When 40 Days Isn't Enough

Five Wednesdays ago was Ash Wednesday.  I had my Lent plans and the whole 40 days was ahead of us.  Now we're days from Holy Week and I'm rushing to "get it all in".  During my morning devotions I wondered why I felt confined to Lent for my resolutions?  Yes, Lent should be a time of fasting, prayer, alms giving, and contemplation but why only Lent?  If I don't hit the mark by Easter Sunday am I off the hook?  Can I breath a sigh of relief and  pack away my sacrifices for another year?

I stumbled upon Matthew 7:7 where Jesus tells us "Keep on asking and it will be given to you; keep on seeking and you will find; keep on knocking reverently and the door will be opened to you." Jesus doesn't say that only in the confines of Lent should we seek His word or discipline ourselves.  We live in a culture that finds discipline of any kind "closed minded" or too difficult to manage so we loosen our morals and bend our resolve to fit what's easiest and most comfortable.  We can always find someone that's "worse" than us and then say "well, at least I'm better than so and so".  But Jesus doesn't call us to be better than so and so.  He calls us to Him.  He calls us to love Him.  And one thing that I've figured out is that loving Him, truly loving Him, takes sacrifice, hard work and, yes, effort. 

So many times during this Lent I have declared "I fail Lent".  Finding joy and being grateful hasn't come particularly easy for me.  Hormonal and situational changes in addition to dealing with babies, toddlers, teens, and young adult children has left me feeling deflated, frustrated, and exhausted at times.  There are many days when I want to just throw up my hands and say "forget this".  I want to flip on the TV (which would be a blank screen because we don't have cable), order take out, and call it a day.  I've really tried to focus on doing "just one more thing".  I am trying not to think about what I need to do two hours from now or tomorrow.  I put in one more load of laundry, pray one more decade of the Rosary, change one more diaper, pray for one more friend.  It's helping. 

So with less than "one more week" of Lent left I resolve to not worry about what I haven't done, what I didn't accomplish, how I failed.  God doesn't want us to focus on our failings. We should recognize them, yes, in order to learn from them and not repeat them, but I tend to focus on them.  One friend said to me "I can't remember my past and you can't forget yours".  So true.  One more thing to work on.  Maybe it will be my "Easter Season" thing.  Don't forget that the Divine Mercy Novena begins on Good Friday.   Click on the link to find out more or to sign up for daily email reminders.