Home > Love & Grow > Eleanor Brown: Giving up Gum

“Spiritual disciplines” are things we do to stay in love with God and grow in faith.  They can be things we do alone or together; they can be ways to spend time with God or to serve others.  As the people of Sylva First UMC share one of their spiritual disciplines with you each week, we hope it will inspire you to new ways of loving God and growing in faith.

I’m Eleanor Brown and I’ve been going to Sylva FUMC for about a year and a half now.  I’m in fifth grade.  I love to read and my favorite subject is math.

This Lent I have given up gum.  I gave up gum because I’m very addicted to it and I didn’t know how it would help me at first.  Normally in the car I just chew and chew.  But now on the car rides I like to look out and see what God has created for us and how we can make it a better place for everyone.  And then also when people are talking to me I’m more focused about the gum than about the person I’m talking to.  And not chewing gum helps me realize that I don’t know as much as I think I do about the person.

I would recommend giving up something for Lent and it might be some ordinary thing that you’re addicted to, and sometimes it might turn out to be something big that will help you to be closer to God.