Let's Get Personal: The Lenten Season

Lent is just for Catholics.
You can't eat meat on Fridays.
You HAVE to give up something luxurious.


These are just a few of the things I have heard over the years regarding Lent. It wasn't until this year, that I decided I wanted to participate in Lent, and know why I was doing it. So I researched, I talked with my friend who researched it. And, I ordered the study book from shereadstruth.com to go through. And so far, today is day 2, but already I've learnt so much.


This season of Lent isn't just giving something up to better yourself. I think it varies from person to person, and thanks to Jesus, we're free to partake, and we're free to not. So I've chosen to give something up that could be considered 'bad' for me, and add something to the 40 days to better my walk with God.


I'm giving up Facebook. I spent A TON of time on there, just wasting time. Scrolling and scrolling and scrolling on my feed to read pointless articles about this news trend, or that cute animal video, etc. When that time could have been so much better spent: with Jesus, cleaning, running, etc. So I won't be on FB until late March. I'm taking that time to grow my relationship with Jesus, to stop letting the world distract me from getting to know my God.


And the addition? I've decided to add a daily gratitude. Philippians is full of "Rejoice" and "joy" so many times, and that key verse most seem to know "Rejoice in the Lord always". So many times at the end of the day, I moan and groan and bitch and gripe about that aspect of work, or this person, or that defendant, or that pooper on the freeway. How much more joy would there be if I stopped focusing on the negative and focused on the positive?

I kind of failed yesterday in my abstaining from Facebook, but, then again I didn't. I popped on real quick to post in the kickboxing group I'm part of asking a question, then only popped on to check the notifications until I got an answer. And then I was off the rest of the day. So we'll see how the rest of the 40 days go.

I'm stoked to see what God's going to do, what I'm going to learn, and how much closer my boyfriend and I will grow, Oh, did I not mention that we're doing this together? He's got the hereadstruth.com version of the Lent study. We've done the Philippians and Colossians together, so it'll be cool, as it was before.

So, are you participating? What are you giving up? Why? Are you adding anything in?

Until next time

-Samantha