Lent

"Rend your heart and not your garments. Return to the Lord your God, for He is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love." --Joel 2:13

Once again I am thankful for the rhythm of the church year.  I like how Lent gives us a time set apart from the rest of the year during which we can alter our thoughts and behavior to, hopefully, grow closer to God. 

For this season we are blending some of our old traditions with some new.  We made our Lenten chain today -- Rayna being the main project leader.  On each link we wrote the Scripture passage for the day as well as some people to pray for.  When the chain is finished, we'll be at Easter!

As a family, we are reading through 2 books during Lent this year:

 Amon's Adventure , which is by the same author as Jotham's Journey, one of our favorite Advent books,

and

Be Shaped to Receive:  A Lenten Devotional with Mark's Gospel.   I was able to download this e-book for less than a dollar!  It has specific prayers for each morning, afternoon, and evening of the day, as well as passages from Mark to reflect on each day.  I hope it will be something that will teach us and help us to grow.

As Arnold Ytreeide writes in  the preface to Amon's Adventure, "But the point of Lent, or any other time of spiritual focus, shouldn't be to follow a set of prescriptions and rules, it should be to seek a deeper understanding of and commitment to God.  It's not a time to check off days on a calendar;  it's a time to rend your heart, to do some spiritual housecleaninhg, to take a long, hard look at what's inside you.  A time to allow God to show you the work He's ready to do in your life."

May it be that for us!