No Facebook for Lent

Well today begins Lent. It is a time when many in the Christian world give up and offer up as a sign of penance. It is six weeks without meat on Fridays, fasting and abstaining in preparation for Easter. As a Catholic I have always given something up this time a year and avoided meat on Ash Wednesday (the start of Lent) and all Fridays during Lent. It is meant to remind us of the sacrifice God made while giving up His only Son and the sacrifice Jesus made giving up His life for our sins. In the big scheme of things....six weeks really isn't all that much considering what was done for us.

If done appropriately....Lent is a time for us to clear our minds and focus on Their sacrifice and on our spiritual lives. Sometimes that is difficult in the world we live in. It seems that we are constantly inundated with so much information of all kinds....that it is hard to simply focus on the simple things. The important things. Sadly....this year, it wasn't until last night that I even had a clear picture of what I was going to give up. Then, as the president was making his State of the Union speech and I was not watching it but instead relying on facebook for my information.....I suddenly realized that I was spending much too much time on fb and it was contributing to my information overload. It wasn't hard to figure out that six weeks without fb might not be a bad thing for my mind, body or soul! So without giving myself even a millisecond to back out....I promptly posted my Lenten intention on fb and bid everyone a Happy Lent. It was nice to know that some will miss me and then I am sure there are others that won't feel quite as sad. And of course there will be others that even after six weeks won't realize I was ever even gone. Sigh!!!!

So yesterday was Fat Tuesday....the last hurrah before Lent. It is a day to "enjoy" that which will be given up for the next six weeks. Well.....I did my duty as a good mother and a good Catholic and I ate all the junk food in the house and drank the last of the soda so that there would be no temptations to derail anyone's Lenten sacrifices come this morning. Imagine my shock to find out that no one had given up junk food or soda this year. Oops. Looks like some of my Lenten sacrifice will need to be spent at the gym.

Just so you know....I will continue to blog and I will be putting my blogs on fb (a couple of people did ask) but other than that fb and I will be estranged until after Easter. Until then my fb friends....Don't forget me! Don't unfriend me! And for goodness sakes....don't say anything interesting until I get back! Have a good Lenten season everyone!