from Traci Smith’s book Faithful Families. Lent is the time that the ancient church set apart for getting ready for the mystery of Easter Sunday. We take time during the season of Lent to be in a Wilderness space…. A space set apart that looks and feels different than the rest of our day to day lives. Kind of like how when we go on a hike, or to the beach, or spend time in the mountains it feels different. We engage new disciplines during Lent to turn ourselves back towards our spiritual and physical roots. Here is a simple non-time-consuming practice you can engage in daily with our family using just what's in your pantry! (Or check out our 5-minute kid-friendly option or our environmentally-friendly habit-changing option here!) ALMSGIVINGfrom Traci Smith’s book Faithful Families ![]() Giving to the poor is a key feature of most of the world’s religions. In Christianity, giving is especially important during Lent. Almsgiving is one of the three traditional Lenten “pillars”, along with prayer and fasting. This practice is modified for families to be an offering of food, rather than money. Food is a tangible thing for young minds to grasp and it also offers an opportunity to talk about hunger in your community. Materials:
How to:
Everything in Backpack Buddies gets packed into sacks and is supposed to fit in a child’s backpack and be a weekend’s worth of food for that child. While it might feel more economical or efficient to buy bigger things, the goal is helping relieve a child’s hunger over the weekend when their free/reduced meals at school are not available.
Something to think about: Is it easier to just buy all the stuff and gather it and give it all at once? Yes. Our focus in this practice is just that: the practice. The daily act of taking something out of the pantry and putting it in to the box will help create awareness and mindfulness about our neighbors and our call to be neighbors. |
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February 2021
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