Last week we joined in with the throngs of people who go to the Easter Pageant our church puts on here in the desert. Our good friend neighbors are in the pageant (the parents are Adam and Eve so that’s kind of fun). As we were finding our seats we ran into a few friends who were also performing. When I asked one who she was in the pageant she looked at me with a big smile and said, “I’m a Follower of Christ.”
The pageant was great, but I’ve been thinking about that friend’s response more than anything else ever since. She was a joyous Follower of Christ.
And that’s exactly what I want to be.
I love pondering on that role/responsibility especially this week as we prepare for Easter around here.
Today we pulled out our yellow “Easter Week” cards that we do each year (we talk about the significance of each day leading up to Easter for scripture study each morning), and pulled some palm leaves from our yard to talk about Palm Sunday.
Lucy is so into this stuff right now and I love that her excitement and awe and faith rubs off on all of us. (She even asked my friend, the one who is in charge of all the children in our congregation, if she could give a talk on the Atonement this week, and prepared it all by herself.)
Yes, we’re getting in the spirit of things around here. I am hoping it will help us all speak kindly to each other instead of being so snappy like we have been lately! (I cannot seem to get enough sleep around here these days! At least that’s what I’m blaming the short-temperedness on:)
Last year we added to our tradition by incorporating some things my sister and her friend came up with. They have created a masterpiece google document with so many great links to everything from Bible videos to all kinds of activities and scripture study ideas and it’s so good I wanted to share this link before I go to bed…in case anyone wants to start with it this coming Easter Week.
It is here: Four Weeks to Celebrate Easter, and it is really good.
(Saydi explains more about it over HERE if you’d like to check it out on her blog.)
I love that it incorporates a whole study of the resurrection the week after Easter in addition to everything else.
Another Easter help I love is on the mormon.org site that I mentioned before. That is HERE. Those videos about the Principles of Peace are really good, and I’ve been grateful for the opportunity to reflect on them leading up to Easter (link on sidebar as well).
And more info. about what we believe about Easter in these links:
Resurrection of Jesus Christ: https://www.mormon.org/beliefs/resurrection-of-jesus-christ
How grateful I am to celebrate that HE LIVES. And that He’s there for us and has paid a miraculous price for us.
It’s as if the desert is singing in joy and jubilation of that very fact right now as well, because everything is so beautifully in bloom.
It is such a great time of year, and oh how grateful I am for that Savior of mine, and how I hope I can be a Joyful Follower of Him as we study and ponder on how He lived, and died, and lived again this week.
Happy Easter prep!
xoxo
I"m so happy to have all this in the same place. We have just arrived at the Narada Airport in Japan and even though it's pouring we could see a huge line of cherry blossoms from the plane. On Easter we will be in Dubai. They do an LDS service there but it's on Friday because that's the Muslim's Sabbath and we'll be flying that day so this is what we'll have to rely on for Easter this year. It's going to be great to use this for our Easter celebration. Perfect!
Thank you! This was a perfect reminder. I want to be a 'joyous follower of Christ' too!