Thursday, February 18, 2021

20 Holy Habits for Lent-- and Beyond

1. Read the “Good Book”—every day for at least 15 minutes.

2. Treat yourself to 15 minutes of silence each day. Listen to yourself breathe, or lay your fingers upon your pulse at your wrist, and give thanks.

3. Take a walk each day, and notice your surroundings.

4. Create—and use-- an Anglican Rosary with beads.

5. Create a prayer shelf or corner somewhere in your house, with a candle, prayerbook, rosary, cairn, or images to meditate upon.

6. Read the daily meditation in Forward Day by Day at noontime each day.

7. Make a list of 40 people or places for which you are grateful, and pray for them.

8. Give away 40 items you no longer need.

9. Keep an image journal each day of Lent, and draw or include an image or photograph that speaks to you. Include a daily quote or poem from your reading, if you like.

10. Send a card to someone you haven’t seen in a while—you can even make your own. Tell them how much they mean to you.

11. Visit an art museum online, and learn about a new artist each day.

12. Perform a random act of kindness each day.

13. Compliment someone each day—and mean it.

14. Think of something you feel embarrassed, grieved, regret, or ashamed about in the past. Write it down. Offer it up to God. Then set the paper on fire (safely) and offer yourself forgiveness and release.

15. Think of someone you have been holding a grudge against or have a long-standing issue with. Release yourself from carrying this burden any longer.

16. Blow some bubbles or enjoy some other simple pleasure from childhood.

17. Really listen to a loved one talk to you each day, without distraction.

18. Paint a river rock with an uplifting image or word, and leave it for someone to find.

19. Order some seeds of native plants good for pollinators, and begin to start them so that you can plant them in the spring.

20. Memorize a short psalm or psalm fragment to say to yourself as you prepare for sleep each night. Good ones include: 20:1-4; 23, 31:1-5; 46;1-5; 67; 71:1-3;84:1-5; 91:1-4;95:1-7; 100; 104:24-28; 117; 121; 123; 131; 133-134;139:1-7.

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