Lent

I have been thinking about my faith alot lately.  With so many big changes in my life, I have just reciently looked back and found that there has been one constant, and a constant that I have to admit that I have been ignoring, and that is God!  

God has been there to hold my hand through all that I did not understand.  God has been there to help me understand that things happen so that I was not making the bad choices, and help to make me strong to realise that the right choices were not the easy choices, they were the difficult choices.

With the upcoming lent I have been praying alot.  As a catechist I have always taught my class that they needed to give up something for lent, or do something to improve their lives.  I have seen many differnet posts about people giving up candy and Facebook and other social media for lent.

I then started to think about what I wanted to do.  I could give up a food, that would be easy, however, how would that make me closer to God?  I could give up Facebook, but then I realised that for that to be truely effective, I would need to replace that time that I was on the computer with something else, but what.

I have noticed through my class that so many of us take the easy way out, we refuse to challenge ourselves, and stop relying on God when things stop going our way.  Those are the times that we need to stop relying on other things and start relying on God more!

That is when I decided that giving up candy or chocolate was not the right answer for me.  I also realised that giving up Facebook was not the answer, but I had no clue what was the answer, until last night.  

I am a catechist of a confirmation class.  This is a difficult year, especially since these students are trying to grow up in so many ways, and now we are forcing them to do what we feel is right, and many of them just do it because that is what is expected, not because they want to be in the class.  Every year we go to a retreat, before confirmation.  At the retreat 2 high school students come to talk.

In the talk, one of the students made me realise that we have so much that we need to be thankful for.  Just because we don't have the best of everything does not mean anything.  She spoke of going and getting to know the homeless and feeding them, and said one thing that shocked me, they have more than we do.  They have a strong beilef in God, something that so many of us who are fortunate do not have.

That is why I have decided that I am not going to give up anything for lent.  This year I am going to do somethign new.  I am going to start praying more.  I am going to start relying on God more.  I am going to start talking to God more.  I always believed that he knows all so he knows what is going on in my life, but I am going to start telling him like he is a friend.

This year I am going to open my heart and my head as far as I can to talk to God and listen.  I am going to pray that his spirit can help guide me in the difficult times.  I am going to believe that God is there for me and is going to continue to bless me, though everything.  Knowing that there are times that might be hard, but that is so that I can learn to love and rely on him more.

I am going to challenge my students to do the same thing.  Giving up something for lent is great, but asking for help is better.  I have decided that the one gift of the spirit that I need more is patience, and I am going to ask that God can help bless me and guide me so that I can be open to patience that he has to help me out!