Lenten Learning

Jen and I have been thinking about the Easter Bunny and all those crappy traditions that have nothing to do with Jesus, and we decided to do something during Lent that actually means something. 

For us, as adults, the season of Lent is a great time to give up something special to us as a sacrifice in order to spend more time focusing on Jesus. However, for Nolan (4 years old) and Delaney (2 years old), we feel like they are too young to really understand the depth of sacrifice.

We decided to start a tradition called "Lenten Learning", which is a time of teaching our kids about Jesus during the season of Lent in a fun and memorable way, much like the season of Advent. Our Advent calendar was a fun way of counting down the days until Christmas, celebrating Jesus' birthday. This "Lenten Learning" calendar is just something we quickly put together one night, compiling a bunch of stories about Jesus as He grew up from a boy, what He did, things He said, people He healed, eventually leading up to His death and resurrection!

Easter is just as much of a miracle to be anticipated and celebrated as Christmas is, so we are looking forward to talking about one thing each night at the dinner table, writing a quick Post-It note of what we learned, and then compiling all of them on a green cross cut out of construction paper hanging from our dining room wall. We are looking forward to the end when it is all full of colorful Post-Its, when we celebrate Jesus' sacrifice for us on the cross and conquering death by coming back to life!