Easter can be more exciting then Christmas!

So in the Strother Home we try to do Easter as big as christmas! Let me explain...

We make a big of a deal about the Ressurection of our Jesus as we do His birth at Christmas~ 
       Yes, we LOVE Christmas! We as a family love the joy, family and celebration all that Christmas brings, but shouldn't we celebrate His raising out of that tomb on the third day even more! We want our children to find the hope and joy in not only Jesus coming as a man but that He didn't just die... He AROSE!  How sweet the story of His miraculous birth but how exciting is His miraculous overcoming of death!

 We try to build the excitement and awe of the empty tomb, as we do the filled manger of a baby! 
       We try not let easter come and go without excitement and wonder but also hope and encouragement to our little ones. For this is what our hope is in! It can be challenging to come up with new things and keep some of the old! But mainly its about not letting this time pass by and stopping and teaching our children the wonder of the Cross!

How are some of the ways we do this..... 
        We take the week leading up to Easter ( time slips up on us and not too much to keep up, we have done 30days leading up, both are great!) and "prepare" for the King and discuss His death but come the early morning of sunday we celebrate the risen Lord! Pinterest has tons of info! I recommend finding 2 or three, keeping one a tradition and mixing up the rest from year to year! The one we keep is the scavenger hunt to find the easter baskets! We love scavenger hunts, and I am not a fan of the basket sitting out and they rush to them and then its over. So we plan a scavenger hunt. This happens after we celebrate with the sunrise service, a time with our church family with breakfast, the Easter service and after lunch with family! (this year happens to be our Mimi's birthday, so we will be celebrating the gift of her and the gift of Jesus and His power over the grave) Doing it after all the celebrations keeps the focus off of "what am I getting for easter" mentality. Instead lets worship the risen King and also realize what a gift He gave when we get our Easter baskets! But we do enjoy the scavenger hunt and finding the gift of their baskets!
We have done a bible reading plan that leads up to the empty tomb, we have done resurrection eggs, we have done a count down~like at christmas~ we have done ~where we share the resurrection story with as many people we can. All this to say make it your own but don't let it pass by and miss the excitement and joy of celebrating the Hope that is within us!

Simple encouragement that will impact the rest of your life!

SMILE!!

MY simple encouragement today is something I was taught at an early age and retaught through this adventure and that is to remember to smile! I am reminding you as I have been reminded! You would think something so simple we would not need to reminded to do... 

It changes your perspective, attitude(no,those two are not the same), your heart and even your voice! IF you don’t believe me read a book to a little one and start without smiling and a little ways in start to just smile and watch the book and the eyes of that little one come to life! I do believe that a smile can reveal the joy that is within you! And Joy is something you can have when all is right and also in your deepest darkest times! You should never underestimate the importance of a smile! It can change the hardest people and situations, to a softer more manageable experience! 

I also believe that through a simple smile it lets our light shine before all men! I often wonder sometimes those who proclaim Christ and the Power of the Gospel to save and give life, NEVER smile! Don’t they have something to be happy about! Don’t they know that He has overcome this world and though it is broken he has placed His powerful Spirit within those that believe, to overcome! 

We all have been influenced by those that always smile and enjoy life. Not that they never have trials or tribulations but they seek their Joy from the one that is above circumstances and people, and there they find the Giver of life and life abundantly! 

Don’t get me wrong there is a time for grief and sadness, yet we all long for that person that can make us smile during those difficult times also! It also makes our hearts glad when someone that should be sad beyond despair is wearing their best accessory ~ a smile! Why does that encourage us? Because we know that the source is the Lords strength and that person made a choice to receive that strength. 

So, I encourage you give joy to those around you! To your neighbors,friends and most of all your family! Let your husband and your kids just see you smile at them to relay the message that you love them for just being them! Trust me they will get the message! 

The times I don’t have the strength to give anymore of me… a simple smile goes a long way!

A joyful heart makes a cheerful face, but when the heart is sad, the spirit is broken Proverbs 15:13

More on Joy! check this out
http://www.glorybooks.org/joy-a-fruit-of-the-spirit/ 

there is nothing good in me...

Ok, I don't know if I would go that far on those people but you get the point. I am not a morning person! But I saw this and I sent it to my Handsome and ohhh, he knew why... Not because he has done anything wrong by being a morning person but obviously because I can be that ugly in the mornings....Why can I relate to this picture? Because before my feet hit the floor.... I need Jesus! 

       

         Paul in Romans 7 says  ~  "even though I desire to do what is good, I do the very thing I hate" 

18  For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not.

~   Yes, that kid I am sure is the sweetest, joy filled little blessing, but how he looks is how I feel like I look before my day starts. I can say for myself, 'In the morning when I rise, give me Jesus'! If not world watch out!!! j/k~ no really! 

Can you say along with me that the willing may be there but the doing~ that's another story! I WANT TO BE A MORNING Person, is SO very TRUE. I have tried! sometimes I succeed and sometimes I am weak... and just walk to the shower so that I do not let the flesh win! If we think for a minute that we can achieve righteousness on our own then we have failed before we get out of the gate. But that is not to stop us from pursuing  righteousness! Paul then ask WHO will set us free, not what but Who.  

1  Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

2  For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death.

3  For what the Law could not do, ^bweak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh,

4  so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

So, It is Christ Jesus! The ONLY thing good in me is the the Spirit of Life IN Christ Jesus! HE was crucified so that He could be a sin offering! So many quote the first verse and forget about how Paul states how weak we are and yes those sins were condemned, So that the Requirement of the Law may be fulfilled in us! Those who walk in the Spirit of Life! .Paul is stating as long as we have breath let us  walk in according to the Spirit not the flesh. Our sins are forgiven by The Sin Offering so that we may seek righteousness through His Son. Not carry out the flesh. Yes, the thief on the cross next to Jesus was saved from a eternal death, but he too put away the flesh of his sin and the desire to still seek to save his own life, by recognizing that this man that they call Jesus is the Redeemer of Life. And on the cross next to Jesus in front of those watching he proclaimed his faith in Jesus, by rebuking the criminal next to him and recognizing his own sin. Jesus freely gave the gift of eternal life! See Love is an action and when we have faith we proclaim love for Jesus and that faith,  my beloved requires an action!  Don't tip the scale on me too quickly, Faith is what saves us,not our works! In that 'faith' we state that Jesus is the one true Way, Truth and Life! And in doing that you have done something! But why stop there, if your faith is love for God and one another?

5  For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit.

6  For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace,

7  because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so,

8  and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

9  However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him.

10  If Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness.

11  But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.

12  So then, brethren, we are under obligation, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh—

13  for if you are living according to the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live.

14  For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.

15  For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, “Abba! Father!”

16  The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God,

                       I do believe Paul, knew that some would proclaim Christ with their lips but their hearts would be far from Him. So he encourages us to be crucified with Christ so we put away sin and live in the Spirit where there is so much freedom! For me this is a daily thing and a choice continually! Many times I see my flesh want to come out and sometimes it does... but as you know as I do, it is those who seek the Lord and his forgiveness that stand out as righteous, because you can see the Spirit of Life in them. The problem is even though we are forgiven there are consequences. Sometimes we don't mind if the murder spends his days in jail as his consequence, or the thief gets his just reward. But when it comes to our sins we want to skip the consequences of our  choices and seek grace without healing. But if our children are going wayward because we didn't pray for them like we should, or we seek to please the flesh over walking in the Spirit ~ because everyone else is doing it! Or maybe we are hurting the ones closest to us because we are selfish, or making hearts hardened to the gospel because of our unkindness.  May we humbly seek to correct our wrongs and warn others of unrighteousness and what it causes and not have a mind set on the flesh and making ourselves comfortable but have a Spirit of Life that gives life!