Lessons About Giving Up Negativity: My Lenten Update

 

photo by garibaldi

It's a lot easier to resist to chocolate or give up soda. We're nearing the end of Lent, and my goal to give up negativity has proved much more difficult than I'd anticipated.

It's hard! It's hard to be hyper-aware of what you're saying. It's hard to apologize and repent when you let negativity slip. It's hard to keep reminding yourself, "Don't be negative, don't be negative," when you're chatting up a storm. It's hard to keep praying for strength to be positive when you're not seeing much result.

And so, little by little, I have drawn away from those principles and gone lax on my Lenten promise. I'm sorry to say I wasn't just a couple weeks into it when I let it start to fall by the wayside and retreated back to "normal." It just got too hard to keep up with it every day, every sentence, every time I opened my mouth.

I realized this the other day with disappointment. Of course it was never meant to be something I'd "go back to" when Lenten was up. It was a challenge intended to be a seed for the rest of my life, something I would continually grow and prune and eventually see a harvest for.

Even as Lent draws to an end and Easter looms (celebration! hope! redemption!), I come back again, tail between legs, to this heart challenge. To go back, and try, try again. To keep learning, to keep striving, until the ultimate Easter occurs.

God is strong and can help you not to fall. 

He can bring you before his glory without any wrong in you 

and can give you great joy. He is the only God, the One who saves us. 

To him be glory, greatness, power, and authority through
Jesus Christ our Lord for all time past, now, and forever. Amen.

Jude 13:24-25

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What I've decided to give up for Lent

photo by locator

Last week kicked off the 40 day span of Lent. Growing up, I remember vaguely hearing about Lent as something my Catholic friends did, deciding whether or not to give up chocolate or caffeine. Two years ago was the first time I started to understand what Lent really stood for--more than denying yourself some of life's little treats. Yes, that can be an element of it (allowing us to identify with Christ's suffering on the cross), but it's more than that.

These are 40 days where we anticipate Easter. Where we look around us and see our need for Easter, for Christ's death, resurrection and conquering of evil. Where we see our need for that kind of eternal hope in a world that is filled with suffering. But that the suffering will come to an end, and is coming... It is a time when we see that hope and realize our own brokenness, it is a time of repenting for our sins and appreciating the freedom that Christ brought us with the first Easter. That is why we can celebrate come Easter morning!

Without that understanding, "giving up" things for Lent is pretty pointless. It can too easily become legalistic, more about counting down to when we can finally have a sweet or a cup of coke rather than identifying with "the reason for the season." Last year, I decided to join the "giving up" club. I gave up soda, my friend gave up shopping. I knew others who gave up Facebook. But then, once Lent had passed, I went back to not thinking twice about ordering a soda. It mattered for a few weeks, but then the importance of it wore off, as most things do.

This year, I wasn't going to give up anything. But as I'm working through my month of not being aware of the power of my words regarding my husband, I realized how important that awareness is in every part of life, not just my marriage. I hope to use this 40 day stretch of time to ingrain a new habit--one learning to eliminate negativity from my speech--that will last long past Lent. I'll take any negativity to God or to my journal, but make an effort to keep it from my speech, which will be hard because oftentimes that can make for great conversation!

Experts argue that it only takes 21 days to learn a new habit. Lent is generous, giving me twice the amount of time to reach that (or at least a noticeable improvement!). And by the grace of God and guidance of the Holy Spirit, I will.

Jesus looked at them and said, "With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible."
Matthew 19:26

Is there anything on your “giving up” list this Lent?

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