preparing for Easter

Hey, readers,
I decided to repost what I wrote last year about lent and Easter. Here it is:

As a family, I feel like we do a decent job of celebrating Advent and preparing the kids for Jesus's birth. But as we hit Ash Wednesday this past week, I realized I had done nothing to start preparing our family for the Lent season and Easter. So, I've compiled some thoughts on things that are great to help your little ones understand what Easter is about, as well as some thoughts on preparing our own hearts to see Christ's death and resurrection in a new, fresh way.

Family Devotions: Carve out a special time of the day (usually at meal time or in the evening) to be in God's word together. Also you can introduce your kids to some great Easter hymns during this time as well. I bought this Lent Devotional Guide (for $2.99) as well as printed this free one from Noel Piper. For smaller children, it is hard to look forward to something for 40 days, so you could just do devotions in the week or two weeks leading up to Easter. Also it is great to have a visual aid such as candles, this play-dough mountain, or the "Jesus Tree". The Pipers have seven candles in a wreath, and they blow out one candle each night leading up to Good Friday. On Easter morning, they are all lit again. The Jesus Story Book Bible is of course always a great tool to use in this time as well.

Help them Remember: Talk about the Gospel daily. Pull out any Easter books, videos, etc that you may have. If you don't have anything, then maybe it is time to get something. :) We have the resurrection eggs and a Miss Patty Cake video that is good for preschoolers. The kids love telling each other the story of Easter using the eggs. Use the traditions of Easter (i.e hunting eggs) to continue to point them to the Gospel.

Go to church (not just on Easter): An Episcopal church downtown has an excellent service everyday at noon during Lent. Also pick a Maundy Thursday or Good Friday service to attend as a family. Talk to your kids before hand so they understand what you are doing, and include them in the service.

Take out the secular: We have to fight hard as believers to keep the commercialism from crowding out the Sacred. So why make room for the Easter Bunny? Does it really add to your worship on Easter morning? Last year we gave the kids the Audio Jesus Story Book Bible as a Easter gift, and they never thought a thing about not having Easter baskets. I don't think baskets are wrong at all, but I'm just saying to make sure you "keep the main thing, the main thing". You should also know that we are some of those crazy people that don't do Santa either. :)

For you: I pray that the Lord will make the reality of his death and resurrection more apparent in your life over the next few weeks. Spend time with the Lord daily (even using a Lent devotional guide), watch The Passion of the Christ, and as you teach these truths to your kids, pray that you will see it with a new child-like perspective.

This from the Redeemer Pres NYC website says things a lot better than me:

'Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.' In the Christian church, Ash Wednesday (February 22, 2012) marks the beginning of Lent, a six-week season culminating in Good Friday, Holy Saturday and Easter Sunday. The season of Lent itself is a time when we are reminded of our human frailty and moral culpability. It is a time of humility before a holy God, of self-examination and reflective simplicity and a reminder that, if we are to live, it comes only because of God's redeeming work. Yet, even with all of the humbling reflection on our sinful human condition, it is a time for us to look to the sufficiency of God's grace expressed to us by an ignominious death on a cross on Friday and a triumphant resurrection from the grave on Easter Sunday. The Lenten season can be a powerful time of enhanced spiritual openness and awareness, through practices such as prayer, Scripture meditation, fasting, voluntary self-denial, moral examination and deeds of service and generosity. To aid you in this, we have prepared a daily email devotional written by members of our staff. Every day, you will receive an email with a Scripture passage, devotional reflections and a written prayer to help guide you through this season. The word lent comes from a Saxon word meaning 'length.' Originally used to denote springtime, it was descriptive of a season of the year when dark nights were growing shorter, days brighter and longer and indications of new life increasingly abundant. It is our prayer that, as you journey with us from Ash Wednesday to Easter, you would be reminded of the reality of our broken humanity, but as days grow brighter, you would experience with greater abundance, the reality of God's redeeming grace.

Go here to get Redeemer's daily emails over the next few weeks.

I would love to hear any other comments about things that your family is doing to prepare for Easter.