missing the point

(Sweet Friends on Easter Sunday)

We enjoyed a beautiful Easter Sunday with grandparents and friends turned family. Worshipping together in the morning, followed by a delicious lunch, egg hunts for all ages, talking and sharing with old friends and new, and the traditional 'waffles for dinner'. (What, you don't eat waffles on Easter?) It is easily one of my most favorite days of the year. Hands down.

It was the days leading up to Easter that have me feeling as though I have failed in this mama thing.

Holidays in our home need to change.

The celebration doesn't need to change. The smiles, and the activities, and the friends don't need to change. But our attitudes? Those need to go. Our minds? It wouldn't hurt if they were a bit more focused on the meanings behind the days that we celebrate. Because my cute children? They just aren't getting the point of any of it. And it is my job to teach them.

My daughters spent the days leading up to Easter writing letters to the big bunny. The letters included gift selections they were graciously going to allow him to bring them. How nice. And on Easter morning? My kids spent the entire drive to worship singing a song they had written about arm pits, and unicorns, and jelly beans. I laughed a bit before my heart sank. But my heart did sink. Because as a family, we have totally and completely missed the point.

This year has been a big year of deep thoughts for Boss and I. Thoughts of who we want to be, both as individuals and as a family. Lots of reflection on where we have been and where we are going. Things are changing in our hearts and in our minds, and I feel as though God is doing some major reconstruction in the foundation of our family. Without a doubt, we want the point of our lives to be to point to Him. In everything. And that includes holidays.

So we are left wondering, how do we redirect our children's hearts? How do we ease away from the big bunny, and the man in the red suit, and the fairy who brings money for lost teeth? How do we make the special days more about family, and love, and Christ?

I am not in a place where I think the big bunny and his friends are wrong. I love seeing my children's eyes sparkle and their smiles light up, just like the next mama. I am just in the place where I find thinking about the imaginary holiday people (or bunnies) more than we think about Christ is wrong. I am bothered by the fact that as a family we talk more about the Easter bunny coming, than we talk about Christ's second coming. And in my heart I know that holidays in our home must change. Because I want my children to get the point of it all. To really get it.

Boss and I are not sure how we are going to go about getting our families focus where it should be, we are just sure that we are. And we are sure that it will start with us. If we are not pointing to Him in all things, how can we possibly show our children the way? Each day it is a choice. In the everyday and on the holiday.

Point to Him, or don't. But if we don't, I do believe we are missing the point.