Easter Questions

The blog Tots and Me will be asking bloggers qustions related to Easter and providing a place to share them.  I would like to join in this journey.  Her first question was...

How Do You Prepare for Easter?

For several years now I've attended a Baptist Church that practices Lent (unusual, I know), which is typically a time of preparation. This has been a new experience for me...as before I came to this church I had no idea what lent even was. My first year I didn't feel drawn to give up anything for the whole lenten season, but did decide to give up  media (TV and internet...I think I allowed myself music) from Good Friday through Easter Sunday. This turned out to be a powerful way to set this time aside and keep it Holy, and so I've continued this every year. I was also encouraged to find out that early Christians set aside this time to fast, long before the practice of lent began...so I felt like I had intuitively stumbled on a long standing Christian tradition.

I have since given up other things for the whole season of lent...as I've learned it's a powerful tool in battling my indulgent nature, and tackling addictions. It doesn't really feel like preparing for Easter so much as a yearly time set aside to battle sin (not that I don't do that year round--but this is more focused). Sometimes it goes better than others.

One thing I'd like to do some day as a way to prepare for Easter is find a version of the new testament that puts the four Gospel accounts in chronological order (combining the four into one account)...and read through this starting with the Nativity story in December and ending with the Crucifixion and Ressurection by Easter (maybe continue on through Acts for May). But, I'll have to save that for another year.

My Faith Story

Also sharing this at An Christian Inspirational Easter Linky and the Easter Link Up.

Why I Like Friday the 13th

Hey...it's Friday the 13th! My lucky day!

I'm kidding a little...cause I don't actually believe in luck...but I'm not being sarcastic. I actually like the number 13...and it started with a specific Friday the 13th from my childhood.

When I was a kid I liked to collect old and unusual buttons (it was one of the many things I collected then). My button collection started when I discovered a box full of beautiful old buttons that were being sold for a quarter each at this wonderful shop in California called "The Sea." Can't remember what city it's in now, but it's an amazing place...they have a whale skeleton on the wall, shells inlaid into the floor, and hundreds of nautical nick-knacks. Buttons don't exactly fit into their theme, but for some reason they were selling them that day, and I picked out some beautifully ornate ones which were the first in my collection.

After that I started going to antique shops trying to find more. That takes us to Friday the 13th in 4th grade. In class the students had been talking about how "SCARY" the day was, and wondering what strange horrible things would happen that day. The teacher even told us some spooky stories.

After school that day, my mom took me to an antique shop. Inside I found some pretty glass buttons with flowers painted on them, and asked the shopkeeper how much they were. "Free," she said. "You can take them."

Next door was a different antique shop where I found a little black button with a fake diamond set it it. Again, I asked the shopkeeper how much it was, and he too said I could keep it.

So, I decided that the whole Friday 13th things was a bunch of bunk...because it certainly hadn't been an unlucky day for me!

Much later I discovered another piece of trivia that makes me like the number 13 even more.   A chapter in the Bible many of you may be familiar with, the chapter on love, is 1 Corinthians 13...and it is exactly 13 verses long. For those of you not familiar with it, here's what it says...

1 Corinthians 13

1. If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.
2. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.
3. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.

4. Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.
5. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.
6. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.
7. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
8. Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away.
9-10. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears.

11. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me.
12. Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
13. And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

 It's hard to think of 13 as a "scary" number in light of that.

"There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear."
  - 1 John 4:18a


Then, when my oldest son was born on the 13th, I found one more reason to like the number. His birthday will always be a special day for me, even when it falls on a Friday.

(The picture provided through creative commons by Chris Samual)