lent (and not the pocket kind)

Lent is a season of soul-searching and repentance. It is a season for reflection and taking stock. Lent originated in the very earliest days of the Church as a preparatory time for Easter, when the faithful rededicated themselves and when converts were instructed in the faith and prepared for baptism. By observing the forty days of Lent, the individual Christian imitates Jesus’ withdrawal into the wilderness for forty days. All churches that have a continuous history extending before AD 1500 observe Lent. The ancient church that wrote, collected, canonized, and propagated the New Testament also observed Lent, believing it to be a commandment from the apostles. (the best explanation i found... from kencollins.com)

for me, lent is a time of remembering. to reflect and remember what was given up for us and what we do to "repay" that. lent starts on ash wednesday and ends on easter, during that time most people give up something as a way to repent. ever since it was little i can remember giving up something extra each year to go along with the not eating meat on fridays....not hitting my brothers, not saying bad words or mean things, and of course candy or deserts. this year i am somewhat sticking to that. no candy or chocolate (yes there is a difference) during lent for me. that is my goal for giving up, my goals for remembering and reflecting the true meaning of easter are to attend church more(we have not done a very good job of this since moving to hawaii) and to show more patience and understanding to those who i may not have given it to. and i know ahead of time that this is going to be hard, but if its not hard to accomplish then to me its not worth doing.

and with that....this is just some of the chocolate that is in my house right now...yep, going to be tricky.