{"id":889,"date":"2019-03-03T22:58:19","date_gmt":"2019-03-03T21:58:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pbthomas.com\/blog\/?p=889"},"modified":"2019-03-03T22:58:19","modified_gmt":"2019-03-03T21:58:19","slug":"what-can-i-give-up-for-lent-an-a-to-z-of-ideas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/pbthomas.com\/blog\/?p=889","title":{"rendered":"What can I give up for Lent? An A to Z of ideas"},"content":{"rendered":"<span itemprop=\"description\"><p>What is Lent?<br \/>\nLent is the time to prepare your heart and mind for Easter. Historically, Christians have spent 40 days in fasting and prayer to think about all that Jesus gave up for us on the cross \u2013 his human life. Historically, in some churches, people chose to \u201cgive up\u201d something that is personally important to them for the period of Lent as a personal sacrifice. Lent is a time to think about our sins. To repent. A time to think on how we\t can become better Christians.<br \/>\nWhen does Lent begin?<br \/>\nLent begins on Ash Wednesday, the day after Shrove Tuesday or Pancake Day.<br \/>\nWhy is Lent 40 days long? (Remember Lent is 40 days, not counting Sundays)<br \/>\nHistorically, it is based on the time Jesus spent in the wilderness fasting and praying and being tempted by the devil! See: Matthew 4:2 <\/p>\n<p>What can I give up for Lent?<br \/>\nApps\u2014get sponsorship to give up all your apps for Lent, or just your favourite app.<br \/>\nBottled water\u2014we use up to 13 billion a year in the UK1 Carry a flask instead. Put aside 10p every time you would have bought a plastic bottle.<br \/>\nChocolate! Yes, that old favourite! The most popular thing to give up for Lent. Or crisps or chips.<br \/>\nDesserts \u2013 if you have a sweet tooth, why not give up your puds this Lent?<br \/>\nEating cakes. Go the extra mile and do a cake sale\u2014without indulging yourself!<br \/>\nFilms. Prices vary, but one cinema ticket may cost you \u00a37.<br \/>\nFizzy drinks: this one is good for your teeth as well!<br \/>\nGaming. Get sponsored for giving up some screen time!<br \/>\nHurrying everywhere. Bike or walk instead of taking the bus &#8211; extra time to think, more exercise and money for others!<br \/>\nImported fruit and vegetables. Eat locally sourced. Work out how many air miles you save and get sponsored per hundred.<br \/>\nInstagram or Facebook \u2013 spend the saved time praying for those who don\u2019t have enough food.<br \/>\nJewellery. Go sober for Lent! You could even have a jewellery sale of all that old stuff you never use\u2014profits to charity!<br \/>\nKettles! Forget hot drinks and drink water instead.<br \/>\nLunch on Fridays\u2014or swap it for a simple bowl of soup.<br \/>\nLights \u2013 switching off the lights during the day saves money and the planet!<br \/>\nMeat. Another popular one! Go veggie\u2014this one will help the planet too!<br \/>\nNail polish. Run a nail bar instead<br \/>\nOnline. Give up that screen time and think of others.<br \/>\nPizza. And other fast food; this one is good for your health and for people in need<br \/>\nQuality Street\u2014other varieties of sweets are also available to give up!<br \/>\nReaching into the cookie jar. Ban cookies for Lent: give 5p for every time you would have eaten one.<br \/>\nSpeaking. A sponsored silence is a great way to raise money. Parents and teachers love this one!<br \/>\nTake-away food. This also helps reduce packaging.<br \/>\nUsing electricity. Can you manage a day without?<br \/>\nVideos. Make one instead, to explain how \u2018giving it up\u2019 can help our global family. Post it on social media.<br \/>\nWater\u2014obviously not giving up entirely! Can you reduce the amount you use?  A shorter shower?<br \/>\nX-box or other games console. Give up a favourite computer game for Lent and get sponsored.<br \/>\nYouTube. Challenge yourself to go without, and get others to sponsor you!<br \/>\nZzzz\u2026 Sleep on the floor in solidarity with the many who have no bed.<br \/>\n(Adapted from materials from CAFOD)<\/p>\n<span>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p class=\"excerpt\"><span itemprop=\"description\">What is Lent? Lent is the time to prepare your heart and mind for Easter. Historically, Christians have spent 40 days in fasting and&hellip;<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"more-link-p btn-align-left\"><a class=\"blue zoom-btn\" href=\"http:\/\/pbthomas.com\/blog\/?p=889\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[61],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/pbthomas.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/889"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/pbthomas.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/pbthomas.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/pbthomas.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/pbthomas.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=889"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/pbthomas.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/889\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":890,"href":"http:\/\/pbthomas.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/889\/revisions\/890"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/pbthomas.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=889"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/pbthomas.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=889"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/pbthomas.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=889"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}