This is Ash Wednesday and I am embarking on my first ever Lent experience. For weeks I have pondered just what I could give up that would be meaningful.
Walking through the process with the girls helped to cement the choices. Zoe wanted to know what it meant to give something up. She was all on board with giving some of her toys away to kids who didn't have enough. But, we talked a little more. We talked about finding something that was more important in our lives than God. She looked up, brown eyes wide and said "Nothing's more important to me than God!" I said "Yes, but sometimes things sneak in and take up the space and time we should save for God". She looked puzzled for a minute.
I told her I plan to give up Facebook. Her eyes opened to the widest possible position and she took a step back. "You're giving up Facebook!" The full impact of that decision played across her face in the most amusing way. Then she said, "Well, I guess I can give up candy."
If I had any doubt about my resolve to give up Facebook, it was banished in that conversation. Zoe is 8 and has never experienced a life without frequent status updates. I hate to admit it but I spend a great deal of time watching for my friends' posts. (I have some very witty friends). I troll around keeping an eye on my youth group and watch out for the church families. I monitor my own kids and their friends. I keep up with my friends scattered out among the world. All very decent things to be doing but the time taken from my family and my God is perhaps more than it should be.
So, I have decided that for the 40 days of Lent, I will only check Facebook once a day. Zoe and I will work together on a blog about our Lent journey. Just to keep me honest, since I've already tried to justify sneaking onto Twitter as a means to get my social media fix, I will also commit to only checking my Twitter and Pinterest once a day.
The devotional this morning was titled "A New Direction". I am looking forward to journeying in this new direction.
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