Ash Wednesday/Valentine's Day

Welcome to you who have just tuned into “Moments of Grace.” I have defined these as one of those moments in time when everything clicks together bringing little glimpses of reassurance of God’s love that gets you through your everyday life. For a further description of what these moments are read my entry, “Moments of Grace.” My hope is you will be open to the moments of grace in your own life this Lenten season, and will share these by responding in the space for comments.
Interestingly Lent begins today, on Ash Wednesday, which also lands on Valentine’s Day this year. This is somewhat appropriate since today is the start of 40 days to reflect upon the sacrificial love of Christ for us. This love is much deeper than any flowers, chocolate, or any card Hallmark can come up with. This is the ultimate Grace with a capital “G”.

One tradition of Lent is to give up something, which is somehow like New Years’ resolutions hard to keep, or like me you substitute oatmeal raisin cookies for the chocolate chips you are giving up. Not much of a sacrifice. Whether or not you wish to give up something, I encourage you to open your eyes to the moments of grace that come your way this Lenten season. You may wish to record them in a journal or in responding in comments to this blog. I also want you to focus on giving out grace versus giving up things. You do so by bringing moments of grace into others’ lives. Ideas for doing so will hopefully come from your sharing in response to this blog of what has brought moments of grace in your own life.

Now back to Valentine’s Day. Let me tell you about one of my favorites. It didn’t involve a romantic dinner, but one with the boys in my life, my husband and two sons. We went out for an early dinner, and then I met with some of my single friends for coffee. I wasn’t married until I was 36, so I remember many of those lonely Valentine’s Days. I had great fun finding decorative bags and putting fancy chocolates into them to give to each of these friends.

I had such a fun time with my friends, I arrived home fairly late. Now this Valentine’s Day was on a Thursday, landing on trash day. The nerve of it! I walked into my house wanting just to put on my pajamas. The thought of taking out the garbage was far from appealing. But I gritted my teeth to do so when I discovered that my husband and sons had already taken it out. To this day they take out the trash weekly, but at that moment, it was the greatest gift of all to me.

Loving deeds then can be a moment of grace. Let us continue to follow the example of loving deeds Christ did.

When has anyone done a loving deed for you that made your day? Please share it by pressing the comment button, and then, if you haven’t already, please press the Follow button so you can follow the discussion.

Until tomorrow,

MJ.


PS: Lent doesn't include Sundays. So I do not plan to post a blog on Sundays and I will probably take Saturdays off too. This will give you all time to catch up on readings and give comments.

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