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I loved choosing Easter clothes for my girls – bonnets, white gloves, frilly socks, and pink, lacy dresses.

(I had a son too, but mamas, you know it’s just not the same.)

I spent hours on Sunday morning adjusting curls and straightening lace.

We piled in the van for church, anticipating the Easter cantata (does anyone still do those?).  The performance of “Bow the knee” ran three years in a row because of rave reviews from the church members.

The choir dressed in the garb of Jesus’ day and staged a drama.  It was my middle child’s goal in life to play the part of “the little dead girl” (the scene where Jesus takes her hand and says, “Little girl, arise”).

Finally on year three, she got her wish.

My other two robed girls stood on stage with the crowd in anticipation as the little dead girl was carried in on the mat.

As “Jesus” took her hand and spoke those life-giving words, she rose, a giant smile on her face!

Simultaneously, her sisters reacted with priceless expressions, as if she really had come to life.

Celebrating the joy of our resurrection in Christ was a treasured family tradition.

Why is Easter special to you?  Did you know that you as a mom have power you haven’t even tapped into as a result of the resurrection?

Easter traditions

What does your Easter weekend look like?  Here’s a run-down of ours:

Saturday evening:

egg coloring contest

production of mass quantities of deviled eggs

preparation of Easter feast

Sunday morning:

Easter basket discovery (even for Penelope the Pug, who always sniffed out her basket full of raw hide)

hair assembly line and general primping frenzy

family van pile-in

church

family portrait on the front porch

consumption of Easter feast

hiding of Easter eggs

exhaustion

Kids enjoy tradition.  They like the comfortable sameness of a holiday and the special memories that surround it.

Easter Sunday brings a large church crowd.  Many people don’t attend the rest of the year.

Choose to bring your kids each week, not just on holidays.

Become an active participant in church worship and serve alongside your family.

Establish Easter traditions according to the goals you’ve set for your tribe, and consider this:

you can celebrate and claim Christ’s resurrection year round.

The Resurrection means new life

The Sadducees were “sad-you-see”, because they didn’t believe in the resurrection.

And if there’s no resurrection, there’s no point in living this life for anyone but ourselves.

But there is a resurrection!

“Fix this picture firmly in your mind: 

Jesus, descended from the line of David, raised from the dead.  It’s what you’ve heard from me all along  It’s what I’m sitting in jail for right now, but God’s Word isn’t in jail!

This is a sure thing:

If we die with Him, we’ll live with Him;

If we stick it out with Him, we’ll rule with Him;

If we turn our backs on Him, He’ll turn His back on us;

If we give up on Him, He does not give up –

For there’s no way He can be false to Himself.” ~2 Timothy 2:8-13

 

That means His power is limitless, and His faithfulness to bestow that power endures.

There is hope for you, mom

“Just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.” ~Romans 6:4

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.  The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”  I Corinthians 5:17

Did you mess up last week?

Perhaps you yelled at the kids for not eating their dinner or threw something in anger.

What are you feeling guilty for right now that you wish you could erase from your mind and theirs?

We all mess up – it’s part of being human.

But God gives mercy and grace.  That’s part of being a Christian.

The other part of Christianity is believing in that mercy and grace, and rising with Christ to let God mold you into a new (and more attractive) creation.

Do you think God can’t help you get over your temper?

You’re dead wrong. (Notice that play on words:  dead = no life or power.)

Do you think there’s no way God can save you from erupting all over that little one when she throws her tantrums?

Yes, He can.

It’s hard when you’re in the thick of it.

Oh, how I know.

I have a temper.  I’ve struggled.  Especially when the kids were small and hard to reason with and I was short on sleep.

But on those days when I cried out to God, kept His Word written on my forehead (or in the kitchen window on a 3×5 card), and maintained an attitude of prayer, I had more strength.

Because it wasn’t my strength.

It was His.

A.W. Tozer has a word about limiting God:

“That ugly sin that has been on you so long – you hate it so bad…you wish you were free.

But you just don’t have the courage to believe.

…Dare to believe that the Lord God omnipotent lives and with Him nothing shall be impossible. 

He has all the power there is.  Your need is nothing compared with the great things that God has done.

And yet God pardons your sin and cleanses your spirit and gives you His nature, just as easily as He makes the heaven and earth, because God is God!

God can deliver you from temper and pride and fear and hate and all other diseases of the soul, if you’ll only trust Him.”

 

God has all the power there is.  We don’t know what that looks like, because we’ve never seen all the power there is – we couldn’t comprehend it even if we did.

We don’t have that capacity.

But what we do have is the capacity to believe – and even that has been provided by God!

God can change you from the inside out, mama.

He can resurrect in you a new reaction to difficult circumstances, one day, one hour, and one minute at a time.

God did that for me, and I know I’m not His favorite – we all are!

Kids are more forgiving than you think

This little one gave me an Instagram shout-out last night, unaware of my topic today. Correspondingly, I was unaware of her kind words until after I outlined this post. I am grateful for grace!

I’m so glad God forgives us instantly, aren’t you?

Kids are like that too.

And I’m here to tell you that they don’t remember all the negative stuff after they’re grown.

Oh, they’ll tease you about a few things – like the time you made them stand outside in the rain while you made dinner because they were picking on the younger kids and driving you batty.

But friend, I have received forgiveness and grace – and so can you.

Remain a constant, steady presence in your kid’s lives, keeping the lines of communication open with a listening heart.

Pour your life into them so that they know beyond a shadow of a doubt that they come before everything else in your life (except God), and you will enjoy a strong bond when they’re grown.

In order to do this, you must put your relationship with Christ first. 

Celebrate that resurrection promise, and wear that Easter bonnet all year round, because He is alive in you, and with God, you can do this mom thing, and you can finish well.