Help for the Hurting Heart

Because of what I shared here on Monday, I wanted to follow up with some encouragement for those who are currently experiencing brokenness and are “feeling the feels” today.  Know this – God loves you and there is help to be found in Him.

Please feel free to share and print this graphic.
Please feel free to share and print this graphic.

Spring Breaking

IMG_1083

IMG_1078While others were buying bathing suits & plane tickets, reserving massages or checking out destinations, I was busy planning our Spring Break staycation.

I compiled two lists of activities (see below) and put them into a clear jar, displayed on our dining table.  We’ll randomly draw an activity out of the above-pictured jar each night at dinner. The activities are simple, cost-effective ideas that will give us daily memory-making times together, without spending the entire day on the go or breaking the bank. (My youngest two are teenagers, so sleeping and taking a break from constant activity are, thankfully, much-appreciated Spring Break activities.)

Here is a sampling of activities we’ll choose from:

Spring Break activities
NOTE: The two in the middle are what I chose for factory tours because we’ve never been to either. There are a variety of other factory tours available to the public here or you could substitute a day trip from the list here.

Blank copyI’ll share each day’s activity – complete with photos, cost breakdown and our family’s feedback – on the blog at at the end of the week. Feel free to share with me, too, in the comments, either here or on Facebook! I’d LOVE to hear the creative ways your family is making your Spring Break staycation memorable!


 

And because I know so many of you are creative geniuses, here is a blank page to print and fill in with your own ideas.
Because I know so many of you are creative geniuses, here is a blank to print and fill in with your own ideas! Right click the graphic, save to your desktop and then print.

Books for the Brokenhearted

My desk during the Lenten season - a depository of books on brokenness.
My desk during the Lenten season – a depository of books on brokenness and trusting God.

If you’re in a season of Crying Out to God, here are some tried-and-true resources to encourage your heart & help you gain perspective in the trenches.  Perhaps they can help you, too, to learn to praise God even as you cry out. (Click on the book covers to read more about each title at Amazon.com – affiliate links.)

This continues to be the most meaningful book I've read on the topic of brokenness.
The Blessings of Brokenness continues to be the most meaningful book I’ve read on the topic of brokenness, and for that reason, if you only read one book on the topic, pick this one.
Since The Blessings of Brokenness touched my heart in such a special way, I wanted to ready more from Dr. Stanley. For that reason, this gem is my current read through Lent.
Since The Blessings of Brokenness touched my heart in such a special way, I wanted to read more from Dr. Stanley. For that reason, this gem is my current read through Lent.

 

This was the first book I ever read on the topic of trusting God with our hurts - 25 years ago! - and it's as applicable today as it was then. Highly recommend if, like me, you struggle with the issue of wholehearted trust.
This was the first book I ever read on the topic of trusting God with our hurts – 25 years ago! – and it’s as applicable today as it was then. Highly recommend if, like me, you struggle with the issue of wholehearted trust.
A must-have companion to Trusting God (Even When Life Hurts). Trust me. You won't regret getting the study guide with its stellar prompts, additional Scripture, action items and more. I still have mine all these years later. It's pages are where the rubber met the road for me.
A must-have companion to Trusting God (Even When Life Hurts). Trust me. You won’t regret getting the study guide. I still have mine all these years later. It’s pages are where the rubber met the road for me.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you're looking for purpose and redemption in your brokenness, the book is for you. The subtitle says it all - How God Redeems Pain & Suffering.
If you’re looking for purpose and redemption in your brokenness, this book is for you. The subtitle says it all – How God Redeems Pain & Suffering.
Part of the Revive Our Hearts Series, this book is a popular shelf item in church libraries. I recommend checking yours.
Part of the Revive Our Hearts Series, this book is a popular shelf item in church libraries. I recommend checking yours.

 

A Newbies Take on Fat Tuesday

Fat Tuesday is February 9th.
Fat Tuesday is February 9th.

Four years ago we accidentally participated in Fat Tuesday and it has since become a new Smith Family Tradition. Here’s why.

We decided to take the kids out to a favorite local eatery on a whim for dinner one Tuesday night a few years ago. When we arrived, we were greeted by live music, colorful beads and a fun atmosphere. Extended families were gathered around tables pushed together to accommodate their large numbers.  There was laughter, storytelling – just family togetherness at it’s finest.  The atmosphere was one of celebration and it was infectious! We asked one of the servers what the occasion was and were told that it was Fat Tuesday, the day before Lent began.

Lent we were becoming familiar with.

Fat Tuesday?  That was new.

Fat Tuesday, we learned, was a day of feasting.  Like Lent, it is not a Biblical celebration, but it does have history within church tradition.  In contrast to Lent, however, it focuses on satisfying the lusts of the flesh (specifically food).  It serves as “one last hurrah” before the season of Lent begins with its focus on sacrifice in preparation for the celebration of Easter.  (You can click here for more details on Fat Tuesday.)

I mentioned last week that observing Lent was new to us. We are still getting our feet wet and exploring Lent within the context of our own family.  Since Fat Tuesday added another element to our ever-expanding Easter experience, we wanted to give it a try.

My husband is a fan of redeeming things, so we decided to include Fat Tuesday as one such opportunity for redemption. Instead of focusing on indulging the flesh, however, we set apart Fat Tuesday to focus on the upcoming season of Lent.  We talk about the past Lenten season – what worked, what didn’t work.  We introduce the devotional* we’ll use to walk through the upcoming season & the reasons we chose it.  We share with our kids about the sacrifice(s) we want to make during Lent this year & why we are focusing on them. We discuss possibilities for our “Silent Saturday” activity (future post Easter week!).  And we look ahead to how we want to celebrate Easter on the other end of the season.  (Getting to enjoy good food in a fun atmosphere on Fat Tuesday is just a bonus!)

Are you planning to participate in the season of preparation we call Lent?  I’d love to hear how your family observes this tradition.  Please share your thoughts by leaving a comment.

 

*Amazon affiliate link

Exploring Lent

New clothes.  Church service.  Family feast.  In my head, these traditions were an important part of celebrating Easter.  They are how my parents celebrated the holiday while I was growing up and I continued the same traditions with my own family.

My sister, Angie, and me - Easter 1970
My sweet big sister (Angie) and me – circa 1970 – in our new Easter outfits.

As an adult, however, I noticed that Easter more than once caught me off guard and I felt unprepared to celebrate it “properly.”  One year I was aghast to realize that Easter was upon us and it was too late to recognize it as I had always done.  I would have to suffer the humiliation of my kids wearing their same old church clothes on Easter Sunday (ridiculous thinking, but true – don’t judge). Last minute plans had to be made for Easter lunch.  I felt like I had dropped the ball and I was kicking myself for it. In my frustration, I commented to my husband Simon that it was a shame that there was no build up to Easter, no way to really prepare for it.

“There is,” he replied.  “It’s called Lent.”

Simon’s response was what propelled us to first explore Lent. We discussed it and decided to give this Lent thing a try the very next year.  Easter should be the most sacred and important part of the year for the believer, we thought. Why had we only passively participated in it until now? We had high hopes for the next year!

The  first year we chose to simply give up sweets for Lent. That seemed to be what everyone online suggested when I researched it, so we jumped on board that train.  It seemed like a doable first for our family of six.  And it worked! Every time we were offered a sweet treat (which was more often than we thought it would be), we were reminded that Jesus had sacrificed so much more on the cross.  We walked toward Easter with more enthusiasm that first year and with a new appreciation of it.  It was a day of celebration, of merriment, of remembrance, of gaiety, of festivity!  (And admittedly, of dessert!)

Over the years, foregoing sweet treats has morphed into a once-a-week fast for my husband and myself, but our children still choose to sacrifice sweets.  (And if you’ve ever gone a long period without any type of sweet treat, you understand what a sacrifice that truly is!)

In addition to fasting something, we began to include a devotional as part of our Lenten experience several years ago. Some years, those were personal devotionals like this* or this* or this. Other years, they were family devotionals like this.  It has been difficult, however, to consistently find devotionals that we felt we easily connected with which is why my (ahem, published) husband wrote this free Lenten devotional last year.  He is passionate about using pop culture to create Mars Hill-type experiences for the next generation and Lent became a natural avenue to do that.  Using popular movies to aid in showing the powerful significance of Easter, Emptied & Humbled is an excellent resource for understanding Christ’s sacrifice on the cross through an in-depth study of Philippians 2.

This year, we will walk toward Easter differently than in the past.  As a couple, my husband and I will look at Lent through the lens of faith. We want to be taught and challenged by the faith of those who have walked faithfully before us. We want to hold their tried-and-true faith up as a mirror and see what is reflected back. We want our faith to grow and be strengthened, ultimately becoming contagious as we walk it out in real life.  This is a self-study that I hope to share with you in the future. In addition, we are using this* as a family devotional in the evenings with our teenagers.  Written for youth, Seven Days That Changed the World is a discussion-based devotional focusing on the Biblical passages of Jesus’ life during the seven days preceding His crucifixion and (victorious!) resurrection.

Before we take our first purposeful steps on these roads to Easter this year, however, we will partake in another tradition.   A few years ago, we accidentally participated in our first Fat Tuesday celebration at Big Shucks and have since added that to our ever-expanding list of new family traditions. While Fat Tuesday doesn’t have the most pristine reputation, Simon and I decided to redeem the day and we now use it, too, as part of our preparation for Easter. (I will share more in-depth on how we redeemed Fat Tuesday next week.)

Our experience of Lent is ever-changing, always morphing to meet the needs of our family as we grow. We are enjoying the exploration of the long-honored church tradition of Lent and the opportunity it affords us to look forward toward the empty tomb.  By introducing Lent to our family, we have grown to appreciate Easter with renewed enthusiasm.  Easter no longer sneaks up on us, but is now eagerly awaited.  Through observing Lent, we now experience the build-up to Easter that I longed for years ago.  We prepare for our most sacred holiday with something more than new clothes.  There is a new eagerness, a new excitement and yearning, a new hunger, a fresh zeal for what we are truly celebrating on Resurrection Sunday.

And we have Lent to thank for that.

Shameless second shot of my big sister Angie and myself, dressed to get our Easter on, circa 1973.
And just because I couldn’t choose which picture to use, here is a shameless second shot of Angie and me ready to celebrate Easter (circa 1973). Note: Angie’s fancy dress would soon be mine. She had the best hand-me-downs a girl could ever want. Beside the point, I know, but girls get this.

 

*denotes Amazon affiliate link

 

Gearing up for Lent

Lent is new to us.  Neither my husband nor myself grew up observing Lent.  It has only been eight years since we began to appreciate the significance that Lent holds in the believer’s life and we are still growing, still learning, still getting our feet wet with this hallowed tradition.  Our most “successful” Lenten seasons have been those during which we were walked purposefully toward Easter through the pages of a Lenten devotional.

Since we have learned the hard way that not all Lenten devotionals are created equally, I wanted to share just a few resources to help you as you prepare for this season.

Emptied and Humbled: A Movie-Based Lenten Devotional Through popular family movies such as Spiderman, Guardians of the Galaxy, and Finding Nemo, this devotional helps develop a deeper understanding of how Jesus emptied and humbled Himself (Phil. 2) for us. It is an excellent resource (one of many!) available at your fingertips through the click of your mouse. I highly recommend this resource to use with your kids this Lenten season - or even solo.
Like movies?  Emptied and Humbled: a movie-based Lenten devotional uses popular family movies such as Spiderman, Guardians of the Galaxy, and Finding Nemo to develop a deeper understanding of how Jesus emptied and humbled Himself (Phil. 2) for us. It is an excellent resource (one of many!) available at at www.reelparables.com. I highly recommend this free resource this Lenten season – for you or for your entire family – a recommendation I would give even if my husband wasn’t the author.  Click on the photo to be taken to the site for this free devotional.
Seven Days That Changed the World was written for the age group of my youngest kids. I love that a work of historical fiction is woven into the daily readings centered around Scripture and thoughtful questions we can discuss around the dinner table.
Like books?  Seven Days That Changed the World: A Lenten Devotional and Biblical Historical Fiction was written for youth (Jr. High and up). I love that a work of historical fiction is woven into the daily readings centered around the daily Scripture reading and that there are several thoughtful questions we can daily discuss around the dinner table.  This is the family devotional that we picked for this year.  (Click on the photo to be taken to Amazon – affiliate link.)
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The Word Became Flesh & Forty Names of Jesus are the two family devotionals we were seriously considering for use during Lent this year with our kids.  Since they are written for children aged 5-12, we would have needed to do some modifications to make them age-appropriate for our teenagers.  They look fantastic – and doable, which is always a plus. Perfect for families with kids in elementary school or younger.  (Click on the photos to check them out on  Amazon – affiliate links.)

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Bread and Wine is a thoughtful discussion of the season from many points of view from varied writers and noted men of faith. It is my husband’s favorite Lenten devotional to use for himself.  (Click on the photo to check it out on Amazon – affiliate link.)

What are your plans for Lent?  I’d love to hear your thoughts, your traditions, or your own “take” on Lent in the comments.