Happy Maundy Thursday, friends. It's been a very meaningful Holy Week for us as we experience each day of the Savior's final week, and as we look toward Easter Sunday (and General Conference).
Originally, I had all kinds of awesome ideas about how to celebrate Easter in a way that was joyful and Christ-centered. I wanted to do a Passover meal this Friday and did tons of research in preparation. I was going to make Resurrection Rolls and Resurrection Eggs and Jesus-themed Easter baskets and do all kinds of service projects and read all kinds of books and - well, you get the idea.
But with how crazy our life has been (more on that in another post), I had to let go of my Pinterest-inspired ideals. I don't even think we're going to do Easter egg decorating this year. But it has nonetheless been a joyful and Christ-centered Easter season, mainly due to two simple changes. These changes are inspired by the feeling I get at Christmastime. What makes Christmas feel so good to me that I want it all year round? Because I want to have that feeling for Easter, too! For me,the top two things that make the season are:
1. The music.
2. The gratitude/giving back - in other words, service.
Think about it. For many of us at Christmastime, both of these things are what provide the Warm'n'Fuzzies to our hearts throughout the season, even more than the trappings. And the same is true of Easter.
1. The Music!
So for music, I put together a few different playlists on YouTube - one for the spring/Easter season, one for Holy Week, and one for Easter Morn - and have been playing them around the house for several weeks now. Some of it is the Bible videos made by the LDS Church. Some of it is those great Mormon Tabernacle Choir ones with the video footage inter-cut with the choir singing - my little guy loves watching the animals, the scenery, and the Bible reenactment footage that accompanies each music video.
No creature is so lowly,
No sinner so depraved,
But feels thy presence holy
And thru thy love is saved.
Tho craven friends betray thee,
They feel thy love's embrace;
The very foes who slay thee
Have access to thy grace.
I cannot add more than an "amen" to such transcendent, eloquent truth. I'm so grateful for Jesus Christ and His Atonement. And this Easter I'm grateful for the gift of music to help teach us about the Savior, and to use as a tool to testify to ourselves and others.
2. The Service
Sometimes the thought of service overwhelms me. More often than not, actually. One of my biggest struggles in life is just being too darn tired to move my feet. That sounds funny, but it isn't at all. I will often cry when I wake up in the morning because the tiredness feels likes it's going to drown me. I wake up exhausted, I spend my day in alternating spurts of feel-good adrenaline and numbing exhaustion, and I go to bed completely drained. Ever since pregnancy I cannot remember NOT being tired. The exhaustion is perhaps the biggest piece in the spiral of depression, anxiety, and unhealthy eating habits. So when I hear talks about giving more service, more time, and more energy, just the thought of it makes my system shut down. I've only got about 3 hours of "give-worthy" energy in any given day, and I "NEED" that time, doesn't anyone understand that?! I think inwardly. Selfish, I know.
Well, I am slowly learning that it is possible to serve and be tired and still survive. And that service feels good, even when it feels tiring. And there is perhaps no greater way to honor the Savior during the Easter season than to serve others with love. "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me", the Savior taught. With that in mind, we have tried to add daily acts of service to the past three weeks. The kinds of service I/we have given have been very small things. But they have been conscious, daily, out of my ordinary rhythm, and done in love.
Although I'm sure that all those other plans I had will still enhance Easters to come, making these two changes was, for now, the best way to bring the Spirit into our homes this Easter season.
I know this is just a personal blog, read by my mother and my husband more than by anyone else. And yet I cannot pass by this easy opportunity to bear testimony of our Savior. Jesus Christ lives! Because He lives, the grave does not hold victory over our relationships. There is life after death. And Because He so loved (and loves), sin does not hold victory over our hearts, and we can find everlasting life. Families can be eternal. Pain will be replaced with peace and joy. We can return to a happiness we don't even remember - the happiness we held in the presence of our Heavenly Father and Mother. I think this Easter, I am more than ever appreciating that through the Atonement of Christ, we will find those family relationships with our Heavenly Parents, and hold them eternally; and that we can also keep our own families eternally in the hereafter. I wish I had a profound way to end that testimony, but I guess the profound thing is that a testimony doesn't end. It keeps growing as we grow in light and truth, until we reach the perfect day and we see Him as He is. For now, all I can do is feel grateful.
Well, I am slowly learning that it is possible to serve and be tired and still survive. And that service feels good, even when it feels tiring. And there is perhaps no greater way to honor the Savior during the Easter season than to serve others with love. "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me", the Savior taught. With that in mind, we have tried to add daily acts of service to the past three weeks. The kinds of service I/we have given have been very small things. But they have been conscious, daily, out of my ordinary rhythm, and done in love.
Although I'm sure that all those other plans I had will still enhance Easters to come, making these two changes was, for now, the best way to bring the Spirit into our homes this Easter season.
I know this is just a personal blog, read by my mother and my husband more than by anyone else. And yet I cannot pass by this easy opportunity to bear testimony of our Savior. Jesus Christ lives! Because He lives, the grave does not hold victory over our relationships. There is life after death. And Because He so loved (and loves), sin does not hold victory over our hearts, and we can find everlasting life. Families can be eternal. Pain will be replaced with peace and joy. We can return to a happiness we don't even remember - the happiness we held in the presence of our Heavenly Father and Mother. I think this Easter, I am more than ever appreciating that through the Atonement of Christ, we will find those family relationships with our Heavenly Parents, and hold them eternally; and that we can also keep our own families eternally in the hereafter. I wish I had a profound way to end that testimony, but I guess the profound thing is that a testimony doesn't end. It keeps growing as we grow in light and truth, until we reach the perfect day and we see Him as He is. For now, all I can do is feel grateful.
"O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." - 1 Corinthian 15:55-57
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