What Works

In a previous post I mentioned Dr. Kalas' mention of flunking Lent. I think commonly when people chose something to follow for Lent, the moment they mess up they feel like a failure, and often stop whatever they were doing. One chocolate strawberry and it's back to eating anything chocolate.

I always encourage my congregation to get back to whatever discipline they started even if they fail. This year with the idea of flunking Lent in mind I added a tactic that is helping me "pass."

I'm motivated by accountability and trying to succeed. So I created a chart with each day of Lent. I have columns for the habits I'm trying to follow, from omitting sugar to writing to exercise. Each success for the day gets a checkmark. I'm trying for an "A" as determined by a 90% satisfied requirements.

This wouldn't work for everybody. But it's helping me. Tonight when I made my husband's birthday pie I resisted nibbling the crust scraps because I'm not eating wheat.

On Sundays I'll probably lighten up on some of the habits since it's traditionally a "feast" day and with church twice I really don't have time for all the extra routine I've added. Having a day off can help the other days seem more bearable.

This would make some people's Lent miserable, so do what works for you. Find a way to honor Christ in your practice, whatever it looks like.