Why I Didn’t Give Up Anything For Lent

I was raised a Christian and throughout my life have always considered myself to have a strong faith. I regularly attended mass on Sunday, went to Catholic grade school, said my prayers at night, and followed all the rules and regulations. That is until now. This year I didn’t give up anything for lent.

Gasp!

No, you heard me right. I didn’t cut out the occasional alcoholic beverage, didn’t say no to sweets, and I didn’t stay off Facebook or social media.

What I did do, I took a vow to find a daily devotional and actually READ it!

Now I had tried many daily devotionals in the past. Most of the time a book or pamphlet I would have picked up from churches and religious stores.

But nothing seemed to ever “stick”. I would be a devote reader for about a week and then the devotional would find a spot on my coffee table to collect dust. Until I discovered the app First 5.

First 5

The thing I love about this devotional is that it is always at my fingertips. I find myself reaching for it in my “First 5” minutes of the day as I’m still lying in bed, or as I am waiting for water to boil cooking dinner, or when I have a few minutes over lunch to just decompress.

The app uploads a new devotional each day that partners with a reading from the bible (they progress through the chapters so it is easy to follow along).

No matter what the reading and devotion center around each day, I usually can easily find a line or two that speaks to a current situation in my life.

A feature of the app is being able to highlight lines of the devotional or reading that you want to maybe reflect on or save to your profile to come back to at a later time.

At the end of each daily devotional is a small prayer and section called “My Moment” that gives a small place to reflect on the reading and gives a way to approach applying that day’s teaching moments to your everyday life.

So no, I didn’t give anything up for lent this year, but that doesn’t mean I don’t feel closer to God. On the contrary. Being able to read his word and have an opportunity to reflect on his daily teachings has made me feel stronger in my faith.

Finding a way to take just five minutes of my day and completely devote those moments to a conversation with God. Having an open mind and heart to my faith, by allowing him to cultivate me to grow stronger each and every day in my life’s journey.