Celebrating Easter with your children

Here are TWO wonderful ideas that I found online that help teach our children about the real meaning of Easter. Resurrection Eggs and Resurrection Cookies.

1. Resurrection Eggs

Get 12 plastic eggs in different colors. Number them from 1 through 12.

Into each egg place the item and scripture reference written on a small piece of paper.

Egg #1:

Message -- Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey. The people waved palm branches.
Passage -- Matthew 21:1-11
Item -- Piece of palm branch. Another option for those of you with extra leggo parts or plastic novelty beads would be to place a small plastic leaf in the egg

Egg #2:

Message -- Mary poured expensive perfume on Jesus' feet.
Passage -- John 12:2-8
Item -- Small perfume sample or cloth with perfume or a piece of cotton with cologne on it

Egg #3:

Message -- Jesus shared the Last Supper with His disciples.
Passage -- Matthew 26:17-19
Item – a piece of Chex cereal; or take clay and make a small bread-like shape

Egg #4:

Message -- Judas betrayed Jesus for 30 pieces of silver.
Passage -- Matthew 27:3
Item -- 3 dimes or plastic “silver” money

Egg #5:

Message -- Jesus carried His own cross.
Passage -- John 19:17
Item – toothpicks or Popsicle stick cut and glued in a cross form; or, a small plastic cross from a Christmas ornament or necklace.

Egg #6:

Message -- Soldiers placed a crown of thorns on Jesus' head.
Passage -- John 19:2
Item -- Small thorny branch, or a large thorn all by itself.

Egg #7:

Message -- Soldiers parted Jesus' garments and cast lots for His coat.
Passage -- John 19:23
Item -- Swatch of burlap and a nail. I’ve also seen miniature dice used for this one.

Egg #8:

Message -- Jesus was nailed to a cross and pierced in His side.
Passage -- John 19:18,37 & John 20:25-29
Item -- A nail

Egg #9:

Message -- They gave Jesus vinegar mixed with gall on a sponge to drink.
Passage -- Matthew 27:34
Item -- A small sponge

Egg #10:

Message -- Spices to prepare Jesus for burial.
Passage -- John 19:40
Item -- 7 or 8 whole cloves, or other whole spices

Egg #11:

Message -- The stone covering Jesus' tomb was rolled away.
Passage -- John 20:1
Item -- A small rock

Egg #12:

Message -- The napkin around Jesus' head was lying separately from His linen clothers. He was not there. He has risen!
Passage -- John 20:6-7
Item -- A scrap of linen-type fabric

2. Resurrection Cookies

You need to preheat the oven to 300 degrees (this is important--don't wait until you are half done with the recipe!)

3 egg whites
1 cup whole pecans
1 tsp. Vinegar
A pinch salt
1 cup sugar
A zipper baggie
A wooden spoon
tape
Bible

Place pecans in zipper baggie and let children beat them with the wooden spoon to break into small pieces. Explain that after Jesus was arrested, He was beaten by the Roman soldiers.

Read John 19:1-3.

Let each child smell the vinegar. Put 1 tsp. vinegar into mixing bowl. Explain that when Jesus was thirsty on the cross, He was given vinegar to drink.

Read John 19:28-30.

Add egg whites to vinegar. Eggs represent life. Explain that Jesus gave His life to give us life.

Read John 10:10-11.

Sprinkle a little salt into each child's hand. Let them taste it and brush the rest into the bowl. Explain that this represents the salty tears shed by Jesus' followers, and the bitterness of our own sin.

Read Luke 23:27.

So far, the ingredients are not very appetizing. Add 1cup sugar. Explain that the sweetest part of the story is that Jesus died because He loves us. He wants us to know and belong to Him.

Read Ps. 34:8 and John 3:16.

Beat with a mixer on high speed for 12 to 15 minutes until stiff peaks are formed. Explain that the color white represents the purity in God's eyes of those whose sins have been cleansed by Jesus.

Read Isa. 1:18 and John 3:1-3.

Fold in broken nuts. Drop by teaspoons onto wax paper covered cookie sheet. Explain that each mound represents the rocky tomb where Jesus' body was laid.

Read Matt. 27:57-60.

Put the cookie sheet in the oven, close the door and turn the oven OFF.

Give each child a piece of tape and seal the oven door. Explain that Jesus' tomb was sealed.

Read Matt. 27:65-66.

GO TO BED! Explain that they may feel sad to leave the cookies in the oven overnight. Jesus' followers were in despair when the tomb was sealed.

Read John 16:20 and 22.

On Resurrection morning, open the oven and give everyone a cookie. Notice the cracked surface and take a bite. The cookies are hollow! On the first Resurrection, Jesus' followers were amazed to find the tomb open and empty.

Read Matt. 28:1-9

Love is patient, love is kind

Teaching our children to be kind and patient with one another is a difficult teaching and one that takes many gentle reminders and prayers. Raising children is really another window into seeing God and appreciating him as our Heavenly Father. The Bible teaches us that God expresses his grace to us through his kindness (Eph. 2:7) and He is the God of patience (2 Peter 3:9).

A good memory verse for our family is 1 Cor. 13: 4 "Love is patient, love is kind".

Whenever the kids get impatient with one another (especially in sharing toys) or say something unkind to each other, I remind them of 1 Cor 13 by saying "Love is...." and they fill in the blank. It immediately causes them to stop and think and to take a minute to quickly apologize and do the right thing instead.

God's word is truly powerful and penetrates the heart (Heb. 4:12). It is awesome!

Sweet and Sour

Pleasant words are a honeycomb, sweet to the soul and healing to the bones. Proverbs 16:24

Teaching our children to be kind to each other using their words is not an easy task. But using scripture and consistent reminders definitely will produce a change of heart and action.

In our home, the children are at an age where they can easily demand for things ("I need some water!") or not be polite to each other about their requests (pulling a toy away from each other). Please and Thank You are some of the first words we taught them at around 15 months old. It was more like "Peas" for Please and "Ta Ta" for Thank you.

This is a fun devotional idea to try. Have some honey and lemon juice at hand. Have the kids practice saying kind words to each other. Every time they do that, they get a taste of honey. Unkind or demanding words and tone of voice will get them to taste some lemon juice. I think they will get the point pretty quickly.

Ideas taken from "The Tender Years" book written by Geri Laing and Elizabeth Laing Thompson

Jesus calms a Storm

My 2 1/2 boy and 5 year old girl loved this devotional we did this week. We read the story of Jesus calming the storm (Mark 4:35-41) using the Play-and-Learn Bible. After reading the story, we acted it out. The kids have recently been using the pillows in our living room area to build forts and tents. It was the perfect opportunity to ask them to build a boat, and they were very creative with it. We acted out the story, taking turns to play different roles. First, daddy was the wind and waves and as he knelt by the boat, he had a spray bottle in his hand that he would occasionally squirt water at them. The kids were in the boat - one pretending to sleep like Jesus and the other acted as a disciple rowing the boat. The story enacted out went like this:

Daddy: pretending to be a storm all around the boat

Child 1: Pretending to sleep in the boat

Child 2: Rowing the boat and gets scared because of the fierce storm (and not to mention getting wet). He wakes up Jesus and says "Wake up! Wake up!"

Child 1: Stands up and says "Quiet down! Sshhhhh"

Daddy: Stops.

Child 1 looks at child 2 and says: "Why are you so afraid?" Do you still have no faith?

Child 2: Still looking scared says: Who is this man. Even the wind and waves obey him.

Child 1: Don't be afraid.

As a family, we took turns playing different roles and reaffirming the lesson of how even nature obeys the words of God and how we don't need to be afraid because God is always with us.

Extra fun: We ended the night by having a game of flashlight pumpkin hunt around the house. We had a cute little toy pumpkin. The kids took turns hiding it using their flashlight, because we turned off all the lights in the house. Then the other kid used his flashlight to search for the pumpkin.

Family Devotionals Link

I recently received a link from a friend of another blog site that provides free family devotional ideas. http://www.familyblueprint.org/Family.htm

There are so many ideas out there already that we can take and use for our family and even adjust according to our kids ages.

The goal is teach God's word using methods that are fun and that will help us apply it to our daily lives.