How do I explain Easter???

How Do I Explain Easter to  My Children/Grandchildren?

( I found this article by author Carolyn Brown very interesting and wanted to share it with you. Linda)

          “A good starting point is to realize that Easter is bigger than any of us ever fully understood so we do not have to know all the answers. No one ever does. Easter is new life, an empty tomb, forgiveness, resurrection, and more. That is not something to understand. It is a reality we have to grow into. The truth is that we understand different aspects of Easter better at different times of our lives.

          “Adults respond enthusiastically to the Easter claim and promise of victory over death because adults understand the finality of death and fear death. Children, however, have a hard time grasping the reality, especially the finality, of death. Even after attending Grandpa’s funeral, a young child will often ask, at unexpected times, when Grandpa will be visiting. This natural inability to grasp the finality of death is supported by fairy tale princesses who awake after ‘sleeping’ for years and cartoon characters who, flattened by steamrollers, peel themselves off the road. Given all this, it’s not surprising that children can’t get too excited by victory over death.

          “Many books and people try to get around this by focusing on new life, paying attention to eggs, bulbs, and butterflies as new life symbols. While children are vaguely interested in these symbols, ‘new life’ strikes few of them (for whom all of life is ‘new’) as particularly significant or exciting.

          “Instead, for younger children, the empty tomb is the ultimate victory of the good guys (God/Jesus) over the bad guys (Judas, the priests, Pilate, the soldiers).  On Good Friday the bad guys thought they had won. They killed Jesus and sealed his body into a guarded tomb. On Easter morning, God/Jesus blasted right out of that tomb and proved once and for all that God is more powerful than even the worst evil the worst bad guys can inflict! The natural response to such a victory is to yell ‘Hooray for God and Jesus!’ and to celebrate belonging to God who is the most powerful power there is in the universe!

          “To older elementary children, who are focused on friendships and have clear expectations of ‘best friends’, the most significant resurrection story is the story of Peter’s breakfast conversation with Jesus (John 21: 1-19). Peter had been Jesus’ best friend. He had promised to stick with Jesus no matter what. And he had been caught three times on the same night pretending he did not even know Jesus. As a betrayed ‘best friend’, Jesus would have been justified in ignoring or punishing Peter for his denials. But Jesus did not. For Peter, the resurrection happened when Jesus forgave him, welcomed him back as a friend, and put him to work building God’s Kingdom.  For older children, Easter holds the promise that Jesus will forgive them and welcome back when/if they betray their friendship with Him.  Such Easter forgiveness is worth celebrating!

          “And remember the starting point—Easter is bigger than we can understand. We don’t have to know all the answers. We probably do most harm when we fail to talk with our children about our Easter faith out of fear that we will not get it right.”  

Why be active in church??

Parents....here is something to think about!!! 

Too good to be true
(but it is)

An article by Neil MacQueen

What if I told you there was a well-researched and statistically proven program that can:

•  
  • increase the average life expectancy of your children by 8 years
  • significantly reduce their use and risk from Alcohol, Tobacco and Drugs
  • dramatically lower their risk of suicide
  • help them rebound from depression 70% faster
  • dramatically reduce their risk for committing a crime
  • improve their attitude at school and increase their school participation
  • reduce their risk for rebelliousness
  • reduce the likelihood that they would binge drink in college
  • improve their odds for a "very happy" life
  • provide them with a life-long moral compass
  • and get them to wear their seatbelts more often

Is there such a program?

Yes, there is.

And it is supported by research from Duke University, Indiana University, The University of Michigan, The Center for Disease Control, Barna Research Group, and the National Institute for Healthcare Research.

How much would a program like this be worth to you?
What if I told you it was free, and only took about 2 hours a week.
Take a look at the list again.
It's not a dream.
The program is called "active church participation."

In study, after study, after study, children who actively engage in a faith community on a regular basis are rewarded with SIGNIFICANTLY reduced likelihood of problems and risks, and significantly improved odds of a happier, healthier, longer life. These studies show the same results for adults as well.

To increase the odds of receiving these results, you can't wait. According to a Barna Research Group study, adults who attended church regularly as children are nearly three times as likely to be attending a church today as their peers who avoided church during childhood (61% to 22%, respectively). In other words, parents who truly want the best for their children should get their children involved at church now and regularly.

Our secular culture has taken up preaching "parents (as) the anti-drug," promoting D.A.R.E. programs, school uniforms, afterschool programs, and athletics as solutions to various ills. And yet, a whole host of problems plaguing young people have only become worse over the last 30 years. Perhaps not so coincidentally, Sunday School attendance has fallen over that same period. The latest tremor to rock the "what works" lobby has been several studies that indicate D.A.R.E. and its 700 million dollar budget doesn't work.

In a search for "what works," researchers keep turning up "active participation" in a "faith community" as the one consistent potent factor in raising up children in the way they should go. It's time for the Christian Church to speak up on this matter, beginning with our own Christian parents.

To paraphrase Jesus,

"What parent, knowing that it is bread that really works, would give their child a stone?"

To view the sources of these statistics, visit www.sundaysoftware.com/stats.htm
Neil MacQueen is a Presbyterian minister, Christian education consultant, and Christian software designer.

This article may be reprinted provided that the author and website source of the statistics (www.sundaysoftware.com/stats.htm) are included.

Making Worship Children Friendly

Here's a wonderful photo from Christmas Eve with me doing a children's moment with the kids. A wonderful outcome of the hard efforts of the Worship Committee and pastoral staff has been making the altar area/worship area of the services so visually stimulating for everyone, including kids. The altar during the Christmas season was stunning and so was the  season following it. Now that we are into Lent, I can't wait to see what all is added to the worship area during this "Marked for the Journey" season!!!

Lent Observations for Families

Lent can be a difficult time for families to observe since it is so much more fun to focus on Easter!!! But I'd like to encourage you to spend some time talking with kids about the meaning of Lent: a time to prepare our hearts for the glorious Easter celebration.

One thing we did at Shrove Tuesday Pancake Supper was to have kids pot some Paperwhite bulbs and then take them home to have them bloom......in time for Easter! If you didn't get one, I know Family Tree Nursery has more and they are only $1 each! Talk with your family how bulbs have long been a symbol for Lent for they look dead. But they hold the promise of new life within. Jesus did truly die for us, and was in the tomb for 3 days....but when He defeated death on Easter morning, what a glorious day that was!!! Easter truly is the greatest holiday for Christians...and children need to remember it is more than candy and the Easter bunny.

One thing we do in Sunday School is to light 7 purple candles for the 40 days of Lent and then each Sunday we extinguish another candle. As we approach Good Friday the candles are all extinguished so that we remember how Jesus died for us.  Then on Easter morning we light a huge white Paschal candle and celebrate His resurrection. Families can do the same with 7 purple candles or they can merely light ONE purple candle each Wednesday night of Lent, starting with Ash Wednesday. Eat dinner by candlelight. Talk about something each family member has GIVEN up for Lent...or talk about something that has been ADDED during Lent such as a service project or reading the Bible more.

This year families also have the opportunity to provide an Easter dinner for a family who is hurting. The Mission Team has sacks by the West entrance with a list of food to include for an Easter dinner. These sacks can be filled and returned to the church which will then be taken over to the Johnson County Multi-service Center for distribution.  A GREAT way for your family to prepare for Easter is to be sure to come to our LUMC "Walk Through Holy Week" put on by the 2010 Confirmation Class on Wednesday evening, March 31. There will be 2 candlelight tours, one at 6:30 and one at 7 p.m.  This is a free event, suitable for entire families and of course an elevator is available. This year we will have the tours in our NEW Education building......so don't miss this very special night!!  Just meet in the Lobby of the new building. And have a GREAT Lenten season! Linda