Fabulous Financials

I don’t have a Friday Money Lesson this week because I didn’t learn anything entirely interesting, other than the fact that I spend way too much money on personal expenses to stay fabulous. :-) However, I was inspired by this post written by Canadian Financial Stuff regarding his plans in honor of Lent.

Lent is recognized by Christians as the forty days between Ash Wednesday and Easter Sunday. This forty day period is symbolic of the forty days spent by Moses and Elias in the wilderness; the Jews wandered forty years traveling to the Promised Land. Jonah in his prophecy of judgment gave the city of Nineveh forty days’ grace in which to repent. Jesus retreated into the wilderness and fasted for forty days of temptation to prepare for his ministry. So by observing Lent, many Christians join Jesus in His retreat by fasting with Him.

Some Christians may decide to give up something (a favorite food, an activity, or a bad habit) for Lent, while others may decide to take on a Lenten discipline such as devotions, volunteering for charity work, etc. Fasting during Lent is a way for Christians to identify with Jesus in the suffering that he endured to save our souls. (Source: Wikipedia)

So what are you going to sacrifice for Jesus during Lent? It has to be something that is really hard to change. What have you struggled with lately? Are you a procrastinator? Do you eat too much junk food? Do you smoke? Or how about your finances? Have you been a good steward of the resources God has blessed you with?

I would like to spend the next forty days without sugar. This is really going to be a struggle for me because I’m a junk food junkie. In addition, I would like to reduce my total spending for the month of March by 50% (excluding fixed expenses). I have no idea how I will accomplish this, but that’s part of the sacrifice. If I’m successful, I plan to take the savings and make another donation to the Hurricane Katrina Relief fund.

I challenge each and everyone of you to make a positive change in your life and to share your blessings with someone else. They say it only takes 21 days to break a bad habit, so just imagine what we can do with 40.