Lent

Today is Ash Wednesday - the start of Lent. I'm not a super-religious person. I don't even know if Southern Baptists celebrate Ash Wednesday/Lent. I haven't been to church since we moved to Virginia back in 1985. I do believe in God and I do think religion/spirituality is important but I have a problem with "organized" religion. I think my issues with it stem from being brought up as Southern Baptist, having a preacher for a grandfather and going to church every Sunday and seeing the hypocrisy of the people sitting in the pews. It left a bad taste in my mouth. With that being said and despite my religion issues, I decided it would be a good idea to give up a "vice" for Lent. I used to do this every year but fell off the wagon about 5 years ago. I figured I'd give it a shot this year. This goes along with my 9 goals for 2009. Things I want to do to make me a better person. So I've decided to stop talking about people. Anyone who knows me knows that talking about and making fun of people is my thing. It's what I do. It's how I get my laughs and kicks. But it's also not nice and I really need to stop doing it. And one day I'm going to be talking about someone and they're going to be right there. I've never been very discreet when it came to my trash-talking. My husband hates it. Especially since he says that I don't know how to whisper and that the person I'm talking about can probably hear me. Not good. And again - not nice.

I'm hoping I can stick with this beyond the 40 days. I am a nice person but I sometimes do not so nice things. I'm letting everyone know that I'm giving this up so if I slip up, I will be called on it. I tell my son all the time that it's not nice to talk about people. I think it's time I took my own advice.