It’s Ash Wednesday, the first day of the season of Lent, and I’m immediately reminded of my word for this year.
Focus
And the scripture God gave me to remind me of the challenges that lay ahead for me this year, every year.
“No dear brothers and sisters, I’m still not all I should be, but I am focusing all my energies on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I strain to reach the end of the race and receive the prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us up to heaven.” ~Philippians 3:13-14
So as I sit here thinking about what this means for this Lenten season, I’m brought to my knees with the weight of God’s grace and mercy. Because of His gift, His son, I get to “forget the past and look forward to what lies ahead.” And what lies ahead is better than any Olympic gold medal. It’s life eternal, with a God who, though I don’t deserve it, loves me….loves me so much that he sent His son as a sacrifice. His only son. I have an only son. I can’t imagine.
Today, my only son and I discussed Lent. We talked about Jesus’ sacrifice. We talked about his 40 days of fasting leading up to his death, burial, and resurrection. We talked about making sacrifices ourselves during this next 40 days and what that means exactly….to sacrifice. Ben knew. And even though he knew, he was ready. We discussed a few things he might consider giving up. I told him what I would be giving up. We both thought that it would be a good idea for our sacrifices to be food-related, since Jesus gave up food.
So for the next 40 days, I will sacrifice my daily large sweet tea from McDonald’s. Ben has chosen to give up fast food altogether (we needed to clarify this as any restaurant with a drive-through). No McDonald’s, or Wendy’s, or ChikFilA. That’s huge for a 9-year-old. I’m very proud of him. And together we will focus on Jesus.
He and I will spend each morning with a Lenten devotion and some time of prayer for friends, family and anyone or anything else God lays on our hearts. I will do the same at dinnertime. We’re putting together a Lenten prayer journal, so if you have a prayer request you would like for us to include, please feel free to leave a comment here or email me at crabbygirl at insightbb dot com. We are also putting together a Lenten calendar to count down the time until Easter. I’m hoping that will also help keep our focus where it should be.
I pray you will find this season of Lent to be a time to focus on God’s amazing grace, His gift and sacrifice, as well.
