We go to an evangelical church that doesn’t really have much focus on “church tradition”. I’ve never really celebrated Lent in my life, or Ash Wednesday (which, at 2:30 in the afternoon, I found out this was.) I have been considering quitting sugar anyway, so maybe this would be the time to do it.
I can go 46 days without sugar, can’t I?
Says the girl who yesterday ate a few lemon bars, a couple of Girl Scout cookies and who knows how much else sugar hidden in dressing and bread.
I don’t plan on fighting the uphill battle of all the hidden sugars right now (and there are more than you think), but if I can cut out at least the overt sweets, I know I’ll be better off. I’ve been reading this amazing book that has really opened my eyes to what slaves of sugar we have become in this country.
The “experts” will tell you that to lose weight, and be healthy you need to eat fewer calories and exercise more, which seems to make sense. But your body is not a checking account. It doesn’t really work like that.
No one is going to sit down and eat 2 1/2 pounds of sugar beets–natural sugar, but we have no problem sitting down and consuming the few ounces of table sugar those beets can be refined into.
I’m going to move into a more whole foods type of diet, and I’ll be dragging my family along with me. They can go to Grandma’s for their sugar fix!
As for me, I’m going to celebrate Lent by looking forward to my Lord’s resurrection and toward the coming spring without being in my generally glazed over sugar coma.
Sounds like a good thing to do during Lent! In the Orthodox church, we use Lent as a time to spiritually cleanse ourselves, our soul, like spring cleaning…and I always think I feel so much better, physically, too!
The Lord fasted 40 days in the wilderness (Matt 4:1-2) and then we have the extra week as a solemn days of the Lord's entry into Jerusalem, The Last Supper, His Crucifixion and then in culmination, we celebrate his glorious Resurrection!