Lent (Part 2): Fasting

As I mentioned in my last post, the three pillars of Lent are prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. This post focuses on fasting, which is intended to help us become more aware of our need for God.

To begin with, how do we explain the meaning and importance of fasting to children? After all, unless kids grow up poor and food scarcity is a reality, eating is taken for granted. It's just what we do, three times per day, plus snacks! Last week on the first Friday of Lent, I realized I was going to have to come up with a way to explain fasting to Josephine (3 years old). I'm sure there are lots of ways to do this, but what I said was this: when we fast, we feel hungry or at least hungry for a certain food or drink, and that reminds us of Jesus's own hunger when he was tempted in the wilderness (Matt. 4:1-11; Luke 4:1-13). In addition, when we feel hungry, we remember that Jesus is the bread of life (John 6:35) and that he provides living water (John 4:13-14), so that our souls will never hunger or thirst again. For me, I think this is why lenten fasting leads me to a deeper appreciation of the Lord's Supper every Sunday!

But what about the practicalities of fasting with children? After all, they are growing! They need to eat. And in Solomon's case, this means eating often and for looooooooong periods of time. (That poor boy always ends up sitting at the table by himself, long after everyone else is done eating. But he doesn't seem to mind, as long as he still has food on his plate!) Most children don't start really fasting until they are in at least middle school or high school, so I think it's important to make sure fasts for little ones are very gentle. Just enough for them to know that we're eating differently, but not enough to deprive their growing bodies of a single necessary nutrient or calorie! And since I am pregnant this Lent, this works well for the whole family!

Solomon shows his soup-eating skills.
And, yes, I let my kids stay in pjs
all day if we aren't leaving the house,
which is a lot during the coldest, snowiest winter months.

So for us, we are doing very basic Friday fasts throughout the season of Lent. Fasting doesn't have to mean entirely skipping meals for the day (abstinence), which is not safe for little ones!!! Rather, we're doing a fast more along the lines of what Daniel practiced in Dan. 10:3: no delicacies, no meat, no alcohol. The last of these is obviously not too out-of-the-ordinary for the kids and me, and even Dominic gave up alcohol for all of Lent, so we're really focusing on the first two. No sweets and, instead of meat, lots and lots of vegetables, beans, lentils, nuts, fruits, and bread (see also another of Daniel's fasts in Dan. 1:12). Soups are a huge win, and we are fortunate that 18-month-old Solomon is so coordinated with a spoon. (He wouldn't want to waste even one precious drop! Josephine, on the other hand, falls out of her chair at least 5 times at each meal, which I will NEVER understand.)

Pretzels are a traditional lenten bread, for historical reasons we can't seem to recover, although I have heard that the shape of a pretzel looks like a person with arms folded in prayer. But who folds their arms in prayer? Mostly, this posture reminds me of how Josephine looks when she is expressing her extreme protest! Nevertheless, we still make plenty of homemade pretzels during the season of Lent. Perhaps less for the tradition of it than because they taste and smell so wonderful, and because I'm struggling to come up with new indoor activities by this time in our long Michigan winters. The kids especially love when I give them a little piece of dough to knead themselves. I'm sure there are lots of great recipes out there, but we use Homemade Soft Pretzels from Alton Brown.k

Since fish is also traditional on Friday fasts, this is when I like to pull out some tuna patties from the freezer or make some good old-fashioned tuna casserole (and see this excellent Easy, One-Pot, No-Knife, Lighter Tuna Noodle Casserole Recipe from Serious Eats), both of which my kids love!

As for avoiding sweets, Josephine is taking this quite seriously. I put honey on the kids' toast last week Friday (it's not a baked good or scoop of ice cream, after all!), but Josephine objected that this should not be allowed and corrected me for being so lax :) Our children might not miss a beat, but God doesn't require perfection!  Just start somewhere and do your best to hold to your goals! And as you do, may you hunger and thirst for Christ himself, who is the bread of life and who offers us living water so that our souls will never thirst again.

It's not too late to start your own lenten fast, whether this coming Friday, another day of the week, or throughout the season of Lent. How will you and your family fast? Leave a comment.

And just for fun: Josephine and Solomon make a squirrel friend,
who we named Mr. Nuts.

Afterword: Psalms for Fasting
I mentioned in my earlier Lent (Part 1): Prayer that reading a psalm or psalms during Lent can be a wonderful way to pray throughout the season. Penitential psalms (psalms that express our frailty, our sinfulness, and our great need for God) are particularly appropriate for fast days. See especially Pss. 51; 102:5-13; 130; 143.