Our Family’s Favorite Easter Resources + Love Inspired Suspense Cover Reveal

by Meghan Carver

When I was a child, Easter was a special time…of sorts.

My mother would usually make me a new dress. That was about the only time of the year she completed a sewing project, so it was extra special. J

We would usually spend the weekend at my grandparents’ house about two hours away. My grandmother would hide jelly beans all over her house for an egg hunt on Sunday morning…including in our shoes. Candy of any kind was such a rare treat for my brother and me that I apparently didn’t notice the slight taste of feet. J At my grandparents’ church, we would sit on the front pew. I don’t remember any of the sermons, but I remember my grandmother’s hats.

While these are nice memories, my husband (who didn’t have any Jesus in his childhood Easters) and I have decided to take advantage of the many resources available today to get more Jesus in our family’s Easter. Over the years, we’ve collected several books and videos…and a couple other things as well.

Books

Cute drawings and the basic story any child can understand.

 

Super adorable drawings and rhyming text.

 

We actually purchased this as an Abeka book for our homeschool curriculum, but I found it available for Kindle on Amazon. My two oldest girls have read it and thought it really brought the Bible to life, although the ending for Titus was surprising and sad. The story of the character Titus is fiction, but the setting, the society, and Jesus are based on the truth of the Bible. This one is shooting to the top of my to-be-read list, and in fact, I found two others by the same author on Amazon, a trilogy called Comrades of the Cross -- Stephen: A Soldier of the Cross and The Cross Triumphant.

Videos

Provides an entertaining contrast between plastic eggs and the resurrection. Try watching it and not singing about mechanical chickens. J

 

What an emotional experience! A couple of years ago, we let our older children watch it with us. We thought the two oldest were mature enough and knowledgeable enough to handle it. The visuals definitely made what they had only read about more real. In regard to your children, use your discretion.

Radio Theatre Drama

 

Specifically The Easter Story – Digger Digwillow travels back in the Imagination Station to witness the last week of Jesus’ life. The cover looks like it's just for children, but don't be fooled. Our teens and my husband and I love Adventures in Odyssey!

And don’t forget….

 

We always have a little egg hunt for our children at home after church. Scavenger hunts are just fun, and we take the opportunity to insert a little more teaching through the Resurrection Eggs. Our children usually end up competing to see who can find the most of these special eggs.

Isn't the cover of this adult coloring book fun and whimsical? So, my last item isn't terribly spiritual, but it can be stress-relieving.

What are your go-to resources for Easter?

~~~~~

Before you leave, may I share the cover of my Love Inspired Suspense coming this July? I love how pretty…worried the heroine looks!

Sign up for my author newsletter and be automatically entered into a giveaway with each issue. Soon, I’ll be giving away advance copies of Amish Covert Operation! You can sign up HERE, and thank you!

What Does Easter Mean to You? by Jordyn Redwood

Now that we are in the Lent Season, it's natural that our eyes would turn toward Easter and what that means to us individually.

I originally wrote this post several years ago, but it remains one of my favorite blog posts that I've ever written. To give context, I used to voluntarily manage a multi-author blog for a literary agency and it was my job to make sure posts were up and running as scheduled. This one night, close to Easter, there was nothing written for the next day.

So . . . off we go.

Here it is-- midnight MST. I've survived twelve+ hours in the ER on a Friday night, full moon (it must be!), holiday weekend. For those of you familiar with emergency departments you know I listed those out because it meant we got our tushes kicked a little bit. Not enough staff. Too many sick kids.

I am tired. I get home...

And. There. Is. No. Post.

Which means there is no happy new post for you... our trusted friends, our fabulous readers. I'm thinking-- no one is going to notice. It's Easter! This post will be unedited and full of typos (can I wake up someone, anyone, and have them proofread?)

But then, something stops me from shirking my responsibility. I start thinking I really should step in and write something-- substitute for the person who was supposed to post. And I really don't want to right at this moment in time. My warm bed is sweetly calling my name.

However, the thought of substitution comes to the forefront. Now, I'm not one to clearly hear God's calling. I would dare say I'm mostly tone-deaf. I've prayed for God's Will to be left as a gold note card on my pillow for me in the morning. For me, God's voice is more like a subtle whisper in a hurricane that I have a hard time tuning in. What I have learned though is sometimes these instances (like no blog post) are orchestrated by God to create opportunities for other things, and I'm wondering if this forgotten post was left open for me to write to bring the thought of subbing for someone else to mind.

This is what Easter means to me. Christ as substitution. His death as a covering for my sin so that if I believe in what He did as He hung on a cross, spikes through his hands and feet, a crown of thorns on his head-- one of the most painful deaths a human can suffer-- I can have the glory of Heaven.

Grace. Mercy. Innocence hung for me...

So, maybe my foray into writing my novel, which led me to an appointment with my future agent, which led him to take me on as a client, which (for some strange reason!) led him to ask me to help run a multi-author blog was meant to culminate in this one moment in time where the Easter weekend post was empty (like the tomb was in a few short days) so I could write about the thought of substitution and what it meant for me...

And what it means for you...

May you have a blessed Easter.

Allie Pleiter gets BUSY!

Or is it that I stay busy?  Because, really, when am I NOT busy?

Whatever the case, I’ve got lots going on this month—no April fooling!

First, I’m excited to have released my first non-fiction in many years, a book that has been requested for as long as I have been teaching “The Chunky Method of Time Management for Writers.”  THE CHUNKY METHOD HANDBOOK:  Your Step-By-Step Plan to WRITE THAT BOOK Even When Life Gets in the Way has been a project of mine for many years.  I have always been fascinated with productivity, especially how it applies to creative fields like writing.  Over the course of my career I’ve developed a practical system for getting words down on the page to meet a deadline, and I’m thrilled to share it with writers everywhere.  Now you know why I take it as a compliment when someone calls me “The Chunky Lady!”  If you’re interested, you can sign up to join “The Chunky Nation” and receive a free Chunky Method Calculator here.

I’ve also been busy with my April Love Inspired Historical, THE DOCTOR’S UNDOING.  Readers who loved Ida Lee Landway from HOMEFRONT HERO will be pleased to see Ida get her own happy ending.  It’s garnered one of my favorite reviews ever from RT magazine, which gave it 4 stars and called it “a delightful read filled with laughable scenes, adorable children, and sigh-worthy romantic moments.”  They also said the epilogue “made for a great ending.”  That sure put a smile on my face.

With our children grown off on their own and in college, we are hosting our extended family for the Easter holiday.  I’m making a ham, deviled eggs (a Pleiter must-have), and apple pie while others are bringing sides and such.  What’s on the menu at your house?

On the heels of my most recent mission trip to Haiti (you can read all about it at my blog) I have found that this Easter season has really seen me grow as a Christian. 
Then this past Good Friday service at our church had a wonderful recreation of da Vinci's Last Supper. And I was struck at how much of a sinner I really was.

It sounds pretentious, I know. And I already knew how little I deserved God's saving grace, but watching our church perform The Last Supper and watching The Bible mini series on TV really hit me hard. It just seems like I learn more as time goes on, especially at what God did for us.

Do you marvel at how great God is and how little we deserve His love? What wonderful thing did you experience this Easter season?

Ask Elnora--About Good Stuff? Lenora Worth

Hello, my little bunnies. Today is Good Friday and while we celebrate the coming of Easter, we also reflect back on the sacrifice that Christ made for Christ made for us. We know this day is important so that got me to thinking about all the "good" in life. Elnora loves spring. It represents the rebirth in all of us. Christ left us that precious gift. We do have so many blessings, so many good things in life. Then it hit me--let's make a list of those good things. We hear about the bad every day but we need to celebrate the good and thank Christ for the beauty and the bounty of this world. So let's make a list. I'll start with ten good things. Bloggers, please add and let's see how many we can come up with. Don't ponder it to much, just go with your heart. Happy Easter! 1. Butterflies 2. Those who serve our country 3. Easter lilies 4. A child's laughter 5. Chocolate 6. Family 7. Sunshine 8. Surviving the storms of life 9. Books 10.Shoes Okay, your turn. Add to my list. I could come up with a thousand good things, but one of the good things we have here is a sense of community and some great bloggers, writers and our dear readers. Celebrate!

Ask Elnora--About Lent??? Lenora Worth

Easter is on the way. Elnora has always loved the Easter season. Maybe because Elnora's birthday is in April. And Elnora loves presents! I also love Palm Sunday. I love how at our church the children will walk in waving their palm branches. We all know that Easter brings the sadness of what Christ went through for us, but it also brings the grace and beauty and the meaning of what being a Christian is all about. We are going through Lent right now. Usually, Elnora gives up chocolate or ice cream for Lent, even shopping! But this year, I decided I'd try something different. I'd try not to speak as much. I know--you're all laughing at that one. It hasn't been easy, let me tell you. But I've tried to not speak so much in a bossy way. I'm trying very hard to give up being bossy. I'm letting go of control in a lot of areas. I think because I'm about to make an important life change when we move to our retirement condo later this year, I've learned to be still and know that God is in control. I don't raise my hand to be the first to volunteer as much as I used to. I don't feel that nagging need to be in charge, to go forth and steamroll my way into a project. I don't feel the need to be the first to speak up in a group or to remind others of what we need to be doing and when. I'm learning to do what I do as a writer--sit back and observe. It's been quite refreshing to do this. Amazing how silence can bring so many answers. I haven't always been successful at this task, this letting go, this being silent. Especially when I see so much injustice in the world and I wonder why the world has to be so cruel. But I have always been an Easter person. I have always believed in spring and renewal and hope. Christ gave me that hope. Lent is just part of the journey. Someone at church was talking about the children's moments and one of our pastors was asking about Lent. One of the children spoke up and said that was the stuff that comes out of the dryer. Everyone thought this was really funny and it is. But that kid might be onto something. Lint is mostly fibers and dust. And we know from our ashes that we are only dust, after all. We return to dust but our spirits return to God in Heaven. So that got me to wondering? What kind of lint have you found in your Lent? What have you let go, what have you cleaned out, what have you swept away? Children are shrewd in their innocence. Sometimes, it is the stuff that comes out of the dryer, sometimes it's the stuff that gets caught in that trap in our brains, that stuff that clouds our judgment and holds us down. Let's discuss--Can we let go of the lint in these last days of Lent??

The Day After The Most Important Day of The Year!

Hi, Debra Clopton here :D

Today is the day...it is the day after the most important day of the year--Easter.

Today is the day after Jesus rose from the grave, all those years ago, and gave us the gift of everlasting life. Today we as Christians are free. We are new. I can't stop thinking about that this morning as I write this post. Jesus rose from the grave! The stone was rolled away so that we could look inside and see that he was not there.

If not for Jesus dying, burial and then his rising up on the third day we wouldn't have the opportunity to accept His gift of life.

As I write this post this morning I'm so very thankful that my Savior loved me and you enough to give his life for us.

I hope you all had a blessed Easter.

Easter Story Part 11 by Merrillee Whren

Holding Greta's hand, Sam followed Dan's parents out of the little white clapboard church located near the center of Sunrise. Jeff walked beside her, his expression somber. Was he thinking about the solemn message of the Good Friday service, or was he wondering about the results of the paternity test he had taken? Any day, he would find out the results of the test. She understood his need to know for sure whether he was Greta's father, but she wondered how the knowledge would affect all of them, one way or the other.

"Mommy, are we having tuna casserole when we get home?"

"We are. I made it just for you."

"It's my favorite."

"Good thing. Since that's what we're having. " Sam hoped Jeff didn't mind eating tuna casserole, but she had invited him to supper because she wanted to show him the finishing touches she had added to his wonderful renovations. Even though he had completed the renovations in record time and had seen the final results of his own work, he hadn't seen the kitchen since she'd put up the curtains and brought in the dinette set that she had refinished.

Jeff held up his hand for Greta to give him a high five. "That's my favorite, too. My mom always made tuna casserole on Good Friday. This will be like a little taste of home."

Jeff's comment brightened Sam's thoughts, but the ride home in Dan, Sr.'s car, while Greta peppered Jeff with dozens of "why" questions, gave Sam too much time to think of questions of her own. They buzzed in her mind like the honey bees flitting from blossom to blossom on the pink Dogwood trees that lined the road. How would they tell Greta? How would she respond to the news? And Sam grappled with the same old question that had haunted her since learning that Greta might be Jeff's daughter. Would he want custody of his child? He had every right. After all, he had never signed away his parental rights when Carla had.

The thought of losing Greta, even to a wonderful man like Jeff, curdled Sam's stomach. How could she cope with losing her husband and her daughter all within a year's time? She had to remember the message of the Good Friday service. The celebration of Jesus's resurrection was only days away, and she recalled how desolate Jesus's followers felt. Everything seemed lost when Jesus died, but they had forgotten the words He had spoken to them that the minister had read from the gospel of Mark during the service.

"'We are going up to Jerusalem,' he said, 'and the Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests and teachers of the law. They will condemn him to death and will hand him over to the Gentiles, who will mock him and spit on him, flog him and kill him. Three days later he will rise.'"

Now Sam had to remember that God loved her and wanted the best for her and Greta.

"Mommy, are we going to show Mr. Jeff the resurrection eggs we're opening?" Her daughter's sweet little voice changed the direction of Sam's thoughts.

Leave it to Greta to set her mother's mind on the right path. "Yes, you can show him all the ones you've opened so far."

"Mr. Jeff, would you like that?"

"I'd like that very much." Jeff glanced at Sam over the top of Greta's head and smiled.

Sam's heart fluttered. Jeff was a good man, and no matter what happened in the days to come, she had to believe that he wouldn't do anything to hurt her or Greta.