Maybe you have thought about what you want to do during Lent and maybe not. If you are like me, most years you wait until the night before Ash Wednesday to think of something. Catholics have traditionally "given up something" in order to make a sacrifice for Lent, but you can also "do something" in order to sacrifice as well. It is trendy these days to give up social media or limit cell phone use, and if that works for you—great!
In my experience, single Catholics have a unique challenge during Lent, and so I am going to give you something to give up and something to do. You choose if you want to do either or both.
Giving Something Up
Ok, first I don't want you to give up dating.
Let's face it, any opportunity for a date (especially if you are more than ready to get married) is something you should take advantage of. What I want you to give up is your list of "must-haves." Keep the basics like "must be Catholic," but try letting go of all of those specific requirements that you may have developed based on past relationships. If you meet someone and they meet very basic criteria—go out with him or her!
In fact, make it a point to ask them out even if they are not the right height or hair color or they hate sports or they love sports too much or even if they live far away. Take a shot. Let go of everything and just focus on getting to know that person. Even if it doesn't work out, you have grown by challenging yourself to get our of your comfort zone.
The goal here is to give up all that relationship gunk that we have built up in our heads and simply look at that person in the image of Christ and spend some time with him or her.
Trust in God, and allow the experience to happen.
Doing Something
We all have things about us we can improve, but that is especially true when it comes to preparing to meet your future spouse. The fact is there may be things that we need to work on about ourselves to put us in a better position to meet "the One." We all need to make ourselves more attractive, and I am not just talking about physical appearance.
I want you to ask a close family member or friend to help you identify one thing that they think you might be able to work on to help you be more attractive. Maybe it is physical, but it is probably something like self-esteem, quick temper, talking too much, talking too little, being more joyful, being more sensitive... you get the picture.
Whatever that one thing is, I want you to wake up every day during Lent and ask God to help you improve. Then, do something small every day to practice getting better.
Regardless of what you choose to do, we want to help you on your journey. Every week we will be sending you a free newsletter with a video to help you use Lent in your quest to live out the vocation God is calling you to. If you aren't already signed up for our free newsletter, you can sign up here.
Imagine what 40 straight days of practice and prayer could do!? By Easter, if you haven't already attracted someone, you certainly will be more attractive than you were 40 days earlier.
