Menu

lent

This Will Always Be My Favorite Lent Story

0

Lent looks different every year for our family. For one, it wasn’t even something we acknowledged growing up in our particular community of faith. But I really love the discipline of fasting and I especially appreciate when communities come together to fast collectively. This year, however, I’m not fasting from anything food related. I’m really not fasting from anything at all. Rather, I’ve made a commitment to prayerfully approach the Father on behalf of several people I know who need the support of prayer right now. I set these little alarms on my phone and all throughout the day I […]

A Gift From the Quiet

, ,

Last year during Lent the children and I chose to embrace a little bit of silence each day. To listen for God. To hear things we don’t normally hear. And in order to make time for silence, we had to stop, give up what we were doing in those moments. Remembering today the gift it gave us… In the quiet we’ve been sitting. Together in the same room, no talking, simply being. Some close their eyes, some keep them open, and at different times we look at the wooden cross hung on our mantel. Even Tessa participates, though her three-year […]

Holes

, , , ,

We’ve given up chocolate. Or coffee. Or Facebook. We’re doing without meat. Or complaining. Or Sugar. And in this giving up, there are empty places left behind. The instinct of our flesh will be to fill those holes with something it wants. Something it convinces us we need. If we gave up chocolate, we’ll increase our sugar or find comfort in something else sweet. If we gave up Facebook, it’s likely we’ll spend more time on Pinterest. If we gave up coffee, we’ll probably find another drink that satisfies the thirst of our flesh. If we gave up meat, there’s […]

The Skinny on Fasting

, ,

Just a few more days before Lent begins! After trying every flavor of the baked paczki at Give Thanks Bakery this coming Tuesday, I will begin forty days of fasting as we anticipate the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. For those of us who didn’t grow up with this Lenten practice, we tend to interpret this time of fasting as simply “giving something up.” We choose something we really like, and do without it for 40 days. And maybe, just maybe we pray a little bit more because our giving up reminds us to. But surely there’s more to […]