Lenten Sacrifice

My husband and I gave up watching TV for Lent.

It was a hard decision and, because it was so hard, we were convinced that it needed to be done.

We are now at the end of the first week and it has been amazing. The quiet is overwhelming sometimes and we do listen to music either on the radio or a CD.

We have talked more in the last week than we have in the last year. It is wonderful to re-connect with my spouse. This was a benefit I had not expected but am enjoying very much.

Before giving up the TV, we would eat breakfast and dinner with the TV on and hardly say a word to each other. Now we talk about our day and other things that are on our minds. Who knew??

It has also been less stressful to not hear all the news. News programs are mostly negative and filled with doom and gloom. It's nice to not have that forced into our ears. We read the newspaper - with the newspaper you can decide to read an article or not. It's very freeing.

I am also looking forward to evenings where we can do things around the house without being glued to the TV. Most of the time the programs we watched were not worth our time.

I hope when Lent is over, we will be more discerning about our viewing and watch less TV and continue our dialogue about life.