As we all know Lent officially started yesterday.
I grew up Catholic, I went every Sunday to Mass and even attended Catholic school until I was in HS.
In my family we always participated in the Lent Season. Giving up something and no meat on Fridays.
It wasn't until Andrew and I started dating that I began to examine the real reason of lent.
Andrew isn't Catholic so in his mind he didn't see a reason to participate.
( Side note: I am no longer Catholic, we believed that part of marriage is finding a church where we were both comfortable and happy and we now attend The Summit Church)
I wanted him to so I began to ponder the reasons while all believers should participate in Lent.
(We both participate in lent now)
This is when I realized that lent has become just as commercialized as every other Christian Holiday.
It has become a day to "better ourselves"
Lent is supposed to be a season to prepare our hearts for Easter.
A time to grow and rest our faith in a deeper relationship with God.
A time be truly grateful for Christ's ultimate sacrifice for our salvation.
The idea of giving something up is to make a lifestyle change that will make you lean on God daily.
This year we have taken a new approach to the season of Lent.
I can't think of one thing in my life that I can give up that will make me grow daily with God.
However I can think of a way I can increase my time I spend with God Daily.
Our challenge for our family is to read the Old Testament in 40 days.
This will mean we will have to give things up to dedicate more time to God.
It maybe TV, time with friends, video games, blogging, or something else.
However by spending more time in the word we will be able to allow God to work in our lives and prepare our hearts for Easter.
What about you? Do you celebrate Lent? How do you prepare your heart for Easter?
such a great post. I see all these people on fbook and twitter talking about lent and I feel like it has lost a lot of its meaning. What a great challenge for your family!
ReplyDeleteI love this! You are so right... so many people are unaware of what Lent truly means. This is excellent and I think I will do something similar!
ReplyDeleteA new way to look at lent.
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ReplyDeleteThis is really good. I'm not Catholic, but it's nice to hear different perspectives on what Lent means!
This is awesome! The past two years I've given up listening to any music in the car and used that as prayer time. Maybe I should mix it up and try something like this.
ReplyDeletei like that a lot! I think a lot of the reasoning behind giving something up gets lost!
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