Before & After – A Lenten Project…..

I am excited!
I know that happens a lot. I tend to be one of those people who just get excited at life. But why am I excited this week you ask? Well, I am taking part in a Lenten Project.

Lent is the 40 days leading up to Easter and this year starts on Wednesday 10th of February. It’s a time of fasting and reflecting as we lead into Easter.

To be honest, it is not something I have participated in before, so I am excited to observe it this year.

I have been asked to be a part of a group of women who once a week will be posting “Before & After” pictures and writing about what happens in the middle of those photo’s. It’s about celebrating the hope in the middle of our before and afters. It’s about the process. It’s about the journey. It’s about the messy middle on our way to Gods redemption. It’s all about Him.

So as I start this week, where else would I start but at Mc Donalds…….

Here are my before and after photo’s:

For me, these photo’s are not so much about the food (although it was delicious, in a bad kind of way!) but what happened in the middle……

A good friend came to visit from Hamilton and we spent hours in between these 2 photo’s catching up, planning and dreaming of all God has for us.

We challenged each other and we encouraged each other. We talked, we laughed and at once stage I think there were even some tears! We spoke of all the things God had placed in our hearts and we connected at a level that goes way beyond just worldly friendship.

It’s the stuff in the middle that left me feeling like I could conquer the world. It was the stuff in the middle that had me praising God for all He has done and is doing in my life.

It’s the stuff in the middle that makes a difference. In Proverbs 18:24 it reads:

One who has unreliable friends soon comes to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.

This speaks to me on so many levels. I have friends who I know will (and have!) stuck with me through the good and the bad, through the highs and the lows and who have stood and prayed for me when I didn’t have the strength to.

It also reminds me that no matter what I am going through, Jesus will never leave me or forsake me. He is there through it all and will stick closer to me than a brother! If thats not loyalty and commitment, then I don’t know what is?

So as I start this Lenten journey, I hope you will follow along. I hope that you will read my writings and reflect on what Jesus has done, not just in my life, but in your life as well!