I <3 Sundays!

Dessert free= ME! I even made Melissa some delicious chocolate-packed blondies with chocolate buttercream and ate NONE of it. I was definitely tempted and thought about licking the spoon or knife many times, but I remained strong. I kept thinking "Blessed are those who endure temptation..."

I bet you are probably wondering--Madison is not Catholic, why does she participate in Lent? Well, for a few years now I have always sacrificed something. These have included gossip my freshmen year, frozen yogurt my sophomore year, and cereal (started out as carbs but I failed) my junior year. After each of these times I have sacrificed, I learned to appreciate the item given up much more. AND giving up gossip (which was Melissa's idea) was the best thing for me at the time. My freshmen year I was very caught up in gossip and the girly part of doing that, and realized how judgemental and negative this is to other people. Gossiping is not Christ-like by any means. To this day I do gossip, but nearly as much as I used to.

So, I am hoping that giving up desserts will help my ultimate sweet tooth. However, more importantly, I hope giving up the sweets will make me memorize scripture in more ways. When I am tempted and think of a verse, I most likely do not give into that temptation.

I went to the short term mission trip meeting today and am so excited! I hope and pray I can go...there are many different trips that I am interested in. I am going to talk to the pastor in charge of all the trips soon to help my decide. Please keep me on your prayer list.

Thank you for your encouragement! It is much much much appreciated.