This Lent I will give up Liver and Onions and Chewing Tobacco

You need to give something up for Lent.  As Catholics, that’s what we're told all our lives.  But exactly why do we do this?  Sure, giving up chocolate, sweets, soft drinks and other guilty pleasures can teach us about sacrifice, but won’t most of us take these back up at the end of Lent?  I can’t even begin to guess how many times I’ve given up things.  As a wife and mother I’m always giving up my time and making sacrifices for my family.  During my pregnancies, which obviously were longer than Lent, I had to give up alcohol and certain types of foods. Currently I'm training for a marathon so I have to pay extra attention to the types of foods I’m eating and have to cut out activities that keep me from getting enough sleep.  Therefore, to me, giving things up for Lent seems to be the easy way out.   

Lent should be about conversion, about turning my life closer to Jesus. I think that I would be missing a great opportunity to grow in Christ if I gave something up for Lent just to be grumpy and miserable the entire time. Yes, I’ll be giving something up for Lent.  I’ll be giving up liver and onions, chewing tobacco and tortilla chips. Okay, I’m kidding about the liver and onions (I’ve never eaten that) and the chewing tobacco (I’ll be grumpy, just kidding, I don’t use tobacco in any form) but I am serious about the tortilla chips.  Anyone that knows me well knows that I can’t go one day without eating tortilla chips.  

“Yikes! We’re all out of food!”

Now, I will qualify that one by saying that if I find that this makes me uncommonly grumpy, I will abort this endeavor.  Of course, since Sundays are not officially considered part of Lent, I could always choose to eat my fill of tortillas every Sunday (Woo Hoo!).

In all seriousness, this Lent I will make a special effort to more fully focus on the three pillars of Lent: Prayer, Fasting and Almsgiving.  But for me, fasting is the hardest of these three.  Pray for me!