“I can’t seem to follow through in giving up for Lent.
Which makes me want to just give up Lent.
Which makes me question Who I am following.
Which may precisely be the point of Lent.”
Ann Voskamp from this lovely post on Lent
Lent is fast approaching, it begins on February 18th this year. If you’re wondering why I observe Lent even though I’m not Catholic, I hope you will come back Monday for a guest post on why Lent is meaningful for all of us. In a nutshell, I just love this special time to re-focus our hearts. And here is a beautiful post from Edie, at Life in Grace, on Lent from her Lutheran perspective.
Lent is a time to focus our hearts on the sacrifice of Jesus, the cross, repentance and prayer. Lent is a time to devote ourselves to God’s Word and to constant prayer in a way that maybe we aren’t blessed to be able to do year round. Lent is a time to ready ourselves — allowing Jesus to cleanse our hearts of impurities, repentance, turning back to our first love.
Won’t you join me in this beautiful season by learning to wait on God alone. I have found, in my own life, that I often wait for things to change, for circumstances to come about, for the next best thing, for my kids to reach a certain age…but I’m not waiting on God.
Lent is the perfect time to set aside the busy calendars, to calm the rushing of our daily lives, to still our hearts before the Lord. Does this mean our regular lives go on pause? Unfortunately, for most of us, no. What this does mean is that we set aside time purposefully and intentionally to make our hearts right and pure before God, asking Him to change us and mold us, yielding to the work of the Spirit in our lives.
Wait Only Upon God Devotions
The first resource I want to share with you is my new devotional guide for waiting on God. We will spend 40 days reading Scriptures on waiting, a short devotional thought and praying the Scriptures. I would love for you to join us with the ebook or print copy. I also hope you will join me on instagram and social media with the hashtag #prayingthescriptures as we read and pray God’s Word concerning waiting.
More Lent Resources
I have been collecting ideas I’ve found online for the past several years, books, devotions, ideas for activities and ways to observe Lent…there are some awesome ideas out there! I hope you will take a look at these resources.
- Wait Only Upon God (the devotional I will be going through for this 40 day Lent period. Ebook here, print copy on Amazon.)
- Place at the Table, A: 40 Days of Solidarity with the Poor
(I posted more about it here.)
- Not So Fast: Slow-Down Solutions
…(one of my favorites for simplifying)
- Journey to the Cross: The Complete Easter Story for Young Readers
(this is great for reading everyday with younger children leading up to Easter)
- Passion Hymns for a Kid’s Heart
- Holey, Wholly, Holy: A Lenten Journey of Refinement
(a brand new book for Lent that I have downloaded to read on my ipad/kindle)
- Amon’s Adventure: A Family Story for Easter
- Bread and Wine: Readings for Lent and Easter
- Abundant Simplicity: Discovering the Unhurried Rhythms of Grace
- Red Dots on children’s hands to remind us of Jesus sacrifice (for Good Friday)
- Resurrection Rolls
- Our Easter Garden
- Picture Prayer Journal with Kids
- Tomb Cake
- LOTS of great links & ideas from Rachel Held Evans blog
- Lenten Prayer from Elizabeth Foss (one of my favorite prayers for Lent)
- Decluttering 40 bags in 40 days?
- Beautiful post on Lent (and a book list from Ann Voskamp)
- Lent Calendar for children to color each day (we’ve done this several years in a row! great resource, free printable!)
- More great ideas for kids & Lent
Lent & Easter Pinterest Board
Join me on Pinterest where I pin lots of great Christ-Centered ideas for families to use during the Lenten and Easter season!
Follow His Mercy is New’s board Easter ~ Christ Centered Ideas & Other Easter Fun on Pinterest.
Candace! Do you know about Nancy Guthrie’s Lenten and Advent Devotionals? Her Lenten one is Jesus Keep Me Near the Cross and the Advent one is Come, Thou Long Expected Jesus. They are fantastic compilations of writings from Sermons and Essays of wonderful theologians. Highly recommended.
Dawn, I am not familiar with those! Going to look them up now. 🙂 Thanks!