th as we start the journey the following day. We believe the Lord will bless this.