Now until April 20th is a season of preparation for the coming of Jesus at Easter. Traditionally, Lent is used as a time to "cleanse the soul" and "make peace" with your neighbor and yourself before entering into Easter festivities.

But with 40 days committed to such personal growth, how are we to honor that preparation as families? Ultimately, you will decide of course, but below are my top 5 practices I've seen and experienced to make yours a Holy Lent.

1. Commit to community. Commit as a family to eat specific meals together during the week. For instance, commit to eating Sunday dinner together each week until Easter, or that you will eat 3 dinners together each week. If you already eat together regularly, good for you! Maybe, everyone could for cook as a team once a week?

2. Practice forgiveness. At one meal each week, ask each member of your family to name one person or event they would like to forgive, or name something for which they would seek forgiveness from another family member. This can be a good time to get things off our chests, and nothing feels better than a light heart. If forgiveness is not going to work? Then swap that out for a 3C night: each person gives three compliments to each family member one night a week, based on what happened the previous week.

3. Pray. Grab an old jar and some sharpies and make a "Prayer Jar." The act of decorating it could be fun by itself, but for this practice, we want our families to be used to the idea of praying regularly. Set some post-its or small cards by the jar, and each morning/evening everyone writes or draws a picture of one person/place/thing/event they are praying for that day. Make this a daily ritual, and watch attitudes change.

4. Give up or take on something together. As someone who is constantly fighting weight gain and loss, I know how difficult it can be to try and cut out sweets or junk food when there is still that package of Oreo's in the cupboard, or ice cream in the box. If you want to eat healthier, why not take that on as a family for Lent? Or how about less TV/video games/electronics for Lent? Or grab a favorite children's book from your childhood and spend 10 minutes before bedtime reading it out loud together. (Winnie the Pooh was always my favorite) Set one goal as a family and reach it.

5. Serve together. Go through the house on cleaning days and spring clean your way to a big Red Cross donation. Clear the clutter for a good cause by deciding what you NEED versus what you HAVE. Don't need it? Then find a home for it with someone who would. Or, designate a day for you as a family to volunteer somewhere, or clean the church, or plan and execute a RAK attack. RAK's (Random Acts of Kindness) are pretty stellar ways to help our fellow pilgrims.

So there you go, five good ways to get into the Lenten Journey. If you want more ideas, or help planning some special family night or event, drop me a line, and I'll gladly help.

Hoping you have a holy Lent,
Roger