Heart, Soul, Mind & Strength: Easter • April 20, 2014

This Easter was really special in lots of ways. I so wish I would have blogged during it (or at least before September!)

It was just that time of year that I love, spring time, and Easter is my favorite holiday! When everything is blooming, life seems to slow down some, the cold is going away, and summer is on the horizon.

I was doing a Bible Study with a group of moms that semester by Lysa TerKeurst titled, "What happens when women say yes to God." I was truly trying to surrender to the Lord daily. I was doing a lot of soul searching and loved seeing everything come alive that spring. For Lent I challenged myself to get up around 5:00 am to really dig into God's Word, to read, and to pray, pray, and pray again.

It really was life changing to me, an experience that taught me a lot of things (that I really do like sleep and I'm not all that great at being a morning person ;)

But day after day I kept dragging myself out of bed and I kept clinging to Isaiah 41:10.

"So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand."

I realized the year before that I have a lot of fears in my life, and some things that I never truly give over to Him. I still want to control most of the things around me, even when I feel like I've given them over to Him. It's hard, the struggle is still there today, but I am confident that God will help me. And I know fear is not from the Lord, He doesn't want me to walk this road in fear or alone. Our walk with the Lord is an ever changing, ever growing one, and in that season I grew. I loved deeply and I prayed a lot, I attempted to have radical obedience. (I should probably do this again soon too!)

All of that about my Lenten Journey because I think it truly changed the way I felt about Easter and the way I portrayed it to my little family. The walk to the cross was real to me. I felt such sorrow for Jesus, gratitude that He died for me, yet unworthy all at the same time. My heart overflowed with love for Him, and I tried my hardest to teach that to Lydia. Even in the eyes of a 3 year old, I think she got it a little bit. And that's all that matters.

Maybe that's why I was called to get up early, to be intentional, to pray.... I do not know. But I will never forget the day Lydia asked me how to get to Heaven. Looking back, God had it all lined up (like He always does!)

A long time ago I got a $1 CD of Bible songs, maybe when she was about a one year at a thrift shop. It was pretty much the only thing we listened to in the car. She sang most of the words to all the songs, but I never knew if she was listening or paying attention or just memorizing. Either way, I figured it was better for her to listen to that then whatever was on the radio. We jammed out (and still do!) to those songs! And last Easter, while I was feeling the spirit move in me, I opened the mail to a flier from the Christian book store. I have no idea how I got on their mailing list and I'm not sure if I have ever been in that one before. But they were advertising the "Resurrection Eggs" and it had a coupon! I got them, not knowing what God would use them for.

But it was such a great tool for explaining the Gospel to a little one. It has a cute book to explain all the different things in the eggs and how they relate to Jesus death and His empty tomb. Again, I wasn't sure if she would understand, and I was worried that the "real" story was too much for a 3 year old. But I decided not to sugar coat it, not to make up something else, I told her the truth, the whole story. How Jesus suffered, how He bled, how He died for her. She really played with those eggs and enjoyed hearing the stories over and over again!

Then one day, riding down Lakeland, she was singing along to her CD and it came across "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot." We were just singing, like every other day,

"If you get to Heaven before I do,

Comin' for to carry me home,

Tell all my friends I'm comin' too,

Comin' for to carry me home."

And it was as if she heard the word Heaven for the first time ever. I know she's heard it her whole life, but it's like she knew what it was and she really wanted to go. Right there at Lakeland Drive and Old Fannin Road, at the red light in front of Newk's, she said, "Mama, how do I get to go to Heaven?"

And I told her plain and simple, you have to love Jesus with all your heart, you have to believe that He died on the cross for you. And she said she couldn't wait to get to Heaven because she did know Him, love Him, and believe He died for her.

WOW, just WOW. It's now 5 months later and I am still getting chills. I know we will have to do a lot to grow her spiritually and continue her walk with the Lord. But it sure made a mama's heart feel good that day when I knew that she "got it."

I'm thankful for such great family and friends that always show us the Way and support us unconditionally. I'm thankful for a church that lets us bring our little girl in every week and no one ever says a word about the squirming or noises. All of you around us love on us, and show love to her. And she's watching, thank you for giving the Love of Christ to our family and to our daughter.

Cross referencing her bibles and watching the Storybook Bible on the phone..... Such a good learner ;)

The Eggs! I pray she loves them and hears the love of Jesus again next year at Easter!

Palm Sunday Parade around downtown

We love the tradition of a real donkey walking us around with palm branches.

Making our eggs, and pipe cleaners, and doilies, and clothes pins.... basically, we had a lot of dye left over and found anything in my cabinets that could be colored. They turned out ok, except the pipe cleaners, they didn't hold the color. And the cute clothes pins were my favorite!

Because I was told to bring juice boxes to the party at school, and I can't ever make things easy on myself.... But I thought they turned out cute :) and it wasn't that hard, I was going to print something off, but it's just easier for the draw it than waist time on my printer always messing up.

Ms Linda from River Hills was the bunny!

She wasn't really into getting the eggs this year. Once she figured out there's candy inside, she sat down to open all 3 of hers to see what was in them.

Cooper hunting for eggs

Miss Ivy

Sweet Miss Ivy sharing her abundance of eggs.

Seth, he was in our class in the baby room and we miss him!

Don't worry, I put her leggings on before we left the house!

The Easter bunny came early at our house! It's a good thing, because I wasn't sure how I was going to get everyone ready for church and play with the new toys!

She got the easel for Christmas from Uncle Robert and Aunt Shaunna, it was just serving as a prop for new toys.... Big paints, a big alphabet tablet, brushes, construction paper, apron! FUN!

Swim suit, swim shoes, and more craft items!

We really did feel the Easter love this year in our home!

We even had bunny shaped cinnamon rolls

Heading to the church egg hunt at Millsaps

O-well, it usually comes off and we wore our play shoes because we couldn't mess up our church shoes for Sunday ;)

This is what she did when she saw the bunny for the first time.

Baylor loved the bunny though!

He may not be smiling, but he loved him! He kept following him around and wanting to give him a high five!

And well, she didn't so much love him this year.

But we made progress!

Preaching from "her pulpit" at church.

Here are just a few shots I got chasing her around the church Sunday morning. I started getting all teary eyed seeing her beauty in a long white dress at church. I couldn't help but think of her wedding one day.

And we had an impromptu visit to the capitol after church

I made Bailey's recipe for the best cookies ever! They turned out ok, but it is time consuming. Thanks Bai for always making them for us in years past!