God Spotting: Easter 2012

This has been a very challenging and wonderful Lenten season.

Our church's adult Sunday morning program is working through Crazy Love by Francis Chan.  Dave and I have both been inspired.  For me, I have had to look critically at the way I've compartmentalized God.  He doesn't want a lukewarm part of me, He wants all of me.  This is hard, but I'm working on it.

We used Amon's Adventure to work through Lent with the boys this year.  It is a great story!  Unlike the Advent books  in which you read a portion of the story nightly through the season, this book has only 28 chapters.  If you want to use it during Lent (and I highly recommend that you do -- especially if you've read the Advent triology),  You'll want to read nightly during Holy Week.  That leaves 20 days of readings for the first 30-ish days of Lent.

The author's devotional messages at the end of each day's reading have dovetailed amazing well with the Crazy Love book. I know that God is talking directly to me when He does that!

On Palm Sunday, our church had a family Easter celebration and we made a variety of crafts:

The tomb; rock is covering grave.

Making a foam palm leaf.  We also folded a palm leaf into a cross.

The Last Supper.

And Easter morning the boys woke up to bunnies and jelly beans in our family Easter basket:

It is tradition here that we get a "little" something that has to do with Jesus on Easter -- usually books or Adventure in Odyssey CDs.  Ben has been wanting a cross, so I found a teen-looking nail cross for him.  Of course, he sets the tone in the house, so Luke and Levi got shield/ cross necklaces, too.  And, to complete the trifecta of God speaking about fully surrendering to Him this season, we purchased Francis Chan's Halfway Herbert book for the kids (it'll be a  young for Ben, but the message is spot on).

I'm so grateful to God for this season in my life when I am seeing and feeling Him.  There have been many dry spells -- but this is not one of them.  As Dave and I begin to discuss new adventures for our family, we are trying to remain open to God's leading.  I sorta, kinda like to control things, and I'm re-learning that God's plan is always better than mine.