What is season of Lent?
Hi everyone today is a special day known as Ash Wednesday and Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of a Lent season that we call Lent. This year, Lent takes place from Wednesday, March 2, to Thursday, April 14, 2022, while Easter takes place on Sunday , April 16 2022.
What is Ash Wednesday?
Ash Wednesday here we are and what is it well it goes back a long time ago it started way back in the 11th century that’s like your great it’s a long time ago and what would what happens on ash Wednesday is that people would take ashes and now these just aren’t any ashes these ashes are from last year’s palm branches that churches would use on palm Sunday now on Ash Wednesday the practice was for Christians to take these ashes and to make a cross on their forehead or on their hand.
Why would they do that?
That’s in their life that nasty dirty sin that comes up each and every day it was a reminder that we need a savior we need Jesus and today Christians still do this tradition around the world of taking ashes they’re from palm branches or some other people now just take washable black markers and they put a black cross on their forehead or on their hand.
But what about lent?
Well lent is a season in the church that lasts for 40 days it starts today on Ash Wednesday and goes all the way to Easter and in those 40 days we’re to think about the sins that we have committed that can be kind of hard because they’re kind of nasty but we have to think about those sins and remember god’s promise of a savior.
What we needs to remember during Lent Season?
We can remember that now during lent some people fast what does fast mean well fast means not eating certain foods or not eating at certain times this is another reminder of our falseness or brokenness and so some people do that now we’ve kind of changed it over time to think about fasting as in giving something up maybe for lent you give up eating cookies that could be really hard because cookies are yummy and tasty but for those 40 days you give up eating cookies hmm i wonder what that would look like now some people don’t give something up but instead add something to their lives it’s called a spiritual practice.
What are some spiritual practices?
We can do maybe one of them is to read our bible more we can find time to read our bible when we get up or before we go to bed or sometimes special during the day we can sit aside time to do that that’d be a good one or how about saying special prayers we could say those around the dinner table or right before we go to bed or maybe before we go outside for recess at school that could be an interesting one or maybe it’s reading out of a special devotional book and you can read that during supper time or maybe for your bedtime story that’d be a great spiritual practice to add to your life.
What lent is all about to recognize
We need a savior and to either take things away in our lives that are distracting us from knowing Jesus or adding things into our lives that help us know Jesus.
We Entered Ash Wednesday and Lent Season
Some resources at home that you can use to walk through this season together as a family so let’s think about some resources..
- Make a cross on your forehead using ashes.
- If you have no ashes then use a washable black marker and make a cross on your forehead or on your hand.
Read Bible
We also talked about adding spiritual practices we talked about reading your bible more and one way that you can read your bible more is a really cool thing that you can read that talk about god’s big story of the bible maybe you’re a little bit older and you haven’t really done the lent thing before and so you’re looking for something to do I would totally recommend opening your Bible and praying but you need some help with something great to read this is a great book that I love reading over. Lent is called silence and this has also been made into a movie this is a great book if you’re in high school or older and you can read through this book and you can see some of those themes from Lent come up in this story so this is a wonderful book that you could read over this lent season.
Giving/Sharing up things
Lent now of course this can be hard and you know it’s maybe a little bit hard to give up chocolate but maybe that’s a reason to give up chocolate or other sweets or other things like that but there are other things that you can fast or give up for lent maybe this lent you give up commenting on Facebook maybe you give up social media all together there are many other things you could give up or add to your spiritual practices this Lenten season I encourage you to find one with your family or for yourself this lent so that you can grow closer to god and you can explore what his word has to say to us and that at the end of land we can celebrate all together the wonderful gift that is Jesus his death and resurrection that wiped all of our sins.
Prayer for Lent Season and Ash Wednesday
We say a prayer together join me will you…..say yes
Dear Jesus we come to you today this Ash Wednesday we thank you for being our God and we recognize today that we do things that aren’t very nice we sin all the time and that sin puts a black stain in our hearts god we just ask that through this season we can recognize those things that we do that aren’t very nice and that we can seek forgiveness and that we can remember in our minds and in our hearts that Jesus has come through his death and resurrection those dark stains of sin are wiped away, promise god help us this Lenten season to grow closer to you we love you pray this All in Jesus name
Amen