littlebylittlemore

I admit it. I am a woman who makes an enormous effort transforming my home at Christmastime to make my home beautiful and to make the holiday meaningful and special for my family. We have special decorations and an exciting advent tree that we put up every December to help us retell the story of the nativity and of the long-awaited Savior being born. Every Christmas, I am so thankful for the time I spent planning and preparing for that special day of celebrating Christ’s birth. It’s always so precious.

For years I have been convicted that I go to so much effort to decorate my home and prepare such wonderful and special ways to celebrate Christmas and focus on the true meaning, but by the time Easter comes, the decorations are minimal to nonexistent. My husband and I tell the kids how special and powerful the holiday is, yet the building excitement is somehow lackluster compared to what happens at Christmas. I have wanted to change this so desperately, but somehow I run out of energy by the time Easter comes around and miss the opportunity.  Well not this year! I want to inspire and instill excitement, anticipation, and understanding in my children as they look forward to Easter and count down the days.  I also wanted to share it on my blog as a way to maybe encourage and inspire others to do the same.

Don’t get me wrong, celebrating the birth of our Savior -Emmanuel (God with us) is incredibly important, but the story of Easter is just as important- dare I even say, more important?! Easter is the celebration of our new life that was paid for by God’s own Son. Our sin and wrongdoing separates us from God, and the consequence of our sin is death. At Easter, we celebrate that Jesus suffered that death in our place as a perfect sacrifice so that we would not have to.  We rejoice that He Paid our insurmountable debt with His own body out of His incredible love for us. Not only that, but then we can find lasting peace, joy, and hope that He defeated death completely when he raised from the dead 3 days later. Without His sacrifice on our behalf, we could never be completely forgiven or allowed to be in the presence of God.  We celebrate the risen Lord who made a way for us to have eternal life in God’s presence. I can think of nothing more worthy to be celebrated or to make us want to shout it from the rooftops!

Now that I’ve said all that, I will show you the general idea of my Easter Advent I’ve prepared for my family this year. Feel free to use it as a rough draft/inspiration for your own family to model your Easter celebrating after. I pray it is a blessing to your family and to mine! It was a labor of love, and I am soooo excited.  It goes through a very broad version of telling the story of the entire Bible starting with creation until Christ resurrection and then ending with our response and calling.

(I use the Jesus Storybook Bible by Sally Lloyd-Jones to read to my kids and then made my own little advent “ornaments” to hang on a miniature wooden pallet that I found at Hobby Lobby. I also included the references from the Bible so you could read the passages in your actual Bible instead of a kid’s Bible if you’re interested.)

Day 1: Starting on Palm Sunday (a week before Easter). Jesus the Creator

God created the earth in 6 days, and it was incredible! He made it to be a perfect home for us where we could literally walk with Him and talk face-to-face with Him. It was beautiful!

Pages 18-27 in the Storybook Bible or Genesis 1-2.

Discussion Questions:

1. What are your favorite things that God created?
2. If you could ask God one question, what question would you ask?

Activity: Have the kids look at a map of the whole world and point out where you live. Show them pictures of the stars and planets. Have them draw a picture of the earth. Talk about how God holds the whole world in His hands. (Psalm 95:1-7). Sing “He’s got the whole world in His hands” if you’re feeling particularly musical. Pray together and thank God for the way He shows His power and creativity in creating the whole world.

Day 2: Broken Hearts and The Dizzying Sin Cycle

Everything was just how it was supposed to be, until everything suddenly fell apart. Adam and Eve decided to listen to the twisted lies of a snake named Satan and ended up doubting God and disobeying Him. They decided to place more value on their own wants and someone else’s ideas instead of God’s. Sin entered the world. It broke God’s heart, and it certainly broke their hearts. No longer could they live with God in their perfect garden. No longer could they talk with Him face-to-face. Their sin made it impossible for them to be near a perfect God. Why? Just as there is no darkness that remains when you turn on a light, there can be no sin in God’s presence either. He destroys it.

So the dizzying cycle of the people sinning, saying they were sorry, asking for forgiveness, then sinning all over again began. God didn’t just abandon His people. In fact, God gave the them ways to try to pay for their sins through the sacrifice of animals, but it never lasted very long because people are never able to stop sinning. God gave them laws and rules to try to help them differentiate between what was right and what was wrong since they could no longer live with Him and see His example clearly, but that proved to be too hard for people to follow. They just kept adding more and more rules to the list, making their broken hearts hard as stone. God made ways for them to be near to Him (the tabernacle and the temple); but again, they were just temporary and they could still never be in His actual presence because of how broken they were.  God knew they needed a permanent solution, and there was only one way to do it. It would cost more than we could ever understand.

Pages 28-37, 170-175 in the Storybook Bible or  Genesis 3, Nehemiah 8-10, Habbakuk 1:5, Malachi 1-4 (lots of reading from the Bible,
but fascinating if you have the time)

Discussion Questions:

1. How do you think God felt when He had to send Adam and Eve out of the Garden and His presence? How do you think Adam and Eve felt?
2. Despite the people continuing to do what was wrong, God never stopped loving them. What are ways you can think of that God continued to show that He loved them still?
3. What sins do you struggle with that you want to ask God to help you with?

Activity: Take your kids outside to find some small to medium size rocks (maybe 3 each depending on their ages) and bring them back inside. Ask the kids to name a couple of the sins they struggle with (pride, lying, being mean, yelling, etc) and write one on each rock. Talk about how sin makes our hearts hard as stone. Gather
all the rocks into a bag or basket (an easter basket works great for this). Talk about how heavy sin makes us feel.  God doesn’t want us to carry this weight around. He wants to heal our broken hearts and make them soft again. He also wants to free us from the weight of our sin. Read Ezekiel 11: 19-20, Psalm 34:4, 13-22)

Day 3: Jesus, Light of the World. Jesus- God with Us

*(Okay, so there is freedom in the “ornaments”/visual illustrations you use. The one I used for this day is supposed to represent Jesus as the Light of the world coming into our brokenness. I made a jar with random junk pieces and used a little magnet lightbulb in
the lid. Feel free to do whatever you want, though.)

From the moment sin entered the world, God hatched a plan to start bringing about His perfect and final solution to make it possible for us to be able to be near to Him again. The only way to do that, was to send His Son into the world to live a perfect life amongst us and then to give up His life in our place. It was something only someone fully God and fully man could do. So God put on flesh and came to save us from ourselves and our sin.

Read Pages 176-198 in the Storybook Bible or Luke 1-2, and Matthew 2

Discussion Questions:

1. Jesus was fully God and fully man. What do you think that means? Why does that matter?
2. Why do you think the shepherds were the first to hear about Jesus’ miraculous birth?

Activity: Go into a dark room or turn all the lights off in your home. Talk about how dark and scary the world would be without any lights. Light a candle. Talk about how Jesus came into our broken and dark world that was full of sinful people and he was a beacon of beautiful pure light. Read Luke 1: 68-80, John 8:12, Matthew 4:14-17
Day 4: Jesus’ Ministry: Loving the Unloveable, Befriending the Unpopular, and Healing the Hopeless

There are so many great stories to read and examples to tell about how Jesus lived so differently than everyone else around Him. He loved the people that no one else liked. He touched and healed the people who were so sick they couldn’t even live with other people (lepers). He opened the eyes of the blind, healed the lame, and brought the dead
back to life. He befriended and trained 12 of themost unpopular men in the community so that they could later boldly tell others about Jesus. He spoke, and the worst storms calmed. He walked on water and fed thousands with just a few loaves of bread and a couple fish. Jesus was incredible.

Read your favorite stories of Jesus’ life from the Storybook Bible. Some of our favorites start on pages: 208, 214,236,244,264    There are great miracles written all through the Gospels, but here are a few of my favorites: Mark 8:1-10, 22-26, Luke 8:43-48, Mark 1:40-45, Luke 8:22-25

Discussion Questions:

1. What is your favorite story about Jesus and His life here? Why?
2. In what ways does Jesus seem different than the world around Him?

Activity: Act out one of your favorite stories together or have your kids draw a picture of their favorite story. Put these up on the refrigerator or a wall so they can use them as decorations to remind your family of Jesus’ incredible life.

Day 5: Jesus the Humble King

Jesus is the true King of all Kings and Lord of all Lords. He could have come to earth and demanded great respect and a crown and a palace- He would have deserved it and more. Yet he didn’t. He was born in a stable amongst animals and mess. A great example of this is when He washed His disciples feet.

Read the first part of the story “The Servant King” in the Storybook Bible pages 286-288.  Or read Mark 14

Discussion Questions:

1. Why did Jesus wash His disciple’s feet? Why was that so shocking?
2. What did they learn from it?

Activity: This one is messy, but totally worth it. Make sure to bring out a chair, dish soap, towels, and a big pan or bowl. Get barefoot and take your kids outside. Find some mud and have them get their feet really muddy and dirty. Then wash their feet. Review the story of how Jesus washed His disciples feet. He deserved to have His feet washed, yet He chose to wash their nasty, stinky, dirty feet. Little did the disciples know, but that was what He had come to do to their (and all of our) sin. Our sin is just as yucky and just as dirty. Jesus came to wash us and make us white as snow. Read Isaiah 1:18.

Day 6: Jesus Pays It All

The day came. He had told His disciples all along why He was really here, but it still came as a shock to them. He shared one last meal with them and told them that His body would be broken like the loaf of bread He tore apart in front of them and that His blood would be spilt like the red wine they had in their cups. Lest we think it was easy for Jesus to give up His life, we are reminded that He prayed that if God knew of any other way to buy back His people, to take that path instead. He prayed, “Not my will but Yours be done,” as He followed through with God’s perfect but heart-wrenching plan. He was betrayed,  beaten, spit on, made fun of, and tortured. There was nothing easy about that. But willingly He went through it. For you. For me.

Read pages 291-309 in the Storybook Bible  or Luke 22-23

Discussion Questions:

1. What did Jesus mean when He said, “Not my will but Yours be done.”? How can we imitate this?
2. Do you think the disciples remembered what Jesus’ had told them about his body the bread and His blood the wine at their last meal together after He died?
3. How does it make you feel to know that Jesus went through so much for you?
4. Bonus question: What did it mean when the veil tore in the temple? (no more separation of God from His people. Jesus made the way for us to access God without needing a priest to make sacrifices)

Activity: Get some crackers or rolls, Get some little cups with grape juice. Reenact the last supper with your kids. Talk to them about how the bread represents Jesus’ body and the juice His precious blood. Explain what communion is and that we do it today as a reminder of this very real sacrifice Jesus made for us.

Get 7 jelly beans of different colors. Teach the kids that each jelly bean represents the prayer Jesus prayed. “Not my will, but Yours be done.” Have them practice saying the verse by eating one jelly bean at a time. Memorize His prayer together and talk about how important it is to obey God just like Jesus did no matter what.

Take time to pray together as a family thanking Jesus for what He went through. Finish by reading Isaiah 53. Focus on and read verses 5 and 6 more than once.

Day 7: Silence

Take this day “off”. Meditate on the emptiness everyone must have felt without Jesus and knowing what He had gone through. They missed Him just like hopefully they’ll miss these fun advent activities.

Day 8: Jesus Alive- the Conqueror of Death For All

Three dark and terrible days passed. The disciples and friends of Jesus were devastated. They had just watched as the most incredible and perfect man, the very Son of God, was tortured, killed, and buried in a tomb. They thought it was the end. But was it? No. Death could not keep Jesus down. On the third day, He came back to life. What an incredible miracle. The most incredible miracle, really. Happy Easter or as we like to call it: Resurrection Sunday!

Read pages 310-317 in the Storybook Bible or Luke 24:1-12 and Matthew 28:1-10

Discussion Questions:

1. How do you think they felt when they heard and then saw that Jesus was in fact alive? How does it make you feel?
2. How does this day change everything?
3. Jesus said “He is the resurrection and the life and that whoever believes in Him shall have eternal life.” (John 11:25). Did you know that if you believe in Jesus, you can have eternal life?

Activity: Celebrate this incredible day! Wear your best clothes. Make a fancy meal. Sing songs and dance for joy.

Make some resurrection rolls: You’ll need pillsbury crescent rolls and large marshmallows. Place a marshmallow inside of the rolls and wrap the dough around them (two triangles for each marshmallow. Talk about how the pure white and sweet marshmallow represents Jesus. They wrapped His body and put it in the tomb. Then bake them according to baking instructions on the label. Once they have cooled, open the roll, and see that the marshmallow is gone. Exclaim: “He is not here! He is RISEN! He is risen indeed!”

IF you do Easter baskets, I have a couple suggestions: Have them play the game where you hide them and they have to find them. Just like Jesus was in the tomb and they had to find Him. It’s really fun! I also suggest you read Romans 6:23 and remind your kids that just as Jesus gave His life as a gift- free for our taking- to bless us with eternal life, you wanted to give them a tangible reminder of that by giving them a gift as well.

Day 9: Jesus’ Calls Us

Jesus had come back to life and spent several weeks visiting with friends and people to let them know that had come back to life and that death could not defeat Him. Everyone wanted Him to stay with them forever, but that wasn’t God’s plan. Jesus had to say goodbye so that He could go prepare a place for us in heaven and so that the Holy Spirit, God’s very living presence, could come and fill our hearts so we’d never be alone. He promised He’d return someday as the rightful and glorious King of all Kings. But He didn’t just leave them without first giving them a purpose. Jesus told them to go into all the world and make disciples. Basically, He wants us seek to be like Him and to love the unloveable, to befriend the unpopular, and to give hope to the hopeless. How? Well, not on your own. The Holy Spirit transforms your life from the inside out and helps you to want to study the Bible and be more like Jesus. Then He helps you show others how to do the same.

Read 318-333 or  Matthew 28: 16-20, Acts 1-2

Discussion Questions:

1. What was the last thing Jesus told everyone? (End of Matthew 28)
2. What does the Holy Spirit help us to do? What are the fruit of the Spirit? (Galatians 5:22-23)
3. How can you tell others about Jesus? Who can you tell?

Activity: Put a little glitter on your hand but don’t tell your kids (or Jelly works in a pinch). Play a game where you take turns holding hands with your kids and spinning them around. Talk about how Jesus came into the world and as He lived His life with such passion, everyone was affected. Some got dizzy. Some laughed. and some wanted nothing to do with it. Pray together and then have them look at their hands. The glitter should have spread to their hands as well. Tell them that sharing the Gospel with others is similar.  It’s person to person- living life together. Our love of Jesus rubs off on them with time.

Pray for your friends who don’t know Jesus. Pray that you can be an example to them. Pray that the Lord will give you opportunities to show them Jesus as the Holy Spirit works in and through you.

Blessings, Friends! Praying this gives you some inspiration as you celebrate our Resurrected Lord this Easter! He is Risen! He is Risen Indeed!!

Just some other fun decorations for easter. I’ve had fun this year:)