Lent ideas

[louandcupoftea]

What do you do for Lent? Do you give something up?, do something helpful? Do you have any books you could suggest which you have found helpful for reflections? all ideas welcome.

I am doing my usual "giving up wine" for Lent. I am giving the money saved to our church's mission partners.

I don't usually manage all six weeks, but this year, I am determined. DV.

Each year I try to give up being bitchy. I can watch what comes out of my mouth OK, it's the internal dialogue that's a killer!

A bit like SilentMammoth, I try to give up sarcasm.

There are quite a lot of good books out there, what sort of thing are you looking for?

We'll be doing these children's lent activities from Christian Aid again this year. There are just a few a week rather than trying to remember one every day, and some are thinking-about-stuff activities, some are trying-stuff-out activities, and all are linked in with world issues, and result in calculating some money to give to CA.

I'm thinking of giving up using the dishwasher for Lent and taking up with the marigolds and Fairy Liquid. Drought has just been declared in our area.
I love the idea of giving up sarcasm ---- I might try that one, DH would love it if we gave up the bickering. (Please can someone to get the Joan Rivers comments out of my head!) :)

Have decided am not giving up anything, instead trying to shop more ethically i.e more fair-trade goods, local suppliers instead of supermarkets where possible and no unnecessary purchases. Also part of a Lenten bible study type group (not as dull as it sounds!) Christianity is about doing works as well as inner spirituality so I think this is a good balance.

40acts.org.uk will send you an email every day with ideas for good things to do, today's is about making a list of your personal skills and strengths and think about ways in which they could benefit your community or church. Yesterday it was about crossing social divides so how to engage someone you might not ordinarily acknowledge in conversation, even a non verbal (smiling) sort of encounter - someone from another race, generation or other social group. Interesting to think about anyway?

I'm finding the normal fasting/abstinence difficult and it's not as if it even means just living on water. It's supposed to make you reflective isn't it but I'm just thinking about food even more than usual. :(