The kids have been wanting to start our Sense of the Resurrection activities for weeks. And originally, when Lent began, I wanted to start then. But let’s be realistic. My senior quote was, “If it wasn’t for the last minute, we wouldn’t get anything done!”
So, after days of begging, we began our first activity last night. It’s really my very favorite activity and the impetus for the whole book. The Scripture reference is John 12 when Mary anoints Jesus’ feet with the expensive perfume and the “scent of the perfume filled the house.” When Judas declares it a waste Jesus rebukes him and says, “She did this for my burial.”
I imagine that scent lingering for hours and even into the next day. When everyone awoke after the feast at Lazarus’ house and that perfume hit their noses, did Jesus’ words come into their minds? Were they confused? Did they have a sense of foreboding in their hearts?
I feel like that perfume and those words began to prepare their hearts for what was to come. That’s what Sense of the Resurrection is and does–it helps us prepare our hearts to celebrate the death and resurrection of Jesus.
Now that the kids are 7 and 10, we are doing these activities in a different way. Both kids pulled out their Bibles and we read the passages of Scripture aloud. I never imagined the day I’d be sitting on the floor with my kids, everyone with Bibles open! I sat there looking at their little legs, their little hands holding their Bibles and I remembered those times when they didn’t know how to use a glue stick, or they couldn’t listen to me read 2 verses to them. Now, they are reading the Bible to me!
We changed the activity around–instead of essential oil diffusers, we made sachets with essential oils. It was mainly because we’re in an apartment and don’t have all our little craft supplies everywhere. We had some leftover fabric from Truth in the Tinsel (which just happens to be a nice robin’s egg blue with little white crosses on it!) and some yarn, so I thought baking soda with a few drops of essential oil sachets would be easy.
My son put his in the corner of the bed while my daughter put hers in her clothes drawer. Every time they smell it they are either going to pray, “Thank you for dying for us!” or “Prepare my heart for your burial.”–which seems like a weird prayer but one I genuinely want them to pray with meaning. I want my kids at 7 and 10 to mull over and think about their own connection to Jesus’ burial, to their part in God’s big story!
Mamas of littles, if you’re struggling over why or how to do Bible activities with your toddler or preschooler—THIS is why! When circling around the Bible is part of the tradition of big and exciting holidays, it will continue to be a Thing you do when they are older! When you say, “Look at the moon! Thank you for the moon, God!” and “Did you get a boo-boo? Let’s pray for that right now!” to your little kiddos, it is what they will expect when they are older. Their hearts will turn to thankfulness, to prayer and to God because it’s what they’ve seen their entire lives.
You’ve heard the famous parenting proverb, “Train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it.” I think the NIV has the heart of the verse correct with this translation, “Start children off on the way they should go…” I’m not suggesting Sense of the Resurrection will make your kid follow the Lord all the days of his life. I’m just encouraging you to go for it–keep God’s Word central to your life and your child’s life!
It’s so easy to do your own Lent devotional, or fast from Facebook or tithe or do a Women’s Bible study on Instagram or while your kids are at Mother’s Morning Out. Don’t leave your child out! Let your children taste and see that the Lord is good from the earliest age! And if your kids are big elementary school kids or eye-rolling middle schoolers, it’s never too late to throw open the Bible and surround your kids with the fragrance of Jesus who, “loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.” (Ephesians 5:2)
Have you begun your Sense of the Resurrection activities? Tell me about ’em!
{If you don’t have a copy of Sense of the Resurrection, grab it now! It’s not too late to start! There are only 12 activities to do before Easter!}
