self-denial

Two weeks ago, I started a Monday afternoon Bible study in my home for the seniors who I work with at church. We are focusing on spiritual disciplines for this study, which will continue through the spring semester, and I am using Soul Tending: Life-Forming Practices for Older Youth and Young Adults by Kendra Creasy Dean and Ron Foster as our guide. At our first gathering, I read through a list of 40+ spiritual disciplines from the book and asked the students to jot down which ones piqued their interest. Their lists surprised me.

This Monday we focused on self-denial. In addition to talking about the practice during our time together, the students were given homework assignments. Each one of us publicly shared something that we would deny ourselves in the coming week, and next Monday we will report on what we learned from the experience. When one senior was having trouble deciding how to practice self-denial, I threw out an idea. This Thursday is a significant day for her, since at 4:00 p.m. that day she will learn whether or not she has received early admission to the Ivy League school of her dreams. When I (half-jokingly) suggested that she could wait until 5:00 p.m. to check her status online, she immediately embraced the idea. She decided that she would instead spend an hour in prayer seeking God's will before she checked her admission status. I was impressed. That really is an act of self-denial for a senior. I can't wait to hear what she learns from this experience - and I also am anxious to know if she got admitted!