For Lent this year, both Crystal and I have gone on a social media fast. You won’t be seeing us on Facebook or Twitter, unless we need to hop on for work, but instead we’re trying to redirect the time and energy we usually spend on social media towards God. At least that’s the intention. It’s easy to give up something like social media or television, but it’s hard to have the self-discipline to dedicate that opened up space to God. There’s always something else there demanding to fill the space.

Crystal, who is gifted at establishing family rituals, planned out a weekly family meal for Lent where we light a candle each week and use each course as a time to talk about how God has been with us. The format is modelled loosely after the Hebrew Seder. We realized a couple of years ago that we have such strong family rituals around Christmas but around Easter – so this is something that Crystal has been thinking about for awhile. Of course she made it child friendly.

The first meal we went around the table, each of us addressing discussion topics put forth by each course.

• Eggs – How has God been with us as we’ve grown.
• Mango – How has God helped us in times of sickness and brought healing.
• Cocoa Powder (Unsweetened) – How has God helped us in times of bitterness.
• Vegetables – How has God blessed us with fun times.
• Salt and Tomato – How has God comforted us during sad times.
• Bread – How has God provided us with comfort and peace.

Since then, Crystal has incorporated stories that she’s gathered from family outside of Cambodia and a relevant story from the bible. It’s been rewarding to see the girls grapple with the discussion topics and think how to respond to them. We can see the growth in their reasoning and expressiveness from week to week, meal to meal. It’s also a good chance for them to practice their listening skills – especially listening to each other share.