It's hard to believe we're already heading into Week 2 of Lent! For those that may not be familiar with Lent, it started on Feb. 22nd this year with Ash Wednesday and lasts for 6 weeks (40 days not counting Sundays) leading up to Easter. Lent is a time of reflection and meditation as we journey to the cross and Jesus' last week of His life.
In our church, we celebrate Lent with extra worship services on Wednesday nights. We also have a soup supper before the service. The Wednesday services are in addition to the regular Sunday ones. You may hear of people "giving up" things for Lent or not eating meat on Fridays, etc. It is mainly the Catholic Church you hear about most in reference to Lent, but we're a little different than they are in that we aren't obligated to do any of those things for Lent, but many do choose to.
For me, I usually pick one thing negative thing to give up or one spiritual component to add to my life during Lent. Six weeks is a decent amount of time to focus on the particular goal set forth, and I like the idea of sacrificing something as we think about the ultimate sacrifice of Jesus.
This year, I chose to give up 40 bags of stuff. I remember someone doing this last year and being so impressed with her, but I also remember thinking, there's no way I could get rid of that much stuff in such a short amount of time because it would be so hard. Well, here I am one year later! I feel like we have so much stuff in our house that literally clutters our emotional and spiritual well-being. We're trying to do house remodeling projects, and we've been moving our stuff back and forth. Really, there is no need for 2 people to have this much stuff!
My motivation is sky high at the moment to make room for Baby and Scott is very supportive of my effort. He's also going through clothes and books that he no longer wants or don't fit him anymore. I want to get all of these "house projects" done now before Baby arrives because I don't want to worry about much house-related after Baby is here. So it's to the trash, recycling, or donation pile we go! We have a few things I may try to sell (we already sold this monster desk of his online in just 12 hours!!), but my main goal is to declutter and better organize what we do have.
I'm already 26 "bags" in (I counted the desk as 1 "bag"), and I'm surprised at how easy it's been so far. I guess we're the typical American consumers with too much stuff that we don't use or need anymore just cluttering up our house and mind. I'm hoping that this exercise in decluttering our home makes way for more room in our hearts to focus on Christ. I still fondly remember my 1st year living in China in my small one-bedroom apartment. My material possessions consisted of only what fit into 2 suitcases going over there and I didn't miss all of the other "stuff" back home. That tells me that I don't need all of the stuff to make me happy or content.
In our church, we celebrate Lent with extra worship services on Wednesday nights. We also have a soup supper before the service. The Wednesday services are in addition to the regular Sunday ones. You may hear of people "giving up" things for Lent or not eating meat on Fridays, etc. It is mainly the Catholic Church you hear about most in reference to Lent, but we're a little different than they are in that we aren't obligated to do any of those things for Lent, but many do choose to.
For me, I usually pick one thing negative thing to give up or one spiritual component to add to my life during Lent. Six weeks is a decent amount of time to focus on the particular goal set forth, and I like the idea of sacrificing something as we think about the ultimate sacrifice of Jesus.
This year, I chose to give up 40 bags of stuff. I remember someone doing this last year and being so impressed with her, but I also remember thinking, there's no way I could get rid of that much stuff in such a short amount of time because it would be so hard. Well, here I am one year later! I feel like we have so much stuff in our house that literally clutters our emotional and spiritual well-being. We're trying to do house remodeling projects, and we've been moving our stuff back and forth. Really, there is no need for 2 people to have this much stuff!
My motivation is sky high at the moment to make room for Baby and Scott is very supportive of my effort. He's also going through clothes and books that he no longer wants or don't fit him anymore. I want to get all of these "house projects" done now before Baby arrives because I don't want to worry about much house-related after Baby is here. So it's to the trash, recycling, or donation pile we go! We have a few things I may try to sell (we already sold this monster desk of his online in just 12 hours!!), but my main goal is to declutter and better organize what we do have.
I'm already 26 "bags" in (I counted the desk as 1 "bag"), and I'm surprised at how easy it's been so far. I guess we're the typical American consumers with too much stuff that we don't use or need anymore just cluttering up our house and mind. I'm hoping that this exercise in decluttering our home makes way for more room in our hearts to focus on Christ. I still fondly remember my 1st year living in China in my small one-bedroom apartment. My material possessions consisted of only what fit into 2 suitcases going over there and I didn't miss all of the other "stuff" back home. That tells me that I don't need all of the stuff to make me happy or content.
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1 comment:
Just wanted to leave you a note to say you inspired a friend of mine and me to go through things in our house and purge 40 bags, too. We started last week, so we're obviously going beyond the end of Lent, but I suppose it's better than not starting at all, right?We're "splitting" the 40 bags in to 20 each, but we very well may go beyond and do 40 each. We'll see. I'm at about 10 bags now - it is so freeing to let go of the "stuff" that has been cluttering closets & rooms for too long.
How did the end of your 40 bag purge go?
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