Easter Giveaway & Blogging Break :-)
If you took part in the Facebook fun of my Spring Cleaning Week of giveaways, hop over to my page to see the winners announced. If you aren’t my FB friend, I’d love for you to be! Just click on the FB icon in my sidebar and send me a friend request!
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Hey bloggy sisters~
I’m posting today, offering an Easter giveaway and then I’m going to take a much-needed blogging break to focus on Holy Week with my family.
I want to slow down and savor the moments. I wasn’t sure if I’d have anyone who wanted to color eggs, but I do have one taker. (Thought I was going to need to grab some neighborhood kids!)
I can’t wait for our church’s resurrection celebration. We are trusting many hear about a new life with Jesus, because of the cross.
When we first began attending this church last spring, attendance was around 350. In one year, we’ve witnessed literally dozens of people decide to follow Christ and be baptized.
Homemakers, skeptical husbands, a woman who was a drug dealer, men addicted to pornography, indifferent middle-agers, sweet grandmas and searching teens. Now we are running over 700 each week and anticipate over 1,000 for Easter since that is how many we had at Christmas!!!
As our lead teaching pastor said yesterday, it is NEVER to be about the numbers but about the fact that many will hear about Jesus, the cross and the resurrection and as a result, lives will be changed for eternity! And what a humbling thought that God uses us as He changes lives—ours included!
And of course, I can’t forget my extended family get-together with all the aunts, uncles and cousins where my mom hosts her annual egg-hunt, now turned trivia contest with other whacky games for the teens that are excuses for her to love on her grandkids and load them up with candy!
Yes, I love Easter week.
I have been blessed with a man who is intentional in creatively teaching his kids about God. We’ve had M & M races, a lesson on the persecuted church given on a cold, hard cement floor in the dark by flashlight, & much more.
This week, our yard sports a large, wooden cross.
Passersby will see a sign change each day announcing just what happened on that particular day of Holy Week. From Palm Sunday (Jesus enters Jerusalem) to Maundy Thursday (Jesus shares the last supper with his 12 closest friends) to the darkness of Good Friday, the silence of Saturday & the glory of Resurrection Sunday.
The signs not only change, but a cloth draping the shoulders of the cross goes from red to black to royal purple. And spot-lights illuminate the scene at night.
I pray you too are being intentional to focus on the glorious unfolding of Holy Week. Don’t take it for granted! Read the accounts in the gospels. Thank God for His wonderful plan!
Now, as an Easter gift to one of you, this week I’ll be giving away the following to one gal who comments:
~ An NIV thinline compact Bible. No better Easter gift than God’s word!!! It is a great, portable size for your purse or car. (pictured out of the box for you to see the color)
~ Some bags of chocolate-hazelnut & Raspberry white tea (all decaf) for you to enjoy hot or cold while you read your new Bible!
~ A fresh linen candle. Because Jesus’ blood makes us clean!
~ A dark chocolate-sea salt bar. (Hey….there is sea salt in the Holy Land, right?)
Okay—so leave us a comment letting us know your favorite Easter memory.
Mine is when our kids were small and we made a paper-mache’ “tomb” scene complete with three crosses. They would use an action-figure guy to be Jesus, wrap him in strips of white cloth, place him in the tomb and voila’—-He wasn’t there on Sunday morning….but their Easter baskets were!
What is your favorite Easter memory from adulthood or childhood?
My favorite Easter Memory is visiting my maternal grandmother and grandfather. They always knew how to make a little girl feel at home and welcome, especially when my grandfather would pin the special Easter lily he bought just for me to my new Easter dress. Then it was off to church to show off my flower and to see how much candy I could stuff in my matching purse. :)
My favorite Easter memory is when my Dad used to hide my Easter basket every year. He would make an audio tape directing me around the house (and Mom and Dad would play “hot” and “cold” with me, leading me all over, until I’dfinally find it), and one year he got a little TOO creative. He led me all over the house and outside the front door. He had me looking behind bushes in our front yard, and even around the side of the house before his voice in the tape told me to turn around in the driveway so I was facing the street, take 10 steps forward, and then “keep on going because you were a bad girl this year and there’s no Easter basket for you!” Well, my poor little 9 year old heart was traumatized until I turned around and saw Dad laughing. Mom, on the other hand, was not laughing. She hadn’t heard the tape and was not amused at all. She was very worried I’d be scarred for life by that tape, but once I realized it was Dad kidding, I was fine (he is a huge practical joker). Now I think it is hilarious….although I would NOT do that to a child of mine.
I also loved the Easter where my grandmother got me my Easter basket…she was always so “creative” with what she put in it. This particular year, there were two gems. First, the basket was lined with Easter-themed underwear from KMart (her favorite store; she tried to make it look like it was a fabric lining in the basket, but alas….it was UNDERWEAR in my basket). Even better, she included a cute little pair of gold bunny earrings. When I showed them to my Dad, he was pretty upset. I asked him way and he told me they were “grown-up bunnies” and I couldn’t wear the earrings until I was much older – turns out they were Playboy bunny earrings and my poor Nana had NO idea that’s what they were. She was mortified. It was pretty funny, looking back. :)
When I was a kid at Easter breakfast before church my brothers would always see how many eggs they could eat for breakfast! Then we’d get dressed up to go to Church. I loved that I had little white gloves and a little hat. Today I love to leave Easter baskets outside my kids door (yes teenagers love Easter Baskets too).
My favorite Easter memory is a tradition I do with my boys. We go through the ‘reserrection eggs’ and make empty tombs, which are edible.
My mom would always make sure us girls had new dresses and white sandals. She usually made the dresses. I can’t remember any one particular memory but mom always tried to make it special with Easter baskets of goodies and new dresses. But God was always the focus of Easter!
I am blessed to repeat my favorite Easter memory each year – we have an all church potluck at our home. It is a fun and special time of fellowship with the dear people we worship with all year.
My favorite Easter memory is from 2005 when I was confirmed in the Church. We went to Easter Vigil and my mother and father-in-law drove down to go to the Mass with us. Receiving Jesus for the first time in the most holy Sacrament of the Eucharist was more than wonderful.
My favorite memory is having a gigantic Easter egg hunt at my childhood church. They hid hundreds of the eggs both outside and inside the building and we spent a good twenty minutes looking for them all. This happened after our traditional Easter pot-luck as well. :)
My favorite memory is every Easter morning growing up my entire family would all climb a hill in the dark of dawn for a real “Sunrise Service” somtimes it rained, and sometimes the sun shone but we were always there. Great memories!
So many wonderful Easter week memorys with our sons and church family..yet one in particular stands out even more….the very last church service I had with my late husband. It was Easter week 2003 and Jim had been very sick that year from his Manic Depression…in & out of hospitals and repeated Suicide attempts. As spring blossomed …his disease worsened even more. Yet on that weekend he was present with me at church…raising his hands in worship as I joined in with our praise team up on the stage. AS I sang I watched his facial expressions, knowing THIS was very well the last time I would see his love for Jesus expressed. Those moments froze in my mind to be used as I grieved in sorrow for him later within 2 weeks..He was gone. He completed suicide on April 28th, 2003…and THAT Holy Week was a comfort for me during many dark nights of my soul as a widow. Jim’s mind was sick yet now he is well! That disease took his mind but Jesus always had his soul..he proved it on Resurrection Sunday. Praise God….I am grateful!
Without Jesus….without Salvation….we all could be lost.
Death has lost its sting…
Take me to that cross.
Death can not destroy me.
The church I attended while growing up gave all members a white wooden cross that says “He Is Risen” and every year at Easter, we put it out in the yard. We still do. And I would love to drive around our small town and see all of the identical crosses in many front yards.
My memories are of dressing up with new clothes and shoes, with hats and a basketfull of goodies. Especially the sunrise services at our church
Just this a.m. on the way to school, I reminded my twin teens of how we would re-enact Jesus (my three munchkins) riding on the donkey (me) while two of the three would wave the palm branches and sing “Hosanna”. How easy they were to entertain! We did as many symbolic activities as we could find. We still do the jelly bean poem. In fact I need to get my Easter tote out and see what I can apply to my teens. I’m so glad we have tons of footage of their egg hunts in the backyard. We usually did it at least threee times. And then we pooled all the eggs and divided them equally so there would be no tears because they we so competitive. Maybe I can do something “teen-age” with the resurrection eggs and bake Leanne’s resurrection rolls.
A blessed Easter to everyone–Jane
I have so many memories-church egg hunts, finding easter eggs and baskets in our house, coloring eggs, getting dressed up and wearing a fancy white straw easter hat and white gloves!
Every year my mom, my two sisters, and I searched for the perfect Easter dresses. I can remember “bustin'” out the white hats and new white shoes paired with white ruffled socks folded down just so. If we were lucky, a little white pocketbook to match! After a Saturday night of dyeing eggs, putting out our Easter baskets, and waking to mom’s cookin’ and a basket of goodies, we were off to church. Afterwards, my dad would set up the camera in the front yard, tripod and all, for our ritual family Easter pic. Traditional Easter with my family. But my MOST memorable Easter was when my dad thought he would surprise us, and he came home dressed like the Easter bunny!!! I am about 4 or 5, and I am sitting in our den, indian style watching TV while mom is in the kitchen cooking. We have double glass french doors, and up walks the Easter bunny (but dressed in a suit!) I screamed and screamed! I was partly afraid, but also knew we didn’t have our baskets out yet. It frightened me so much that I never would visit the Easter bunny at the mall again, and he still gives me the willy jillies!
I have so many wonderful memories, especially with the kids. But the one I want to share goes back just a few years. My husband is a pastor in the mountains of NC. The church we were pastoring at the time was built on the crest of a ridge. The cemetery was all along a sloping hillside. We held the sunrise service in the cemetery! Watching the sun rise on that glorious Easter morning, surrounded by loved ones who had gone on before was simply amazing. You couldn’t help but think about…”in the twinkling of an eye…” This was a powerful moment for all of us.
I know it’s not a super Christian type memory, but I absolutely loved seeing all the ladies wearing their Sunday best, including hats and gloves and couldn’t wait until I was old enough to dress like them too!!
My favorite Easter memory is celebrating and singing praises at a Sunrise service. The sun was just coming up ane air was crisp and clean. Many gathered together to sing praises outside that early morning and celebrate the gift of life.
Celebrating at Easter lunch with family
My favorite Easter memory is when I was little and my mom would put out Easter baskets for my brother and for me to find…she would hide them somewhere in the house…I also remember us coloring eggs (this was in the early /mid 60’s) and decorating them. I also have a few pictures of me and my little brother all dressed up for Easter service at church, when we were kids…..I need to find those and put them on my Facebook page this week!
Thanks for your generousity in this giveaway. I hope you enjoy the week of reserrection celebration. Blessings to you and your family.
Thanks, Karen, I can’t think of a favorite Easter memory, but I am grateful for your encouraging words and ideas to celebrate with the true meaning of the season in mind. This is the most wonderful holiday for us to gratefully engage with all our heart, soul and mind in gratitude for what he has done. I have purposed to continue to seek more understanding and wisdom on the depth of the cost of His great gift to us…..not sure I will attain that on earth, but it makes me more grateful.
ONE of my favorite memories may sound a little strange, but it occurred the Easter after my dear father died. A faithful attendee of sunrise service on Easter morn, I went to the cemetery where I looked out over the graves and as the sun rose, my heart was filled with such excitement because I knew, really knew the hope of glory. One day, I will meet my father as I go to my Father who loved me so much He prepared a place for me and made the provision for me to be with Him one day. Five years later, that hope filled my heart again as I buried my tiny son. One day I will see him again. What joy! What hope! Hallelujah, what a Savior!
My favorite Easter memory! There truly are many. My husband and I Have 9 children, 6 of which we adopted with special needs. This account is of our first Easter together, their ages were from 2 to 13 (6 of them being 2-7) Dyeing eggs was fun!! The children were as colorful as the eggs. Most all of them were cracked. Lol they were so proud of them!!! Easter morning started with Sunrise service. So beautiful out in a field!!! Back home for bunny pancakes. Then came the Easter egg hunt in our back yard. The children liked that so much that they rebid the eggs all day!!!
We spent the day celebrating our living Jesus with songs, stories from kiddie books and the Bible.
Our table for the dinner meal was overflowing!! I loved it!
My favorite memory which is also a tradition for our family is going to Church to celebrate the resurrection of our LORD. Then afterwards getting together with family for dinner and a time of fellowship.