We are now well into Lent and I have yet to give up anything. Some of the folks at work have given up stuff like caffeine and attempted to give up smoking. My reaction to the giving of caffeine was "Dear God why on earth would I try to do that right now!" I offered to give up smoking but they pointed out that I don’t smoke. I offered to give up cussing but I don’t cuss. I offered to give up drinking but I don’t drink. So I offered to pick those bad habits up for Lent and they laughed at me. I have enough stress in my life without having to give up something. One year I gave up saying negative things about "W" that was a long forty days. This is a political year so ummm NO! And to be honest I had forgotten that it was forty days until my sister said I should give up chocolate for forty days. My reaction was just this "So I can stab someone!" What part of I have enough stress in my life without having to give up the stuff that keeps me from running around in circles yelling "The cheese curls are alive!"
I brought Lent up to the family and we giggled at what we could give up. I know we should take it more seriously. We did just that we decided to study something from the Bible. My son wants Revelation my daughter wants Ruth. Because Miss Littles is prone to nightmares we stuck with Ruth. She had a nightmare after a history talk at he dinner table. BTW I hear the book The Boy In The Striped Pajamas is a good read. My son highly recommends it. Note that it’s a hard subject and not for small children.
As for Ruth
If any of you folks have some insight into the story of this lovely woman and her mother-in-law please feel free to comment.
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
Lental thoughts
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12 comments:
Well, I read a book called "A Song I Knew by Heart" a modern version of the book of Ruth from Naomi's point of view. I loved it, and you can glean a lot from it, but it isn't a kid book.
Maybe Miss Littles can tell you about her insights when you read it--and share with us!
Lovely. Enjoyed it
I haven't given up anything for Lent either. I liked your idea about giving up cussing - that would be a good one for me because the last 5 years or so I've let 'em rip. Once my son started saying all the bad words I did the opposite of what a good mom should...instead of teaching him not to, I joined him :(
Milly,
I loved your post on lent. I am trinity, but you can call me Meg as it is my given name. I hope I am doing this right. God bless you.
I gave up working out!
tye-dye Meg,
You are getting it very right and you are welcome to speak up here. The only wrongs in this place is not speaking up or being kind to the others that stop by.
God Bless your new blog. We are looking forward to sharing this world with you.
Mark you worked out!!!!!!
Or do you mean working outside the home?
You gave that up a bit ago.
That ain't much given up.
Okay...where in the Bible is the concept of Lent?
Karen,
I don’t believe it is in the Bible. I will say that when I gave up speaking ill of “W” I was very surprised at how many times I wanted to speak of him in a manner that is less than kind. It was good for me to see how much I need to keep quiet when these things hit my mind. Being a political year I’ll not give it up. I like the idea of taking up something good for me and my family. For forty days and hope that we can keep it going even after. If you can spend forty day honoring God by sacrificing and hopefully giving the very thing that you gave up for a brief time then I am all for it.
I understand this, and all my Catholic friends tell me this. . .but Jesus sacrificed and died for us so that we may live in joy. Lent is not a scriptural thing..in fact its roots are in paganism.
If we're going to give up something for 40 days, we probably should give it up for good. I certainly need to think about that.
Milly, it doesn't get much better than Ruth.. kudos to you for using Lent as an opportunity to read the bible with your family.
My suggestion when you read Ruth is to talk about how each charcter is feeling and how each processed their hurts. Just a thought.
Blessings, Bob
And, while Lent is not really "scriptural".. as Christmas and Easter aren't.. I think that it is a great time to engage people in conversation around spiritual things.
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