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Crossfire wrote:Catholics are not the only ones who give up something for Lent. Lutherans do too.
For me, it is Talk Radio. My apologies to WBAP, but for now, I am only listening to traffic and weather.

Is it calming you to avoid talk radio? I find that I am far less wound up by avoiding this kind of thing now.

Vol Texan wrote:Our daughter is prepping for her first communion this year. As any Catholic can attest, none of the sacraments are of the "Hey, let's just go do that today" kind of variety. There is plenty of coursework, homework, and one-on-one mentoring required, and she's knee-deep in it right now.

So, to help her with her understanding of the importance of Lent, and the sacrifice we each should make to remember the sacrifice made for us...Mrs. VolTexan and I each gave up something we enjoy. Instead of really seeking out something that would be a big challenge, we picked things that our 8-year old would consider 'really, really important'. For my wife, no chocolate (it's not that hard for her, because it's only an occasional treat, but my daughter saw that as a HUGE event. For me, it's peanut butter, which my daughter thinks is my favorite food on earth (she's right). (Interesting side note - it's also the root of the most serious disagreement that TAM and I have ever had on this forum.)

Oh Lordy......if I gave up peanut butter for Lent, I'd ..... I'd..... I don't know what I'd do!

That was quite the tussle.

Even the unflappable RoyGBiv chimed in on the next page with:

RoyGBiv wrote:

Topbuilder wrote:

The Annoyed Man wrote:First of all, you're wrong. Planter's extra crunchy is the best, and I'll fight you for it if I have to."

As usual what you say is said well!
The rest of it too.

I didn't want to pick a fight, but Jif Creamy is the bees knees.
Planters with solids is good for baiting mouse traps.

GOOD FOR BAITING MOUSETRAPS!!!!

I put this here because I really didn't know where else to put it. It's not really about religion, although it concerns something I'm observing as part of my preparations for Easter. I was just wondering if anyone else is doing this, or has done it in the past, and what your experience has been.

I gave up all social media (except this website) and "LOUD" and partisan news websites and aggregators for Lent. I've never done anything like this before. I'm a Protestant not a Catholic, so many of these kinds of semi-formal religious observances are not necessarily part of MY traditions. I have fasted from food for a day or two......even for a week once......but it wasn't for Lent, and it was always intended to be temporary. For those of you who are connected to me on Facebook, by now you're in stitches and enjoying my discomfort. I posted a blog post about it on my website, but was interested in hearing (A) if anyone is doing something like this for Lent, (B) how's it going for you so far, and (C) do you think it will be temporary or permanent? I'm doing this because I think I have an addiction.

So far, I am doing really great at it. I'm still using Facebook Messenger simply because I have 2 or 3 friends that that's how I text with them, but I haven't spent any time on the Facebook website at all. I have three tabs "pinned" in my safari browser on my laptop - Facebook, this forum, and Drudge Report. The other day, I went to click on the tab for this forum, and accidentally clicked on Drudge. I was instantly transfixed for about a second and a half - which goes to show how addicted I was to it, and then I immediately clicked out of it and got to this website. I told my wife about it afterwards, and told her that I felt like I had accidentally looked at porn or something. I felt kind of dirty, and I actually felt better confessing it to my wife......even though I realize that I hadn't actually done anything morally wrong. It was just the feeling that I had seen something I wasn't supposed to, and it bothered me. BTW, she's on the same fast as I am, fasting from social media and loud news sites.

I still use my computer, I'm (obviously) still online, I still maintain email correspondences with friends - often about political topics - but I'm just not out there anymore posting challenging articles on Facebook and getting in heated political debates with anyone. Once in a while someone sends me a link to an article of a political nature, and I'll look at it, and maybe comment in general about the topic to the person who sent me the link, but I'm not nearly as engaged as I was, and I feel SO much calmer. I haven't watched news on TV at all. I've been going to the axios.com website and looking at their news summaries which are very politically neutral and short, so I'm staying informed, but I'm just not getting dragged into the mud; and it feels great.

I haven't completely decided yet, but I may just make this a permanent change and keep it up after Easter. Anybody else giving up something else for Lent, or doing what I'm doing, for religious reasons or otherwise?

BTW, if you are on a journey like this, I thought we could use this thread to encourage one another.