During this Lenten season, our church is doing a series based on cultivating and letting go. Cultivate trust; let go of fear. Cultivate traits like faithfulness and steadfastness; let go of envy and anger.
Each week I am challenged. I often hold onto bad habits instead of releasing them. Katherine and I have talked often about the things that weigh us down and how hard it is to let them go. For instance, we both have a terrible sweet tooth that we blame for our indulgences. We allow ourselves so many sweets even though we know intellectually how little benefit we get.
Katherine and I are also terrible at paperwork and letting papers pile up. It’s an obvious fault if you enter either of our domains. At this tax season of the year, it’s even more overt as we struggle to get paperwork collected for our tax people.
I don’t think we’re alone in these struggles. I know a handful of people who seem to have it all under control, but the rest of us are in the messy boat together. I think it is especially true for caregivers since we are helping to manage more than one household.
There are many books written to assist people like Katherine and me, but who has the time to read them – much less implement them! Each year my new year’s resolution remains the same: exercise more, eat less, get papers cleared out, and read more. Every year I get to this March and April only to realize I haven’t done any of those things!
So I’ve decided to use this Lenten season to do some cultivating of better habits and letting go of bad habits. Rather than do the whole overwhelming task of the new year’s resolutions, I’m going to start small and add one new healthy habit. Rather than berating myself for not being on top of things, I’m going to be more generous to myself and forgive my shortcomings. I’m going to let go of my goal to be perfect and just be myself. Won’t you join me?
Let me hear from you! Contact me at [email protected].
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