{"id":404,"date":"2013-03-28T19:36:20","date_gmt":"2013-03-28T23:36:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wordynerdy\/?p=404"},"modified":"2013-03-28T19:36:20","modified_gmt":"2013-03-28T23:36:20","slug":"lent-success-for-my-kid-not-me","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wordynerdy\/2013\/03\/lent-success-for-my-kid-not-me\/","title":{"rendered":"Lent Success! (For My Kid, Not Me)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

My daughter gave up chocolate for Lent.\u00a0 This amazed me for many reasons:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. She\u2019s not the sort of kid who so far has evidenced any desire t\"\"o give up anything for Lent.<\/li>\n
  2. She\u2019s a foodie<\/li>\n
  3. She\u2019s an incredible baker who\u2019s constantly churning out treats that make my losing weight New Year\u2019s resolution<\/a> nigh near impossible<\/li>\n
  4. She\u2019s so slim that she can eat all the chocolate she wants with no consequences (yes, go ahead and hate her, several of us feel the same way)<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    When Ash Wednesday rolled around, she announced to the whole family that she wasn\u2019t giving anything up for Lent.\u00a0 We said nothing.\u00a0 After all, it\u2019s her decision and I grew up in a tradition that only practiced the \u201cOne Great Hour of Sharing\u201d which involved getting your parents to stuff their spare change into a plastic bread shaped bank on Easter morning.<\/p>\n

    But soon after, she announced she was thinking of giving up chocolate.<\/p>\n

    \u201cCool,\u201d I said, \u201cMaybe you can pray \u2018Jesus, help me want you more than chocolate\u2019 every time you feel tempted.\u201d<\/p>\n

    She rolled her eyes and I shut up.<\/p>\n

    One would think I, as her mother and spiritual guide, would have been wonderfully supportive of her fast, but I wasn\u2019t, mostly because I kept forgetting she was fasting.\u00a0 I\u2019m so self-centered that if I\u2019m not fasting from chocolate, I forget who else might be.\u00a0 Since my language of love is feeding others, I constantly tempted her.\u00a0 She\u2019s had to remind me repeatedly when:<\/p>\n

      \n
    1. We went out to dinner and I wanted to share a chocolate dessert<\/li>\n
    2. I brought back See\u2019s chocolate from California<\/li>\n
    3. I\u2019ve asked her to bake treats, chocolate treats<\/li>\n
    4. She wanted to bake Scott a birthday cake and I suggested chocolate<\/li>\n
    5. I bought 3 containers of ice cream all with chocolate bits.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      Several weeks in, I asked if she was praying the prayer each time she wanted chocolate.\u00a0 \u201cSometimes,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

      \u201cIs it working?\u201d<\/p>\n

      \u201cMaybe. . . maybe a little.\u201d<\/p>\n

      Then last week, after I returned from a trip, she told me she had channeled me all week\u2014giving wise friendly advice to her friends about their dating lives, and then after a very bad day, writing a venting angry letter to God.<\/p>\n

      \u201cDid you hear God answer you?\u201d I asked.<\/p>\n

      \u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n

      My heart sank.<\/p>\n

      She laughed.\u00a0 \u201cBut then things got better!\u201d<\/p>\n

      \u201cSo He did answer you, didn\u2019t He?\u201d<\/p>\n

      \u201cI guess so!\u201d<\/p>\n

      Even though I\u2019ve given my life to Jesus and dedicated my career to helping others know and follow Him, I still have moments of disbelieving He\u2019s real and will show up for me, or more importantly, my kids.\u00a0 There\u2019s nothing more encouraging than when He does show up\u2013and it seems like my job is to help my kids recognize those \u201cGod-sightings.\u201d<\/p>\n

      So here we are, Maunday Thursday with 2 days left in Lent. \u00a0In 45 days, she\u2019s cheated 3 times: once after Grandpa died; once when M & Ms were too tempting; and once at the track banquet. \u00a0She says she didn\u2019t feel too bad since I had told her it was OK to cheat with discretion.<\/p>\n

      For the next two days, I\u2019ll keep praying that resisting the power of chocolate throughout Lent creates room for my girl to receive the power of Easter this Sunday. \u00a0That God will continue to show up. \u00a0And that she\u2019ll taste and see that He is good.<\/p>\n

      Along with a flourless chocolate hazelnut torte we\u2019re baking to break the fast.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      My daughter gave up chocolate for Lent.\u00a0 This amazed me for many reasons: She\u2019s not the sort of kid who so far has evidenced any desire to give up anything for Lent. She\u2019s a foodie She\u2019s an incredible baker who\u2019s constantly churning out treats that make my losing weight New Year\u2019s resolution nigh near impossible […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":189,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[47,49,9,48],"class_list":["post-404","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-christian-parenting","tag-fasting","tag-lent","tag-the-power-of-chocolate"],"yoast_head":"\nLent Success! 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