Today is the first day of Lent. I’m trying to decide what to give up, if anything. The purpose of giving up something for Lent I think has something to do with identifying with the suffering of Christ, although I wonder if giving up french fries or chocolate really helps me do that. I have a few brave friends who gave up Facebook for lent (and perhaps email?) which I can hardly imagine. My friends live in my computer, I think I would be quite lost without it. Perhaps that’s closer to the intended meaning but I can’t quite imagine myself doing that at the moment. I briefly considered giving up coffee but then thought that that was just too much sacrifice for my life too.
Last year I tried giving up something esoteric. I forget how exactly I worded it but it was something along the lines of giving up negative thoughts about myself. I failed miserably.
I have a friend who was considering trying to eat on $1 a day for Lent, but I really don’t think that would work for me. And I can’t fast because of blood sugar issues. I also toyed with the idea of giving up meat for Lent, but I’m not sure that’s something I want to impose on my husband and since I do all the cooking that would be required.
The best idea I’ve had so far is giving up saying yes to things I’m not completely and totally gung-ho about. However, since I have a church commitment almost every weekend from now until Easter (and I’m honestly not gung-ho about all of them) I can’t figure out whether that would mean I should back out of some, or just not say yes to anything new (which would be much easier because I’m already up to my eyebrows).
What do my esteemed and worthy blog readers think? Should I give something up? What should it be? What have you given up?
Oh and for fun with LOLcats and Lent click here (the comments are especially interesting)
PS I am not the “Mennocat” mentioned in the comments.
