Lent

I like observing Lent.  Sometimes it's hard to work on a goal for a year or some indefinite amount of time, like ones we make for the New Year or things that I just know I need to improve on, but it's easy to set a goal for 40 days.  And after the 40 days (unlike a week or two weeks), often whatever I've chosen has turned into a habit... so I like Lent.  I keep track of every single day and how I've done, and I kind of feel like I failed Lent if I miss even just a couple of days.  I take it very seriously.

My freshman year, I gave up Facebook to keep myself from wasting so much time.  After the 40 days, it took me a while before I started using it again because I got so used to not using it.  I missed zero days.  It was really nice.

Sophomore year I gave up not reading my scriptures everyday.  I got that idea from my sister, to give up not doing something.  I should've made that a 40-day goal a long time ago.  I only missed two or three days.

Last year I gave up being negative about school because I recognized that my negativity was having negative effects on my husband's attitude and making me hate school.  For the first time (I think) since I started at BYU, I worked really really hard and got all A's that semester.

This year, I have given up dirty dishes.  Now let me just say that this semester has been the busiest and hardest semester I have ever had, almost without comparison.  As such, I don't always have time to do the dishes, and even with Lent, I still don't.  But I do try to make time everyday to do some dishes, and even just that much has helped.  Joel does a lot of them since I don't have as much time, but at least this way I feel like I'm helping contribute some cleaning.

Are any of you doing Lent?  What did you give up?  What would you give up if you were doing Lent?  You can always start late! :)