We had so much fun this Easter with the kids. It was FULL of Easter celebrations. Our first was a fantastic Egg Hunt for Parker's class and the other kindergarten class at his school, it was held at one of the Country Club here in our city. It was fancy, sweet and just so much fun. Emme and Beckham sure enjoyed themselves too. They had face painting, and Easter Bunny, cookie decorating, yummy food, cupcakes and so much more.
On Saturday Daddy went shooting with family and I stayed home with my mom and dyed eggs with the littles. It was a lot of fun. None of my kids have ever dyed eggs before. I have always been to nervous. The mess intimidates me.
Later on Saturday we went to High Sky Children Ranch. Highsky is a shelter basically for children who are stuck or caught up in the foster care system in our area. It is full, crowded and heavy. I immediately fell in love with a little guy who is probably 3 or 4. He is beautiful, rowdy, kind and full of life. I only know a bit of his story and it is heart breaking. While looking into his eyes while listening to his stories all I could see was my son Beckham who is just around his age. I don't know why things happen to these precious littles but they do. Our world is broken, hurting and struggling. Children like him are tangible proof that the world needs Jesus. They need hope. There were several moments with this little guy that God had to literally intervene or else I would loose and kidnap him and bring him home. He asked me to come back to his cabin to pray with him about his nightmares. He suffers from extreme nightmares. He told me in one of them there is a big man who is trying to get him and he hides under a dining table and screams for help. He is 3 or 4. This is not ok. This little guy needs prayer warriors to intervene. He needs a mommy to tuck him in and a daddy to shepherd his heart. He needs Jesus. So I crouched down and I prayed with him. I begged Jesus to take away these nightmares and to bring him peace and to bring him hope. It was tough leaving him. I cry and think about him daily. If only I had one more room. I would bring him home. I was really proud of my life group for setting up this evening with these kids. We fed them pizza, and homemade cupcakes. We hid eggs and watched them run to find them. Things like this is how we should celebrate Jesus. Being his hands and feet. Serving the least, the forgotten, the ones he loves, his people.
My sweet Easter Chickens at my moms after church.
They were all so proud of their eggs.
They were worn out after their egg hunt out at my moms. After 2 services at church, a big ole meal, lots of running and egg hunting I would have fallen asleep in my basket too! HA!
Easter was great. One of the best yet. As my family grows to understand what Easter is all about I find more joy and reasons to celebrate with them. I didn't do any of the things I posted in the last post. I am a failure I know. Life got busy and I just forgot. I am so unintentional. Next year I will do better. We didn't put a whole lot of emphasis on Eggs, Bunnies, and candy though. I know it looks like it in the pics. But really we didn't. It was kind of like an add on to the holiday. Something fun to do. Memories being made.
After Phillip and I talked about Easter and what it means to us he brought up a good point...
Millions of people in America get together to celebrate Easter. Whether it be the Easter Bunny Easter or the Jesus Easter. Everyone celebrates it in one way or another and more people attend church on Easter then any other Sunday (other then Christmas Eve) of the year. At some point during all the Easter hoopla Christ is acknowledged and his sacrifice is made know. A seed is presented and ultimately planted. He asked me what my deal with Easter really was. Is it that Easter has been made up of all these other things and we have lost our focus or is it really the Jesus isn't recognized enough and isn't talked about enough? It is clearly the ladder of the 2. What harm does the Easter Bunny really do? It is our job to be the light in the dark world. To be a light during the Easter celebrations. It is our job to make Christ known. And sometimes and Easter bunny and Easter eggs can be a great tool. Just food for thought. We will see what happens next year with Easter. Right now. I will teach my kids about Jesus and teach them to be a light no matter the situation or circumstance.
I hope your Easter was amazing and filled with lots of memories just like ours was.
so sweet:) love your heart jenna.
ReplyDeletepraying for the little guy you met- and i'm going to send you some verses for night terrors.
ps- the boys in those bow ties are PRECIOUS:)