As I mentioned before our church is setting aside some time for Lent. It's purpose is to create space in our lives to experience God. As a Christ-community, we are setting aside the next 40 days to be intentional about pursuing God in our daily lives. It is a season where we fast. Why fast? When we fast, we are one-on-one with God, offering not only our time, but the attentiveness that we otherwise might be giving to eating, shopping, surfing the web, or watching television. Fasting aligns our lives (hearts, minds and bodies) with God and what He really wants to do.
During this first week of Lent the church fasted television, music and media of some sort. The goal this week is to help us develop an ear to listen for and become attune to the still small voice of God. Micah and I decided it would be healthy for us to turn off the TV this week... instead we spent that time as a family playing with Mack, talking and we even worked on putting a puzzle together. We realized it's not so hard to give something up for a week but it's important to understand the reason why we are doing this. It's easy for us to "check off a box" but are we really gaining anything from it...We are looking forward to the weeks ahead as God has already been challenging us.
2010 Goals - well as you know goals that are set at the beginning of the year are a desired ambition but not always achieved throughout the entire year...
- We are still doing family devotions and for the season of Lent we are using the 40-day devotional from Palm Valley.
- Instead of reading my Woman's Devotional Bible - Sanctuary I've decided to read along with the youth students in their assigned chapter a day reading. I've actually found myself spending a little more time really reflecting rather than just checking a box that I've ready my quota for the day. We've read through the book of John, Ephesians and now are on Acts. We're still daily positing on facebook.
- I've kept up with my blog at least twice a month.
- I've faithfully kept a daily picture of Mack on photobucket - although I'm not great at posting daily - usually once a week I upload, sorry for those of you who continually check for new pictures.
- I stared to read 2 new books this month but haven't quite been able to finish them.
- One book I started was "A Reason for God" by Timothy Keller. It's a bit heady for me and will take a little more time to finish. I think I may even take a break from it and come back at another time.
- Micah and I also started reading together "Shepherding a Child's Heart", seems great so far - will let you know how it is once we finish.
Mack got his first little cold this month with a stuffy nose and a bit of congestion. The doctor said there isn't much you can do at this age but give it time to pass. I think it was harder on me to see him coughing and sneezing. He never seemed too bothered by it though. Mack started exploring new sounds like squealing - it's so cute! A pastor friend of ours said, "We spend the first few years teaching them to talk and walk, and the rest of their life telling them to sit down and be quiet". After working with Mack the last 2 weeks on getting to bed a little earlier he finally slept 10 hours (previously it'd been about 81/2 hrs.) last night and woke up just as happy as can be. I've introduced a few toys to him, I think he likes them :)
On a personal note I've been very motivated to keep up with the house cleaning, it helps that Mack is like his mommy - he likes keeping a schedule, this allows me to have designated time to get things done around the house. The other day while cleaning I got in one of those moods (Micah always says, "Oh Boy") where I had an itch to rearrange or redo something. Without breaking the bank I decided it would be sufficient to simply work with what I had. I switched out the decor in the guest bathroom and rearranged the living room furniture once again - I think I like this new arrangement, for now anyway.
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