A Day in the Life...: Easter Season

I love the Easter season, in fact just the other day I was telling Braden that it might just be my favorite holiday. I love that it is in the spring, when new life grows and trees blossom and the long winter days fade away into long warm nights, where little ones can play outside until bedtime. But most importantly, I love the meaning of Easter. I love that as believers we get to celebrate the amazing love that Christ has bestowed upon us. I love that we celebrate grace, unending grace, undeserving grace, unconditional grace. I love that Easter brings hope...powerful and real hope, hope that is touchable and tangible. I love that during this Lenten season that we celebrate Life, both eternal life and Resurrected Life. With every passing year, I find myself filled with gratitude for what was done for me through a Man who loved me beyond words when I was so undeserving. I don't know about you, but often times at the end of the day when the house is quiet and the boys are tucked beneath blankets in their beds and I've had a few moments to reflect back on my day and how chaotic it was and how many times my tone of voice was a little too harsh with my kids, or how many times I failed to show compassion when one of my boys hurt themselves for the umpteenth time that day, or how I chose to use words that were biting instead of life giving, or how I chose to embrace stress instead of gratitude, it's in those moments that I feel the most undeserving. The Easter season reminds me that we are all undeserving and so was Christ. And yet He loves me...deeply....I am still humbled by that. This Easter season was particularly special in our home because we had the privilege of praying with Braden to accept Christ! On that day, we had just finished making a little Easter craft that I found on Pintrest -

where we planted a bunch of grass seed, made three wooden crosses and even an empty tomb on "Calvary." As we finished up the project, Braden began asking about why there were three crosses instead of just one for Jesus. We went on to explain about the two men and about how one went to Heaven with Christ because he confessed his sin and sought forgiveness and asked to be with Jesus in eternity and the other went to Hell. Well this opened a whole conversation about sin and Heaven and Hell and what it means to ask Jesus to live in our hearts. Braden came up to us a few minutes after this passed and said "I want to ask Jesus to live in my heart." We then hear him on his own with his head bowed, praying to God, those sweet words of surrender. He then asked both of us to pray with him and as we prayed over him and for him, my heart was overcome with joy as I realized that Braden really got it. He on his 4 year old level, understood that his heart was yucky and that the only way to make it right was to ask Jesus to come and live in it and help make him like Him! Sweet, sweet moments for sure!!! The rest of our Lenten season was spent doing all the fun Easter things that we all did as children growing up...and it sure is fun to relive all of that through my own kiddos. Here are some highlights from the past month...

This picture, makes me laugh, this is a close up of the tomb...as you can see, the only Jesus we had was a Little People, and not just any Little People, it is one with a mustache and a cowboy hat.