Monday, February 18, 2013

Lent Plans for 2013

As you may have noticed I have not been blogging much these days. I have chosen to not blog as much during Lent and instead spend more time with my family and my Bible.

We had a great Fat Tuesday with a Kings Cake and we spent the evening making our plans for the next 40 days. We skipped Paczki sweets this year and really had a simple first few days of Lent.  

My husband showed me a passage in scripture that really speaks about not sharing certain things with others. He said somethings are meant to be between God and yourself and not to be shared. Here is what Scripture says

Matthew 6:16-18
16 “Moreover, when you fast, do not be like the hypocrites, with a sad countenance. For they disfigure their faces that they may appear to men to be fasting. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward. 17 But you, when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, 18 so that you do not appear to men to be fasting, but to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.

So, this year during Lent I will not be blogging every little thing we are doing and keeping myself more focused on family alone time and private worship time like I said above.

 
Something new for us this year came from our Pastor.   He sent out a  reading list which is a forty-day spiritual reflection reading list.  40 days through John's Gospel is what it's called and it has been a true blessing for us.  It starts Ash Wednesday and ends Easter Sunday but you can catch up if you start today. On the Lord's day we have no readings since Sundays we will be spending this day in church for the Sabbath.  Here is the reading list for you below I hope you join me in this and also prepare your heart for Easter this year.
 
Ash Wednesday  1:1-28
Thur. 1:29-51
Fri. 2:1-25
Sat. 3:1-21

Mon. 3:22-36
Tues. 4:1-42
Wed. 4:43-54
Thur. 5:1-29
Fri. 5:30-47
Sat. 6:1-21

Mon. 6:22-59
Tues. 6:60-71
Wed. 7:1-31
Thur. 7:32-53
Fri. 8:1-30
Sat. 8:31-59

Mon. 9:1-41
Tues. 10:1-21
Wed. 10:22-42
Thur. 11:1-27
Fri. 11:28-57
Sat. 12:1-26

Mon. 12:27-50
Tues. 13:1-20
Wed. 13:21-38
Thur. 14:1-14
Fri. 14:15-31
Sat. 15:1-17

Mon. 15:18-27
Tues. 16:1-15
Wed. 16:16-33
Thur. 17:1-26
Fri. 18:1-24
Sat. 18:25-40

Mon. 19:1-27
Tues. 19:28-42
Wed. 20:1-18
Thur. 20:19-30
Fri. 21:1-14
Sat. 21:15-25


Along with our readings we will be doing our Jesus Tree with daily readings and Coloring pages.


 
 
The Jesus tree is a great way to do a Lenten Bible Study with your children. Everyday during Lent our children look forward to reading the Bible story of the day. After the story and coloring page we add a ornament on the tree to go along with each bible verse. Like are daily family reading above we will be going through the scriptures of the bible from the time of Jesus birth to the death and Resurrection.

My next Post will be our 40 days of "Shaking off the Bonds of Stuff" something I learned about last year over at My Little Flower. We will be changing it up a lot but I still needed to give credit to My Little Flower since I did get the idea from reading her blog.

We have our purple candles out, our sacrifice beans ready for use, and our deep purple table cloth on our dining room table. The decor is settle and calm as we remember the life of Christ and all he did for us.

Along the way we will read many books, do many activities and maybe even have a tea and lunch time. 

What are your family plans for Lent this year?

 
Blessings,
Pamela

1 comment:

Shana said...

We are relatively new to Lent. Being Southern Baptist, Lent is not something we know much about. I do appreciate this time of year to focus on Christ and his sacrifice for us. I am still learning bits and pieces about Lent, so I have a ways so go. One thing we are beginning is a family worship time each day. It is something we have been a hit and a miss with, but during this season, it seemed the right time to get serious about this important time. I started last year using this time to do "Lenten Cleaning". It is basically spring cleaning, but it helps me to focus of cleaning out the sin I am ignoring or not seeing. So as I clean, I will pray and meditate on the Word.
So those are a few things we are doing to nurture our family to focus on Christ, not just during this time, but everyday. Thanks for your post- it was very encouraging :)

Blessings,
Shana