I knew I wanted to do things a little differently this year for Easter. I'm not creative, and I need simple. We did a Christmas activity a couple of years ago and really enjoyed it. It entailed lots of scripture and craft activities for the kids. It's been on my heart for some time about how Easter really fits into the resurrection of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. I mean, how do bunnies and colored eggs point my children to Christ? Ok don't freak out, I'm not going to turn this into a barrage on Easter. I just want everything we do and say and celebrate to be intentional. I don't just want to do things because that is how we've always done it.
We have been evolving year after year in the way we celebrate the big holidays. We still don't have it all worked out, but at least we have progressed from when Sterling was 2 and she cried (boohooed) on Christmas morning because she was so overwhelmed by the gifts, the milk and cookies that "Santa Claus" had eaten, and the fact that we were trying to ask her "now whose birthday is it?" It was then that we knew things had to change. And like I said, we have not arrived by any means. We are still a work in progress. But I said all of that to say this...it's time our Easter has a makeover too.
I've been looking and praying about this for a couple of weeks now, and I am pretty sure I have our game plan. I read several posts from a blog I follow www.ohamanda.com . One was about separating "Easter" from Resurrection Day. We have been doing both together for the past couple of years and it's been ok, but just still confusing...for me AND for the kids. I have done the reading and I know that Easter really began with celebrating the beginning of Spring and was just morphed into a Christian holiday. I also know that through Christ, good can come from even that regardless of how it actually got started.
So back to our "Easters". We have been doing Resurrection Eggs for several years now and the last couple of years we transformed the kids Easter baskets into something that pointed more toward Christ than bunnies and chicks. But it was still a lot of planning for just one day, and throw in going to church, having the family over for Easter dinner and trying to tie in scripture somewhere in between, it was another exhausting holiday with no real impact.
Let me just say that I don't have any real ideas of my own. I can find other peoples ideas and implement them, but I just don't have time to be Martha Stewart meets Martha Peace. In saying that, my plan is to separate our celebration this year, and use some ideas I have found online. I think this will bring several benefits, one of which is that we get an additional party! We are going to begin a focus on the Resurrection starting today, which is Ash Wednesday. We are using "A Sense of the Resurrection" from the ohamanda.com website I was telling you about earlier.
It's a 12 day experience full of scripture and family centered activities. I'm not sure yet exactly how we will work it schedule wise (maybe only do it during the week), but we will do it all the way until Resurrection Sunday. March the 20th is the first day of Spring, so somewhere around that day I plan to do a "spring party" (another idea from ohamanda.com) with all of the Easter hoopla...baskets, eggs and chocolate!
My prayer is that our "separation celebration" will accomplish several things: alleviating the possibility of an Easter/Resurrection Day meltdown for the smaller kids :0, maintaining a focus on Christ and the Resurrection, helping the kids distinguish between "Easter" and the Resurrection, and decreasing my stress levels just a hair ;).
I would love to hear how you all plan to focus on The Savior this year. I think it's amazing how the Holy Spirit uses our individual passions and talents to guide us during these times. I truly think celebrating holidays is one of my favorite memories from childhood. My hope is that my children will look fondly back at these times as well, and will see Christ in every last detail!
One last thing, in case you didn't read the post where I talked about Lent. I grew up Catholic, so my view of Lent tends to wander back that way quite often. I think it's great to celebrate and honor Christ by denying yourself of something to present your body as a holy and living sacrifice to God. I have been in prayer, asking The Lord to reveal to me what I can sacrifice for Him this year for Lent and I just keep hearing crickets. What my spirit is hearing is a call to prayer! So this season will be, for our family, a focus on prayer and meditating on the reality of what Christ has done for us. He doesn't really need my sacrifices. What He wants is a humble and contrite heart. Oh Lord, create in me a clean heart and renew a steadfast spirit within me!
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