This past Resurrection Sunday I was struggling with the feeling of depriving my children. We don't celebrate easter the way that the world does. Actually we don't really celebrate easter at all. We teach our girls to say happy Resurrection day to people who may say happy easter to them and we talk to them about why we are celebrating. We don't do dyed eggs and we don't do egg hunts. But as a kid I did do all those things and we had fun.
My mom, who would be over the moon if I let her do those things with the girls, asked me why I wouldn't dye eggs with them? I try to be gentle with my mom. Because if I were to go into detail about the pagan rituals I know she'd throw her hands in the air and conclude I'm even crazier then she thought. So I just simply replied "well we don't even eat eggs". Which was a perfectly fine answer for her! Praise God! But then I got a brilliant (or at least brilliant to me lol) idea. We'll start our own tradition! Instead of dying eggs we'll dye flowers and give them to grandmas and aunts at our family dinner. I grew up giving flowers to the women in my family as a child so it's a way to keep part of a tradition alive and add out own flair to it.
I decided I might as well use it as a science project for homeschool and as the girls get older it can continue to be a science lesson as they learn more and more details about it. This what we did:
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| I used 3 glasses, food coloring, white carnations, and water |
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| We added the dyes to the glasses |
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| Then added water, plant food, and the flowers |
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| We did three colors: red, blue, and teal (mix of green and blue) |
I'm finding that the more we choose to seek the Lord the more He gives us ways to accomplish the things we desire. I don't want to deprive my children of any fun, but they don't have to do things the world's way. God's way is just so much better!
Delight thyself also in the LORD: and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart. -Psalm 37:4
P.S. have you signed up to Soak in the Son with me?
Beautiful Idea! I will tell you our take on this.When I got saved I wanted to cut out all things that took away from Jesus and avoid pagan rituals. I was the ONLY one saved in my family. I fought my husband on this for a bit and then I felt a touch from God. I felt him say let go of these little things for the most important thing....your family's salvation. I deiced to let it go we kept celebrating all holidays in the traditional sense with added christian themes. I know that is one of the reason my husband WHOLE family came to the lord because I did not make a BIG deal over the LITTLE thing. You are blessed your mom takes such a simple answer my in-laws would not and would of hated the church if it keep there grandchildren from doing the "things" that they thought were important. Thanks for sharing, I love the flower idea :)
ReplyDeleteThis is awesome. I so agree with all you wrote and this is so encouraging. I love the flower idea and will do this with my dd! Thanks T for being an inspiration.
ReplyDeleteTesha I know what you mean. I was worried about pushing family away due to our convictions, but my husband has been very firm in his belief that we shouldn't celebrate these holidays. He didn't grow up with them so he doesn't have the emotional attachments to them like I did. We do allow my family to do certain things with our girls. We're just really careful about it. My goal has always been to NOT alienate our family, but to still hold true to the Word of God. :o) So far it's working out for us.
ReplyDeleteSuzie I'm glad you found this inspiring! I'd love to see pictures if you do decide to try this.
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