Easter traditions in light of eternity

What's your go-to favourite Easter tradition? Egg painting? The Easter egg hunt? I haven’t met another parent whose favourite is the Easter hat parade!

As our shops fill their windows with the beautiful arrangements of chicks and bunnies, we can panic. How do I make this time a beautiful experience for my kids? How am I ever going to find the time to do more? Am I going to have made core memories for them?

Easter is a great opportunity to build family traditions that your kids will reminisce about. Even better, it’s an opportunity to invest our energy in traditions that point to the magnificent truth that Christ died to reconcile us to God. As we approach all the activities, cooking and craft projects we might choose to do over Easter, we can ask whether they are going to help or hinder our opportunities to celebrate Jesus with our kids.

A few years back, my husband and I set an Easter tradition of spending each day from Palm Sunday to Easter Monday clearly presenting the gospel to our kids. Maybe not quite as Insta-friendly as other traditions, but the investment might yield a greater return.

You might be thinking, ‘If they are already in the kingdom, why do you need to call for a response?’, ‘Don't they hear it at Sunday school, week in, week out?’ or ‘Don't you do that every day or at least every week?’. Here’s what I would say to those objections.

‘They are Christians already’

It’s true that the children of Christians belong to God's covenant family, but they will still need to decide to follow Jesus for themselves. Like everyone else, God uses his word in relationship over time to both save and mature people, and it's no different with our kids. God doesn't have any grandkids. We do have a significant influence in the decisions we make, so let’s take advantage of the opportunities in front of us!

‘Their leaders at church are doing that’

You have a unique and far better opportunity than others to disciple your kids. We've been commanded by God to do it (Ephesians 6:4), we have the relationship to do it, and we have so many opportunities to do it.

‘I'm telling my kids the gospel all the time’

That is so good! I still think it is worth spending time each year to teach the whole gospel message and teach it clearly over several days. We can often share parts of the truths of the gospel, without always giving time to explain them in full. When we break it down, there’s a lot to it. They need to understand the following truths:

• God created and loves them.
• They are sinful.
• Because of their sin, they deserve judgment and separation from God.
• Jesus was perfectly obedient, unlike us.
• Jesus died on the cross.
• He took the penalty for our sins on his sinless self.
• He rose to life defeating sin and death.
• We can now be friends with God only because of Jesus.
• We now live obediently to Jesus as our King and wait for him to return.

Easter feels like the natural time to explore this whole message with our kids. You might be wondering, ‘How can I possibly teach all these truths this Easter? It doesn't feel simple when you break it down’. I promise it can be simple—and fun! Here are a few steps.

*Promote 'All About Easter Activity Book' here*

Spend a week reading the events of the first Easter

To do this in a fun way with my kids, I created a family devotional called 'The Gospel Easter Eggs' that uses the narrative and stories of Jesus from Palm Sunday to his ascension to clearly teach all these truths in order. You can buy them from my website, ‘Lift Their Eyes’. These big truths are given one per day, building on each other to clearly share the gospel.

We make it fun for our kids by hiding one each day before our family devotion (like a daily Easter egg hunt), reading a Bible story (in our children’s Bible), asking engaging questions and listening to a related song. Then we hang them up, adding to our display each day— enjoying the illustrations and recapping what has happened throughout the week. The resource also includes daily themed activities, which make great extra traditions for the family if you have time.

Ask diagnostic questions

You may have heard of diagnostic questions before; they can help reveal the heart of what someone thinks about themselves and God. Some I have used with kids include:

• Do you think you’re good enough to be friends with God?
• Do you think God should be your friend? Why?
• Why did Jesus have to die?
• Why should God let you into heaven?

Throughout the week, my husband and I will do the ‘Gospel Easter Eggs’ with the kids, which include a daily diagnostic question to see if they understand the big truth. My husband and I will also try to set aside time in the week for a one-to-one chat with each of our kids, usually on Easter Saturday, to see how much they have understood. This is where diagnostic questions come in handy. A few days ago, I looked into one of my kids’ eyes during Bible time and asked, ‘Do you think you are good enough to be friends with God?’. When their response was strongly in the affirmative, I could have felt like giving up (as it seemed like the 100th time this year we’d talked about sin). But wow, it was the best reminder that the Spirit needs to work in their hearts.

I think it’s important to recognise that our kids will want to please us in their answers. So, for us, we will be careful not to apply pressure on our kids about responding to Jesus or ask leading questions. Instead, we will teach our kids Romans 10:9–10—‘If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord”, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved’—so that they know how to respond. We want our kids to know that ultimately we will love them no less, whatever decision they make.

Pray

Waiting on God to grow gospel understanding in our kids requires complete dependence on him—there is nothing better for our spiritual lives than to see that all mercies come from him.

What you might want to pray for:

• that the gospel truths would take root in each of your children (Matthew 13:23)
• that they wouldn’t fall away during times of trial or get enticed by what the world offers (Matthew 13:21)
• for opportunities to share your own story of following Jesus
• that during discipline moments, they might see their sin and need of grace.

There is a spiritual battle taking place for our children’s hearts. We don’t have control over the final outcome. All God wants from us is to faithfully model, teach and pray. Let’s take hold of the opportunity that Easter presents to teach our kids the gospel of Jesus.

---

Alice Dickens is a mum of three and a ministry wife in Sydney, Australia. Out of a desire to create helpful discipleship resources for her own kids, she ended up creating ‘Lift Their Eyes’, a ministry that creates interactive resources for families to help make discipling their kids simple and fun.

For more articles from Growing Faith, subscribe to our monthly e-newsletter.
To hear about the latest books and resources from Youthworks Media, subscribe here.