We’re not good at giving things up for Lent here. I’m not opposed to it, I just never get around to figuring out what it should be that I give up and truthfully my daily crosses are enough sometimes! So instead of giving up, we will take up something for Lent. This year I’d like to memorize Psalm 51. It’s not a long chapter and since some of it is a part of our church liturgy, I’m already familiar with it.
(And don’t go thinking I’ve already put our Lenten items out on the table…this is from last year! I’ll get to it.)
To help me and keep me on track I’ll use a memory book. I’ll only commit a few verses to memory each week.
I keep my memory book in the kitchen and try to carry it around with me to refer to while I’m folding laundry or cooking.
You can download Psalm 51 Memory pages HERE if you’d like to make your own little book. I just found a 3×5 notebook (Moleskine from Amazon) and glued the pages into it.
I addition to memorizing God’s Word I’d also like to begin to pray The Hours. I’ve wanted to make this part of my daily routine for sometime, I’ll see if Lent will help me begin!
Also this year we’ll use a “Jesus Tree” during our evening family devotions. I still need to finish making the rest of the ornaments that I started on last year. I’m just using card stock and the images on Jessica’s blog. We’ll also be following the readings she lists.
And since we want to teach our littles the joy and importance of giving, we’ll be collecting coins throughout Lent and then giving what we collect to the church on Easter Sunday. Last year we made little milk carton churches, we may do that again this year if I don’t get around to planning something else.
What do you have planned?
Linking up with Carrots For Michaelmas
Great minds think alike. I’ve been working on Psalm 51 myself for a few weeks now. I’ve been slacking on it lately, so thanks for the reminder to keep at it! It is a great Psalm to commit to memory!
Indeed, a very good one Sandy. I’m hoping to keep at it too!
Love the crown of thorns. I’ll be using that idea. and I think I’ll start memorising some of the Good Book, too! I’ve wanted to have some good thoughts in my head and I can think of none better.
Thanks for the ideas.
I love the idea of memorizing Scripture during Lent! I’m really interested in learning to pray the Hours but I’m a little intimidated! Do you have a good resource that introduces how to do it?
Jenny this crown is so easy and great imagery. My thorns are absent this year since Esther is starting to walk and Gerhardt, being a BOY just can’t resist sharp objects…Clara can’t either come to think of it. So I’ll wait and put those in another year. Last year we took one thorn out each day of Lent then it was empty on Easter and replaced them with white orange blossoms. That was nice.
Hello Haley! I have a booklet that I printed out a couple years ago, it’s called “A Mother’s Hours”. It was created by an Eastern Orthodox mother of 8 for her personal use. It’s very brief prayers to be prayed throughout the day, before 9am, 9am-12pm, 12-3pm and 3-6pm. All the prayers are related to times of Christ’s crucifixion. The brevity is what gave me the encouragement to take it on, since as a mama of 5 I don’t have tons of time to stop throughout the day for long prayer, readings and hymns (wish I did though!). I wish I could link from here to a copy all of you could download, but unfortunately the wonderful lady who made this has stopped blogging and removed her site from the internet. I’m just not sure what the copyright rules are about making this available now.
Also, our Lutheran church body has a great service book and book of prayer with versions of the hours in it. These are used for public services and personal use, but are the much longer “proper” hours. I use these books too.
I plan on using these to make a “booklet” of my own. Cutting some stuff and dividing it up throughout the day. I’d like to make a document that can be used by others if I ever find the time!
This has been the extent that I have “researched” praying the hours at home. Through Lent I just plan on using the Eastern Orthodox booklet. Wish I had more resources for you at this point!