our dozen beautiful feet

Since this is our first year as a family to observe Lent together, I'd like to keep a diary of sorts with pictures of the things we've done and remember our first experience through this season. For the family, I opted to follow Rich & Rooted Passover. It's organized with three study days a week, a day of Prayer, a day of Alms (either giving money or acts of service), a day of feasting, and a day of worship. We began on Ash Wednesday with our own little ceremony. We talked about the purpose of Lent being a time to remember that we are made from the dust, and we will return to dust. Thinking of the end of our life encourages us to contemplate what it means to live fully and well today.  We spent some time talking about what it means to live well and to live fully, a life more abundant, and what things might keep us from living that way, things that hold us back.  We all wrote those things down on a sheet of paper and burned them in a small bowl.  After that, we se...

When our kids were small, we began the tradition of observing Advent as a family. Neither Paul nor I grew up observing Advent or Lent, or celebrated things like Ash Wednesday. But a mentor friend of mine had given me a set of Jesse Tree ornaments, and a devotional guide for the Advent season to go along with it, and we began to do this every year for our children. As we've returned to the US and found ourselves most at home in a Presbyterian church, we have been introduced to the celebrations of Lent and Ash Wednesday.  These were very unknown things to us a year ago, and I will always remember vividly my first Ash Wednesday service last year!  This year, I wanted to be much more intentional to embrace this season of anticipation. I'm learning a lot about and hope to grow through it these next six weeks, as well as lead my kids to some self-flection. Here are some resources we'll be using to help us navigate this season as newbies: I found this article that is a grea...