Besides being Valentine’s Day, a couple of days ago was also “Ash Wednesday”. This is the beginning of the Lent season for so much of the world. Unfortunately, so many of the non-denominational, evangelical type churches and many other groups lost the majority of its connection to our Christian past. This, to me, is one reason much of Christianity remains so immature as a faith. This is why much of the world just talks about Lent as if it is just the time when a bunch of people give up chocolate or Facebook.
For many of the branches of Christianity today (Catholic, Episcopalian, Methodist, etc.) this day is the start of a road they will travel down towards Easter over the next month
I love this idea for families. For Christians, our calendar and sense of time should revolve around CHRISTmas and Easter. What better way to do this than to spread the preparation out over a full month. There are devotionals that can help you or you can spend time focusing on different aspects or authors (I have one for Lent and Advent from Richard Rohr, as an example). There are also resources out there that have the daily readings for those branches of Christianity I mention above that will help you easily jump into the scriptures based on this season that much of your Christian brothers and sisters around the world are reading (think about you sitting on your porch reading the same verses as someone in Kenya!).
I also think that these types of days, services and approaches help us tap into the “experience” of God, and not just a focus on “ideas about” God. If you look back in History, the splits and divisions of Christianity have tended to revolve around arguing over ideas (“doctrines” to make it sound more official). You don’t hear about church splits or new denominations forming because people were praying together, sharing communion or especially serving the least of these. A season of Easter prep help us focus on keeping the main thing the main thing.
May your next month be full of His love for you and your family…