Making Easter Real for my Children!

It is so encouraging to experience the spiritual growth in our family every year!  Two years ago we did an Easter Lapbook with the little ones, Danika, Andrew and David.  

Last year we build on the Easter Lapbook knowledge.  

We had an Easter dinner and watched The Passion of Christ with the children.  Beautiful to see the impact the movie had on their hearts and souls. 

This year the Lord amazingly lead us to add more to the children’s understanding of His greatest gift to them!

Two weeks ago, I had to take Heidi-Mari to a very interesting craft shop in Northumberland street, Bellville.  While waiting to pay for our goodies,  the children drew my attention to a Wooden cross scene, exhibited on one of the small tables.  The children were fascinated by it. With their knowledge of Christ’s crucifixion, they were entertaining each other with what they knew about Jesus on the cross.  Then it was my turn to pay and within seconds I made the decision to get us the same scene.  Although there were a few impatient ladies behind me, waiting to pay for their goodies, too, I quickly enquired where I could find the crosses and the stand.  The children were over the moon and proudly walked out of the shop with their new priced possession!

The crosses we bought was just plain wood, but the crosses in the Craft Shop was decorated and painted and had a very interesting rustic look. Now it was my challenge to find the crafting stuff to decorate and paint our crosses to give it the same rustic look.  Fortunately there is another very popular crafting shop in Durbanville, near Christo’s health shop and I went in to ask for advise.  I took my wooden crosses with and tried to explain to them what end result I was looking for.  They immediately knew what I was talking about and gave me a coarse paste to cover the crosses with.

In the next few days, I would tell the children the crucifixion and resurrection story, illustrated on our felt board with felt characters. 

Then, with great excitement, we would cover our wooden crosses with the coarse paste. 

After we covered a certain part of the cross, we used a kitchen fork to add some texture. 

The day we decorated the stand, they went outside to pick up pebbles in my vegetable garden to mount in the paste.

By the end of the week the crosses were covered, dried and ready to be painted.  We experimented with different colours.  

First we spray-painted it with a grey colour, left over from a previous crafting project.  But it turned out to be blue, so I got black crafting paint.  Next we painted it with a dark brown colour and roughly painted it with a light brown to gave it a rusty look!  I was really impressed with the outcome!

CJ also twisted a small crown of thorns to put with the cross.

We at first thought it wouldn’t be necessary to paint the stand or ‘soil’ of Golgotha between the ‘rocks’, but after the paste dried, it didn’t look natural, so we started the patient, precise job of painting between the pebbles.  I just did a small section of it, when I had to stop to put little ones down for their afternoon naps.  Since we mixed different colour paints, to get the right colour for the soil and I didn’t want the paint to dry before I’m finished, I asked CJ to take over.  

When I came back I realized he’s doing a far better job than me, and deligated the job to CJ. He has the precision to paint between the pebbles!

In the mean time I opened a blog I don’t read often, but which has excellent postings and ideas.  Some of you might remember my posting, Naming a Year, by Ann Voskamp from A Holy Experience.  In this specific posting Ann showed the Easter Garden they made. She beautifully compared the Garden of Eden, where “our beginning and mortal fall began” with a garden where “Christ’s beginning to right that fall began”. I was immediately fascinated by the idea of making an Easter Garden.  

On Friday afternoon after dropping CJ off at the horse farm and Heidi-Mari at Ballet classes, we were on our way to Stodels Garden Centre to buy small plants for our Easter Garden. On the way, I also stopped at a stationary shop, to buy modeling clay to make the tomb and stone that was in front of the tomb. 

The children was jumping up and down with excitement by the time we reached the Garden Centre.  I gave each one the opportunity to choose their own plant and we returned home, each one proudly with his or her plant on the lap! They couldn’t wait to make the Easter Garden!

On Saturday morning Josua mixed some soil and well matured compost, from our own compost heap and filled the pot.  

Then each one got a turn to plant his or her little plant!  

They had such a ball, concentrating on planting the plant, as well as posing for the camera, as I’m taking pictures, to capture the moment!

The previous evening CJ made the tomb and stone and some rocks out of the modeling clay and left it to dry.  

We covered the clay tomb, stone and rocks with waterproof coating and by Sunday afternoon it was all finished.  

This was such a fun activity and at the same time a life changing experience for each of our family members at their different level of understanding.

Easter will never be the same for me again, looking at the crosses, feeling the rustic texture under my skin, seeing the crown of thorns, imagining the sun getting darker, the earth quake, all while I stood at a distance, watching... 

The tomb in the beautiful garden, the large stone against the door of the tomb, it is so final and I feel the hopelessness of His disciples and the women whom He loved, their mourning for Jesus, their Master and Friend.

But then, I marveled with Peter as I saw the stone had been rolled away, the tomb is empty, the linen cloths lying by themselves... 

and I know Jesus is risen, and He commanded us to ‘Rejoice’ and I, like His disciples fall to His feet to worship Him - our Risen King!   

May you all experience the presence and peace of the Risen Jesus Christ, this Easter.

With love

Linnie

I have linked this posting to Meaningful Easter: Tips, Ideas & Traditions at Impress your Kids.

"For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, 

that whoever believes in Him should not perish

but have everlasting life."

John 3:16

Guard your Hearts and Minds

On Friday morning I was in the bank to withdraw cash for the first time in years!  I have a debit card and almost never need hard cash. As I was standing in the long line, waiting for an available cashier, I was taken aback by how debt was being advertised in the most enticing way possible on all different levels!  We don’t have any loan except for our home and vehicles and I praise the Lord that I don’t need to visit the bank often.  If I was exposed to all the ‘wonderful things’ you can do with a loan, I’m not sure if I would have been able to stay out of debt for so long.

  

As I was driving home after visiting the bank, I thought of how we are enticed on every corner in every area of our lives, physically as well as emotionally and spiritually.  And if we don’t have safety regulations in place to guard our minds, we can very easily fall into temptations that can lure us away from the calling on our life, the true life God intend for us!  

Over the past week I had to double check my safety regulations in the temptation of becoming discontent with my life as a full time mother in comparison with godly women who have resigned from their responsibility of being a full time mother. For a moment these women’s ‘freedom’ and ‘the fun they have’ was luring me away from my joyful, but sacrificial life as the home schooling mother of my many, beautiful Blessings, like God called me to be!

There are three places you can use as reference on wisdom in living life:

Society and what the World wants you to be;

The church and how fellow brothers and sisters in Christ want you to be; and

The Word of God and what God wants you to be.

When it came to motherhood and being the wife God wants me to be, I’m not at all enticed by Society or the World any more, but I sure have a struggle to guard my mind, when I look at fellow brothers and sisters in Christ and how they interpret life.  

After this past week, I’ve realized again, I can only rely on God’s word to guide me in true wisdom of living a God honouring life!  

Here are a few of my favourite verses:

1 Corinthians 15:58

“Therefore, my beloved brehtren, be ye steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.” 

Jer. 6:16

“Thus saith the Lord, Stand ye in the ways and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therin, and ye shall find rest for your souls,...”

Deut 28:13

“And the Lord will make you the head and not the tail; you shall be above only, and not be beneath, if you heed the commandments of the Lord your God, which I command you today, and careful to observe them.”

2 Cor 10:5

“Casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ,”

Gen 1:28

“Then God blessed them, and God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion...”

Ps. 127:3 

“Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord,

The fruit of the womb is a reward.”

Mal 2:15

“But did He not make them one, 

Having a remnant of the Spirit?

And why one?

He seeks godly offspring.”

Ps. 127:4-5

“As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man; so are children of the youth.  Happy is the man that has his quiver full of them.”

Ps. 113:9

“He make the barren woman to keep house, and to be a joyful mother of children.  Praise ye the Lord.”

Ps 128:3

“Your wife shall be like a fruitful vine

In the very heart of your house,

Your children like olive plants

All around your table.”

Titus 2:4-5

“...admonish the young women to love their husbands, to lover their children, to be discreet, chaste, homemakers, good, obedient to their own husband, that the word of God may not be blaspheme.”

1 Tim. 5:14

“I will therefore that the younger women marry, bear children, guide the house, give none occasion to the adversary to speak reproachfully.”

Prov. 31:27

“She looks well to the ways of her household, and eats not the bread of idleness.”

Is 40:11

“He will feed His flock like a shepherd;

He will gather the lambs with His arm,

And carry them in His bosom,

And gently lead those who are with young.”

Matthew 16:25

“For whosoever will save his life shall lose it;

and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.”

Matthew 6:19-21

Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal;

But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves don not break in and steal.

For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

Matthew 6:33

“But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.”

Ps. 32:8

“I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go;

I will guide you with My eye.”

Pr. 14:1

“The wise woman builds her house, 

But the foolish pulls it down with her hands.”

Phil. 2:14-15

“Do all things without murmurings and disputing; that ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world.”

1 Thessalonians 5:18

“In everything give thanks for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.”

Ps 37:3-4

“Trust in the Lord, and do good;

Dwell in the land, and feed on His faithfulness.

Delight yourself also in the Lord,

And He shall give you the desires of your heart.”

In my battle to reestablish my contentment as a mother, trying to validate my choices, I was almost like the man described in James 1:5-8:

“If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him.

But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind.  

For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord;

he is a double-minded man, unstable in all is ways.”

After I filled myself with God’s truth, there was no doubt in my mind at all. I could testify of “the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, which guard my heart and mind through Christ Jesus.”   Phil 4:7

May these verses also bring you peace and contentment in your high calling of motherhood

With love

Linnie

“All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good word.”

2 Tim. 3:16

How I Long To Know You!

It is already four weeks since we’ve learned you are not with us anymore!  

Oh, how I miss you.  

Yes, I knew you so well.  

I look at your brothers and sisters and with certainty I can tell how sweet you would be.  

You become sweeter and have more personality the more you are.  

There are more to love you, more to teach you, more to keep you busy, more to comfort you when you get hurt, more to show you how to do things, more to introduce you to the wonderful world we live in. 

More hands to come rushing for help when you ask, more voices that encourage you, more excitement when you accomplish something, more loving eyes that follow you through your journey of life!

I watched your baby brother Michael early this morning laughing and playing on the bed, and I long to see you play with us.   

I looked into his deep blue eyes and I long to look into your blue eyes - all your siblings have deep blue eyes, would you too?  

I hold his chubby baby body and I long to hold you, with a deep ache in my heart!  

I saw his beautiful smile that crumbled my heart and I long to see your smile.

I watch your brother Josua, my ‘Always with a new plan, out of the box’ child. 

My son with life and that in abundance and I long to know the abundant life you would live.  

He is so full of fun, joy and passion, doing everything differently and I long to know how you would be different.  

For though all your siblings is so much the same, yet they are so different and so would you!

I look at your brother Andrew.  

My son with the clear cut purpose of changing the world and I’m experiencing a deep thankfulness for the purpose of your very short life in our lives.

I watch you brothers David and Daniel playing together, living in a world of imagination of their own and I long to see you play along. 

What dimension could you add to their imagination world?

I look at your oldest brother CJ, a fine young man, full of compassion, but a strong leader and my heart ache for the loss of not knowing you as a young man this side of life.

I watch your little sister, Danika and I long to know if you were the baby girl we were praying for, for months in advance.  

It is more difficult to think of you as my little girl, I’m so used to little boys playing all over the place. 

Or maybe I just try to protect myself from further loss -  thinking of you as my little girl, who would play dress-up with her sister.

I look at your creative and always available oldest sister Heidi-Mari and I long to know, if you were my little girl, what you would create.  

I long to have hours of enjoying creative beauty around the dining table, often till late at night! 

Oh, my dearest baby, I can almost see you in our big family, you would be overflown with love, laughter and friendship.  

I ‘see’ you talking, playing, exploring life.  

But I also know you were destined for this very short life and you have accomplished everything that was asked from you.  

I rejoice in knowing you for a very short period, carrying you under my heart for a very short time, but in my heart forever!

I’m looking forward in anticipation to eternity.  

An eternity to coming to know you, love you and experiencing everlasting life!

With all my love

Your mother

"To everything there is a season,

A time for every purpose under heaven:

A time to weep,

And a time to laugh;

A time to mourn,

And a time to dance;"

Eccl. 3:1;4


Can't wait for the time of laughter and dancing, on the streets of gold,
in the presence of our King!