How We Pray, Fast and Give During Lent

I am joining Allison Gingrass and many other wonderful bloggers for the CWBN Blog Hop and the topic is How we pray, fast and give during lent.

This is great timing. I have been so busy I haven’t given the time and thought that should be put into the season that is springing upon us so quickly. Like….next week. Ahhhhhh! Oh wait a minute this is me we are talking about, I do my best work under pressure. So if you will join me, I would like to ask our Blessed Mother to be with me and encourage and show me what I need to do this lent in order to strengthen my relationship with her Son, Jesus…….

As I was saying a Hail Mary, in a timely manner as always, my beautiful cardinal showed up. He shows up throughout the day but there are just times that he shows up at the perfect time. Mama cardinal is here too, she seems to be waiting on him to tell her all is clear to go get some bird seed.

Because my handsome cardinal won’t stay put while I open the screen door to the porch I found another picture that looks just like him…

But I digress….

After some prayer and thought here is what I have come up with…..

How We Pray

Yesterday, I came across a post on facebook reminding me that the Total Consecration to Jesus through Mary will be starting on February, 20. Yep, that is today. This is truly how I work, last minute! But I do think this is a great way to add more prayer to this lent season. Marian consecration has been highly endorsed by many saints, including St. Pope John Paul II. My understanding of the 33 day prayer is to give Mary our permission to complete her job of helping us become more like Christ. I enjoy audio versions of many different things and have used the audio provided by Greg and Jennifer Willilts, which you can find here.

Fasting

Every year I struggle with coming up with the right thing to fast from. This year is no different. After a long hiatus from being anywhere near healthy I have been brought to The Daniel Plan and have given up sugar, gluten and dairy. I plan to continue doing so because I feel so much better. So it feels like giving up sugar is not a good idea. I have decided I will fast from comparing myself with others. I needed some ideas so I hopped onto google and came to a blog that I really enjoy and she had this listed as something to give up for lent and I thought that fits in perfectly with my recent walk with Jesus and the things He is teaching me. You can find more ideas from Meg Hunter-Kilmer here.

Giving

We have been going through a real tough financial situation about 3 years now. Moving to Florida added to that. Due to those struggles we have not been as faithful in tithing as we should be. I am going to step up our game and be sure we are tithing the 10% and trust that God will be sure that all of our needs are met. I am in constant struggle to trust our Lord with everything in my life and I long to hand it all over to Him because it is all His to begin with. I am just a steward that he has trusted with those things in my life, home, car, money, children etc.  God always has the best timing ever. My husband and I just began a course titled “Navigating Your Finances God’s Way” at our church.  It’s been well worth it so far and we are only in week 2. But  the course has been such a reminder that scripture tells us exactly what we need to do to be free of anxiety, worries and fear.  The timing reminds me that God is working through us at all times.

I pray that you have a wonderful grace- filled Lenten season. What are some things you are doing for lent to grow your relationship with our Lord? I hope you will share them with me.