A Lent of Praise

Lent, to me, is a time of quieting, diminishing, and lessening ourselves and our desires to make room ample for Christ.  In years past, I scrambled to find something with which to give up or execute and those sacrifices were helpful in seeing how attached I became to the physicality which surrounded me.  Turning the television off for 40 days, which I repeated several years in a row, was a random intention that made a direct impact on me.  And yet, I won't be making a journey this year that looks quite like that.

This year I'm taking an unorthodox but fitting approach.  While I'll be, like many of you reading, working to increase my quiet time, my consideration of others, and my detachment from that which rends my soul unhappy, I won't be making a particular sacrifice.  I'm hoping a different approach is just what the [ultimate] Doctor ordered.

... Because apparently He ordered up two Andersons ... and according to all I've read in the past few days and what my husband and I have discussed, we will be having, in some regards, a very long journey of thinning ourselves down to our core, diminishing ourselves to draw nearer to Christ.  Many sacrifices now are fixed in our approaching horizon.  I want to welcome those sacrifices with joy.

I'll be spending this Lenten season quieting my heart and lifting it up simultaneously.  I'll be laying my dreams, visions, and hopes at the feet of Christ so that he may show me the way for these sweet little boys which require ample room of their own.  This Lent, I'll be counting all my blessings and praying thanks for every good and precious gift bestowed upon me.