What should I do for Lent?

Last year is the first year I observed Lent. I tried getting to bed by 11:30 every night. I went back & read last year's post & I knew at the beginning it would not work. I valiantly tried & it was a long six weeks.

A friend & I were talking about Mardi Gras. I wanted to know when it was this year because Easter is early this year. She didn't realize that Mardi Gras was linked to Lent.

Lent is a forty-day period before Easter. It begins on Ash Wednesday. We skip Sundays when we count the forty days, because Sundays commemorate the Resurrection. Ash Wednesday is Feb. 17 this year.

Mardi Gras has to end on Fat Tuesday, the day before Ash Wednesday. This was decided during the Nicene Council held in 325 AD. I took the following from a web site on Mardi Gras

These festivals - some of which can only be described as drunken orgies - existed across most lands that were being overtaken by the Christian Church, and like many other holidays and rites, the Church sought a balance between the old and new. Understanding that the party was not going to stop, the church placed limits on it, decreeing that it could not start until the finish of the Christmas holidays and had to end on the day before Ash Wednesday.

The finish of the Christmas season is the end of the 12 days of Christmas or Epiphany on Jan. 6. Mardi Gras in New Orleans is generally the last 5 day weekend before Ash Wednesday.

I've been thinking about things I could do for Lent again this year. I debated about posting a question on Facebook, thinking, what are my LDS friends going to think when I'm asking for ideas on Lent. I decided I didn't care, so I posted this:

Any ideas on what to give up for Lent?

There are 16 comments. Among those things suggested is worry, stress, doing dishes and laundry, TV, mountain climbing, exercise, money, computer games. One person suggested giving up bread or soda. She has given up both for a diet she is on. Someone else said, "I say give up soda."

A friend in Australia said:

lol... I usually give up alcohol but I've already given it up (trying to be healthy - I'm on Day 9 :) So don't know what I'll give up . You can always not "give up" anything as such but give money or time to a cause .

 There it is again, you don't have to give up anything. I had forgotten that little fact.

A friend in New York State said:

I once gave up tv...that was tough!

This same friend commented:

I like the idea of doing something, instead of giving something up. It's all about sacrifice, so if you are doing something that you don't normally do, that is kind of a sacrifice. Sacrifice the time you would have spent doing something else that you normally do to do something new - to benefit someone else, or to pray more, etc.

There was a fun little discussion that went like this:

• Jenny: my occasions of near sin? so I am leaving my family and going to a cloistered convent for 40 days. Oh wait, that probably is not a sacrifice.
• Kathy: Jenny can I go with you?
• Star: Oh Oh me too can I come?
• Jenny: LOL, yes
• RaNae: Add me to the cloistered convent gig, LOL.

To which I replied:

Love the ideas. Add me to the cloistered convent gig, LOL. I can't give up TV, I don't watch TV. Last year I tried to give up late nights, but that sucked. I couldn't do it, LOL. Stress & worry are great ideas, but don't know how to do that. My eyelid twitched for like 2 weeks solid, now I'm back to the migraines.

Mountain climbing, dishes, laundry, I can't give up something I don't do, LOL. I'll keep thinking. Keep sending ideas :)

After Monica's & Kathy's comments, especially Kathy's, I started thinking more about positives. I thought about listing things I'm grateful for. I thought about prayer. Kathy said to pray more. Prayer is something I do several times a day. The other night we were having a major meltdown. I just sat here very quietly. I was doing my usual praying. Sometimes I wonder if it is even prayer, it's incomprehensible. Nick was looming over me & I said, "I'm not ignoring you. I'm praying."


I thought of another friend that reads her scriptures every night before she goes to bed. I've sat in hotel rooms, me on the computer, she reading her scriptures. I know I'm lax in reading my scriptures. I went for months not even knowing where my scriptures were.

I've decided. I will read the scriptures daily. In fact, while I was still thinking about it, I went in to the scripture sight & changed my reading assignment. And started today. I know, I know! I'm a month early. But hey, this is supposed to be a lifetime habit is it not? I used to read my scriptures all the time, so I'll just get a head start on it.