and so we begin....lent.
This morning I discussed the importance of Lent with the kids. Some I think don't partake in anything and honestly we never did as kids. But for me now, as an adult, I think it's a great way to teach my kids how to prepare their hearts. I know...I know...it's just 40 days but I pray and hope that this 40 days becomes a habit for them...to just focus on God as a lifestyle...not a season.
"The next 40 days is not about giving up anything to earn anything, it's not about me and it's not about what's been given up. It's about where you're drinking (John 4 - woman at the well); it's about what you're drinking.
Lent for me, is a focused time in my life where I look at where I am drinking from. Where I am parched...my lips are swollen and cracked because I realize I am not drinking from Jesus.
"Go to any other source but Jesus for your drink, and your thirst just gets worse."
this month we are starting The Hungry Caterpillar series and along with tracking the life cycle of a caterpillar...we will be tracking our own life cycles. That crazy spinning cycle I refer to of realizing how depraved we are and running to the feet of Jesus. We made commitments to each other for the next 40 days....
As a family we are giving up all TV and game systems. As brothers they are going to work on reacting out of anger, loving each other and not whining. As a mother I am going to work on my patience...praying that God remove all bitterness, pride, anger from me and purify my heart and mind. When we fall, because we will, we will come to this sand. Together we will write in the sand what brought us there...we will pray and ask for forgiveness and when done we will wipe it clean...because that is what the cross did. Took our sins away.
we will remember where we came from...dust....
....that is the incredible power of the Cross....and why we choose as a family to Lament...and do Lent.
"What we're all parched for is pure, clear Gospel to wet some cracked-dry lips, grace water that saves us, that reconciles the busted up, that redeems the banished and broken, that revives the weary and burdened."
No comments:
Post a Comment