Preparing for Easter

I usually begin preparing for Easter much sooner than this, but a) I knew from the beginning that I wanted to simplify (I tried too many things last year!), and b) it is sneaking up quickly! (Is it earlier than usual, or is it just me running behind as usual?)  It has always been a pet peeve of mine that we prepare for and place such an emphasis on Christmas but then devote a Sunday sermon about Palm Sunday and Resurrection Sunday only on those two days.  As Christians, we have far more to celebrate on Resurrection Sunday than we do on Christmas morning, and it is a wonderful opportunity to once more present our children with the plan God has for them through His saving grace.  

This year, I had planned on doing only the Resurrection Eggs found here.  This is a great way to allow our children to slowly soak in the gospel message and to also help them remember the details and order of events by using the symbols in the eggs.  However, curiosity got the best of me, and I began googling other Easter ideas and came across this one - a Resurrection Tree that you fill every day with a symbol beginning with the story of creation and going through the Resurrection. What an excellent way to give your children a complete overview of God's plan for this world!  Obviously, it's a little late to start this and finish it by Easter, but I thought it was too sweet not to share, and you could double up the days and finish on Easter Sunday...(here I go again!).

I would love to hear how you celebrate Easter in your home!  God has given each of different gifts, and there is no end to the many different ways we can remember this special day.  Make sure to take this opportunity to fill your children with the beauty of the gospel and God's love.

 Wishing you a day full of blessings,

Christy

Counting God's Little Blessings - 3 Every Day:
37.  The health God has given to me and my family.  We have struggled with several bugs this fall and winter, but we have no major health issues and that is not something to take for granted!
38.  The spring cleaning is slowly being accomplished!
39.  The singing of the birds!  They are back in our trees, and the first day we heard them, Gavin would not stop looking to see what was making that sound!  It was the most adorable thing!

I KNOW My Redeemer Lives!!!

Today, I say with confidence MY SAVIOR IS ALIVE!!! Today, I can worship my RISEN SAVIOR with my whole heart! Today, I can know my sins are forgiven - completely, absolutely FORGIVEN - because I have placed my trust in the one and ONLY RISEN SAVIOR! Today, I worship with complete abandon. I've mourned my sin - the cause of His death. I've waited to hear His voice. I've waited to see Him working in my life, and now today, I celebrate! I have seen Jesus! I've seen Him change my heart and life, and I am so thankful! Thank You, Jesus! Thank You, Savior for saving a sinner like me. Take my life - as miserable as it is - and use it in any way You choose. I will serve You for the rest of my days because You did all of this for me! MY SAVIOR IS ALIVE, and my heart is full of praise!

My two favorite Easter songs...the words perfectly describe my heart today!

Today, I Want to Remember

Today, I want to ponder the sacrifice Jesus made for me. I want to impress upon my family how deep that sacrifice was. Today, I want to remember how hurt He must been when Judas betrayed Him with a kiss....how exhausted He must been when He was arrested. Today, I want to remember how kind He was to His accusers who beat Him and spit on Him. Today, I want to remember how badly He must hurt every time the whip slapped across His back and when the thorns were pressed hard into His head. Today, I want to remember how His face must have bled when they pulled His beard off. Today, I want to remember how unrecognizable He was as they laid the cross on His back and forced Him to carry it down the road. Today, I want to remember how the crowds watched as He went by - some crying because their friend was being murdered, some angry because He was not the King they had wanted, most still curious about the miracle worker who had upset their entire world in only three short years. Today, I want to remember the sound of the nails being pounded through His hands and feet and into the wood of that old cross. Today, I want to remember the agony He must have felt as they raised the cross slowly into the sky. Today, I want to remember Him struggling to catch His next breath so that He could use it to forgive those who were hurting Him. Today, I want to remember the despair He must have felt - the intense loneliness He experienced - as the Father turned His back on His own Son. Today, I want to remember the darkness that closed in upon the world as all creation mourned the death of the Son of God. Today, I want to remember the kindness of all His words, the sadness in His eyes, the forgiveness in His heart. Today, I want to remember the One who loves me like no other ever has. Today, I want to remember that all of this was done for me...just. for. me. I will celebrate on Sunday, but today, I want to remember that the One who loves me most in this world sacrificed the most for me. Today, my Savior died.

More Ideas for Easter

It's hard to believe how quickly Easter is approaching! There is not much time left at all, and I have a lot to do....make that, EVERYTHING left to do. Hopefully, we will be doing our Easter shopping on Friday! The girls and I love Easter shopping day! The boys...not so much! We love doing special things for and with our family for each holiday. We want to build wonderful and fun memories for our children, but we also want to make sure the emphasis is placed on the true meaning of these special days. Here are a few more ideas that you might consider adding to your Easter this year.

Idea number 1: This is my newest found idea, and our family is going to make this tomorrow:

Plant an Easter Garden! Using potting soil, a tiny buried flower pot for the tomb, shade grass seed, & crosses made from twigs. Sprinkle grass seed generously on top of dirt, keep moistened using a spray water bottle. Spritz it several times a day. Set it in a warm sunny location. Sprouts in 7-10 days so plan ahead. What a beautiful idea and a wonderful way for younger kids to visualize the empty tomb!

Idea number 2: Our family is reading the book Amon's Adventure: A Family Story for Easter by Arnold Ytreeide. It is a chapter book and definitely written for the interest of elementary age children. My oldest two are completely enthralled with it, and my younger two listen while coloring or quietly playing with blocks. We haven't finished it yet, and so I cannot give a complete review, but so far, it is a wonderful story of a little boy who lives in the days of Jesus and becomes entangled in the trial and death of Jesus. It tells the story of Jesus' last week here on earth from Amon's perspective. It gives a detailed picture of Jesus' death and resurrection and makes the details more real to the children as they read from another child's perspective. If you have elementary children, I would highly recommend reading this each Easter.

Idea number 3: The resurrection eggs...another great visual reminder of all that Jesus did for us. You can visit this website for more details of how the resurrection eggs work. This year, instead of using eggs, I am hanging each symbol on an Easter tree. We will do one symbol each day during our morning reading of Proverbs. You can do one each day as a short devotional type, or you can sit down and do all of them at once during a longer Bible time. FYI: For the "empty" on the last day, I will use an empty Easter egg to hang on the tree.

Idea number 4: I am also using the book So Much Bigger Than the Bunny by Tasha J. Via. In it, she gives one family activity to do during the "Holy Week" (the week before Easter). A couple of examples are explaining the Lord's Supper and making unleavened bread, making Easter baskets for your neighbors and giving them an invitation to your church's Easter Sunday service when you deliver it, choosing something to give up on the Saturday before Easter (the day of waiting). These are all wonderful ways to help your children realize that all that Jesus did for us was REAL, and it helps involve them in preparing to CELEBRATE how wonderful Easter is!

Idea number 5: I accidentally discovered a great devotional in the form of a downloadable e-book to use with younger children the week before Easter. You can find it here. It doesn't give a sample, and so I bought it praying it would be useful, and it was! It is only $6.95, and I do think it was worth the money. Each day discusses things that took place during Jesus' last week on earth and is written out in a devotional style so that you can just sit and read it to your kiddos. It gives great discussion questions to ask your elementary age children, and it closes with a family activity or game that helps solidify the devotional. If you're looking for something short and simple to do together as a family, this would be a great choice!

I know there are a lot of ideas here, and some of them take some planning ahead. Please don't feel as though you need to use all of them. After all, we don't want to become busy and stressed with even the best of intentions. That takes away from the remembering and celebrating. Do what works for you and your family. Start small and grow! Have fun, but most of all, spend time in prayer asking God how He would like your family to remember and celebrate the sacrifice He made!

Preparing for Easter

Don't panic! Easter isn't until April 8th! You have an entire month left to buy all those new outfits, get all the candy bought, and Easter eggs dyed. Easter is a wonderful time of year - one of my favorites, and our family does each and every one of the things I just mentioned, but last year, I was convicted about how I prepare myself and my family for Easter. It is a celebration of the greatest event in Christianity - the resurrection of our Savior! And yet, most of us spend more time choosing an outfit and buying candy and getting Easter baskets and eggs ready than we do preparing our hearts for the most wonderful day of worship we have!

I began to do more heart preparation for me and my family last year, but this year, I wasn't caught off guard, and our family has already begun focusing on the wonder of Easter! After all, we put up our Christmas tree light and have an advent calendar and focus on Jesus' birth for an entire month! Why not do the same for His death and resurrection?

This year, we have begun by focusing on short Bible stories from the Old Testament that paint a picture of sin and its consequences. We are also focusing on the lamb sacrifices made and on seeing how God had our salvation planned all along the path of human history! Some of the stories we have read or will read are Adam and Eve, Abraham's obedience in being willing to offer Isaac, and the Passover. We will also read of the major events in Jesus' life on earth beginning with His birth and culminating with his death on Good Friday. Our family is memorizing Isaiah 53:1-7 together, and we are hoping to be able to say it completely from memory by Good Friday. Resurrection Morning will be such much more real and exciting to our children if they understand all that had to take place before we could be able to celebrate! As we study these stories and memorize the Scripture passage, we are trying to find ways to show our children how sinful we are. The only way we will really appreciate salvation is if we realize how undeserving we are of it. We are also trying to show our children how good and merciful God is and how great the sacrifice was that He made for us.

We plan on taking the last week of Jesus' life and studying it in detail the week before Easter. I will be sharing more of those ideas as we finish planning them out. We want our children to never take their salvation for granted but to always be mindful of the great sacrifice God made to save such sinful people! The Mr. and I are also specifically praying for our oldest son this month that God would continue to work in his heart and that maybe this would be his time for salvation. We would love it if you would join us in praying as well as the Lord brings him to your mind.

I encourage to take some time this week to ask yourself how you and your family can prepare for Easter. I'd love to hear any ideas that you have or ones that you already implement in your family. And, as I said earlier, I will try to share more as Easter draws closer. For now, our family has enjoyed the time of Bible story and study, and it has opened the door for many wonderful discussions. I pray that Easter will mean so much more than just a new outfit and an Easter basket. The sacrifice was way too great to trivialize it in that way.

Catching Up and Celebrating Resurrection Day

Wow! The last two weeks have been crazy...thus, my absence in the blogging world. We had the unexpected opportunity to go see my sister and her new baby (and the rest of the family, of course) last week. The big catch - we did it in a semi trailer. One word description - EXHAUSTING! I think I bounced enough that I should have burned enough calories to have lost 10 pounds! The ugly truth - I gained three! I was also thinking on the way home that I have not one single funny incident to report....our life has officially become boring despite the fact that we traipsed halfway across the United States in a semi!

So, the trip consumed last week. The week before that was just a struggle in everything. A day like that is bad, but an entire week like that is AWFUL! I am looking forward to beginning this week with a fresh new start and hopefully a lot more motivation.

We celebrated Jesus' resurrection yesterday. Our church always begins the weekend with a Good Friday service. This is something I had never been a part of until we began this at our church a few years ago. It has become one of my favorite services of the year. Focusing on the Last Supper and Jesus' death makes Resurrection Morning so much more meaningful. On Saturday night, we read about Jesus' crucifixion to the kids. It was so thrilling to answer the kids' different questions and to watch their faces as they realized that Jesus did this for them! Then, the next morning, we woke up to joyful celebration that Jesus did not stay in the tomb, but He rose again and lives for us today!

In my personal quiet time, I read the story of Jesus and Mary Magdalene in John 20. Everytime I read it, I cannot help but cry. The tenderness and love that Jesus expresses to Mary as he says just one word - her name - just leaves me in awe! How personal Jesus was to her! Her response as soon as Jesus said her name showed that she loved Him in return and knew Him well. I began thinking of the song written from Mary's perspective. "I've just seen Jesus. I tell you He's alive. All that I've done before won't matter anymore. I've just seen Jesus, and I'll never be the same again." I realized that because my Jesus is alive, He can be and, praise God, is as real to me as He was to Mary! I've never seen Him in person, but I can have such a sweet, personal, intimate relationship with Him because He is alive. Because of that, I'll never be the same again!

Then, I began to think of all that I've studied this year in the books of Philippians, Ephesians and Galatians and of how God has given me so much more than salvation. He has made me His heir. He has adopted me. He lets me call Him Abba Father. He infuses me with His strength. He allows Jesus to intercede for me. His love for me is measureless. He has sealed me with His Holy Spirit. He has empowered me with the Holy Spirit. The list could go on. I am so thankful that Jesus is alive and that He is my Savior and so much more! And that is why, today, the very least I can do, is live my life completely for His glory!