This year, prior to Easter - our Primary Presidency visited all the children of the ward and brought a special gift to them, a small egg carton with six eggs and eight small discussion starts for the week leading up to Easter. It had little video clips and small items to walk the kids through Holy Week and discuss Jesus Christ and his life, death, and resurrection. It was such a sweet gift, made even more poignant, when at General Conference last week, Elder Gary E. Stevenson gave a conference address titled "The Greatest Easter Story Ever Told" and encouraged families to incorporate Christ-Centered traditions into their Easter Celebrations.
A few things that he said,
"The First Presidency letter was a wake-up call. Not only did they invite all of us to make sure our celebration of the most important event to ever happen on this earth—the Atonement and Resurrection of Jesus Christ—includes the reverence and respect the Lord deserves, but they also gave us more time with our families and friends on Easter Sunday to do so.
How do we model the teaching and celebration of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, the Easter story, with the same balance, fulness, and rich religious tradition of the birth of Jesus Christ, the Christmas story?
It seems we are all trying. I observe a growing effort among Latter-day Saints toward a more Christ-centered Easter. This includes a greater and more thoughtful recognition of Palm Sunday and Good Friday as practiced by some of our Christian cousins. We might also adopt appropriate Christ-centered Easter traditions found in the cultures and practices of countries worldwide.
New Testament scholar N. T. Wright suggested: “We should be taking steps to celebrate Easter in creative new ways: in art, literature, children’s games, poetry, music, dance, festivals, bells, special concerts. … This is our greatest festival. Take Christmas away, and in biblical terms you lose two chapters at the front of Matthew and Luke, nothing else. Take Easter away, and you don’t have a New Testament; you don’t have a Christianity.”
I loved hearing him say this, and feel like David and I have tried to do this throughout all of our married life. I remember sitting down with him many years ago, (Lydia was very, very small), and discussing what we wanted Easter to look like in our home. We both wanted the emphasis to be on the Savior and we had many ideas for how we could build traditions that incorporated faith, testimony, and family fun. I feel like we have accomplished that with the traditions we have created and I love being able to celebrate the Savior with my family through service (setting up egg hunts for others), family (finding ways to spend time with extended family and making an effort to set aside time for our little family, too), worship (walking through Holy Week, memorizing songs or quotes about Jesus, Sunday Church), and fun (Easter baskets, candy, egg hunts, etc..). This year we memorized the paragraph from the living Christ that says:
"He rose from the grave to become the firstfruits of them that slept. As risen Lord, he visited among those he had loved in life. He also ministered among his other sheep in Ancient America. In the modern world, He and His Father appeared to the boy Joseph Smith, ushering in the long-promised dispensation of the fulness of times."
We took each line and spend a few minutes discussing what it meant and reading about what it referenced in the scriptures. That in conjunction with the brief message from the Primary Presidency walking through Holy Week and I felt like the week leading up to Easter was really neat.
Here are some other things that we did to celebrate this year:
Friday Family Dinner with the Walkers
We invited everyone for Easter Dinner, but Friday was the best day for everyone to come so we went with it. It was really special to me to be able to use my Grandma Knowles' china (that she got from Grandpa Brown when he was serving in the military in Korea during the Korean War. He was a driver and somehow found and purchased this china set and had it sent back to her). We ate delicious food and thoroughly enjoyed being together.
A note: David and I got to take a nap while the kids played outside for 1/2 hour. (win) I got up from my nap and put spray sunscreen on Lucy so she wouldn't get sunburned (win) Caleb found that sunscreen later and while playing with it accidentally sprayed it directly into his eyes (SUPER NOT WIN). We spent the next 1/2 hour+ rinsing his eyes in the sink and shower, then flushing them with a saline eye wash. He couldn't open his eyes at all and they were super red and puffy - but thankfully prayers and bodies do wonderful things and he was better by tonight. And we didn't have to take him to the hospital (win-win-win).
