What are you giving up for Lent?

Well as I've mentioned before, I grew up a typical southern Protestant, mostly Methodist, on occasion Baptist. I didn't know any Catholics. I had many misconceptions and a big basket of ignorance regarding Catholics. Thankfully I grew up and expanded my brain through college, work, life, etc. During that time my environment has also changed and now I am blessed to have 4 really special people in my life who are Catholic and a large handful of acquaintances as well.


Throughout my life I have been asked the "what are you giving up for Lent" question numerous times. The answers I have given and heard have all been silly, fluffy, little answers. Obviously because my friends and I had no clue about the real and true meaning of Lent. And the answers between me and my friends have been all over the map: chocolate, drinking, smoking, shopping, Starbucks, TV, etc. I've never taken it that seriously - just knew it was something "Catholic" and it came after Ash Wednesday and I had an old boss that had to eat fish on Friday's during this time.

Well this year I decided to find out a little bit more about it. I am so glad I took the few minutes to do so. And you know some of this may be in the Methodist or Baptist "handbook" (for lack of a better word), and even though I've been at church through multiple Palm Sunday's and during the Lenton season... I didn't know this information.

So here's what I learned at http://www.catholic.org/ I have copied the section on "Giving Something Up During Lent" and pasted it here.

For most older Catholics, the first thought that Lent brings to mind is giving something up. In my childhood, the standard was to give up candy, a discipline that found suitable reward in the baskets of sugary treats we received on Easter. Some of us even added to the Easter surplus by saving candy all through Lent, stockpiling what we would have eaten had we not promised to give it up.


Some years ago a friend of mine told me that he had urged his children to move beyond giving up candy to giving up some habit of sin that marked their lives. About halfway through Lent he asked the children how they were doing with their Lenten promise. One of his young sons had promised to give up fighting with his brothers and sisters during Lent. When his father asked him how it was going, the boy replied, "I'm doing pretty good, Dad—but boy, I can't wait until Easter!"

That response indicates that this boy had only partly understood the purpose of Lenten "giving up." Lent is about conversion, turning our lives more completely over to Christ and his way of life. That always involves giving up sin in some form. The goal is not just to abstain from sin for the duration of Lent but to root sin out of our lives forever. Conversion means leaving behind an old way of living and acting in order to embrace new life in Christ. For catechumens, Lent is a period intended to bring their initial conversion to completion.

Taking seriously this dynamic of scrutiny and conversion gives us a richer perspective on Lenten "giving up." What we are to give up more than anything else is sin, which is to say we are to give up whatever keeps us from living out our baptismal promises fully. Along with the elect we all need to approach the season of Lent asking ourselves what needs to change in our lives if we are to live the gospel values that Jesus taught us. Our journey through these forty days should be a movement ever closer to Christ and to the way of life he has exemplified for us.

So after much thought and prayer, I am giving up an hour of time each day to be spent with God. Rather that be meditation, prayer, more time with my Bible or an act of service. I have a few free hours spread throughout the day/night and I typically spend them reading on my Kindle. So I will cut back on that to work towards being closer to God and living a more Godly life.

Care to share what you are giving up?