We love holidays in our house. We celebrate a lot because life is good, life is happy.
But by far, Easter is my favorite holiday. I reverence and respect Easter.
Sure we have the fun aspect of it, but my girls know why we celebrate. It is very clear in our home. Because the Resurrection means everything to me.
I was struck, reading a book to the girls, about the grief suffered. Not the grief suffered by the Savior because that surpasses my understanding. I don't understand or even pretend to. But the grief of Mary Magdalene. To lose your best friend, to lose who you know was the Messiah, to lose the Man you saw heal the sick, shew kindness to children and perform miracle after miracle. Not only to lose, but to have seen Him suffer so much. Was she grateful to have Him not suffer any longer? Or was she just devastated He was gone?
She bowed herself and wept. I wonder if she thought this was the end, that there was no more meaning to life. Was she in shock? Was she in denial? I wonder would she have gotten up or would her heart have broken completely had she not heard, "Why weepest thou?"
Yet she did had hope, because she answered, "Sir, if thou have borne him hence, tell me where thou hast laid him, and I will take him away." It was her moment of despair, her sorrow, and yet she knew He wasn't gone. He hadn't just vanished and disappeared into nothingness. She would have carried His body herself, because she loved him.
I love Easter, because almost nothing can ever break us. Jesus Christ has been resurrected. The bands of death broken. Life is everything, because it is not just temporary- it is eternal.
Of recent, I've had a lot of opportunities to share about The Church I belong to. There are a lot of misconceptions about Mormons. The one that shocks me so much is the claim that we don't worship Christ. He is our Saviour and we worship Him. He was the only perfect person to walk the earth, He atoned for us so we could return one day to live with Him and our Heavenly Father.
Another misconception is that we don't read the bible. We do! I love the Bible. I read it often. The Book of Mormon is an additional testament of equal importance. "Other sheep I have which are not of this fold, them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice, and there shall be one fold and one shepherd." (John 10:16) We know that God speaks in the mouth of two or three witnesses. The Book of Mormon testifies of Christ, of His divinity, of how we need to strive to be like Him, how we need to repent and order our lives and follow His example. Both books are of extreme importance and are studied regularly in our home as encouraged by The Church.
Everyone can read the scriptures and find different meaning. Of late I'm come to realize you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink. We all are going to believe what we believe. And that's Ok, because God gave us our agency and this life is meant to show what we will do with it! For me the key was Modern day prophets and temples. We are loved as much as those who lived anciently. They had prophets and so we do too this day. I read THIS and and THIS know without a doubt He is a man of God, called to teach me and lead me closer to Christ. Why would God leave us without direction for our times now? Amos 3:7 "Surely the Lord God doeth nothing, save He reveal His secret unto his servants the prophets." And also the temple... Moses had the Tabernacle, Solomon constructed One of great glory, Christ worshipped and taught often within one... why not now? God is no respecter of persons and He is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow.
I'm grateful to know and have what I have. It may be different from what others believe, but I think what is most important is that we live our lives in accordance to God's will. Christ said to Love One Another. And as I watch my little girls wave to every single car that passes by on a spring walk, my heart takes courage. There is goodness out there because of Easter. Because life is not a mere chance or flick of coincidence. Life is eternal if we face our choices to that above. Of this I bear testimony of in the name of Jesus Christ, my Redeemer. Amen.
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And just as a side note, today I was so proud of my Christina. She wanted to fast today, so she fasted all 3 hours of church without any snacks. :) I hadn't thought anything about it because I felt like she's too young to understand the concept of fasting and her body is too small to go without food. Maybe when she's 8. But at the same time I didn't want to discourage her- she was given a fruit rollup at church by a teacher and promptly told him, she wouldn't eat it until after church because of the fast. I'm just amazed at her. She teaches me so much by her humbleness and willingness to follow. She is amazing.
We also acted out the story of Palm Sunday 4 times. (I think they would have done more too, but it was time for bed) The girls really enjoyed dressing up as a donkey and making palm leaves.
My favorite was Ram's first present which was actually little boys clothes. Great reaction.
We made leprechaun puppets because they did give us shamrock cookies, I guess they're not too wicked.
