Easter is almost here and my kids are beyond excited. The weather is getting warmer, the bulbs are coming up and our yard is full of beautiful flowers. My son’s birthday is on Easter Sunday this year so it will be an extra special celebration for us.
There are so many fun and exciting things that families can do on Easter, but today I want to share a more spiritual side of my life. I’ve had the remarkable opportunity to work with the LDS Church on holiday campaigns in the past and this year I’m so excited for their Easter inspiration.
I feel like we get so caught up in the candy, egg dying, hunts and candy making that we lose the true meaning behind the Easter holiday. Jesus Christ’s resurrection. Ezra Taft Benson said:
“The greatest events of history are those which affect the greatest number for the longest periods. By this standard, no event could be more important to individuals or nations than the Resurrection of the Master. The eventual resurrection of every soul who has lived and died on earth is a scriptural certainty, and surely there is no event for which one should make more careful preparation. Nothing is more absolutely universal than the resurrection. Every living being will be resurrected.”
“For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive” (1 Cor. 15:22)
Those words are so powerful to me. There isn’t one living thing on this earth that hasn’t been effected by the resurrection. So I think it’s very important for us to make sure that our children know this. It’s up to us to make sure that our Easter is centered around Jesus Christ and the resurrection.
So how do we do that?
The church has come up with a plan and I’ll help you incorporate it into your Easter week with your family.
This year we are focusing on PEACE. Christ was the #PRINCEofPEACE and we can change our lives for the better by allowing His peace to surround us. We can make our relationships with our children better by reacting with a peaceful tongue. We can make our marriages stronger by focusing on each other and bringing peace into our relationship. We can slow down and allow the Peace of the Savior fill our hearts. HE can make a difference in our lives. But he can’t if we don’t let Him in. So I will help your family focus on Christ the week of Easter with a fun family activity that you can print and execute in your homes.
The church’s campaign focuses on one of the attributes of Christ each day. So I’ve created this fun printable to help you and your family focus on this attribute every day. You can download the printable HERE.
Learn more about how to use this free printable below.
When I think of Christlike attributes, I think of my mother. She is the most kind hearted lady you’ll ever meet. She is a convert and she spends her days focusing on the scriptures and reading books to better herself. She is old now and is battling cancer, but she fills her life with study of the savior and she shares her testimony with me almost every time we talk. She was raised on a ranch in the middle of nowhere in Montana. Her home was a tiny little cabin that housed her mother and father, grandparents, and 3 siblings. She always speaks fondly of her childhood. She loved all the animals she was able to spend her time with. She loved the little one room school house that her and her siblings attended with a few other children.
But there was a very sad day in her childhood that she only talks about every once in a while. It was winter and her baby brother was very sick. He had pneumonia and needed to be taken to the hospital. There were no paved roads to their house so her mom had to get in the car and they had to pull the car to the main road with the tractor. Baby Walter didn’t make it. He died before they could make it to the road. She remembers clearly the feeling she had when her mom came home without her baby brother. She remembers the despair. The sadness consumed everyone.
My mom was very young but she remembers it vividly still to this day. We tend to remember things through feelings. The feelings we create in our homes last forever. When the missionaries knocked on her door and told her their message, the feeling she had then was not to be ignored. The feeling of hope that someday she will see her baby brother again overwhelmed her. She knew the gospel was true. She still knows today. And she shares it with everyone who will listen.
Let’s try and create a feeling of peace in our homes this Easter with this free printable family activity:
1. Once you’ve printed it the paper, cut out the slips and put each one in a separate egg, for a total of 8 eggs. Be sure to label each egg with the corresponding number so you know which egg to open on which day.
2. On April 9th, introduce the activity to your family. Tell them that each day you will focus on a different attribute of the Savior and complete the activity listed on each paper. Open egg number 1 and do the activity. When you are done make the fun Butterscotch Marshmallow Easter Egg Nests as an additional activity with the family, or make them ahead of time to eat when you are done with the activity on the slip.
3. Then every morning that week, open the egg and encourage everyone to think about the activity throughout the day. Most of the activities can then be finished at night when everyone is back home again. Giving your family time to think about that attribute and the activity will help them accomplish the task, and bring a deeper meaning to it.
4. On Sunday, open the last egg and focus on how the resurrection gives us hope. Hope for the future, hope to see our loved ones again in the next life, hope for a better world, hope for better family relationships, hope for being whole, hope for healing and hope for being resurrected ourselves.
“History is full of conquerors, but only one of them defeated sin and death forever. Where many have tried, only Christ won lasting peace for His followers. This Easter, find that peace in your life.” Learn more about the#PRINCEofPEACE on Mormon.org starting March 31st.
What will you do with your family this week that invites the spirit into your home?
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