Well I officially made it through my period of sacrifice (see here). For Lent, I gave up beef, candy, and my personal Facebook page. I think it went pretty well. Lent last for 46 days but it is considered 40 days of sacrifice. This means you can technically take Sundays off. I usually don’t take advantage of Sundays because I enjoy the challenge. I have to confess; early into it I unconsciously had a brisket cheesesteak from Sugarfire. It was so good. I didn’t realize I had eaten beef until the next day. My stomach reminded me. Let’s just say it wasn’t pretty and I felt pretty bad about it. It also confirmed for me that I didn’t deserve the benefit of taking Sundays off.
Sacrificing candy wasn’t an issue for me at all. We enjoyed a vacation to Cleveland (see here) during Lent so I caved on Sunday because it is very hard eating out constantly without having some sort of beef. Plus I was on vacation. That was the only Sunday I would give in and I kinda knew that ahead of time. I don’t know if I can say it was worth it. I had a burger from Burger King. It was just ok. I wish I could have made better use of the day as far as beef goes. I also had a Kit Kat chocolate bar since I was taking advantage of one Sunday. Now that was totally worth it but I really could have gone without it.
When it comes to Facebook, I didn’t miss it at all. I’ve had fewer headaches. I always say I don’t allow Facebook to bother me but taking this break let me know that I really do. I will not be a frequent Facebook user moving forward. When it comes down to my blog, my views have been substantially lower because I am unable to share my posts to my personal page. I get twice as many views when I use my personal page. That’s because I have many people there that don’t follow me on my Watering Our Seeds Facebook page but are using the information I share to their benefit. That doesn’t bother me at all. I just want to help people.
I also used this period to pray for clarity over my life. I’ve been wondering if I should use my degree and if I should be doing things differently. I got my answer. God will move me when he sees fit. I will continue to apply for other positions but God will move me when he’s ready. I am happy with that answer. I also got the answer I was looking for when it comes down to doing real estate with my husband. I was reminded that this is a passion that we share. I will not be getting my real estate license until Don becomes a broker and I can work up under him. It doesn’t make sense for us both to pay agent fees when he can handle the agent part himself. My passion when it comes to real estate is the investment part for us. I really want to invest in property, in other words flip houses. This is something we’ve done in the past and it worked out very well. That move still benefits us to this day.
This period of sacrifice let me know that I seemed to have a good grasp of my life but I wanted to be very clear. I have always been confident that life has its way of working itself out if you allow it to do so. When we overthink it, it becomes more of our plan versus the plan that God has created for our life. I want to make sure everything I touch is blessed and keeping God in the midst always works out better for me.
Did you make sacrifices during Lent and how did it go?
Johnson Family Workshop 