Time for a mid-Lenten check! As we’re approximately halfway through Lent this week, it’s a good time to remind, reevaluate, and recommit.

1. Remind: What are your Lenten promises, anyway? Did you forget about any of them?
2. Reevaluate: How are you doing sticking with it? Are you letting anything fall by the wayside? Are your goals working for you? If something is more of a hindrance than a help, or if you’re finding creative ways to bend the rules around your own commitments, a change may be in order. Last year hubs and I switched from “no eating between meals” to “no seconds and desserts” mid-Lent and had a much more holy latter half.
3. Recommit: Whether you’re changing things up or just need to rededicate yourself to your original intentions, now is the time to make sure you’re going to have fuel for the long run. Spend some time in prayer this week asking the Lord to continue to give you strength to stick with your goals, and remember for Whom you’re sacrificing. It might be a good time to choose a few special intentions to offer up the rest of Lent for, as well.

As important or more than fasting during Lent, increasing and improving your prayer time is a vital part of the devotion of the season. If you need to reevaluate and further improve your prayer life (ahem, perhaps like someone sitting in my computer chair. Just hypothetically, you know.), here are a few thoughts:

As a family this year, we’re praying a decade of the Rosary every night during night prayers, and that will continue in a modified way after Lent when we get back into our habit of a Sunday Rosary decade. For me, I need to work harder at entering into the prayer. Sometimes when we pray with my son, I end up making the prayers out loud for him to hear and completely forget to engage my brain and actually pray to the Lord. I’m just saying the words for his benefit as if I’m reading a bedtime story. That’s recommitment number one for me: make better use of family prayer.

It’s important to me to be personally grounded in prayer as well. I count on Lent every year to jump start my prayer life and get me back in the habit of solid, regular time with God. I’m a bit wishy-washy on that this year. I’m changing my adoration time Friday so I can actually make it there once a week.

Here are some ideas for incorporating more or deeper prayer in your life for the rest of our 40 days, with the hope of continuing the habit beyond:

• pray during your commute (a Rosary CD is one option many appreciate)
• pray before all 3 meals in the day
• fast from complaining
• do an examination of conscience each night as you’re falling asleep,
• pray for your family when baby wakes you up at night/for your unborn baby when s/he moves/for your husband every time he gets home from work/for your kids when you check on them before bed/ETC. Pick a trigger to remind you to pray, and do it.
• pray a novena to a favorite saint…then another one to last until Easter
• attend a weekday Mass once per week
• hit your knees right when you get out of bed, even if it’s just for 10 seconds.
• choose some Scripture to memorize and post them above your kitchen and bathroom sinks to practice.
• pray while you work in the kitchen.
• find an adoration chapel and sign up for an hour (or just go once a week without committing to a certain time).

Oh, and my Twitter fast is going alright.  It’s tough, but I know I’m wasting less time.  It’s good for me!  I did break it to announce Sally Fallon’s face-off, and I’ll tweet again tomorrow about Nina Planck coming by!