Bent but not Broken?

Every year around Easter, I find myself faced with the same predicament; what to give up for lent. Not being from an extremely religious family, we never took lent too seriously, therefore my sister and I would usually end up giving up something very small and specific, for example, Oreo cookies. This idea worked fine for a while, but every year we started to slack a little more until last year I actually found myself giving up not Oreo cookies, but specifically double stuffed Oreo cookies with milk, embarrassing, I know. That lame sacrifice was the last straw and it jump-started the first religious conversation I have had with my Mom in a long time. We talked about the meaning of lent and the idea that "giving something up" that required little sacrifice was not what lent was all about. So this year we made a change, instead of giving something up that meant nothing to me, I would try to do something extra to try and be a better person. Whether it's holding a door for someone or listening to my aunts horribly boring phone calls without rolling my eyes, I made a conscious effort to clean up my act. So I guess what it comes down to is this; are we allowed to bend the rules just a little bit when it comes to religion?