Count down to Easter

My heart is already preparing for Easter. Lent begins tomorrow {Ash Wednesday} and I find myself praying about what to give up this time until Easter. There are many things that I can scrafice to drawer even closer to my Lord.

{Clairification: I wanted to claify that this something that not everyone does, we just have decided as a family to take this time, as we do every other day and Holiday, to draw even closer to God. It helps us to prepare our hearts, focus more on the events that took place during this special time and make it special. Take a closer look, dig a little deeper. This is not for everyone and everyone's convictions on this are different. That is between you and the Lord....}

We begin with Lent....

Lent is the 40 days, not counting Sundays, before Easter. There are a few things that I have found that we as a family could do together, activities to make this time special as a family to remember what our Lord and Savior did for us.


We will be doing a 42 Day Devotional and will also be Making an Easter Tree {lordwilling}. Below are just a few activities to do during this time to prepare your heart for Easter.

1. Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent, gets its name from an ancient tradition of throwing ashes on one's head to demonstrate sorrow for sins. I explain to my girls that Lent is not a time to be gloomy, but a time to consider how much we need the salvation that Christ secured for us. He sacrificed His life for us, so we can sacrifice something for Him. {Our time and what we do with it is something that we are praying about what are things that are taking up our time to drawing closer to Him and removing them.} 
2. Buy an Easter lily for your home. The lily symbolizes new life because something so strikingly fragrant and beautiful grows from a lifeless-looking bulb. { I am allergic to these so the fake ones will do}. Burn a candle, play worship music.
3. The season of Lent alternates times of remembering Christ's suffering with celebrating the Resurrection (every Sunday during the season). Make a special dinner, play special music on this night, light a calendar. Go throught the events that took place during this time.
4. Lent is traditionally a season for "giving up" as a symbolic, outward act of identifying with Christ's suffering. Your child may want to choose something to "sacrifice" for the 40 days of Lent—trips to McDonald's, after-school TV, chocolate, playstation, x-box, wii..etc..And for you maybe a social media lent.
5. Explain the word redemption, using the dictionary definition as well as the Christian doctrine (hints: "recovering ownership" and "restoring value=").
6. Repentance Box, we write down our sins on paper and put them in a box...that will be destroyed! A way to prepare our hearts to be purified.
7. Worship together ..one of my favorite songs this time of year is "Glorious Day..
8. Help your child understand why Jesus was called "the Lamb of God" (his role as the unblemished sacrifice: Ex. 12:21-24; John 1:29; 1 Cor. 5:7-8). With your child, make a lamb. Glue cotton balls to a small paper plate, then add pink and black construction-paper eyes, ears, muzzle, nose and hooves.
9. Read or summarize Exodus 12:1-42 to give an older child a context for the Passover celebration that Jesus observed the last week before his death. Explain Christ's death as the ultimate sacrifice for sin and discuss the significance of God giving up his firstborn Son.
10. Make an Easter Tree..go here for the directions on that

These are just a few ideas|activities to do as a family. As time permits and as the Lord leads. But first pray seek the Lord and see if this is something He wants you to do. The first time we did something like this I started 2 weeks before Easter, it's totally up to you and how you are lead. This is just an idea of what we do as a family. There is soo much more and as I am lead i will share. Last year I wanted to start earlier but wasn't lead to do so. This year I was lead to start early and I'm so thankful!! Going back and taking a look at all the events that happened.

God Bless you!!

In His Loving Grace,

Adrienne

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