Happy Lent

Happy Lent, Colleen?

 Don't you mean Sad Lent?

  

Nope, I'm trying to change my 'tude about lent this year.  I always go into Lent dreading the extra prayer time I promise to make, craving the sacrifices I've chosen to give up, and just wishing it was Easter already.  

But that's not the point of Lent.  We're not supposed to make our lives miserable for forty days.  We are supposed to grow closer to Jesus in these forty days so that on Easter we are so excited to greet our friend when He rises in glory.  

Giving up sweets (which I seem to pick every year) in and of itself is just a diet plan, but offering up a little prayer of thanksgiving for His sacrifice for me while I turn down dessert will only draw me closer to Him.  White knuckling distracted through a family rosary isn't going to help me journey towards a deeper friendship with Christ, but truly trying to clear my head and enter into the prayers as a present to Him will.  Choosing to cook eggs on Friday instead of ordering pizza could be a letdown, but serving them with a smile to my family and giving them my attention through dinner only helps me to grow in my vocation that He has called me to live.  

So it doesn't matter "what" we do for Lent, it matters "why" we're doing it.  I'm choosing sacrifices that on the surface may appear hard and miserable, but if I can keep a joyful and generous and prayerful attitude through it all, I know Jesus and I can become bffs by Easter (don't worry, there's a lot of him to go around!)  And that my friends, makes a Happy Lent.  

(Since one of my lenten sacrifices is to stay off of Instagram, I'm hoping to write more in this little space.  More about nothing, like the good old days of blogging!)