Lenten Reflections

Lent has officially begun.  If I'm honest, I am not the best Catholic when it comes to following the rules of Lent.  I do my best to not eat meat on Fridays and Ash Wednesday, but I'm horrible about fasting between meals.  I've already failed miserably and it's only been one day!  I found myself profusely apologizing to God each time I ate in between meals.

I know we are supposed to give something up for these forty days, but each year I find myself struggling to figure out what that would be and ultimately I end up giving up nothing.  Instead, I try to focus on doing good deeds, sharing God's word with my children, praying more, and being mindful of the way I parent my children.  In my eyes, this will be much more difficult than giving anything up.

It challenges me to be aware.  To be intentional with our mealtime and my quiet time during the day. It requires me to seek out opportunities to serve others and be more patient and loving at home.  As a family we will grow in our faith and, if all goes well, be mindful of treating each other with kindness and respect.

If there is one area I would love to grow in this year, it is teaching my children more about God.  Our kids pray each night and at dinner, we share and record our blessings most days, and we attend church fairly regularly, but we have a lot of room to grow in our faith.

During Lent I want to make sure we are sharing His word with the kids.  Dinnertime seems like the best opportunity, so we read a story from our Children's Bible and it is now prominently placed in the middle of our table as a reminder to be read each evening.  Each morning before school, we also read from our Every Day Blessings Devotional, which we've done since school started in the fall.  I love the idea of starting and ending our day centered around God.

I am hopeful we will all grow spiritually during Lent this year and start some new traditions as a family that will carry on long past this season.