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Family Ministry
Celebrate Easter

Easter Joy Hunt

Invite two or three of your children’s young friends to an Easter Joy Hunt the week before Easter. Bags of brightly colored plastic eggs can be purchased in variety stores. Be sure to buy the kind that open up revealing a hollow inside. In each egg place a piece of paper upon which you’ve written one of the promises your child is learning in Sunday School. Check the take-home papers or talk to your child’s Sunday School teacher for ideas. Word the messages simply: “Jesus loves you;” “Jesus is with you;” “Jesus is your friend;” “Jesus is alive;” “Jesus takes care of us.”

With each message you could add a trinket like a balloon or sticker. After the eggs have been found, help each child open the eggs and “read” his or her messages.

The Message of Victory

During the Easter month pick a passage of Scripture (more than just a single verse) to memorize together as a family. Choose a joyous, victorious passage that gives some practical examples of how Christ should be alive and conquering in our lives. (Consider I Corinthians 15:12-19; Colossians 3:12-17; Romans 15:17; Philippians 3:8-14; or Ephesians 3:14-21 as possible passages, or check the memory work your children will be doing in Sunday School for further ideas.)

Illustrate the verse with a poster; have different family members learn various portions of the passage, then put it together with each person saying his part; make a crossword puzzle or other word puzzle with the passage; put a tune to it and sing it; or any other creative method you can devise.

Eggshell-decorated Crosses

Save the dried eggshells after peeling your hard boiled Easter eggs. Trace around a cross cookie cutter onto construction paper or poster board. Brush each cross with diluted white glue and sprinkle crushed coloured egg shells over the glue.

On Trial

The events that surround Easter include the accusations and trial of Jesus. As a family, you can focus on Easter in a new way. Discussion of these events can provide a good basis to think about what constitutes a fair and reasonable trial.

For several weeks, follow a case that is of local or national interest. Cut articles from the newspapers and news magazines. Keep a scrapbook of the case, including comments and opinions of family members as the case unfolds. If possible, visit a court and sit in on a trial. Call the court beforehand and check about any regulations on bringing children into court, and find out what crimes are to be tried that day. (Screen the type of court cases your children watch. A crime against a child would probably be upsetting even to teens.)

If you have a lawyer friend, invite him or her to dinner to answer questions your children have accumulated during their project. Be sure to forewarn your guest! If you or your spouse have ever been on jury duty, share that experience at dinner one evening. Talk about your own feelings, as well as the actual cases that you observed.

Grab every opportunity to apply the knowledge your family is gaining to the scene of Christ’s trial. Gear your discussions to your children’s questions, but also read together passages of Scripture that describe Christ’s final days. Bring Easter to life for your family by involving everyone in the study of Christ’s character as the sacrificial Lamb who gave His life that we might live.

A Gift for Jesus

During the Easter season, talk with your family about giving something to Jesus at this time when we are thinking about how He gave His life for us. What special gift does each family member have? It may be to write a song or poem, give some extra time to a job that needs to be done in the church, or sing with the choir.

After talking about it, have each person make a card to Jesus and express what that gift will be. At a dinner (Good Friday or Easter would be good), share the card with the rest of the family and give them a chance to tell how giving the gift affected them and others.

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Last modified October 31, 2000.

Ideabank is a quarterly newsletter published by the Board of Christian Education Ministries, a board of the Canadian Conference of Mennonite Brethren Churches.

© 2000 Canadian Conference of Mennonite Brethren Churches.
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