I have heard a lot of people talking about what they are giving up for Lent. I have also heard (from fellow christians who celebrate this season) a whole bunch of excuses for not giving anything up yet:
“I just can’t find anything worthy enough!”
“Well…i was giving up this one thing, but then I decided to give up something else, and then I had to do this other thing so I couldn’t give it up, then I thought of something else… but I forgot”
Or simpler terms of the last one, only more common “i forgot…”
“Oh…I gave up spending money!” then a few minutes later “Who wants to go with me to buy ice cream?” (when the person next to them says they thought they weren’t spending money) “No I meant my own money… someone gave this to me!”
Also I hear a lot of this “Well I’ll be, it is Lent already? Well as soon as I finish this ice cream I am no longer eating desserts!” Even though they forget the next week with a huge piece of cake.
This one is one I don’t here the most, but at least it is the truth! “I did not want to do it this year.”
Those are a few examples of Lent excuses.
This woman, Jenny, at my work just loves Lent. The whole concept of giving something up temporarily really fascinates her. We have a lunch foursome and three of us are catholic (Jenny is jewish) and talk about it and strategize about what to give up (sometimes I’ll give up french fries so that affects what I get for lunch) and whether you can have those things on Sunday (which not many people have heard of, Susan calls this “Cashin Lent”). Jenny has been hearing about all of this for the last several years and even though she isn’t even christian she decided to give something up for Lent this year.
Stick with it, Kelly, you can bring anybody around by setting a good example.
Yeah… I want to tell tell people making these excuses up does not make a difference. You still need to give something up. Just telling fibs makes it worse.