Today is the first day of Lent. The 40 day period that the Christian Church devotes to fasting, abstinence, and penitence.

I grew up in the Episcopal church and, as a kid, we always had to give up sweets for Lent. The only time we got to eat sweets during the entire 40 days was on my mom’s birthday when we got to have a piece of birthday cake.

I adore sweet things and this wasn’t a favorite time for me.

When I was seven, a girl in my Sunday school class got to give up wearing slips for Lent. Hmmm…slips….chocolate cake. Unfair!

I’d have given up wearing slips in an instant.

Back in the 1990’s we attended church in Dowagiac, MI. Father Robert gave his Lenten sermon and it wasn’t about giving up anything. Instead, it was about giving of.  The giving of yourself.

He suggested that instead of giving up something we find some area in the community where we could give of ourselves. Our time, our talents. An “almsgiving” as it were, that would make so much more of a difference than the giving up of chocolate cake.

I LOVED this idea. And it made so much more sense to me than to give up wearing my slip. 🙂

I do believe that whether you give up or give of, Lent should be a time of introspection. If you give something up, that’s great. But I wanted to share the idea of giving of, just in case you thought it was as great an idea as I did.