Full Title: Lenten Ideas. Lenten Ideals. Lenten Hopes. Lenten Fails.
This Lent I planned on being more “laid back” with “doing Lent”. I selected my fasts, I aimed to do some suggestions from a Lent Calendar, and I decided to do something. And of course I’d do my daily readings and reflections. (Side note: I took a “What to do this Lent?” survey and it suggested to add a Devotion. Which is like telling a kid to eat more candy! Of course I went ahead and added that devotion and I’m on cloud nine about it.)
I’ve been good with my fasts thus far = Win
I’ve read my daily readings each day on the actual day = Win
I’ve done a few of the Calendar items = Not a Complete Fail
My selected “thing” = Fail.
Within 1 week I failed at my thing. Even in that first week I was like “Oops, forgot. I’ll just do 2 today.” But that happened a few times. And then I thought “Well, I’ll just do 40 total instead of 1 each day.” But then I never continued doing it — so yes, basically this is a Fail.
So what is this “thing”? It was picking a Friend of mine on Facebook and taking the time to write them a private message. Ideally this message would be meaningful. But it quickly went from being generally awkward to something I just conveniently forgot to force myself to do.
Now if I had started each with “Hey there friend. I’m writing because this Lent I decided that each day I’d pick one friend to message – and today it’s you!…” It would be less awkward. (Maybe I would have stuck with it?) But I didn’t want to resort to doing that because: Shouldn’t I be able to just up and randomly message my friends if I want and not have to explain it? That seems like it should be neither awkward nor hard!
A few times I gave myself pep talks like “Just hit send” and let the message go off to that person – even if I hadn’t actually spoken or messaged or anything’ed else with them for years. They were the randomly selected Lent Friend of the day and they needed the message!
I really wanted this to be a rewarding part of my Lent – Spreading good will and Keeping/Building connections. But I quickly let it overwhelm me and I gave in to the temptation just to not do it.
But, hey, Lent isn’t yet over! Maybe I just need to tweak my approach and do it… “40 friends in 40 days” — maybe I make it “40 friends in 1 day” but if it falls in Lent I think that technically still counts, right??? Now just to live up to my Lenten Ideas and Lenten Ideals.
4/9/19: Baseline: 6 down. 34 go! Go Me! Go!
UPDATE! SATURDAY APRIL 20TH — FINAL DAY! FINAL CHANCE!
So Ryan took Nora off to a birthday party — I got to work baking Easter cookies. Fortunately I finished that up with time to also finish up my Lenten Idea and Lenten Ideal! TODAY I messaged 34 friends on Facebook. It didn’t take all too too long — and I got to sit outside in beautiful weather while doing it.
It was enjoyable to see a friend’s name and think of a message to write them. It helped that Easter is tomorrow so I could also add in a “Wishings for a blessed Easter” note –or worst case only write that as my message (though often times that was the message I full-heartedly felt I wanted to share!). It also helped that I had a story I wanted to share with a friend who lives far away –and so it was the impetus for sitting down in the first place – the challenge came in the second place when I followed it up with 33 additional messages to friends.
I did not dread it. I enjoyed it. It was pleasant. It was so the opposite of what it had felt like previously — it was like time and God allowed me to feel like “This is a nice thing. It is not an awkward thing.” Also, fulfilling Lenten promises I make to God was a huge motivator. He graced me with the time to do it — Would I listen to his nudge? I’m sitting here wiping my brow that “Phew! I passed the test!”
BLESSINGS TO EVERYONE THIS EASTER SEASON and every day to come! 🙂
Give God Your Yes 