Have A Little Faith in We

We are in the midst of the final days of this year’s Lenten season. In some ways, yes – this is crunch time, but really this is also the start of the most scared and reflective time. This Sunday we will celebrate Palm Sunday and enter Holy Week. A week where we will reflect upon Jesus’ journey to the cross through the services, the readings, our fasting and prayers. During this time of year, we each have the chance to take up a bit of the cross and walk with our Lord.

As the end of Lent begins, I am reminded of what Danny and I set out to a experience through our Lenten transforamtion. Through a series of prayers, charitable works, and sacrifice we hoped to enhance our faith in God’s plan for our life. If we took this time to focus on faith and not our own worries, we would be armed with the strength of knowledge that life is not about having all the answers, finding the perfect time, or being 100% sure with your every step. Rather it is about doing what you know to be the best course of action with the information at hand and having faith God will do the rest.

Our Lenten journey was disrupted a bit with the hospital stay. It threw a wrench in the family prayers that we had been doing together nightly and has delayed the flexibility for us to volunteer with some of the communities we had been eager to donate our time. However I will say the only option we had left was to step it up within our own home, though the words we use with each other and to focus on our actions towards each other. These efforts can be a challenge on any given day – but throw in the stress of the hospital, complications of home IVs, and the challenge of the fun events we had scheduled competing with health recovery…. and suddenly these little acts of goodness were HUGE.

 

As we went enter these final days of Lent, I am happy to report that we did rise to the challenge of remaining calm, staying positive and supporting one another – even during tune-up time. Instead of having the chance to reconnect in prayer – we were left to navigate the challenges of real life. This really called us to action -pushing us to not just hope for more peace, dream of more happiness, or want for better faith – but to grab hold of these values and live by them. So we encouraged each other to be patient, we cheered one another on to choose happy, and we reminded each other of the determination to live our faith. This effort gave us a lot of strength, it gifted us the benefits of being joyful people, but most rewarding – we were gifted with a very short hospital tune-up. There are many reasons why Danny and I were blessed enough for him to finish his stay at home….. but it was hard to not credit this success to our ability to be patient and trust that all would be well.

This Lenten season we feel has taught us quite a few lessons – with the largest being that being happy and faithful will strength our family. We will have the ability to face the uncertainty of the world thanks to our Lord. It is our hope the final days of this holiday season will be better centered around prayer time and plans for volunteering as Danny’s health improves. If you are interested in a a Lenten transformation – you are not too late….. in fact you might be right on time! Let’s all dedicate ourselves to the final days of the Lenten Season for a deepening of our faith and a dedicated focus on the journey Jesus took to the cross.

God bless!

Thank you for reading and make it a great day!

Jackie