I had high hopes this year of really making the most of the Lent season both for myself and for the girls. I so want my kids to not only understand but also to feel that, while Christmas is also a hugely significant day of celebration for us, Easter is the Highest of Days. ("If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile, and you are still in your sins.") There are so many great ideas out there for how to focus yourself and your family on this most important holiday, and I want to do ALL of them! Unfortunately, that didn't quite happen this year (one of the main reasons being that I'm pregnant with Baby #3 and am in the throes of the first trimester!) (That announcement probably deserves its own blog post, but there it is.)
That said, one of the easiest and (I think) most impactful things I have done with consistency each year is to be intentional about playing Easter-themed music around the house (just like we do at Christmas, right?) I am a HUGE lover of Christmas music, but man, there is just something amazing and weighty and glorious about Easter music. I mean, can the subject get any more life-changing? Redemption. Atonement. Freedom. Forgiveness. Resurrection. Hope.
It probably would've been more helpful to share this "playlist" earlier in the season, but maybe it can help us remember that we are called to be Easter people every day of the year.
In Christ Alone, Kristyn Getty
High Noon, Andrew Peterson (**this is mine and Katie's favorite! Makes you want to dance all over your living room and jump off the furniture....not that we've ever done that....)
Easter Song, Keith Green
Was it a Morning like this? Sandi Patty
See What a Morning, Keith and Kristyn Getty
the whole CD of Passion Hymns for Kid's Heart by Joni Earickson Tada
I've also been really blessed simply by reading hymns lately. I read on Ann Voskamp's blog a while back that her mother-in-law once advised her that, "The devil flees at a hymn." And so, when the pressure mounts in my heart and I feel that I'm about to burst...on goes the music, in come the hymns. Hymns have also been a great blessing since my traditional "quiet time" has had to look a lot different these days due to the first trimester fog. Not doing a whole lot of deep thinking these days, guys, I'll be honest. Mostly just trying to make it through the day. This is definitely not one of those great "mountain top" seasons that we all love, mainly I'm just trying to willfully cling to the truth that I know is true, regardless of how I feel at the moment. And so, hymns have been a great way to help me fight the good fight (when I don't feel like doing much but crawling in bed and reading the next book in the Anne of Green Gables series).
(from Hark! The Voice of Love and Mercy)
“It is finished,” O what pleasure,
Do these charming words afford
Heavenly blessings, without measure,
Flow to us from Christ the Lord.
“It is finished, it is finished,”
Saints the dying words record.
Finished all the types and shadows,
Of the ceremonial law;
Finished all that God had promised;
Death and hell no more shall awe.
“It is finished, it is finished,”
Saints from hence your comfort draw.
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