What is meant for Lent?

While growing up, my church and family didn't celebrate Lent. We had grand celebrations around Easter and I definitely felt my parents worked hard to make Easter and all it's meaning a big deal.

However, it wasn't until college or to be more specific until my internship after college that I discovered the practice of Lent. I was working as an intern in a Presbyterian Church. The staff that I was working with all celebrated Lent, and talked about it during staff meetings and during church. It really left an impression on me. This practice was something I have taken with me along the way.


Each year I learn a bit more about the practice and dive into it in varying degrees. This year I wanted to make an effort to pay attention and participate.

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to go to an Ash Wednesday service. I also wasn't able to do a food fast on that day. However, I was able to start my daily Lenten readings. It also marked the start date for my 40 day fast.

Through my Lenten reading I learned that there are three pillars to Lent: 1. Prayer 2. Almsgiving and 3. Fasting. Knowing this has helped give form to Lent for me. Knowing these pillars provided focus and purpose. Now I can go back to these pillars that hold up Lent and rotate through them. Each pillar points to God and gives me a purpose or practice to seek him out.

I think most people think of fasting when they think of Lent. Many people turn Lent into a diet, a way to cut out unhealthy food for a while. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE dark chocolate. Breaking the habit would remind me to pray. But, for me I wanted a bit more.

Fasting is a practice of replacement. To take something out of your life to make more room for God. To change something in your day or life that leaves you a bit lost and at a loss to know what to do with yourself. It opens up time to pray and become more in tune with your Savior.

Since I am new to this practice and still learning as I go, I am excited to see how God gives me a fuller understanding and a greater depth of His will for me in how and why to do this exercise. At any rate, right now, it has given me the opportunity to draw closer to God and reconnect.

What are my Lenten goals this year?
I gave up Facebook. I also want to participate in 40 Days of Water with Blood Water Mission However, due to health reasons right now I can't give up smoothies, tea and home made juice. So I am going to give up coffee. This is really the only thing that I buy when I am out. What I like about the 40 days of water is that it combines all three pillars of Lent. Check it out. It is an amazing cause!

I am also adding a few things. I am doing daily readings and really enjoying them. I am reading: 'Lord Open My Heart- Daily Scriptural Reflections for Lent" By Julie Davis
and
'Reconciled to God- Daily Lenten Devotions' By Amy Welborn and Paul Pennick
I am also trying to spend my time in prayer, including spending more time and closer attention to the email prayer chain from our church.

None of these things are big deals. But, I feel that God is using this and challenging me. It is good to be in a time of focus and expectation. I know that God is at work in me!

Good Morning Mamma

I have never been a morning person by any stretch of the imagination. There are still tales circulating among our extended family of the legendary tantrums I would throw when I woke up as a toddler. This wonderful morning mood followed me all the way into adult hood.

I don't want to wake up early, and when I get up it takes me forever to get moving. If I don't have a plan for the morning the night before it takes me until lunch to get my momentum.

Of course knowing what I know now about how little I was actually sleeping before I was fitted for my Oral Systemic Balance Orthotic (OSB), it all makes more sense.

But even before I started the OSB treatment I had felt the Lord tugging at my heart. He was telling me that I needed to get out of bed before my family and become a Morning Mamma.

My first response to Him was "OK, How?" Before the orthotic getting out of bed was next to impossible. I wasn't really sleeping during the night. I would finally get into some deep sleep by the time it was time to get up. It was my husbands unhappy duty to try to wake me. I would be a groggy lump on the couch as he left for work.

I could see the need, I had the desire, but the 'how' of the matter was still an issue.

Well, God answered my prayer with the 'how' of the matter. He provided me with my first restful sleep of my life. In my OSB treatment one of my main goals has been to be that Mamma that bounces out of bed in the morning. I am not there yet!

As the season has turned to fall and the mornings have gone black the verse in Proverbs 31:15 keeps coming to mind. "She gets up while it is still dark." This verse comes from the section outlining the attributes of a wife of Noble Character. She gets up while it is still dark.... and she is industrious!

It has occurred to me that the only way the chores, my exercise and Bible and prayer time are going to get done is if I get up while it is still dark. Imagine if I were to get my chores for the day done and dinner in the crock pot before the children even got up! That would be crazy!

This would also ease the tension between getting things for the house and myself done verses doing home school and keeping the family routine during the day. With my chores already done and dinner ready and waiting, I can focus on other things! Namely, Thing 1 and Thing 2, my two daughters.

This charge to get up while it is still dark requires two parts. #1 Help from the Lord. #2 The discipline to choose to obey by making choices that will lead to obedience.

In order to get up earlier you have to go to bed earlier. I need to choose to turn off the computer, and do what it takes to get in bed at a decent hour. There is no point in getting up only to be grumpy and lumpy. I might as well sleep if I am going to be like that.

I also have to prepare. I need a plan for when I rise. This means having a list waiting for me telling me what to do first. This list has to include when and what to eat and when to get dressed and what chores to do first. Until I get into a routine, I can't count on myself being able to move and think at the same time.

With the Lord's help I hope to become an Early Bird, cheerful, chirping and industrious even while it is still dark.

Easter Bunny Bypass

It is that time of year again where parents find themselves in a merry-go-round of faith, logic and emotion.
To quote my husband, "Easter is the most important day of the whole year!" As Christians, Easter is the day that trumps all other days. Without the resurrection of Jesus Christ there really is no point to Christianity. So when it comes to celebrating Easter... it is kind of a big deal to us.
Growing up, my parents definitely put a lot of emphasis on Easter. One thing that they did was separate celebrating Spring from celebrating Easter. We did all those fun things like decorating eggs, baskets filled with goodies and finding the eggs all on the First Day of Spring (or close to it). Then when it came closer to Easter we could focus on the meaning of it as a family.
Another thing that happened in my childhood around Eastertime was the first of my major surgeries. I was only 10 and it was a major and painful surgery (Pectus Escavottum). (My chest cavity grew inwards and was restricting my lungs and pushing my heart up into my shoulder.) My friends and family were so sweet and also worried and they showered me with gifts-- because of the season it was lots of little bunny figurines and little chicks and sweet pastel colored things. I really enjoyed the gifts, but now they are forever connected with times of great pain and days in the hospital. It is so interesting how much seeing those things really take me back to that time.
I am not sad that all these bunny rabbits and cutesie Easter decorations are synonymous with pain for me. It sends my mind on a direct path back to the cross. The pain I felt did not compare to the pain that Jesus endured on the cross. However, it did teach me about the meaning of pain. I could not believe that someone went through that much pain for me. It also gave me a glimpse at the meaning of separation at that young age. I was separated from my friends because I could not play with them for months. I couldn't be hugged or bumped because there was nothing protecting my heart. (The cartilage in my sternum had been removed so that it would regrow in a new shape that left more room for my heart and lungs.) The separation I felt in no way compares to the great separation that Jesus endured as God turned his back on him, when he took on the sins of the world. But what I experienced made me think about how Jesus must of felt.
I believe that culturally all the bunnies and chicks are meant to soften something grotesque. It is hard to think about Jesus being crucified on the cross. None of us want to face the fact that we are sinners and that Jesus died because of things that we have done.
So we try to paint the scene at Golgotha in pinks and yellows. We have a lovable bunny character bounce from house to house and give our kids candy. But in the end all the "Easter extras" are like spraying lilac scented air freshener in a stinky bathroom-- it smells like lilacs but it still smells like poop. So the question has to be asked-- is it improved? All this to say, we have to acknowledge our sin and face the cross straight on because our attempts to sidestep it or candy coat it get us nowhere.
So here I am, a mother of two sweet babes. I want to above all teach them to know Jesus. But, I also want to preserve their innocence and not overburden them before they can process and respond properly. I don't want them to grow up feeling deprived of fun and excitement.
So with much prayer we move forward at Eastertime--teaching, playing and most of all rejoicing that we have a Father in heaven who loved us so much He sent his one and only Son to die in our place, so that we could live with God forever in heaven and be guided through this life on Earth by His Holy Spirit.

Easter Book Basket

 One thing I love to do is have a special basket full of books for us to read together as we prepare for Easter.
Here are the books in our Easter Book Basket.

"The Easter Story" by Tracy Harrast is a colorful lift the flap book. This book does a great job of telling the story in an understandable way. It is fun, colorful and interactive. This book is great for toddlers and Preschoolers.

"The Easter Story" by Carol Heyer is one of my very favorites. My mom bought this when my siblings and I were young. The illustrations in this book are absolutely beautiful, it is wonderful to look at. Throughout the book the illustrations show pictures of Jesus' hands in the different scenes and show the faces of the other people and their reactions. There is such an emotional response. This book will capture the eyes of young and old. The pictures go well with the story and will help your children remember it.

'The Parable of the Lily" by  Liz Curtis Higgs is a sweet story about a little girl, Maggie, who is given a special surprise gift. She is so disappointed when she opens it and only finds a crate of dirt. Maggie goes through a journey full of meaning and symbolism. There is something for every age in this book. For my toddler and preschool they were very excited when they got to see and smell and Easter Lily on Easter Sunday.

"Poems and Prayers for Easter" by Sophie Piper. I love to read poetry to my children. This is a wonderful collection of sweet and poignant works. It includes poems from Emily Dickenson, William Blake, Langston Hughs, William Wordsworth-- just to name a few. I really enjoyed reading this to my Preschooler CJ. Poems ranged from responses to what Jesus did for us, to the changes of the seasons.

"The Donut Man, The Resurrection Celebration." This is a movie full of wonderful songs and illustrations to tell the Easter Story. My girls absolutely loved it and I enjoyed watching it with them. We enjoyed singing and dancing to the music. It also brought the story to a level they could understand and apply the message to their lives.
  

From the capillaries of the heart

There are so many instances in life that produce an instant response or reaction. We hear about a situation--we react. We are invited to go somewhere or do something--we respond. When introduced to someone new--we react. In every day interactions and encounters, we in turn respond with our every day reactions. Every passed day infuses our new days with either wisdom or bitterness. Old experiences taint the new, we find each fresh experience laced with something familiar, either sweet or sour flavors from our past.

Sometimes reactions and responses can happen so naturally. We don't stop to consider the Lord or the scriptures. Our past experience starts to justify our current response rather than aligning ourselves up with God.

Since I work with Women's Ministries and have been involved in more than one church over the years, I have noticed a trend. Women are afraid to get close or interact with other women. Our life history has taught us that women can be cruel and unpredictable. They can be gossips and back biting. They can be full of complaints and talk bad about their husbands and men in general. For some women, (more than you may think), spending a day or a weekend with a bunch of other women sounds like torture.

There is no denying it, women are horrible sinners. We often find ourselves succumbing to torrents of emotion, and letting the hormones loose on those around us. Others of us allow the green-eyed monster of envy to ruin relationships. For some an absent or unstable mother has taught us to keep our distance. And for many the betrayal of a good friend has turned us from opening our hearts up to anyone else.

This is just one example of how our automatic responses can stop us from evaluating each new situation through the lens of the scriptures. Our past does not lie, it is really true, there are times from our past that hurt and were not good experiences. However, a wonderful question to ask the Lord in the present is: "Lord how would you like to redeem that past situation today?"

Sometimes the answer is simply, to let it all go! Sometimes there are valuable lessons that you can learn from bad experiences to help you be part of solutions or prevent a similar event from replaying itself.

Let the Lord examine your heart. Every reaction stems from a source in your heart. Where is this response flowing from? Does it stem from a well of bitterness and resentment? When you respond to others are you splashing cold and bitter water on those around you? Or does your response stem from a joyous spring that is fed by the Word of God? Is the water flowing out of your soul bringing tides of encouragement and nurturing growth in those around you?

Jesus taught that our hearts are where evil thoughts come from. In Matthew 15:18 He said, "But those things which proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and they defile a man." (NKJV) The Amplified version of the Bible puts it this way: "But whatever comes out of the mouth comes from the heart, and this is what makes a man unclean and defiles (him)."

The wonderful Psalm of David offers a perfect prayer to invite Jesus to come and search your heart and cleanse it out. Invite Him in, let Him dwell in you and change you from the inside out. Test each reaction and opinion with God's word to make sure it is true. May the Word of God flow from your heart as naturally as breathing.

Psalm 51

¹⁰ Create in me a clean heart, O God,
         And renew a steadfast spirit within me.
 ¹¹ Do not cast me away from Your presence,
         And do not take Your Holy Spirit from me.
   
 ¹² Restore to me the joy of Your salvation,
         And uphold me by Your generous Spirit.
 ¹³ Then I will teach transgressors Your ways,
         And sinners shall be converted to You. 

**( Mark 7:18-23 and in Mathew 15:18-20)