My LENT committment

The season of LENT has come and gone. I remember the first time I encountered LENT. It was back in 1998 and I was living and going to school in Wilmore, KY, at Asbury Theological Seminary. My roommates--Jason, Tom and Sean--all asked me, "So, what are you giving up for LENT?" "LENT? What's that?" They taught me that it was a pre-Easter season where you traditionally give up something for those 40 days and 40 nights. "Huh! Sounds cool. I think I'll give up LENT for LENT. That's viable, isn't it?" Unfortunately, no! I didn't make a committment that LENT season but I began to take it seiously a couple years ago. In 2004 I gave up secular music and listened only to my Christian/worship CDs. Then my CD player broke and I only listened to talk radio on the CBC. I learned a lot about the Avian Flu epidemic that year! This year I gave up sugar for LENT. A tough thing to do when I love ice cream, French Vanilla flavoring in my coffee and just about all things sweet. But I gave up sugar and I am proud (in the LORD) to say that I stuck to my plan: even when my friends, Jesse, Brandon and Ryan, were eating pie in front of me at Men's Advance, even when I visited my mother-in-law who was confused as to what to feed me now, and even when I finished a large meal and absolutely HAD to have something sweet. I stuck to my guns! I ingested no sugar for those 6 weeks.
Did I also say that I committed to watching only 1 hour of TV per day? I did. Did I stick with that decision? I didn't. Did I also say that I committed to giving up excuses? I can explain it more if you'd like. Did I stick with that decision? I didn't. I find it easy to get bumped off track even after I've made a decision. Take TV for instance. I was great at avoiding the couch and TV combo each night until Esther and I visited my dad. See, they watch a lot of TV and what's a boy to do but watch along? I made a committment but I got bumped off track. I didn't stick to my decision. When I got back from visiting my dad I could have and should have re-committed myself, but I didn't.
It's easy to get bumped off track, not just during LENT but in life. I don't know if anyone out there can relate to me. I'm assuming some can. Do I have a solution to it? No. Do I have some steps to take to insure one never fails in a committment? No. For me it's just pick yourself up and try again. And again. And again. Forgive yourself. Know that you're still with God. Move on. I love what Paul the apostle said in Philippians 3:12-14, "I don't mean to say that I have already achieved these things or that I have already reached perfection! But I keep working toward that day when I will finally be all that Christ Jesus saved me for and wants me to be. No, dear brothers and sisters, I am still not all I syould be, but I am focusing all my energies on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I strain to reach the end of the race and receive the prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us up to heaven."