Lent

I didn't grow up in a church. We went on Easter and Christmas, and that was fine with me, by the age of 10 I didn't believe in God anyways. I went to a church camp for about 5 years and, like the church we attended twice a year, it was Presbyterian. So I consider my upbringing to be Presbyterian, and because of that I did pick up on a lot of Presbyterian "traditions", if you will.

One of those was infant baptism. I was bothered that Baptists didn't do this, since I now consider myself to be a Baptist, until I read the scripture and now I agree with the Baptist belief regarding baptism. Another one of those things was Lent. Last year I was pregnant, sick all the time, and just didn't give it much thought (in case you don't know, Baptists do not recognize Lent) but this year was a different story.

I asked my husband, who grew up going to a Baptist church, why we do not celebrate Lent, and his response was basically "Don't know, don't care." Which was not enough for me. I looked up the reasoning behind it (thank you google) and found that during the reformation, Anabaptist's rejected all Holy days believing that the Catholic church made them up. We now know that they were wrong thanks to writings dated before the Roman Catholic church was founded. Despite that, the Baptists, and many other denominations, still do not celebrate Lent.

While I am a proud "card carrying" member of a Baptist church, I believe Lent is biblical, and I will be celebrating it this year, and every year here out. My husband does not feel it is necessary, and at least for now, he will not be.

Lent begins today, Ash Wednesday, and lasts 40 days, the same amount of time Jesus was in the desert being tempted. It will end the day before Easter, which is part of the reason we have Easter dinners.

Lent is also the reason behind "Fat Tuesday", it was meant to be one last feast before 40 days of fasting. Carnival, in Latin, actually means "goodbye to meat". Interesting stuff huh?

I am breastfeeding this year, so I will be giving up all drinks except water. Every year that I am not breastfeeding or pregnant, I plan to give up meat. I believe it is a good time to prepare spiritually for the most important holiday of the year, the day our king defeated death, rose from the grave, and went to prepare a place for us in Heaven.