An Amazing Easter

We were sitting at the dinner table a few nights ago and I started a debate by asking "do people prepare their hearts more for Christmas or Easter?" Faith loves a good theological debate as is becoming quite the apologetics expert. My point was to show that most people spend the time between Thanksgiving and Christmas thanking the Lord for the celebration of the incarnation but don't spend as much time preparing their heart for the celebration of the resurrection. We have tried to be extremely intentional with our family by doing some special events such as:

• celebrating a Messianic passover so the kids can see how Jesus' death, burial, and resurrection is clearly prophesied in the Old Testament.
• Pulling out the Resurrection eggs and taking turns opening the eggs telling the story of Passion Week.
• Preparing a tomb cake (a bunt cake chopped in half and laid on it's side with a cookie that represents the stone that was rolled away). While we make the cake we are talking about different aspects of Christ's sacrifice for us.
• making resurrection buns on Sunday morning (biscuits with a marshmallow inside)...once you bake it the marshmallow expands and it looks like an open tomb).
• We also have tons of books we read with the girls (especially for Joi since she is a new Christian). We are currently going through her "Now that I'm a Christian" book and she is really looking forward to being baptized soon!

On Easter Sunday we attended our new home church of Capshaw Baptist Church. It was a great worship service where the Holy Spirit moved in a powerful way as we worshipped our hearts out and received an inspired message that was mightily used of the Lord.

Amy and I hope to live our faith out in such a way that our girls are inspired to do the same thing.

How was your Easter? Do you have any special family traditions that help you prepare your hearts for Easter?