something that nick and i have been working on this year is building traditions for our family. i have been reading a really good book by noel piper called,:: ' treasuring God in our traditions' & it is an amazing book. my family has about a million traditions & nick's does not, so its been a little bit of a challenge for us to build some for our little family, but by Gods grace we are learning & communicating the importance of them now.
today, marks the start of holy week. i really desire the easter story, & the story of the gospel to be a really intense week in our home filled with truth & stories right out of the bible explaining the events and importance of this week & of easter sunday. i do not want to sugarcoat easter & the death of Jesus for our children. i want them to know the real honest truth about what happened so that they will be able to clearly see from a young age what God did. i want them to know that we killed Jesus, not that it was just those who participated in the torturous crucifixion of Christ. i want them to know & understand what God gave up for them. i want them to understand that on palm sunday Jesus was praised.
luke 19:28- 40
28And when he had said these things,(AB) he went on ahead,(AC) going up to Jerusalem. 29(AD) When he drew near to Bethphage and(AE) Bethany, at(AF) the mount that is called Olivet, he sent(AG) two of the disciples, 30saying, "Go into the village in front of you, where on entering you will find a colt tied,(AH) on which no one has ever yet sat. Untie it and bring it here. 31If anyone asks you, 'Why are you untying it?' you shall say this: 'The Lord has need of it.'" 32So those who were sent went away and found it(AI) just as he had told them. 33And as they were untying the colt, its owners said to them, "Why are you untying the colt?" 34And they said, "The Lord has need of it." 35And they brought it to Jesus, and throwing their cloaks on the colt, they set Jesus on it. 36And as he rode along, they(AJ) spread their cloaks on the road. 37As he was drawing near—already on the way down the Mount of Olives—(AK) the whole multitude of his disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice(AL) for all the mighty works that they had seen, 38saying,(AM) "Blessed is(AN) the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and(AO) glory in the highest!" 39(AP) And some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, "Teacher, rebuke your disciples."
40He answered, "I tell you, if these were silent,(AQ) the very stones would cry out."
i want them to understand that all of creation would have shouted at the wonderful works of our LORD. i desire to hear my children praise God, & thank him for all of the really wonderful ways he has blessed us - & blessed those around us. i want to find ways to spend the week preparing the hearts of my family for what is about to take place. i want them to understand the depth of what the LORD did for them. each day i want to walk through the scriptures & the events leading up to the most celebrated day of our year! our church is really amazing, {a post on that later this week!} & on good friday they do an incredible job of helping you see & feel the depth of the death of Jesus. going to the good friday service feels the same as going to a funeral, and i honestly really love that. i love that i leave feeling terrible. feeling sorrow. feeling{in a small way} like the disciples felt. i can not wait to explain that sorrowful feeling to my children & let them know that not only is it ok to be sad, but that they should be sad. i dont want to brush it off like it's just something that we do. i want there to be an emotional response, because i know its emotional for me and for my sweet husband. & then i want them to still mourn on saturday. not that i want them to spend the entire day just mopping around with gloom, but i dont want to just act as if it never happened. because the rejoicing that comes on sunday morning is the most incredible! i want them to rejoice that their savior is alive! i am so excited to share with them the good news - - that Christ is risen & that because of that our soul knows salvation!!!
so, with all that being said; do any of you have ways that you celebrate the events of holy week? because those are all my desires but i am desperate to find a way to integrate that into our family, as our easter tradition. & i also know that maggie is so young & that she will have no idea what we do this year for easter, but i will. & my husband will. & we need to be reminded as much as our children will. so please, if any of you have any ideas/ traditions of your own- - please share!
xo,
a
i LOVE this! i desire similar things. i would love to have more family traditions with our little Knight fam.
ReplyDeletelove you ally!
I've heard that book is fabulous. I think I need to order a copy :)
ReplyDeleteWe had the same "issue" after getting married; my family does the holiday traditions up big, Jason's does not. So we purposed early on to mix and blend, but also create our own. I like digging deeper into the Biblical context of "holidays" and teaching our kids more about that, than the worldly view of them. I'm learning more about some of each holiday's roots now that we're teaching our own kids. Pretty cool what you learn while parenting :)