The Trials and Tribulations of Lent

As an evangelical Christian I have never participated in Lent as I have always thought of it as a Catholic holiday steeped in their church tradition.  However, as one of the members of my church home group brought up, giving up something or starting a new habit during this time is a good way to remind ourselves daily of the sacrifices Christ made for us and to remind us of the importance of this time of year leading up to Easter.

With that said, this year for Lent I have decided to start saying no.  Let me explain, I am a bit of a people pleaser and am also very social so when I get invitations for multiple events on the same night I will try to make everyone happy by accepting and then end up going to great lengths to attend multiple events at once.  Therefore, I have decided to use my words and turn down some social invitations in order to stop stretching myself so thin.  It's not that I will become a hermit during this time, it's just that, instead of trying to please everyone and saying yes to every invite, I will give myself more free time to devote to other things rather than socializing.  (Yes, Mom and Dad, that does include finishing my paper.)  So wish me luck and productivity for the 44 days (which by the way, can anyone explain to me why this year's Lent is 46 days instead of just 40?) and I'll see you all at the end of the tunnel with hopefully a more sane and less hectic schedule.

3 comments:

  1. Actually, Sundays are traditionally not counted in Lent, as they are a day of celebration. So I think there are still 40 days in Lent if you don't count Sundays.
    I thought I would up the snooze button during the week ... it hasn't gone so well yet. I may have to rethink that one.

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  2. Ah, I did not realize that Sundays were not included. I figured it had something to do with this year's timing since it seems like Easter is so late. Good luck with the snooze button, that one is a never ending battle with me. I started setting my alarm for 1/2-1 hour earlier than I need to get up so I can hit snooze and have the feeling of sleeping in without actually making myself late.

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