Written by Katherine over at Exhaling at Home entitled "Can a Mother Observe Lent?"
Wow.
She writes:
I'm a mom with 7 children. Small people need a lot of fuel and won't eat small and simple meals; they also need snacks. My time is not my own, so I cannot devote the hours I'd like to quiet recollection. There is no silence here except between the hours of 2 a.m. and 6 a.m. and I'm usually sleeping through it, gratefully. In this way, it seems I have some difficulty observing Lent in the way I'd like, but that's just the point. My ideal Lent is not ideal, because it is not God's Plan for me. "My ideal Lent" is just that: MINE. It would be for me, not Him.
His Plan includes 7 children (2 teenagers), a husband who works from home, a barking dog, deadlines and unfinished business. His Plan is perfect. It doesn't look like my Plan, and that is just what I need to work on this Lent: changing my own mind and will to match HIS. I need to give up my own ideas and try to see what His are.
As another mother of seven, all I can say is THANK YOU! Thank you for reminding me that it's GOD'S plan for my life to be filled with the noise, chaos, and busy-ness associated with life with 7 little ones under 10. His plan for me includes interrupted prayer times, Legos on the floor, spilled juice, and tons of "Mommy-I-gotta-show-you-this!"
I would love a quiet retreat. That is not how God wants me to observe this season of Lent.
My path to holiness involves noise, mess, laundry, small spaces... and a lot of love and laughter.
His ways are always best.
2 comments:
You might enjoy reading "The Christians as the Romans Saw Them"
by Robert Louis Wilken. It takes a look at several real people who lived during that time. It examines letters they wrote and other historical documents from the early centuries. It gives you an understanding of what it means when we say that Jesus came to us in the "fullness of time."
So, so true. I find Lent can be hugely different even from year to year, depending on the circumstances He deals us.
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