Skip to main content

Giving up _____________ for Lent


The Lenten Season is upon us.  I feel so sorry for the people that decided to give up chocolate and then Valentines Day be the very next day!  YIKES!  This year for lent I was thinking about what to give up.  What is something that will bring me closer to God?  What is something that takes me away from His presence that instead of focusing on it, I can focus on God.  God spoke to me though my red-headed four-year-old yesterday.  It is amazing how often times, He speaks through children.

A few weeks ago, I scored some major deals at an amazing sale, while there, I bought gifts that I could give to our girls as valentines.  My youngest daughter has been asking for a tea set and my oldest for a drum set.  YES, a DRUM SET for a 4 year old.  Finding both of them at the sale, I purchased them and waited with anticipation for Valentines day to arrive.  What I expected was to hear giggles and shrieks of joy, but instead I heard, but I wanted this kind instead… 

Neither of us had our expectations met.  Often times, I find myself putting so much stock into what I expect will happen instead of just doing it to the best of my ability to glorify God.  I work so hard at something and expect it to be this amazing thing, but then nothing amazing follows it.  It is so frustrating because often times, I let myself get so down about this.  In reality though, I need to still do my best at everything that I do, but not for the response that I am going to be getting from that other person, but instead, I need to do it for the Lord. 

About 11 years ago, 2 different friends stood me up for my birthday, from that day on; I have started a birthday tradition of eating Chinese food and watching old movies.  It is something that I know that I want to do, and I don’t have to expect anyone to do anything on top of that.  I am then not upset because a big fuss wasn’t made about me, but instead, I am content knowing that I am doing exactly what I want to be doing. 

So this year for Lent, I am giving up expectations of other people.  I am not going to expect them to read my mind, to know exactly the response I am looking for, to know when I need a pick-me-up…  instead, when I feel those tendencies coming, I am going to look to the Lord instead.  Look to Jesus and His sacrifice on the cross instead of looking to myself and the sacrifices that I make on earth because they are nothing compared to what He has done for me.   

Labels

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

What do you fight about?

I heard a blood curdling scream from the other room, followed by the cries of my other child and then a smack.   I had been sitting at the computer, and leaned my head back closed my eyes, took a deep breath and went to encounter the argument head on.   Apparently my youngest daughter was playing with a stuffed giraffe that my oldest daughter sometimes sleeps with.   Amidst the crying and tears, I was able to formulate the events that took place.   My youngest daughter had gone to the toy room and gotten the giraffe (a green 16” giraffe with brown spots) out of the room and brought it into the other room.   Here, the older sister saw that the coveted giraffe was not in her room and grabbed it from her sister.   The younger one screamed and bit the older sister who then cried and hit the little sister.   As I took another cleansing breath I began dealing with the issue at hand.   It is very difficult to reason with a 2 and 3 year old and let alone ...
2 comments
Read more

do I mis-use the Bible?

WOW!   This morning I sat and started to read through Ecclesiastes.   I don’t know if the author of Ecclesiastes, Perhaps King Solomon, had a very sarcastic view on life or if he was just babbling.   But I can definitely see how this book could get a lot of people into trouble if they don’t know the full book or continue to read.   There are verses in there that say things like; eat, drink and enjoy the days on earth because they are meaningless, it is good to enjoy your time on earth and do not worry about anything. To get the full meaning of the book, you need to read it all- the true gems are the last two verses.   This book was written by someone (according to my study Bible) that was near the end of his life, he sees man in pursuit of so many things and vainly pursuing hopes and expectations- but faith teaches him that God has ordered all things according to his own purposes and that we need to accept our limitations.   The last two verses are the wr...
3 comments
Read more

Trust

I decided to do the whole “open your bible and see what verse pops out to you” today.   This it the first verse I saw and it was awesome!   God is so good! Proverbs 29:25 “Fear of man will prove to be a snare, but whoever trusts in the Lord is kept safe.” I can’t tell you the number of times I haven’t said something to someone because I worried about what they would think of me.   I haven’t gone up to someone, obviously hurting, because I didn’t want them to reject me.   I haven’t shared the gospel even though the opportunity presented itself.   I have hoarded a project to myself because I wanted it done just so.   The other night when I was giving my talk to the MOPS group, I was able to share the gospel with them.   It was fantastic for me.   I don’t know if any of them accepted Christ, but it felt so right sharing the gospel.   Jesus calls us to make believers of all nations, He doesn’t say, only if you feel like it.   It is so ea...
1 comment
Read more