Prayer and Fasting

I love the idea of prayer and fasting.  I am not sure I am very "good" at doing it.  Well, I pray daily and often, but do I make a stronger effort to deep prayer...not so much.  And when it comes to fasting...from food...I just get cranky and I am not sure that is the result expected of us when we are trying to grow closer to God.

So...what I do is take baby steps...I make a stronger commitment to pray with my children.  I try to teach them to pray without me.  The kind of prayer that helps them reflect on God and not self.  It does not always go well with fidgety siblings or crying pre-schooler.

As I reflected on this today, I realized what cannot be done with five children can be accomplished with individual children.  SO...for the remainder of Lent and hopefully beyond, I am going to set aside a day for each child to come with me to a quiet spot and work on prayer.  I will let you know how that goes later in the season.

As far as fasting...we decided long ago that fasting from food is difficult but not impossible.  We have always followed the days of abstaining from red blooded meat (in honor of Jesus sacrifice) on all Fridays (representing the Friday Jesus was sacrificed) throughout the year.  We do not eat a lot of sugary sweets and candy, so not hard to give that up either.  So, the real task at hand is to think about the purpose of fasting...to grow closer to God.

So our family has decided to fast from material items instead of food.  I think I spoke of these in an earlier post.  I think we are doing well but I think we will kick it up a bit as we come closer to Easter.  Again, going back to replacing what was given up with prayer a

nd reading the Bible.  We could definitely improve this aspect of our commitment.

I continue to work on my patience as well.  We have some changes coming in our world (more on that later)...I think I am being tested again...PLEASE LORD...help me not to fail this test again!  I came across this prayer this last week and I think I am going to keep it close to my heart...

May nothing disturb me,

Noting frighten me,

All things pass;

God does not leave.

Patient endurance attains all things.

Whoever has God lacks nothing.

God alone is enough!

Amen.