Sunday, March 14, 2010

Lent

This year during Lent I've been doing something a little different. A good friend gave me a little packet with weekly suggestions. I thought this would go along great with my weekly goals. (They do still exist and I'm going to write a book about how it changes your life. I will be famous.) Each of the last three and a half weeks I have given up something. The first week was sweets, second week: meat, third week was media: TV & the radio.
Pause. You're wondering why I'm doing this. You're asking, "Is she Catholic?" No. I'm not. Then why observe Lent? Well, I think it's a good time to restart. To focus. To examine myself. If I'm supposed to be living like Christ, how am I doing? Not so great. Time to realize my priorities. Time to figure out what is really taking up my time. I want these 40 days to be a journey. I want to come out different than I entered.
How am I doing?
I was tempted most with week one. It wasn't just sweets. It was sweets, treats & self indulgences. Buy nothing for yourself. Nothing you don't need. That was pretty hard. What did I learn? I'm pretty selfish. Many times during the week I said to myself, "Nope. You're not allowed to buy that. Stop looking at it."
Anyhow, week two was tricky. I was supposed to pick a food category or a meal to fast for the week. I chose meat. That makes it hard to plan meals, especially when the husband doesn't eat veggies! It wasn't really a craving, just something I had to work around.
Week 3 was mostly difficult when I was driving by myself to the grocery store or something. No radio. Just sit and think. Pray. Watch out for other drivers! It also was a nuisance for James. No TV to unwind at the end of the day! We played a game one night. Rummikub.
This week is a fast from the internet and social networking. HOLY COW! That is hard. I will have to use the internet some because of some church communications that can't be ignored for a week! I think this week will be my biggest challenge yet.