Holy Week

I shared with the girls during our devotion on Monday that Easter week can sometimes 

be hard for me.

I think usually one of two things happens. Either I accidentally skip over Holy Week all together, just getting too busy and forgetting to stop to remember it, or I allow myself to almost become depressed as I reflect on all that Jesus did for me. 

Neither are good I think, and so I wanted to be sure to allow the girls an opportunity to have a reverent week where a balance between these two was struck.

Normally, on Wednesday nights we do a Beth Moore Bible study with some ladies who sponsor our cottage, but this week we postponed our regular study since several of them had to be out. I knew this would give us a chance to dig a little deeper into the Holy Week experience.

I prayed about what to do but also consulted my best friend, Pinterest!

I came up with the idea of doing six stations set up around the cottage, each with a different scripture to read from the Easter story. I also wanted to include a tangible element to each station to help the girls really experience the scriptures and soak up the emotions of what they were reading.

I set up several of the stations low to the floor with pillows for kneeling so that it mimicked the way Jesus would have reclined with his disciples. We dimmed the lights and used lamps where possible.

For the first station we read Matthew 21:1-11, The Story of Palm Sunday. I found a fern leaf that resembled a small palm frond and had the girls do a crayon rubbing of the plant.

For the second station we read Matthew 26:17-30, The Last Supper Passage. The girls dipped their fingers in a bowl of water to symbolize Jesus' washing of the disciples feet and then took a small communion.

For the third station we read Matthew 26:36-46, The Story of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane. There were index cards and pens available for the girls to write out their own burdens as prayers and then drop them in a vase as a symbolic letting go of the anxiety.

The fourth station we read Matthew 26:46-56, Judas' Betrayal of Jesus. The girls were asked to drop silver coins into a jar as they reflected on the things in their life that they put before the Lord.

The fifth station we read Matthew 27:29-45, the Crucifixion. The girls put on headphones and watched a video of Chris Tomlin's "At the Cross" and then wrote their own names on a paper cross.

The sixth station we read Matthew 27:56-61, The Burial of Jesus. The girls picked a new cute prayer journal provided by my sweet sister and were asked to write a reflection of all they had read and experienced.

It was a very meaningful time and I think the girls got a lot out of it.

It's good to do things a little differently sometimes.

Continue to pray for us as we go into Easter Weekend. Some of the girls will be traveling home to be with families and some will stay with us. I was hoping that possibly they would all get to go home so that I could go spend Easter Sunday at Daddy's church in Orange. But I think the trend this year of the Lord allowing me to be away from my family during meaningful holidays in order for me to feel what the girls sometimes do without their families may continue. And that's ok. Our church here in Houston has a a sunrise service that we may try to attend and then maybe we can have a picnic or something fun like that.

God is good and he is moving through our cottage. Pray for Cliff and I as we stand firm in our faith navigating this journey we are all on together.