Easter is coming

In 11 days Easter will be here. This is an important time of the year to reflect and celebrate, yet the general public focuses on dying eggs, the Easter bunny filling up children's baskets, and a family meal. While there is not inherently anything wrong with these, we believe Easter centers on Jesus. With research through Pinterest, I have organized Easter based on its top priority, Jesus. Though Easter Day is the celebration, we must not forget to include nor take for granted the week prior, the Holy Week. 

We found the Easter story separated throughout the days of the Holy Week allowing you and your family to prepare for Easter Day. Easter baskets are a common theme for the American Easter Sunday. As we believe our belongings must serve a purpose in our life’s priorities, we consider it important to also remember and live this out including on holidays. If a family chooses to participate in Easter baskets, we suggest on keeping it light and more importantly include things that focus on Jesus. For little ones, you can remind them that Easter is not really about a bunny, but the Lamb of God, Jesus by giving them a lamb stuffed animal. Again, instead of focusing on a bunny, when giving your child a little candy treat, we recommend giving your child a chocolate cross. To make it more fun, we suggest giving your child candy molds and baking chocolate so you can have fun together in making tasty treats while discussing the true meaning behind Easter. For any age, we recommend using this time to encourage your child in God’s Word by giving them an age-appropriate Bible and/or devotional. Additional items you could include in the basket include: stickers, Bible tabs, children coloring books, adult coloring books, a true Easter related book or movie, or a cross necklace. 

In particular, we have separate recommendations for Thursday through Easter Sunday. On Maundy Thursday, we encourage as your family reads about the Last Supper to commemorate that moment by having a family meal of bread and wine and grape juice for children. For Good Friday, we suggest families to take time to consider what Jesus' death means personally. Take this time to reflect on what ways you have sinned against God and thank God for sending Jesus to die on the cross for your sins and rid those sins by destroying your list because through His death He paid for our sins, once and for all. If you are interested in a Good Friday service to attend, we recommend one in the Atlanta area for those in Georgia. On Holy Saturday, we recommend families making Resurrection Cookies. As for the day of Easter, we suggest fun activities such an Easter Scavenger Hunt, writing a letter to a sponsored child if you have one or choosing to sponsor a kid through Compassion International and share the Good News of Jesus Christ, and hiding Resurrection Eggs for your family to find and remember the true story of Easter. Easter day is a perfect day for the children to receive their basket of Christ-related goodies and a time for family and friends to celebrate Jesus' resurrection. If you are in the Bartow County area, we at CrossPoint City Church would love to have you and your family join us for an Easter service. 

We would love to hear from you if you have any Christ-related ideas for Easter Day and/or the Holy Week. Also, please share any recommendations you have for age-appropriate Bibles and devotionals. We would love to know what has been you and/or your child's favorites! And as always, please let us know if there is anything you would love for us to blog about next.