Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Preparing for Easter

Until two years ago, I never thought much about the season of Easter. I only celebrated the day. But after my first encounter with the Stations/Way of the Cross at a silent retreat, I realized how much more we as a family could be doing to celebrate Easter.

Easter is the pinnacle of what we as followers of Jesus believe. I want to lead my children in learning to focus on the season and not just the day. Two years ago, our daughter, Promise Joy, wanted eagerly til Easter morning to accept Christ into her heart. She knew that day was special. She woke up that morning, brought me her Bible and said, "Let's pray!" Another reason I want to develop within the hearts of our kids, a reverence for the season is because of the power of the resurrection on an innocent heart. I remember as an 8 year old going to Israel with my parents. I can recall the emotion when I stepped into the tomb believed to be the burial place of Christ. My mom says I immediately began crying. I don't remember the tears. But I can still see the inside, the bench, the garden surrounding the entrance. That event affected me as a young girl. Kids are never too young to be included in what we believe.

Even though I am starting a little late, I am going to share some ideas we are using as a family to celebrate the season of Lent and prepare our hearts for the Easter celebration. I am getting most of these ideas from an out of print book entitled Before and After Easter by Debbie O'neal. Other ideas come from devotional readings. Let me know if you are interested in those.

Discuss Lent. It literally means springtime. During this season, we can meditate on passages of scripture that focus on Christ's death and ressurection.

Day 1: Carve a cross from a bar of soap. This symbolizes the cleansing of our souls through Christ's sacrifial death. Jesus washed away our sins on the cross.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Also rememeber the recipe for the Easter cookies and the teaching that goes along with this. I thought this was really good for teaching little ones about the resurrection.