A whole Easter Season

We’re really trying to make a big deal over Easter this season.  After this long winter we need the joy and hope that Eater brings (since spring won’t be here for a while!).  Ugg.

Now, by big deal I don’t mean lots of bunnies and chocolates, but lots of Jesus.  For a while we’ve done a pretty good job at celebrating Holy Week with so many good ideas from here and here.

But this year my friend Heidi and I decided that Easter needs more than a week.  It needs a whole season.  And since the world doesn’t go as commercial crazy for Easter like it does for Christmas we decided that we could take it over pretty easily and help our season to really have Jesus at it’s center.   

We came up with an Easter month plan mostly to use with our own families, but also to share with friends and members of our church congregation.  It starts three weeks before Easter and extends one week past Easter.   Here at our house we’ve been trying to do a daily devotional in place of our regular scripture study to have time to talk about Jesus, his teachings, his life, his miracles.  We’re trying to really help the kids connect with these stories, to see his miracles and teachings come alive in our lives. 

And we’re watching a lot of the LDS bible videos to help the kids really get a better feel for how real Jesus is and was.  They’re not perfect, and sometimes I cringe a little at the way they’re produced, but for the most part they’re great.  And I know we all feel the spirit as we watch them. 

This new shift and focus on Christ has changed the feeling in our home.  Sure we’re still fighting and tattling and pushing buttons.  But not as much.  There is a distinctly different tone in our home.  And I know Jesus is rattling around in the kids heads more because they’re talking about him and asking questions about him and trying to figure him out.  Hazel and Charlie are grappling with hard questions about Jesus:  Did he get mad?  Is he bragging when he talks about who he is and what he’s here to do? What would he do in a certain situation?  Emmeline and Peter are hungry to hear his stories and asking real questions, like what did he eat?  Where did he live?  Where did he go after he was resurrected. 

My dad always says that the strongest families he knows are the ones who have Christ at their center.  Sure, it’s good to make family your center, or the church your center, or service or education or healthy living.  But Christ is where the real power is.   I want, more than anything, for my kids to know how to tap into that power.  And it begins with really knowing who he is and how he lived.

We haven’t done it all right.  I had planned to wake early and read the scripture passages I wanted to share alone first to come up with questions and feel out what my kids most needed to hear, but instead I’m usually winging these devotionals, and lots of times we’re tired at the end of the day and things don’t go as planned. We aren’t doing all the activities (there are way too many for to pull off while still remaining calm), so we’re picking and choosing and doing what we can.  And somehow, in spite of our sometimes week efforts, through the magic of the sprit and the power that comes when you think about Christ, it’s working.  The gaps are filled up.   We are abiding more in Christ.  And he is abiding in us. 

I meant to get this doc up here before now, but at least its in time for Holy Week next week.  And of course you can continue your Easter season after Easter too.  Maybe Easter is just the kick off?  I think we’re going to continue.  We’ve just barely scratched the surface. 

Enjoy, and Happy Easter Season!

Click here for the doc. 

 

(Two more things)

I love this new video produced by our church.  Powerful. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?t=11&v=BZqTRSVA1YA

And I just discovered a great online Easter week source here.  You’ve got to scroll down to the Easter week part.  I’m excited to have so much info all in one place – quick access is essential around here!