LOUIS — DAY 45: How I Failed Lent 2014 (and What I Learned From It)

Saying "No" to Snacks, Soda, and Sweets this Lent

13815786715_4fee0d38ea_oI know the title sounds ominous, but it’s true: in my opinion, I definitely didn’t live up to my own expectations and goals this Lent. As you probably remember from looking back to my first 5 Authors 40 Days post, my plan for Lent 2014 was to give up soda, snacks in between meals, and candy/sweets for the whole 40 days (well, actually 46, but that’s just because I don’t skip Sundays.) However, though not explicitly a part of my sacrifice, I also committed myself to posting here about my journey as the season progressed, as part of Busted Halo’s 5 Authors 40 Days series. To put it gently, I could have done much better on both of these fronts.

While I did fairly well at avoiding temptation in regard to my standard set of snacks, soda, and sweets, I certainly could have done better in this regard. It was particularly difficult to keep this sacrifice up during my recent trip out west, because (it being the vacation that it was) meal times were a bit irregular, and non-soda options weren’t the easiest to come by, not that that excuses me in any way. More importantly, I definitely failed to effectively keep up with posting here as much as I would have liked… in more ways than one, I bit off more than I could chew.

Still, as the child of two teachers, I’m not one to leave a situation without trying to learn something from it. So what does this Lent mean going forward for me? Well, to start off, I’ve learned that I need to manage my time a bit better, and develop more of a scheduled routine for myself. I’ve also learned that, as I’ve touched on in the past, I can be comfortable eating and drinking a lot less than I typically do– a good step toward taking a healthier approach toward how I feed myself! Finally, I’ve learned that, while I can stand up to it sometimes, temptation is everywhere, and there’s always room for improvement in resisting it (not only with foods, fasting, and sacrifice, but with sin and bad habits in general.)

So, while I’m sad to say that I do still think I came up short this Lent, at the very least I can take these lessons from my journey and use them in my day-to-day life moving on beyond Lent. Here’s to the future, and all it holds (perhaps, out of failure, success)!

 

What have you learned about yourself this Lent? How could you have done better? Let us know in the comments!