Ideas for Getting Ready for Lent

Is Lent Okay? Should I practice Lent?

There appears to be a resurgence of interest in Lent among various Protestants. I did not grow up practicing Lent and I do think this is a decision that should be considered thoughtfully. Many
people practice giving something up as a check list or a societal expectation or a game.These are not good reasons to practice Lent. We do not practice Lent to please God or make Him like us more.

But here are some resources I put together for those of us thinking about Lent and/or incorporating our families into Lent.

Here is a lovely article about the why of practicing Lent. This is geared for us adults growing in our practice of Lent or considering using it for the first time.

Here is an article about talking with your children about the season of Lent along with some of the
difficult conversations about sin and death that arise from the Lent season.

Another article about bringing your children to an Ash Wednesday service.

And here is another article with some resources for family devotions during the Lent season.

Last but certainly not least is a site with free printables that follow along with The Jesus Storybook Bible.



I hope you enjoy these resources as much I enjoyed finding them. Blessings!

How to Help Children (and Adults) Say "Thank You"

Or How to Help You be Thankful too!

It's the worst part of winter right now. The days are still short, still to cold to play outside every day, and there is no Christmas to be excited about. We are living in dreary dark days and needing graciousness for one another.

I don't think most of us enjoy haranguing our sons and  daughters to say "thank you." Repetition, groans, eye rolls, and not genuine thankfulness all go with making kids say "thank you."

But I noticed something early on with my firstborn is that I didn't have to prompt him very much to say "thank you" if I was consistently using it like I should. I also noticed when I stop, look a child in the eye and give them an unexpected encouraging word, they encourage each other in the same way.

C. S. Lewis and the Daughters of Eve

Discovering Lewis (and maybe a bit of me too)

I was a middle school girl when I first picked up the Chronicles of Narnia. I marveled at the magical eternal winter. It was such an enchanting, unbelievable idea to a girl raised in the desert of west Texas. As Lucy ventures into Narnia, she is called a Daughter of Eve. I still remember the visceral reaction in my gut as I read Lucy being referred to as a "Daughter of Eve". A Daughter of Eve seemed to me an insult. But the story continued and Aslan himself refers to Lucy and Susan Daughters of Eve. To be addressed as a Daughter of Eve is an honor. 

Shocking and horrifying were my thoughts when I first realized Lewis uses Daughters of Eve as an honorific. Eve? But she's a woman! And she led the entire world astray! And we would all still be living in Eden if she had just shut up and listened to her husband or at least not had any original ideas. Why would I want to be called a daughter of Eve? I wanted to be as little associated with Eve as possible. I was running as far from Eve as I could.

I remember as an 8 year old girl knowing exactly what I would do and be if I were a boy. I would go to seminary and I would teach the Scriptures as accurately as I could. But I was a girl. Girls couldn't teach the Scripture (at least not to mixed company). I never desired to be a boy, I enjoyed being a girl and all it entailed. I wasn't even upset or angry about it, simply.... disappointed. I just knew what my calling would have been if I was a boy. And I grew up knowing it could not be.

How to Help Children Learn the Lord's Prayer

Recently, we have been helping our 5 and 3 year old memorize the Lord's Prayer. Our church says the Prayer together every week and learning it is a way to further involve our children in our church service. Don't misunderstand, I don't believe that by my children learning the Lord's Prayer, it will magically create in them awesome faith or faith at all. It won't solve all our problems or make my kids perfect. But it is a discipline, and a wonderful passage of Scripture they can fall back on.

I started working on it with our 5 year old, but did not expect the 3 year to memorize much. Wow! He surprised me, the 3 year old has the Lord's Prayer better memorized than his older brother.

My husband and I started out by incorporating the Prayer into our bedtime routine with the kids. The kids would say parts of it, but were not excited about it.

Are You Good Enough?

I had one of those once a year 2 hour phone conversations with my brother a few weeks ago. We talked about many things, but one of the topics that came up was his concerns if could be a good parent. I of course told him that no one can ever really be ready to be a parent and knowing you don't have it all together is a great first step. But I also told him what my husband and I remind ourselves all the time. "You don't have to be a perfect parent, just good enough."

Everyone feels the pressure before the first child is born. Will we be good enough? What are we not doing right? I MUST DO EVERYTHING CORRECTLY! Will non-organic cotton sheets harm my child? What if I miss something something really major that I don't even know about?

You have done things imperfectly and you will continue to not be a perfect person. You won't be perfect, but you can be good enough.

The various parenting research we have done shows that kids are resilient, and will do okay in life as long as you don't do something to horrible to them. So we aren't the perfect parents, we don't even try to be. We just try to be good enough.

The Christmas Drink You Must Make Now!

I had a wonderful Christmas today. We traveled earlier in the week and came home the 23rd. Our Christmas Eve service was at 3 PM, leaving plenty of time to come home and make some homemade chicken noodle soup and light our last candle on our advent wreath.

This morning we watched delighted children open presents and Face Timed with family. I made a slow cooked brisket and my sons and I played with Lego in the afternoon making new creations from our now very large Lego collection 

After putting the 3 munchkins to bed, my husband and I treated ourselves to our favorite hot drink right now: Kahlua Hot Chocolate.

How to Start Practicing Advent

I met a friend for coffee this evening and had the rare experience of riding in the car by myself and not desiring silence. So I turned on the radio. I had not realize how frazzled I was supposed to be about Christmas. I didn't realize I had to get a gift for everyone I know or ELSE!!!! I stopped and thought about it. I had not realized how not frazzled I was feeling until listening to the commercials.

We don't have cable, the shows my kids watch are on Netflix or Prime, so we just don't see many commercials. I mostly listen to music on my iPod so I don't hear many commercials there. I quit subscribing to magazines that make me dissatisfied with what I own. And I forgot; I forgot it's supposed to be crazy and stressful and cost lots of money.

Just don't. Don't allow someone else to determine your checklist. I may not get my Christmas cards out till after Christmas. Oh well. If someone get offended, I just won't send them one next year. I schedule a lot of our social gatherings during the 2 weeks of Christmas. The kids are out of school and more people are off of work. I don't decorate the whole house. Just a few fun key items you love. Our tree is 4 feet tall and is on a sofa table behind the couch. The baby can't knock it over and I don't yell at the kids to leave it alone. My children still think it's a wondrous thing.

I didn't grow up with advent, so attending a liturgical church has been a learning experience. But this right now is not Christmas. Christmas starts December 25th and goes on for 2 weeks. This, right now, this is Advent.