I gave up for Lent...
 

I'm not religious...

but someone's journal entry made me think about it.

I am never one to focus on the negatives, always trying to focus on positives in my life.

So one year, I gave up the Catholic Church for Lent.

Another I gave up celebrating Christmas.

I never went back to the Church after that, but those that know me know that I'm a very spiritual person, and my relationship with a higher being doesn't need to be translated by anyone for me.

As for Christmas... I finally started celebrating it again after I got married, because my goal was to give it up until I had my own family.

What did you give up for Lent? What did you good habits did you take on?

One year I gave up masturbation. It was funny 'cause I did it with a group of guys... and none of them were able to abstain for the <i>terrible</i> 40 days worth of lent.

Other things I've given up seriously have been things like cracking my knuckles (I'm kinda bad about that) soft drinks (that was easy, 'cause I don't really like them). I've also given up things like video games for extended periods of time, or eating meat.

Just to name a few. I like to experiment with that kind of thing.



Oh, I gave up TV for a month once. This was back when I watched TV regularly with my parents and maybe a sibling.

Well, I'm Catholic.

I was having this discussion last night with Bleed Me Dry and I couldn't think of anything to give up. The only vices I have are coffee, cigarettes and booze. Well, we decided that if I gave up either cigarettes or booze I would become a huge asshole with in days and that's not a good idea. So, I decided to give up coffee.

Now in all fairness I could have given up porn but lets not be stupid. At least with booze and smokes I would just been an asshole... without porn I might kill someone.

I've given up soft drinks, (easy) swearing, (lasted about a week) and chocolate (not too bad). I'm not Catholic, but I like to test myself over the Lenten season anyhow.

I'm thinking about giving up red meat. Then again, I don't eat much red meat anyhow, 'cause I'm poor, and can't afford it. I guess you should give up something important to you.

Mmm...now I'm craving steak.

I gave up using the internet last year, which was really difficult. This year, I am giving up playing a video game I play a lot. It should be a little easier.

I gave up my job for lent. Or more my job gave me up. Either way, today is my first day of being jobless, SO I think that is slightly pertains. But I think I will do fastfood this year. I really don't eat alot, so it shouldn't be that hard, but...

I won't give up anything because of a fairy-tail. I think it's ridiculous.

If I'm gonna give something up or change it's gonna be because it's just the right thing for me to do. And if it's done for any other reason it's meaningless IMO.

while you may not be a believer there's not need to belittle it by calling it a "fairy-tail".

while i'm not religious i'm still respectful of someone else's beliefs enough to just leave it without comment.

as for people trying to better themselves for 40 days, well that's their choice, but why knock someone down for trying? at least they are making an effort at something even if it's a motivated by a different reason than your own.

If you had nothing to contribute to this post then you should have not posted to it at all.

My wife and I gave up restaurants last year. We were suprised by how often we ate out. We ended up saving a nice bit of money and enjoyed cooking a variety of new dishes together.

We're doing it again this year.

I'm just giving an opinion. If you don't want the ones you won't like tell me and I won't say anything next time. I don't like many opinions that people have, but I don't have a problem with them saying it and I don't feel the need to call them pointless because I don't like what they have to say.

I give up other women every year, of course my wife said I gave up other women when we got married, but who's checking.

I think I gave up not bashing Christians for Lent. :D

I think I'll give up soda...not because of lent (I dont even know when lent is) but because I'm getting out of shape.

wHen the snow melts i'm gonna start running too.

this is gonna take some motivation

Not a damn thing. You all enjoy your suffering.

For the past 4 years, I've given up on God for lent.

After some serious thought, I'm going to give up lent for lent. It's going to be a tough one, so wish me luck!

My girlfriend is Catholic but hasn't decided what she's giving up on yet.

im not giving up anything...

last year a guy i knew gave up his X girlfriend who he had still been fooling around with for lent... needless to say it got rid of her like he wanted...

One year, my friend tried to give up Ice Cream.

She failed miserably after about 4 days, hehe.

My family is a bunch of horrible folks. We know we should at least try to give up something important, but we usually forego it as a lost cause anyway.

Although, i think i'll give up smoking this year, that'll be easy.

Masturbation

I tried to go chaste once...I think I lasted a good couple of hours.
I've also tried chocolate, coffee, potato chips, manicures, cartoons...I don't think any of them ever lasted more than a week.
I don't think I'm really a lent person....

Do you suppose if I told my teachers I was giving up homework for lent they'd understand? :p

You know, I'm Catholic and I've thought for a very long time that the act of "giving something up" for Lent was a silly one which was a pointless physical representation of the mood of the season. I felt things like not eating meat on Friday held no real meaning and ultimately had no importance to what Lent was really about. "Suffer with Jesus" I think was the predominant meaning behind it that I had picked up. I thought that was stupid because not eating meat or even fasting for a day was not suffering, and giving up something like candy or whatever people gave up as kids when I first began coming to this conclusion was hardly suffering compared to the historical suffering that Jesus of Nazareth went through (whether you believe he was a meaningful person or not, he did exist and he was crucified). I thought to myself, "religion is not about vague symbols such as 'Jesus was a fisherman so we eat fish on Fridays.'"

Well, without getting into details, let's just say that after about 8 or 9 years of not giving up things for Lent, I recently came to the realization (mostly thanks to a particular class I'm taking) that the explanations I had always thought of and heard as a kid (or remember hearing at least) have absolutely nothing to do with it and the reasoning behind all of it is far greater and more reasonable than I had ever thought of. Needless to say, unfortunately, even going to a Catholic gradeschool it's difficult to get a good education on the Catholic faith or religion in general even. It's difficult to get it anywhere really. And the amazingly unfortunate thing is that even if there were many outlets to get good educations on different religions, I really don't think one can possibly really understand it until they're older...and even then it's not necessarily true.

Anyways, I figure I'll give up caffeine/pop for Lent. I drink way too much of it, so why not. It's bad for me anyways. :)

A little bit of tact goes a long way in elisiting a positive reply to your opinions. In this statement, you showed none.

I didn't give anything up for lent. I am Catholic but I don't practice the Season of Lent. I think it was because I was raised without practicing it.

Why give somthing up?

When you can maybe do something better?

Lent Shmint. NEVAR!

Let me rewrite that first line for you so it's not belittling and inconsiderate, not to mention tactless... "I won't give up anything for something I don't believe in."

That wasn't all that hard, I don't think. I think it's a bit rude to refer to something people believe in as a "fairy-tale", whether or not you truly believe it to be so.

For me, i'm Catholic as well, and i have to come up with something quick... today caught me by surprise.

I think maybe i'll give up Mountain Dew. If you knew how much of it I drank, you'd understand my sacrifice. :)

Just out of curiosity. Would you rather I lie or just shut up...

I think many people's lifestyles are more rude and destructive than anything that I'll ever say, but you don't see me making an issue out of that. We all have different opinions, and I fail to see why mine are always such a big deal.

NNOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!

You can't be serious!
Don't give up that golden goodness!!!

Um...well there's always Sun-Drop!

I don't see why I should give anything up unless I saw it as really important to myself, whether that is in a spiritual sense or otherwise.

Giving something up out of guilt, or for no good reason just doesn't make sense and detracts from quality of life I reckon.

Simple: it's because you were rude about it.

I was honest.

So when people say they want honesty what they really want is honesty unless it's an opinion they don't like.

I'll take honesty any way it comes, but I guess that's just me.

Honesty doesn't have to be rude. You've already been shown ways you could have said the same thing w/o being rude.

I can't tell you the number of times I made the logical error you're making, or that I've seen someone else do it. It strikes me as fairly normal. You'll learn about that as you mature.

I'm giving up sixate and Cynthetiq for lent.

I'd give up SecretMethod70, but I love that Firefox picture.

I know many people that will be giving things up for lent. I was baptised Catholic, but more of a spiritualist then anything else.

I see it as a good time to be able to give something up too, why not. It may not be for the same reasons, but it's a great time to try something new.

I recently learned that alcohol is a huge problem in my family, and when my older relatives would give it up for lent, they'd turn into a completely different person. I figure I'll try that, after all, I like change, and if it's a positive one, what the heck.

I kinda like the idea of Lent, tho I don't like or believe in religion/ a deity of any kind. But get creative with it...not to bash anyone's choices but I wouldn't concentrate on tangible items. How about giving up an intolerance for Lent? Most of us have some kind of erroneous prejudice against something or someone. Use Lent to educate yourself about it. Give up hatred of smokers for Lent. Hate is a vice, so give up something you are prejudiced against for Lent. Make it worth something, a learning experience,not just a lesson in physical asceticism.

I'm working on making myslef a better person. More patient, optimistic, less judgemental, more outgoing... etc.

I'm Catholic and I like to take a more proactive approach to Lent. I'm always trying to cut bad habits and the like, but of for Lent I usually try to do some relatively major act of good.

This time, I'm leading a week-long retreat for my fellow seniors in a month or so. I went on the same retreat in October and it was incredible for both my spirituality and my character as a whole.

Unfortunately, this event is one of few that I do go to church for.... but was unable to because of work. I've decided to give up being completely lazy.

I'm going to take better care of myself... besides I want to look and feel better before visiting back home in a few months.

I gave up jellybeans.

If it doesn't contribute to the discussion at hand, why say it?

Yours seem to be a big deal because your opinions are often opposite to many others. Not that that is a bad thing, just means that you get jumped on more.

------

I gave up smoking.

Then started again *sigh*