Where I Officially Revise My Lenten Sacrifice

Oh yeah — this is me.  I’m on the computer and this was going to be my day to shun the computer from when I woke up this morning until I wake up tomorrow morning.  But, still, here I am — on the computer.

Did I give up and already break what I thought was going to be a really difficult Lenten sacrifice?

Surprisingly, no, I didn’t give up.  It was actually shockingly much easier to skip out on the computer today than I thought.  (Although, it was softened a little bit by a few back and forth texts with Brenda.)  The only difficult moment was when I actually had a reason that I had to open my email account today and then saw emails from friends that I really wanted to read.  But, knowing the sacrifice I made, I didn’t open them but just looked for the thing I had been on for.  That was my only computer today.

So, if it was so darn easy — why am I sitting here now, you might ask.

I realized that I had to revise my plan.  I realized that one of the biggest benefits to my sacrifice was that I would be more present to my family and to the tasks I need to do around the house.  And, it was hugely successful for that today.  I didn’t feel the urge to pop over to the computer to check “for just a second” that would turn into much more than just a second.  I was present today.

But, if I would suddenly be able to use the computer tomorrow morning, I knew what would happen.  School would start late.  I would be distracted trying to catch up on what I missed from a day away from the online world.  So, after talking to Eric tonight, we decided that it would be better for everyone if I turned off my computer from waking until after everyone except for myself went to bed (that includes after Eric goes to bed, not just the kids) on two days a week throughout Lent.  But, after everyone went to sleep, then I would be able to check up on the day’s happenings in my email and online.

While I initially felt like this would be cheating, Eric pointed out that the revised sacrifice was really going to be much better for everyone, and would actually involve more time away from the computer.  And, when he put it that way, it was hard to argue.

Photo by daviddumas

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