Lent

7 posts in 7 days link-up - Day 7 (I made it!)




I don't have much self discipline.  As an adult, that's kind of embarrassing.  As a parent, it's kind of humiliating.  How can I teach my children if I struggle with being a good model?  On the bright side, at least my kids observe my struggles towards virtue and know that I keep trying.  I guess we're learning to live virtuously together. 


Lent provides a great point in the liturgical year for me to refocus or even start over.  Virtue is unattainable without Christ's gift of Self; perfection is unreachable except through a life of grace and in grace.  "During Lent, let us spend the gift of time seeking the wisdom of heart taught by self-sacrifice, so that, dead to sin, we may rise to new life in Christ in whom death has died."  (Magnificat, Morning Prayer, Ash Wednesday 2014)


I'm trying a couple of new things this year in order to gently provide more opportunities for self-discipline:


We'll go meatless two times a week, Wednesdays and the obligatory Friday. 


I've signed up for the Father Barron Lenten study, www.lentreflections.com .  A devotion should be emailed daily - let's hope I can keep up!


I've rather slacked off at self-care ever since we moved to Texas in 2012.  I need to schedule dental visits for myself and the kids, an endocrinologist visit for me (thyroid issues), and a hysteroscopy with the fertility clinic (miscarriage follow-up).  Plus I need to figure out how to fit some regular exercise in my daily schedule.


The biggest Lenten sacrific is one I know I really need to do - getting up before the kids. (There's no way I'll start waking up with Bryan, that's just ridiculous (he leaves as early as 4:40 some mornings!))   I've got a time in mind and if that doesn't work, then I'll tweak it a bit.  I just hate getting out of bed in the mornings!  I'm not a morning person.  Or a night person, for that matter.  I just kind of trudge through the whole day, looking longingly at the couch (hence check-up for thyroid problems).  I know by forcing myself out of bed in the mornings before the kids get up, I can say my prayers, read my daily devotions, have my coffee, and, God willing, be a more pleasant person all because I had a few minutes of me-time.  Well, me and God time. 


The nice (or perhaps not so nice) thing about posting my Lenten "resolutions" here is accountability.  I have made my plans public and now I'm open to nagging.  Or at least those casual reminders of "hey, how's that working out for you?"


And now, a Lenten anecdote before I share a beautiful little Lenten prayer I found while browsing the internet. 


In college I tried a whole host of rather extreme Lenten acts.  The most short lived was the time I gave up hot water in my showers and tried to take only cold showers.  I may have lasted three days.  Tops.  And that was living in Texas, someplace that isn't typically cold during Lent.


Prayer of Saint Ephrem
O Lord and Master of my life, keep from me the spirit of indifference and discouragement, lust of power and idle chatter.

Instead, grant to me, Your servant, the spirit of wholeness of being, humble-mindedness, patience, and love.

O Lord and King, grant me the grace to be aware of my sins and not to judge my brother; for You are blessed now and ever and forever.  Amen