Today is Ash Wednesday.  I went to church this morning and received the ashes on my forehead.  The pastor reminded us that Ash Wednesday and Lent often remind us that we are sinners in need of forgiveness.  When we wash them off later, he said they come off just as easily as our sin is removed from us.  It’s easy because Jesus has already paid the price for my sins.  He mentioned some people give up something for Lent.  I haven’t done that in a while.  I was thinking of something I could give up.  I thought of different foods.  But bad foods aren’t really my vice.  I thought worrying is something that I should give up.  I immediately dismissed that idea since it’s too hard.  Oftentimes, its not even seen as a sin since everyone does it at least sometimes.  I think this is an area I need to work on though.  After I thought, “It’s too hard.” I then thought, “It is too hard for me.  That’s the idea, I need to give up something that I need to depend on God for totally.”  So God will take my worries with Him where they belong.  Worrying includes thinking excessively about things I can’t control, also replaying conversations in my head over and over that I wish would have gone differently.  Arguing my point over and over in my head on a certain issue.  Those three things I mentioned cover quite a few activities for me since I do think about things out of my control and spend time wishing they were different.  I think this is a useless activity but yet I do it.  For instance, every summer I spend time thinking about why the church building where I worship has to be so cold.  “Why can’t we just keep it a few degrees below what it is outside most of the days?”  I am mentioning this to give an example of something I waste my time thinking about not so I can start complaining about it to myself.  So those are the things I will stop thinking about with the help of God this Lent.  Then maybe this will be a pattern for me after Lent is over.  I pray it will be.