From Dust

As I begin this lenten season, I am overjoyed with spiritualness. This year, I haven't really stressed out about what I'm going to do for lent.  The kids chose their sacrifices with much ease.  And I'm impressed with the level of difficulty they included in their sacrifices. 

Alex and Eva decided to give up chocolate.  Alex gets chocolate milk everyday at school.  When I reminded him of this, he didn't bat an eye.  "Oh well.  I like white milk too," was his reply.  Eva decided on confetti cake, cotton candy and sweet-tart variety candies for her birthday party instead of chosing anything with chocolate.  I grocery shopped yesterday and selected fruits and cheeses and crackers instead of chocolate snack cakes for their school lunches...achange I was ready to make anyway and long over due.

Grace decided on soda.  As she is growing more and more everyday into a teenager, her soda drinking has grown with her.  The little kids don't really ask or care for soda very much.  It's a special treat whenever they do get it.  But since Chris has cut out all alcohol and after dinner drinks, I have been bringing more soda into the house.  Grace has been the one to consume most of it.

As a family we are giving up fast food.  The biggest sacrifice is not the actual food. It's the conveience of it.  With my mom taxi in full effect, it is easier (and sometimes necessary) to swing in a drive-thru than go home and make something to eat.  We are classifying fast food as anything that has a drive-thru. 

For my own personal sacrifice, I am stuck.  I can't decide on anything that would be a great enough sacrifice.  Soda and chocolate are not a regular enough part of my diet to really miss them if I couldn't have them.  I don't really have a go-to food.

During each week of lent, the kids will take on works of charity, sacrifice and prayer.  I plan to incorporate those into my lenten journey as well.

Today, as it being Ash Wednesday, I made a HUGE clothing donation as my first act of charity.  I still have no plans for the rest of acts.  I will be making a concerted effort to talk to God more and to find quiet time alone each day to listen.  I often feel like I ask God for so much, but never take the time to listen to what He is saying. 

May this lenten journey bring us all closer to God and enrich our lives in the way only God can.