Lenten Discipline - Public or Private?

   Last year during the season of Lent I gave up meat. It was hard. Harder than I had imagined. Breakfast sandwiches without bacon are really only toast wrapped around a scrambled egg. Not inspiring. Lunch was less difficult; it's easy to pick meat off of salads. My husband, who was raised believing that a hamburger patty is an appropriate side dish to ham, was more than willing to eat the meat scraped off my lunch. Dinner, now that was difficult. The difficulty was finding forty days worth of main courses without meat. The joy of macaroni and cheese only lasts so long. I bought a vegetarian cookbook, I searched the internet.  My family made clandestine trips to Burger King and Taco Bell. The Easter ham tasted quite good.

So here we are now a few days into Lent a year later. It didn't occur to me to give up meat, rather I have taken on a task for Lent. I am torn between sharing this commitment so as to be held accountable and keeping it private so as to adhere to the admonitions of Matthew chapter 6 which urges us not to be showy in fasting or praying or giving of alms, but rather to do these things in secret with only God as our witness. 

Because I am, for the most part, the cook of the family, last year it just wasn't possible for me to keep my Lenten discipline of no meat a secret. I felt uncomfortable with it being noted, yet I felt supported by my friends who made an effort to accommodate me. The ladies who come to my house for a monthly dinner brought vegetarian lasagna and salads. My dear husband, with whom I eat lunch everyday, was conscientious, though he did ask me several times if chicken was really considered meat. All in all the atmosphere was too public for me so as I write this I am convinced that it is better, for me, to keep spiritual disciplines between me and God.

Whether to share or not to share your Lenten discipline is very personal and also conditional on what it is you are doing to improve your self and to move forward in your walk with God. There is no right answer. Prayer and practicality will be our guide year to year.

Have blessed Lent,
Michelle

Celebrations Big and Small

   It is Christmas night and I am completely sated. We have eaten enough rich food to give us gout. We have surprised our loved ones with big gifts and small. We have gone to church several times in the last few days, sung the carols, prayed the prayers and heard the retelling of Christs' birth in several genres. It has all been glorious. We have been wrapped in the joy of celebration. It makes me a little sad to see it go.

   Celebrating Jesus' birth, of course, need not be a once a year occasion. Neither does celebrating the many other gifts God has given us need to be a rare and fleeting moment. We can and should often remember the gift of God incarnate come to earth, but it is against our nature to be in a constant state of celebration. A celebration, by its very definition, is a special time set apart from the regular run of the mill days. Yet we don't need to only celebrate the big holidays that our society has set apart, the days we are given off of work and school. Small celebrations scattered throughout the year are an acknowledgement of the blessing we receive daily from our loving Father.

   Families benefit from celebration of small accomplishments and occasions. Celebrating a good grade on the math test, a piano recital completed, the opening of the new Seven- Eleven are all small ways to draw families together for a few minutes of levity. It is a way to focus, if only for a few minutes, that we receive gifts, many of them intangible, much more often than we realize. Children blossom in the shared joy of a mini celebration, a few minutes with their parents all focusing, not on the work ahead but, on the happiness of the moment. The celebration don't need to be complex or fancy, a scoop of ice cream after dinner or a small Slurpee from that new Seven Eleven combined with a parent's declaration that we need to celebrate creates the celebration.

   As the biggest celebration of the year, the feast of Christmas, ebbs away consider finding some bite size celebrations to enjoy with your children. They may be the celebrations they remember and treasure the most.