Teaching Easter

As a mother and a woman of faith, I am always trying to sneak Biblical truths into the hearts of my kiddos. We read Bible stories together before bed. We pray before meals and before bedtime. When someone makes a bad choice, we talk about what the Bible has to say about it. We have Bible verses on the walls of our home. Teaching my children about Jesus is a priority for me and I try to weave little lessons about Him throughout our days. But there are two times every year when I feel called to be much more intentional about it.

Two times every year, we celebrate holidays that are the very basis of our entire faith. At Christmas, we celebrate the humble birth of our Savior. And at Easter, we celebrate the life, death and resurrection of our Lord. These two holidays are central to the Christian faith. But both holidays are celebrated by non-Christians as well. Perhaps a little differently. But most people in our community participate in some kind of Christmas or Easter festivities, whether or not they celebrate them for the same reasons we do. You cannot go into a store this week without seeing bunnies, eggs, baskets, little bow ties and fancy dresses. My kids know that it’s Easter time because of the clues all around them. It’s my job to make sure they know why there IS an Easter.

So in an effort to teach my kids about why there’s Easter, I’ve done a few things. A few years back, we used a set of Resurrection Eggs. The eggs share the Easter story through a series of small symbols, each inside of a plastic egg. This year, my two oldest are really into coloring and making their own books. I thought it’d be appropriate to have them make their own Easter books. I’ll share some links for both of these teaching tools at the end of this post, but first I want to tell you a story.

Last year on Good Friday, my mother-in-law called to talk to the kids. When Mackenna, age 6 at the time, got on the phone, I could hear her grandmother ask her, “Mackenna do you know that today is Good Friday? Do you know why today is a special day?” And on the inside I started to freak out a little bit. Why? Because we hadn’t really been talking about Easter. Last year we didn’t do the Resurrection Eggs. I hadn’t really done anything to prepare her heart and mind for Good Friday last year. I had no idea how she would answer that question. And I know it wasn’t a test by any means, but if there’s anyone I’d want to be impressed with how much my children know about Easter, it’s my mother-in-law! In that moment, I felt guilty for not more intentionally teaching Easter. I felt ashamed that I had let such a huge Christian holiday pass without taking the opportunity to remind Mackenna of why we celebrate it! How would Mackenna answer? It had been a year since I last talked to her about the Easter story!

To my amazement, I listened to my daughter tell a VERY detailed account of Good Friday, what happened to Jesus leading up to it and what happened in the days that followed. She included details I had NEVER told her or read to her. I’m even her Sunday School teacher, so I knew what she had been learning in her class at church and knew that she had not been taught all of those Easter details she was now describing to her grandma. I sat on the floor of our kitchen hearing this beautiful telling of our Savior’s death and resurrection coming from the lips of my child and I had tears in my eyes. Tears of relief and humility as I felt God replace my mommy guilt with His grace.

You see, we’re all trying our best. And if you’re anything like me, it’s easy to feel like a lot of the times your best just isn’t good enough. I can’t do it all, but that’s ok…I wasn’t made to do it all, I was made to rely on God. I can’t be Super Mom, but that’s ok…I wasn’t made to be Super Mom, I was made to need a super God. And that mile-long list of things I really want to teach my kids about faith and love and life, I can’t teach it all, and that’s ok. Because I wasn’t made to teach them everything. I was made to teach them what I can, and in faith, offer them up to God. Because HE is in charge of shaping their hearts and minds, not me. I am doing my best and as evidenced in the story above, God is filling in the pieces I haven’t. I wonder if someone reading this might need to exchange her mommy-guilt for grace…

All that to say…here are a few ideas that I’ve enjoyed using to help teach my kids about Easter.

• Resurrection Eggs can be purchased here or can be homemade using the information found here.
• You can find the Easter story in the Bible in a few places: Matthew 26-28, Mark 14-16, Luke 22-24, and John 18-20
• My favorite Bible for kids is The Jesus Storybook Bible, which you can purchase here.  I love this Bible because every single story points toward God’s big plan for saving humanity through His Son.
• If you want to make the Easter booklet for your kids to color, you can download it here.  Each page is 4 x 6″, designed to fit perfectly into a small photo album.  (We picked a few up at our local dollar store.)  It could also be bound with a simple ring if you hole-punched each one.  Or you could leave them unbound and color just one part of the story each day.  Make a timeline of the story on a wall in your home.  Or have kids grab a page and teach you that part of the story.

I would love to hear from you!  What resources or methods have you used to teach your kids about Easter?