Making Lent Meaningful

Since my parents divorced when I was little I was raised a mix of religions.  My mother was Seventh Day Adventist.  Where my father was Episcopal.  Though we were more Catholic when he was married to his 3rd wife.  So I grew up celebrating Lent with my dad.

If you are unfamiliar with lent.  Basically it's about sacrificing something during Lent as a response to the sacrifice that Jesus made.  Some people think it seems trivial in comparison, but it helps you to remember what Jesus sacrificed for everyone.  It starts on Ash Wednesday and continues for the 40 days between it and Easter.  I know for those of you that can count your looking at the calendar and saying to yourself, "But there are 46 days between Ash Wednesday and Easter."  Before I could finish explaining this to my son he pops out and says "Math doesn't matter in religion!"  *face palm*  The 6 Sundays during Lent are like mini Easters and are a celebration over Jesus' victory over Sin and Death.

So what kind of things do you give up for lent?  Well in the past I've given up things that made me and everyone around me miserable like chocolate, coffee, sugar, wine, the internet...I think as I've matured I've started to realize what you give up shouldn't make you miserable and everyone around you miserable.  It should make you reflective and in the end make you a better person.  

I would suggest giving up things like negativity.  This might sound easy, but think about it, no negative movies, TV, the news, you might have to avoid certain people as much as possible, when people say negative things instead of responding likewise you may just have to excuse yourself from the situation.

Another idea is to give up clutter.  Sounds silly for those that have a clean house.  But for some people this would be a big deal.  Use the time during lent to go through stuff, give away clothes that you know you're never really going to wear again.  Get rid of papers you no longer need.  I helped my dad do this one year....ended up throwing out tax records from 15 years prior.  Besides finally rounding up thousands of dust bunnies and giving them a better home.  This would be a good time to actually detail clean each and every room of your house.  Losing the clutter will really relieve a lot of stress you might not have realized you were packing around.

Procrastination.  I'm guilty of this as well.  Honestly life is short, you never know how things are going to change.  There are things I wish I had told my parents before they died.  There are places I wished I had visited when I lived near them.  Try to cross a few things off your bucket list if you can.  Just do things as soon as you know they need done.  Sometimes this can relieve stress so you can stop thinking about doing them.  Besides living life with regrets of what you should have done, but never took the time to do, really isn't fun.

Addictions, this doesn't necessarily mean drugs and alcohol.  This could be limiting yourself to two hours of online time.  Cutting back to two hours of TV time.  Cutting down your coffee to one or two cups a day.  I've dealt with some really hard addictions and found easing my way off of them, helped me not to have them anymore.  The best way I fould to beat an addiction is to replace what you're giving up with something positive.  I use to drink a ton of coffee, I replaced with with tea and water.  I use to be on the internet a lot and have replaced this with reading and exercise and noticed that my mind and body feel better.

So what is my family giving up this year?  Jaiden said he was giving up homework, which made us all laugh.  Will said whatever we give up it really should be a vice.  So my son has decided to give up meat(except for fish).  Which probably means I have given it up as well, but honestly it's not really a big deal to me.  What I plan to give up is, saying "I love you".  Might sound odd...Instead I plan to praise people more, tell them why I love them.  Write to people and let them know that they mean alot to me.  I want to try to do more kind deeds for people, possibly more volunteering.  Basically I want to show people what love actually means to me.  That they aren't just some meaningless words.

I hope you all have a pleasant time during Lent.  I hope this year will be more positive than the last!

Sacrifice is part of life.  It's suppose to be.  It's not something to regret.  It's something to aspire to.

-- Mitch Albom