No candy for Lent!

I first heard of Lent when I had just moved to Wichita, Kansas (aka; The Bible Belt). I worked and was friends with a really fun girl who was Lutheran and was talking about what she was giving up for "Lent"... huh? Many thousands of questions later, I realized I knew nothing about any religion other that the one I was raised in. Here is the dictionary version of Lent:



Lent: n. Christianity, the forty days of fasting and penitence from Ash Wednesday to Easter.



uh. OK. boring. Here is my version told in a true story between my beautiful, innocent daughter and I this morning during our daily "mad dash" out the door (with a little history as well, so you understand what she has gone through the last three weeks).



My kids go to church every Wednesday evening. Our church is not a church that the kids go to kicking and screaming. They LIVE for Wednesday nights when they get to go to choir practice, eat pizza, then attend a bible study (different class for each child, more on that later, I'm sure). Belle announced on Ash Wednesday, after having ashes placed on her forehead in the shape of the cross by our wonderful Pastor, that she had decided to give up sugar for Lent. Whoa, little lady.... you.... give up sugar..... you do know that Lent is 40 days, right? Yes, Mother.



So after much discussion, she decides to give up sugar between the hours of 11:00 am and 9:00 pm (she reveals that she must have a very nutritious cinnamon roll and chocolate milk for breakfast at school. -gasp!) Then she decides that is not enough punishment, and decides to cut out all sugar. OK then, here we embarked on a very long three weeks of no sugar... well, no candy, ice cream, sugared cereal, etc. Everything these days has some sort of added sugar, so we decided to keep it simple. Every day gets harder and harder, and on Sundays, she forgets the self imposed rules and decides she can have one cookie during fellowship after church.

Mom & Dad have had lots of conversations re: is this really healthy for our child to think she needs to show God how much she appreciates what Jesus did for her? He knows her heart, she doesn't need to prove anything to Him, but she wants to so badly. Eventually we decide that she made this decision on her own, we will not push the issue; let it play out; support whatever she does or does not do in the next few weeks.

So, here we are three weeks later. Belle innocently, but with a pained look on her face, asks if I think it would be OK for her to have a frozen fruit smoothie at lunch. So that seg-ways us into a very deep conversation about why she has decided to give up sugar for Lent. So here is what we decided in the end:

The Q-Crew definition of Lent:

• Lent reminds us that we can never be perfect, not even for 40 days.
• This is why we need Jesus, we need a savior because we can't do it our own.
• He washes away all of our sins, not just the little ones like eating sugar when we said we wouldn't.
• He does not require we do anything but believe in his grace, day by day, minute by minute.
• Lent is a time to remember what Jesus did for us and reflect on what he gave to save us.

This is why He gave His life.... for ME and for my beautiful Belle.

Thank you God for the gift you gave me to be able to tell my daughter she is loved as she is, not for what she does. The tears that that statement brought to her eyes this morning gives me a tiny glimpse of what God must feel when we grasp his grace.

P.S. I am happy to report that Sweet Belle has decided to narrow down the no sugar to "no candy" until Easter. She very happily indulged in three (3!) cupcakes today, two at school and one at church. :)

P.S.S. I have a sneaking suspicion that God has a sweet tooth.....