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I made my family chicken soup on Ash Wednesday. I don\u2019t know what I was thinking\u2014except that it was freezing cold outside and homemade soup sounded like a good idea. We had been housebound during a snowstorm and I knew the kids would love some warm soup. But it was Ash Wednesday. The very first day of Lent and I had already screwed up. I\u2019m not sure how you observe Lent, but our fasting requires us to abstain from meat on Ash Wednesday and every Friday during Lent. Well, I typically don\u2019t pay much attention to this requirement because I don\u2019t eat meat anyway. But I do cook it for my family. #LentenFail<\/p>\n
So what\u2019s a mother to do when she\u2019s gotten off to such an imperfect start? How can I be a spiritual leader for my children when I can\u2019t even follow one simple rule? As W.C. Fields says, \u201cIf at first you don\u2019t succeed, try, try again.\u201d<\/p>\n
I admit, I don\u2019t think I\u2019ve ever had a \u201cperfect Lent\u201d \u2013 one in which I stuck to my promise of sacrifice or prayer without faltering. I always start out with good intentions but somewhere along the line I give up. In fact, I shared my story with Inc. magazine this week when they profiled\u00a0three entrepreneurs who use Lent to form highly effective habits. (By the way\u2026Can you believe a popular mainstream business publication is writing about Lent? I\u2019m honored God has used me to evangelize in this way!)\u00a0<\/em>But if you read closely, you\u2019ll see me confess that I didn\u2019t quite make it through 40 days of my Lenten practice last year. So I’m convicted to making it go better this year! Although, I\u2019ve come to realize it will never be a perfect process.<\/p>\n God doesn\u2019t expect us to be perfect. He knows we make mistakes. That\u2019s why he sent his beloved son to save us from our sins. The only thing God expects is that when we fail, we try again. So here I am\u2026trying again.<\/p>\n I believe that the idea of Lent is to learn to be more Christ-like in our everyday lives. The three pillars of Lent \u2013 prayer, fasting and almsgiving \u2013 were integral habits of Christ\u2019s during his life on earth. When we choose to incorporate one or more of these habits in our lives during Lent (or anytime!) then we\u2019re saying, \u201cI want to live like Christ!.\u201d And that\u2019s not an easy task. So, give yourself permission to falter. But remember that God is pleased with our efforts and our willingness to try.<\/p>\n If you\u2019ve \u201cgiven up\u201d on Lent, I want to encourage you to try again with me. Don\u2019t beat yourself up about whatever it is that you consider your failure. Just open your heart and ask the Lord to guide you in selecting a sacrifice or habit you can develop this Lent.<\/p>\n Maybe you can replace a daily habit you enjoy (like watching TV or eating a snack before bed) with a daily habit that will glorify God (like saying a prayer or writing an encouraging note to someone). Maybe you can take the money you would normally spend on coffee and donate it to a charity. Whatever you choose, remember that Christ stumbled three times with the cross \u2013 and each time he got up again. If you stumble on your Lenten journey (like I did!), simply get up and keep going. \u00a0<\/p>\n The important thing is to get started. If you need some inspiration, try one of these seven unusual ideas to shake things up for Lent. Or, if you want to join me in journaling your way through Lent, start with these Christian journal writing prompts. I created them specifically to reflect on themes that emerge along the journey of Christ\u2019s death and resurrection.<\/p>\n And if you want me to guide you step-by-step through a six-week journal writing experience that will deepen your relationship with God, try the Write to Christ program. It will change the way you pray and give you the tools you need to develop a spiritual journal writing practice you can use all year long. \u00a0<\/p>\n Most importantly, when you stumble along your Lenten journey, please know that I\u2019m right there with you. Together, we\u2019ll offer up our #LentenFail and start over again. Sound like a plan?<\/p>\n Theresa Ceniccola\u00a0<\/strong>is The Christian Mompreneur\u2014a mentor to moms who are running a business that supports their values of faith and family. As president and founder of the International Christian Mompreneur Network, she empowers entrepreneurial moms to build profitable businesses with wisdom and grace. Join the International Christian Mompreneur Network for free and receive the Ten Commandments of a Mompreneur toolkit!<\/em><\/p>\n Publication date:<\/span><\/em> February 27, 2015<\/span><\/p>\n Photo credit: \u00a9GettyImages\/alvarez<\/span><\/p>\n Originally published March 05, 2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I made my family chicken soup on Ash Wednesday. I don\u2019t know what I was thinking\u2014except that it was freezing cold outside and homemade soup sounded like a good idea. We had been housebound during a snowstorm and I knew the kids would love some warm soup. But it was Ash Wednesday. The very first<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21981,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[7263,5849],"class_list":["post-21980","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-christian-living","tag-imperfect","tag-lent"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21980","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=21980"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21980\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/21981"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21980"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21980"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21980"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}