Latest / The Wholehearted Enneagram Podcast / Easter People | a conversation with Barbara Rainey

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Easter People | a conversation with Barbara Rainey · The Wholehearted Enneagram Podcast

0:04
SPEAKER_02: Hi friends, welcome back to the Simply Wholehearted podcast.
0:07
SPEAKER_02: It means so much to have you choose to take our conversation along with you today.
0:12
SPEAKER_02: I am Amy Wicks, your host, and here at Simply Wholehearted, we provide simple plans for life's most creative endeavors.
0:19
SPEAKER_02: The culture around us lulls us to complacency, half awake to our purpose, and more often than not, it seems as if everyone around us celebrates mediocrity.
0:30
SPEAKER_02: But we believe there is more to your story.
0:33
SPEAKER_02: Awaken your heart with extraordinary tales of the ordinary.
0:37
SPEAKER_02: Find encouragement as you discover your created purpose, and be empowered to create your unique masterpiece in life, family, and community.
0:46
SPEAKER_02: I am so excited to be in your earbuds one extra day this week for a special kickoff for our Lent series.
0:53
SPEAKER_02: For those of you familiar with this tradition and practice of observing the church calendar, you know that today is Ash Wednesday, which marks the first day of Lent.
1:03
SPEAKER_02: Even though there are no specific teachings in the Bible on Lent itself, it's a tradition established by our church forefathers as early as 313 AD.
1:14
SPEAKER_02: That was a long time ago.
1:16
SPEAKER_02: The practice of fasting and observing the 40 days leading to the celebration of Christ's resurrection was created to foster frequent reading of the word, more prayer, and a focus for our general need for a savior.
1:31
SPEAKER_02: We can choose to model Christ's 40 days in the wilderness and forgo some of the earthly pleasures to be more mindful of where our help comes from.
1:40
SPEAKER_02: While I'm a big proponent of observing these days of Lint, I don't think this should be a legalistic or a prescriptive process.
1:48
SPEAKER_02: Instead, what direct it's an opportunity to ask ourselves what distractions could be abstained from.
1:56
SPEAKER_02: So to have more time to be in the word in prayer or reflection.
2:00
SPEAKER_02: And if you are in need of answers or direction, the space of 40 days is a great opportunity to intentionally seek the Lord.
2:08
SPEAKER_02: Whatever your reasons might be or the practices you might take on, I know you're going to enjoy our guest on today's bonus episode.
2:16
SPEAKER_02: Barbara Rainey is a sage in the faith.
2:19
SPEAKER_02: She is full of wisdom on the word of God, marriage, and motherhood.
2:24
SPEAKER_02: I was thrilled when she said yes to my invitation to share with you all her zeal and passion for Easter and how Ever Thine Home can equip you to begin some meaningful traditions this year.
2:35
SPEAKER_02: She has some really fun and practical ideas I know you'll be excited to adopt.
2:40
SPEAKER_02: I was truly challenged by our conversation and encouraged to redirect some of my focus and preparation of this really important celebration of Easter.
2:50
SPEAKER_02: Be sure and stay tuned to the end because Barbara is offering a discount code for you all because I know you will want to order some of the beautiful product we're going to talk about from Ever Thine Home.
3:05
SPEAKER_02: Well, how is that sweet grandbaby of yours?
3:08
SPEAKER_00: Oh, he's so sweet.
3:10
SPEAKER_00: He really is.
3:11
SPEAKER_00: And my daughter, she's really doing well.
3:13
SPEAKER_00: She just is a first-time mom, and she's three or four, didn't get married until 31.
3:18
SPEAKER_00: And so she's just adjusting to a million things and feels like she's failing and she's not.
3:24
SPEAKER_02: Oh, bless her.
3:25
SPEAKER_00: It's really, really fun that I'm close enough I could just zip in my car and drive over there and to be there in three hours and spend three days with her and just tell her she's doing fine.
3:35
SPEAKER_00: That's over and over again, you know.
3:39
SPEAKER_02: That's awesome.
3:40
SPEAKER_02: Oh, how beautiful.
3:41
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I have a sister, my youngest sister in the family.
3:44
SPEAKER_02: She's 31, not yet married.
3:46
SPEAKER_02: She's actually in England right now at a good friend's wedding.
3:49
SPEAKER_02: You know, another bridesmaid.
3:51
SPEAKER_02: And so anyway, I just can't wait for the day when she's married and has her babies, and I get to go with her.
3:58
SPEAKER_00: Well, that's how we felt that's how we felt about Laura too, because she's the youngest out of six.
4:04
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
4:04
SPEAKER_00: And the other five all got married by 25 or 6, I think, something like that, pretty early on, not long after college.
4:12
SPEAKER_00: And she went and she wanted to get married, and she just waited and waited and waited and waited, you know.
4:17
SPEAKER_00: And her sisters were the same way, they just couldn't wait.
4:20
SPEAKER_00: And so, anyway, it's it was a long time coming, so it makes it even sweeter.
4:24
SPEAKER_02: Absolutely.
4:25
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I can I can feel that.
4:26
SPEAKER_00: I I just she was a bridesmaid too for tons of times.
4:30
SPEAKER_02: Laura was just over and over again.
4:32
SPEAKER_02: Annalise, I think, has been a bridesmaid something like 13 times.
4:37
SPEAKER_00: Oh, yeah, Laura was too.
4:38
SPEAKER_00: At least yeah, at least that many.
4:40
SPEAKER_00: She just she has lots and lots of good friends, and she just was bridesmaid.
4:45
SPEAKER_00: And I I'll never forget her sweet friend Hannah Easley got married about three years ago, I guess, a year before Laura did, and after the wedding was over and all the party, and we went because we're really good friends with Hannah's parents, Michael and Cindy Easley.
4:58
SPEAKER_00: Anyway, after it was over, we were staying in the same place, and it was about midnight.
5:02
SPEAKER_00: Laura came in and Dennis and I were sound asleep, and she came into our room and she tapped us on the shoulder and she said, I'm so sad.
5:09
SPEAKER_00: She just burst out crying.
5:12
SPEAKER_00: And she just it was the saddest thing because she said, I'm so happy for Hannah, but she said, I just don't know that it's gonna ever happen for me, you know.
5:19
SPEAKER_00: Right anyway.
5:20
SPEAKER_02: Yes, but it did, and she was weird.
5:24
SPEAKER_00: It was worth the wait, and it'll be true for your sister too.
5:27
SPEAKER_02: I believe it.
5:28
SPEAKER_02: I know I I was about 25, and at that time I thought it was I had waited forever and everyone was getting married before me.
5:37
SPEAKER_02: Little did I know.
5:39
SPEAKER_02: But it's always worth it.
5:41
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it is always worth it.
5:42
SPEAKER_00: How many kids do you have?
5:44
SPEAKER_02: I have three, and three, yes, yeah.
5:47
SPEAKER_02: And they I used to homeschool, but they're all at school now, and uh we're blessed with a an amazing private school kind of down the road essentially.
5:56
SPEAKER_02: And uh uh just yeah, really grateful.
5:59
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's how long have you been doing the podcast?
6:02
SPEAKER_02: It's been a couple years now.
6:04
SPEAKER_02: And I started because my mother-in-law had this really brilliant idea called Super Summer Challenge that she did with her kids and used to teach other women.
6:15
SPEAKER_02: And it got to a point where she just couldn't continue carrying it on, and the Lord really like put this mantle on my shoulders for the intentional parenting message, and I didn't know what I was getting into into because I did not I had had no vision of anything that the Lord has, you know, taken me down um the path of, but um yeah, so it just kind of one thing led to another, and a podcast seemed to be a great way to get out stories of people, you know.
6:44
SPEAKER_02: I knew a lot of people had amazing stories and I wanted to share it some way somehow.
6:49
SPEAKER_02: And the Lord was opening doors to meet a lot of other people, and so it just continues to be this really fun thing.
6:56
SPEAKER_02: I get to be privileged to just participate in.
7:00
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I love it.
7:00
SPEAKER_00: Well, I can tell you really doing professional.
7:02
SPEAKER_00: I see that mic, I know what that looks like because of our radio broadcast.
7:07
SPEAKER_02: I was gonna say, how many years have you guys done radio?
7:10
SPEAKER_02: When did that start for you?
7:11
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, we did 20, I think 25.
7:15
SPEAKER_00: Actually, that's amazing this fall, it was 26 years.
7:19
SPEAKER_00: That's a long time.
7:20
SPEAKER_02: That is so great.
7:21
SPEAKER_00: It was it's just like you.
7:22
SPEAKER_00: We had no idea what we were getting into.
7:25
SPEAKER_00: We hadn't, although I had some sense that this was a really big step because I remember praying hard.
7:32
SPEAKER_00: And I just remember telling the Lord, I need to know this is really of you.
7:37
SPEAKER_00: Because it just it felt like we were biting off something really big, and we were, even though we had no idea what we were doing.
7:44
SPEAKER_00: I just sensed that it was really big, and God made it really clear that this was the right thing to do, and so we went off into it.
7:50
SPEAKER_00: And it's been it's really has been great.
7:51
SPEAKER_00: We've loved it, and um it's just become a great it's just a great way to have ministry in people's lives.
8:00
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
8:00
SPEAKER_00: So we love it, we really do love it.
8:02
SPEAKER_02: Now, family life today, because I remember hearing at first um about conferences.
8:07
SPEAKER_02: I lived in Colorado, we lived in our Colorado when we first were married, and I heard about you know, like the a weekend.
8:14
SPEAKER_02: What was it called?
8:14
SPEAKER_02: It's called Weekend to Remember.
8:16
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, weekend to remember, that's what it was, and being intrigued by that.
8:20
SPEAKER_02: What what all has it involved for you guys over these 25 years?
8:23
SPEAKER_02: Because you have you know ever thine home and speaking and teaching radio.
8:28
SPEAKER_00: Well, it started out with the weekend to remember, that was the very first thing we did way, way, way back.
8:33
SPEAKER_00: So we the weekend to remember conference has been going on for over 40 years, and it's been updated and changed and adapted, and we're going through a new transition to modernize it again.
8:45
SPEAKER_00: I mean, the message stays the same, but we're tweaking it to make it work for a new audience and adding lots of digital components and videos and all kinds of things.
8:55
SPEAKER_00: Anyway, um, but yeah, so it started out with the conference years ago, and then gosh, I don't know kind of what happened, but radio was the next really big, huge change, and that happened in the early 90s.
9:07
SPEAKER_00: Uh-huh.
9:07
SPEAKER_00: And then that just chugged along the two of them kind of parallel tracks for years.
9:12
SPEAKER_00: And then I started Everthine Home six years ago.
9:15
SPEAKER_00: Um, and it was after my kids were all grown and gone.
9:17
SPEAKER_00: Laura was living in Washington, DC at the time, uh, interning for a year.
9:22
SPEAKER_00: And I just started thinking, I started my my my dream was, and this is a part of my story that I was going to tell you, is that when I was raising my kids, I really wanted more.
9:36
SPEAKER_00: Um I just needed, I needed help, helping them understand the importance of the holidays.
9:42
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
9:42
SPEAKER_00: That Christmas is about Jesus.
9:44
SPEAKER_00: Well, everybody knows that, but how do you teach that to your kids?
9:48
SPEAKER_00: And Easter is about Jesus.
9:49
SPEAKER_00: Well, how do you teach that to your kids?
9:51
SPEAKER_00: And I just remember looking.
9:53
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I went looking in stores, I just was searching in places, trying to find helps, things that would help me make our holidays that are all Christ-centered.
10:03
SPEAKER_00: I mean, even Valentine's is about love.
10:05
SPEAKER_00: Well, where does love come from?
10:07
SPEAKER_00: I mean, it's not Roman.
10:08
SPEAKER_00: It's the same thing.
10:09
SPEAKER_00: It is.
10:09
unknown: Yeah.
10:10
SPEAKER_00: And so um, I just started thinking that holidays are such natural gathering times for moms and dads and their kids.
10:18
SPEAKER_00: And the kids hear about it, they know about it, and it's just a setup.
10:22
SPEAKER_00: I mean, it's just a setup for moms and dads to put the truth of the gospel and God's word in their kids' hearts every year, year after year.
10:31
SPEAKER_00: So that's really how it started.
10:33
SPEAKER_00: And I I started with Christmas and created some ornaments with which were the names of Jesus, just to teach kids that Jesus has got lots of names, and that in and of itself makes him different than all the rest of us.
10:47
SPEAKER_00: And if I thought my kids could just start learning his names, if I could start learning all of his names, right?
10:53
SPEAKER_02: Uh-huh.
10:54
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna grow a lot, and my kids would too.
10:56
SPEAKER_00: So I started there and kind of like what you just said with the podcast, God was started opening doors and just provided in different ways for me to be able to include Easter and Valentine's and Thanksgiving, and and I've got the blog and all kinds of things, and it's just it's grown way beyond what I ever envisioned.
11:15
SPEAKER_00: I just was hoping I'd do a few little Christmas ornaments about Jesus.
11:20
SPEAKER_02: I know it's always amazing how I just see I already in just the short amount of time of of kind of the three years that I've been in the thick of this, where the Lord used one thing for me to take that step of faith, and that step of faith leads to another and another.
11:36
SPEAKER_02: And I think you said even something interesting, and I thought you were maybe gonna go this direction with it.
11:41
SPEAKER_02: But I I have moms in my home every week um from our church and have a a gathering place, and I provide, you know, sweets and coffee and cheap babysitting, and they come, it's amazing.
11:54
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and and I do cheap babysitting is the key.
11:57
SPEAKER_02: Uh-huh.
11:57
SPEAKER_02: A key for sure.
11:59
SPEAKER_02: And we, you know, we just laugh and talk and they get to have adult conversation.
12:03
SPEAKER_02: But a lot of the the conversation we have too is is helping them figure out in this season of losing themselves in motherhood, of also finding what the Lord has put in their heart and has put in them to do.
12:15
SPEAKER_02: And it sounds like for you, you had this this desire, this need, there was this, you know, absence of what you felt like you needed to equip you as a parent.
12:25
SPEAKER_02: So you went out and did it and you made it happen.
12:29
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
12:29
SPEAKER_00: After my kids were gone, though, that was the thing.
12:32
SPEAKER_00: Because I tried when they were home and I just I didn't have the bandwidth.
12:36
SPEAKER_00: I was tired all the time.
12:38
SPEAKER_00: I was yeah, with life, I just I felt like a failure.
12:42
SPEAKER_00: And I so I tried, but I just I didn't have the energy, I didn't have the space in my life to be able to think creatively.
12:50
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
12:50
SPEAKER_00: And so that's what has happened in the empty nest is I've had finally had the time to think creatively about how how would I do this.
12:58
SPEAKER_00: So I'm doing it to serve, I mean, my whole dream and my goal is to serve families like yours and my kids, to help them connect with their kids on spiritual, on spiritual topics and help them transfer their faith to their children.
13:13
SPEAKER_02: It's so awesome.
13:14
SPEAKER_02: Because you were obviously faithful in the season of having them at home with the ministry that you were doing that you could, you know, whatever capacity you had.
13:22
SPEAKER_02: And then you just stayed steady in that and keeping the priority, the first things first.
13:28
SPEAKER_02: And then the Lord burst something really neat out of that that you get to give not only to your kids and grandkids and you know, then so many others.
13:36
SPEAKER_02: Oh, it's beautiful.
13:37
SPEAKER_02: I love it.
13:38
SPEAKER_00: Well, thanks.
13:38
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I'm really grateful for God's sovereign plan because I would have done it earlier if I could have, but I couldn't, and it wasn't his timing, and it's it's all good.
13:48
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, no, it's great.
13:50
SPEAKER_02: Well, one of the reasons that I reach out to you, and Sarah Higgerty is just such a good friend, and she was like, Oh, you should talk to Barbara about you know having her on the podcast for Lint because I was sharing this idea of what I was gonna do this series, and Sarah's gonna be part of the series with um her the gift of being hidden, her companion guide that she um is launching.
14:13
SPEAKER_02: And I I just thought, oh, this is perfect because I need a sage in the faith, um, a sage out there to help us mamas.
14:20
SPEAKER_02: How do we navigate Lent for our own hearts and then also imparting it to our family?
14:26
SPEAKER_02: And because I think I think it's such a special time, and I know not everyone traditionally recognizes it or practices it.
14:34
SPEAKER_02: So for you, when did you start incorporating that into your home life, your faith, your practices?
14:41
SPEAKER_00: Well, I didn't actually start doing this when my kids were at home because I I didn't know about it then.
14:46
SPEAKER_00: I grew up in a Bible church, we raised our kids in a Bible church, and so the the liturgical practices were not a part of our um part of our world.
14:56
SPEAKER_00: So all of that was new to me.
14:58
SPEAKER_00: But I've come to see Lent and it is designed for this.
15:01
SPEAKER_00: I mean, they created the you know, the founding fathers way back when um came up with the idea of Lent as a time of preparation.
15:09
SPEAKER_00: And so it to me, Lent is like Advent, it's Christmas.
15:14
SPEAKER_00: It's a time to prepare for the Easter season, and you can do it with some kind of sacrifice, some kind of giving something up, which is the traditional way to do it, or you can use it as a way to prepare your heart and and your family to celebrate the resurrection.
15:31
SPEAKER_00: Because my big passion is that we have, as believers, are just not celebrating Easter the way we should.
15:40
SPEAKER_00: We spend so much time and energy and focus and money, and so much of ourselves we give at Christmas and we start thinking about it months ahead of time, and we start decorating and we start planning, and we have parties and cards and on and on and on.
15:56
SPEAKER_00: And yet, Easter, we do almost nothing by comparison.
16:01
SPEAKER_00: Our approach to Easter is so minimal compared to Christmas extravagance.
16:07
SPEAKER_00: And I'm saying my my message, my passion is let's level the playing field a little bit, let's bring some balance into our celebration of what God did for us because without the cross, his birth wouldn't be meaningless.
16:21
SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
16:23
SPEAKER_00: And I just don't think we as believers have stopped to think through that.
16:27
SPEAKER_00: And part of it is because the Easter story is hard to celebrate because it's about a death, it's about blood, it's about agony, it's about torture.
16:37
SPEAKER_00: And so it's easier to celebrate a baby and angels than it is to celebrate the death on the cross.
16:44
SPEAKER_00: And yet I think we have to.
16:46
SPEAKER_00: We have to go there, we have to talk about it, we have to enter into the experience, which Lent helps us do, helps us prepare for that, so that we can experience the great joy that the disciples felt on Easter morning, and then learn how to carry that forward into our everyday lives.
17:04
SPEAKER_00: Don't just make Easter a one day, we go to church, we get dressed up, we do something special, and then it's over because it's not over.
17:11
SPEAKER_00: Right.
17:12
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
17:14
SPEAKER_00: Resurrection changes our lives and should change our lives every day after.
17:18
SPEAKER_02: Absolutely.
17:19
SPEAKER_02: I I think our culture wants to, and this is the conversation I seem to be having again and again with those about Lint in particular, is that because the suffering element of it, we have to acknowledge not only Christ's suffering, but our own.
17:36
SPEAKER_02: And it can it can feel we some of us would just rather push past that, right?
17:42
SPEAKER_02: We don't want to experience the sadness, we don't want to experience the pain, we don't want to experience the reality of you know, the side of heaven suffering is a real part of our world.
17:52
SPEAKER_02: And um, but I think the beauty of that, if we're willing to go there, then it we can see that in light of the cross, the grief is a little bit easier to bear.
18:05
SPEAKER_02: Because of the cross, because of what Christ did, we have this hope that can carry us through the sufferings that we're gonna experience.
18:13
SPEAKER_00: That's right.
18:13
SPEAKER_00: And because of the cross, we know that that Christ will sustain us and bear us up and no matter what we face.
18:20
SPEAKER_00: And all of us are gonna have trials and difficulties and suffering, and we all avoid it like the plague.
18:26
SPEAKER_00: I mean, there isn't a person alive who doesn't run from pain.
18:29
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's natural.
18:32
SPEAKER_00: But it's it's important that when we are there, that we we ask God to teach us, show us what do you want me to learn?
18:40
SPEAKER_00: And so Lent is a time to look at the suffering, it's a time to look at the heart of life and understand it in the context of the greater story of God's redemption and bringing us out of that um when we place our faith in Him.
18:56
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
18:57
SPEAKER_00: So I agree with you.
18:58
SPEAKER_00: I think it's an important element, it's one we don't like, but it's what makes the story so amazing and wonderful and I mean, worth throwing the biggest party you can imagine.
19:09
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, absolutely.
19:11
SPEAKER_00: I think some of the things where we miss it.
19:13
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and I think some of the practice too lends itself to understanding and reconciling our need for a savior, even in in um practicing an absence of whatever it is that we, you know, some vice we typically enjoy, or you know, a treat, or even I know I've um different years, you know, it's been people choosing to not complain, maybe during Lint.
19:42
SPEAKER_02: You know, you know, something that typically that has been a stumbling block or has limited their faith or their faith practices, they you know, change that behavior.
19:52
SPEAKER_02: And I think that's kind of the beauty of Lint as well in practicing for 40 days, setting aside that we come into this understanding of, oh, we need help.
20:02
SPEAKER_02: Like we cannot do it on our own in our humanness.
20:06
SPEAKER_02: We can't become better or you know step away from what our comforts are without him.
20:12
SPEAKER_02: We have to have the savior, um, and we really needed him to pay the ultimate price and become our sacrifice for our sins.
20:21
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
20:22
SPEAKER_00: And I think when we do give something up, it reminds us just in a teeny little way, we can remember what he gave up to.
20:32
SPEAKER_00: I mean, just what he gave up to come to the planet, not to mention what he gave up personally to go to the cross, but it makes us realize that what we give up is nothing compared to what he gave up to redeem us.
20:45
SPEAKER_00: So that's another piece of it too, I think, as it puts it in perspective, it reminds us that our sacrifice is nothing.
20:53
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and his sacrifice is everything.
20:55
SPEAKER_02: It is.
20:56
SPEAKER_02: I'm currently reading through Hebrews and I'm trying to remember what exactly led me to that this year.
21:01
SPEAKER_02: I didn't really go into this.
21:02
SPEAKER_02: You're thinking, oh, this is the book I need to read.
21:05
SPEAKER_02: It just sort of happened.
21:06
SPEAKER_02: And for me, it's been really, really timed well, and just a couple chapters in there of it really kind of um, and uh there's they're not sure who wrote it.
21:17
SPEAKER_02: It could have been Apollos, it could have been, you know, some of the disciple disciples.
21:21
SPEAKER_02: And uh, but just it paints this picture about Christ being our high priest and how he intercedes for us and how he took this place that that no amount of sin offering could take, and that just the old system was never gonna work.
21:35
SPEAKER_02: It failed, it fell so short of it.
21:37
SPEAKER_02: And then Christ in his perfect volunteers himself to take our place and to be this offering.
21:44
SPEAKER_02: And I don't know, I'm I I maybe just the timing of it.
21:47
SPEAKER_02: I'm reading it with fresh eyes, going, Oh yeah, like I really need Christ because there's no other way that I could have any sort of hope or any absolution of sin without him.
21:59
SPEAKER_02: And This is truly the only way.
22:01
SPEAKER_02: So, yeah.
22:03
SPEAKER_00: Well, Hebrews is one of my favorite books.
22:05
SPEAKER_00: I just love it.
22:06
SPEAKER_00: And one of my favorite phrases in there is the phrase once for all, because the Old Testament priests did it over and over and over and over and over again.
22:16
SPEAKER_00: And the repetition and the futility that they must have felt.
22:20
SPEAKER_00: Oh my goodness, when Jesus came, yeah, when Jesus came, he died once for all.
22:26
SPEAKER_00: And that was the end of it all.
22:27
SPEAKER_00: And that's a part of the Easter story, too, is that when Jesus was on the cross, the priests were in the temple killing thousands of lambs.
22:37
SPEAKER_00: And there was blood everywhere.
22:39
SPEAKER_00: And they were putting these lambs on the altar at the same moment that Jesus was hanging on the cross.
22:44
SPEAKER_00: And just learning about that and teaching your children that it's one of the, it's a part of what I've created for the Lent season is this it's a countdown calendar.
22:55
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
22:56
SPEAKER_02: Oh, it's beautiful too.
22:58
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, the flip calendar.
22:59
SPEAKER_00: And then there's a banner with a little marker that you can move, a lot like an advent calendar before Christmas.
23:05
SPEAKER_00: I think it helps families to build anticipation if they can count down to something.
23:10
SPEAKER_00: I mean, we count down to our birthdays.
23:12
SPEAKER_02: We did all kinds of things.
23:15
SPEAKER_00: And I think we need to I think we need to count down to Easter.
23:18
SPEAKER_00: I'm all for giving something up for Lond.
23:21
SPEAKER_00: I'm all for those lessons.
23:22
SPEAKER_00: But I think that there's also a need for us to grow anticipation.
23:27
SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
23:28
SPEAKER_00: Because I think anticipation is a really key element of faith.
23:32
SPEAKER_00: Because God wants us to anticipate what is coming.
23:35
SPEAKER_00: Um, it's a part of the grand story, is that we will be redeemed in full and we will live completely free of sin someday, and he wants us to anticipate that.
23:45
SPEAKER_00: So the the Advent calendar and banner helps families do that because it walks a family from Genesis all the way to the New Testament and helps kids discover the clues that God left sprinkled throughout the Old Testament, promising who the Messiah was going to be.
24:02
SPEAKER_00: And then he is revealed in the New Testament.
24:05
SPEAKER_00: And so it's great discipleship for your children, it's great faith holding.
24:11
SPEAKER_00: Um, it puts the whole story of God's redemptive plan in the context of the whole Bible.
24:16
SPEAKER_00: Um, I just think it's a great opportunity for moms and dads to invest in their kids and teach their kids.
24:24
SPEAKER_02: It's so great.
24:25
SPEAKER_02: I mean, it is the beauty of the liturgical calendar of the ordinary days.
24:30
SPEAKER_02: We have ordinary days all the time.
24:32
SPEAKER_02: Let's take these two opportunities of Abbott and Lentz and really celebrate it for what it's worth and focus on the most important, the main celebration that we have to look forward to.
24:42
SPEAKER_00: Yes, I totally agree.
24:44
SPEAKER_00: And I think kids sense that.
24:46
SPEAKER_00: It's one of the things that I remember from when I was raising our kids is that they sense that there's something different, something special about those two seasons in the year.
24:57
SPEAKER_00: And every year they come around, and I think they want more.
25:00
SPEAKER_00: I think they want.
25:01
SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
25:01
SPEAKER_00: And I think they're saying, tell me why this is meaningful, tell me why this matters, tell me why this is so important to us.
25:09
SPEAKER_00: And when you look around us in the culture, the culture is taking us to bunny rabbits and chicks and all kinds of things that have absolutely nothing to do with the cross.
25:20
SPEAKER_01: Right.
25:20
SPEAKER_00: And we're buying those things and we're putting them in our houses and we're sending the signal to our kids that this is what Easter is about, instead of telling them what it's really about.
25:29
SPEAKER_00: And I think they know the difference in intuitively in their hearts, and they're waiting for mom and dad to step up and say, Here's the real story.
25:38
SPEAKER_00: Let's talk about Jesus, let's look at his story in the Bible, let's let's learn about why he came and why he's everything to us.
25:47
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, put the meaning back in the celebration.
25:49
SPEAKER_02: I think that's really exactly now.
25:52
SPEAKER_02: I know that um ever thine home has a couple of things for the whole 40 days of Lint.
25:58
SPEAKER_02: If you can observe that and if you remember maybe soon enough, but you also have some specific holy week activities.
26:05
SPEAKER_02: Talk a little bit about that.
26:07
SPEAKER_02: Maybe even if a family wants to spread it out over the 40 days, the idea of you know to kind of diving into the holy week specifically, some of those events.
26:16
SPEAKER_02: What do you have with that or what you've um encouraged families to practice?
26:21
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I think some families really can do Lent and do the whole 40 days, but it's a long time.
26:26
SPEAKER_00: I was looking through some old papers and I found an email that my daughter-in-law sent me because I I tested this with some families before we actually produced it.
26:36
SPEAKER_00: Wow.
26:38
SPEAKER_00: She wrote me and she said, I am not getting daughter in love.
26:41
SPEAKER_00: I am not getting the daughter-in-love award this year because I have completely dropped the ball on the Lent project.
26:50
SPEAKER_00: I laughed and I wrote her back and I said, It's okay, because I wouldn't have completed it either had I've been doing it once I had all my kids at home.
26:57
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
26:57
SPEAKER_00: So you can do the Lent thing if you're really an organized mom, which I wasn't, or you can just say, all right, we're gonna really make something of Holy Week.
27:06
SPEAKER_00: And sometimes seven or eight days is just much more manageable in a family.
27:12
SPEAKER_00: So we have a set of cards.
27:14
SPEAKER_00: Um, it used to be, it used to be Behold the Lamb, and we have some Behold the Lamb left in our warehouse, but we don't have very many.
27:22
SPEAKER_00: But the same content has now been reproduced into a set of cards called Holy Week Advent.
27:28
SPEAKER_00: And I put Advent in that title also because we are counting down, we're waiting for his death on the cross and then his resurrection.
27:37
SPEAKER_00: So it's helping families get into the last part of Jesus' life, and the cards are centered on his I Am statement.
27:45
SPEAKER_00: So he said, I am the bread of life, I am the divine, I am the living water.
27:50
SPEAKER_00: And it looks at moments and John, right?
27:54
SPEAKER_00: They're all in John.
27:55
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and so each card on each day, so starting on Palm Sunday and then Monday through Saturday, there is a statement that you read of his, and then a little short story with some verses about what Jesus meant when he identified himself as those objects and why that matters to us in our faith.
28:15
SPEAKER_00: So a family that just can't do 40 days, you can do a week.
28:18
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and I think setting apart Holy Week is really important, even if you do the 40 days, there should be an increased anticipation during Holy Week.
28:28
SPEAKER_00: There should be an increased sense of expectation, of um awareness that this is really momentous.
28:37
SPEAKER_00: And I think helping our kids understand that last week of Jesus' life is crucial to understanding what he endured when he went through the cross, and then teaching your kids what did it mean when he said it is finished.
28:50
SPEAKER_00: What does Titalist die mean?
28:52
SPEAKER_00: And why is that completed work absolutely essential for all of us as believers to understand?
29:00
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that's so good.
29:01
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, they must know that it's the essential crux of what separates us from any other faiths and teachings out there.
29:08
SPEAKER_02: Because it is his death.
29:11
SPEAKER_02: A lot of other prophets died, a lot of other religions, you know, sell you know celebrate their prophet's death, but they don't have the resurrection piece, and that is so important that our children leave our homes knowing this.
29:25
SPEAKER_02: That's beautiful.
29:26
SPEAKER_02: I love it.
29:28
SPEAKER_02: For you, when you started kind of investigating Lint and what it looked like to practice it, what is it that you first, or maybe what was the the resource you stumbled on or the book or what you practiced practiced that made it come alive in your heart and want to bring it alive in your home?
29:48
SPEAKER_00: Well, there wasn't really a book.
29:50
SPEAKER_00: I did do some research and I found some some things and they sort of were these little, I guess, kindling on the fire, so to speak.
29:59
SPEAKER_00: They were sort of the starting place for some ideas on what it would be.
30:05
SPEAKER_00: But I think what made the most sense to me was when I started looking at the Old Testament and seeing how from the very beginning in the garden, Jesus was predicted.
30:16
SPEAKER_00: God talked about the Redeemer who was going to come.
30:19
SPEAKER_00: And it's woven all through the Old Testament.
30:21
SPEAKER_00: And I think there's a there's sort of an undercurrent today that the Old Testament is irrelevant.
30:27
SPEAKER_00: There are people who are actually teaching that.
30:29
SPEAKER_00: And I just think for today, yeah, it is sad.
30:33
SPEAKER_00: And I I think to, as a family, to understand that the whole story is woven from beginning to end, yeah, and to help our children understand that because they're gonna hear that, they're gonna hear that the old testament is irrelevant and you don't need to pay attention to it.
30:48
SPEAKER_00: Right, but to begin to see the stories of what happened in the garden, what happened and when Abraham was gonna sacrifice Isaac, and why that's such an amazing picture of Jesus going to the cross, and then to look at the story of the um the children of Israel and Moses and being led out through the wilderness and on and on through the Old Testament, and then just look at some of the stories that Jesus told about himself.
31:14
SPEAKER_00: It helps our kids have a greater context.
31:17
SPEAKER_00: Because I think so often in church they hear these stories and they're out of context.
31:22
SPEAKER_00: They're great Bible stories.
31:23
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
31:23
SPEAKER_00: I mean, interesting and trivial.
31:27
SPEAKER_00: Yes, but with out of context.
31:29
SPEAKER_00: I think they just sound like random stories that don't make sense together.
31:33
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, but I think that's a perfect opportunity to look at the whole and to look at the context for what what God is trying to communicate to us as his children.
31:43
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that's so good.
31:44
SPEAKER_02: They need to know the whole God story, how it ties in, not just in this thing called the Bible, but for their lives personally.
31:53
SPEAKER_02: Why do they need to understand it and what does it mean for them?
31:56
SPEAKER_02: And who who it tells us about, which is ultimately God's character, the goodness of God, his plan for his creation, and also individually, which is really great.
32:09
SPEAKER_02: I love it.
32:10
SPEAKER_02: So now that you have you know grown kids and you have grandkids, and you're you know, you have this margin to create, what has what has kind of been the inspiration behind the the beauty of what you've created?
32:26
SPEAKER_02: And is it stuff that you wanted to have in your home, or did you sit around and talk to your daughters and daughter-in-laws?
32:31
SPEAKER_02: Like, what do you want?
32:32
SPEAKER_02: And what does this look like to have in practice?
32:36
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's a great question.
32:37
SPEAKER_00: And actually the answer is both.
32:39
SPEAKER_00: Um, it's things that I've wished I had had in my home, but I've also done a lot of talking to my girls and their friends and other young women saying, what do you want, what works for you, which is why we did several um test studies with some of this content before we actually produced it.
32:56
SPEAKER_00: We tried it with real families in real homes and found out what worked and what needed to be edited.
33:02
SPEAKER_00: Um, but mostly I just think we need to be, I know I need to be surrounded by things that remind me of the truth because my eyes are distracted constantly by all kinds of things that take my eyes off of Jesus.
33:16
SPEAKER_00: And so if I can have things at home that remind me of the truth, and there are a lot of things out now.
33:22
SPEAKER_00: There weren't six years ago when I started doing this, but there are a lot of things out now, and it just helps me.
33:28
SPEAKER_00: So I've I've been creating things that I want to have in my home.
33:32
SPEAKER_00: And the other thing that I'm really passionate about, too, that's sort of a piggyback off of this, the discussion, the conversation on Lent, but also um about why I'm creating what I'm creating, is that I think back to the Easter story, I think we need to make an enormously big, big deal, big celebration about Easter Sunday, about Resurrection Day.
33:54
SPEAKER_00: Because if you think about the way we as Americans, especially, we celebrate football games, we celebrate hockey games, we celebrate all kinds of things.
34:05
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, with balloons and all kinds of festivities and on and on and on, but we do so little for Easter.
34:12
SPEAKER_00: And I wonder what what other people think about our faith.
34:17
SPEAKER_00: If all we do is talk about Lent and talk about the sorrow and talk about the cross, and then the next day we get up and we live as if nothing happened on Easter Sunday.
34:27
SPEAKER_00: Right.
34:28
SPEAKER_00: So I think for our children's faith, and I think for the watching world, I think we as believers need to cheer and jump up and down.
34:38
SPEAKER_00: We need to have a big party with lights and food and candles and balloons.
34:44
SPEAKER_00: I mean, fireworks.
34:45
SPEAKER_00: I don't care.
34:47
SPEAKER_00: I don't care what we do.
34:48
SPEAKER_00: I just think we need to proclaim to the watching world that this is our moment.
34:54
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, this is what it's all about.
34:56
SPEAKER_00: This is the time of year that's the most important time of year.
34:59
SPEAKER_00: Not Christmas, but Easter Sunday is the most important moment of the entire year.
35:04
SPEAKER_00: And we need people to see us, watch us, celebrating.
35:08
SPEAKER_00: And they unbelievers might go, oh, that really matters to them.
35:13
SPEAKER_00: I wonder why that really matters to them.
35:15
SPEAKER_02: Oh, you make such a good point because I think as Christians, sometimes when the world and the culture has captured a holiday like Easter, like Christmas, with the the frivolous, you know, chocolate and Easter baskets and stuff like that, it causes some of us to shirk back and go, Well, we won't, we just won't make it that big of a deal when we need to counter it with like, let's make it an even bigger deal, but about the right reason, you know, and for the right reason and with in the right way and with the right heart posture.
35:43
SPEAKER_02: So I think that's so good.
35:44
SPEAKER_02: I know I'm I'm totally guilty where the kids are like, Well, why didn't we do this and why didn't we do that?
35:50
SPEAKER_02: And we used to do this when we were a kid, you know, leading up to Easter.
35:53
SPEAKER_02: And part of it was my own overwhelm and we travel or or different things like that.
35:58
SPEAKER_02: But, you know, even saying that I'm convicted, going, Yeah, I need to make it a big deal, even if it's frivolous activities.
36:06
SPEAKER_02: I want my kids to remember that and go, that's what we did, because Easter was really important in our home.
36:13
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
36:13
SPEAKER_00: And I think it's I think it's a fault that we've got to correct.
36:17
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
36:18
SPEAKER_00: Um, and I've got this hashtag that I use called Easter people on everything because I think we need to be Easter people.
36:24
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and I I love it too, because I think people need to see Christians and say, those are the Easter people.
36:32
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
36:32
SPEAKER_00: Um because the whole world does Christmas.
36:35
SPEAKER_00: Even people who aren't believers get Christmas.
36:38
SPEAKER_00: So, what's the decision?
36:39
SPEAKER_00: So I I'm not saying we shouldn't celebrate Christmas either, by the way.
36:43
SPEAKER_00: I'm just saying we need to um put them put them back in the right balance with the right tensions.
36:51
SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
36:52
SPEAKER_00: And so um our kids see us celebrating Christmas.
36:55
SPEAKER_00: They know Christmas is important, but do they know Easter is important?
36:59
SPEAKER_00: And really, do they know that without Easter, Christmas would mean nothing?
37:03
SPEAKER_00: Right.
37:04
SPEAKER_00: And I think we have to change the level at which we celebrate it so that our kids who are also watching everything that we do can't say, oh, Easter is at least as important as Christmas.
37:18
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
37:19
SPEAKER_00: By the way we express ourselves, the way we spend our time, our money, our energy.
37:25
SPEAKER_00: Um I it's it's hard to do because at Christmas school's out, and so you've got more natural window of opportunity.
37:34
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
37:34
SPEAKER_00: And so Easter is a little bit harder because the culture doesn't help us with no, you know, universal holidays and vacations.
37:42
SPEAKER_00: But still we need to do it.
37:44
SPEAKER_00: Um, we we need to get together with a bunch of friends or a bunch of family and have a huge picnic at a park.
37:52
SPEAKER_00: I don't care.
37:53
SPEAKER_00: Um, just I think people need to get creative and think through what we can do.
37:57
SPEAKER_02: That's great.
37:58
SPEAKER_00: Um, I have a friend who made an Easter scrapbook, and so I did that last year for the first time.
38:04
SPEAKER_00: I we had all our kids.
38:05
SPEAKER_00: What does that look like?
38:06
SPEAKER_00: That's well, we just I we had a big celebration and we strung patio lights all over this.
38:12
SPEAKER_00: We we uh borrowed a barn from some friends that lived nearby, and we strung patio lights all over the ceiling.
38:20
SPEAKER_00: Um, I had candles everywhere, we had a big fancy cake, we had macaroons, we had all kinds of things.
38:28
SPEAKER_00: We cheered, we had music, we had a big feast and a big dinner, and um we and we had dancing at the end.
38:35
SPEAKER_00: I just thought I want to have dancing.
38:38
SPEAKER_00: How do you dance before the Lord?
38:39
SPEAKER_00: I don't know, I've never done it in my life.
38:41
SPEAKER_00: Oh, but we're gonna try.
38:42
SPEAKER_00: Oh and so my daughter created a playlist of music, which we ended up not using for very long because it just didn't quite work.
38:49
SPEAKER_00: So I want to try it again.
38:51
SPEAKER_00: But that's great.
38:52
SPEAKER_00: But we were all out there, the little kids and my kids and us, we were just I mean, and I'm sure we looked silly and foolish if anybody was watching, but I didn't care because I wanted to do what it says in the Psalms.
39:05
SPEAKER_00: It talks about dancing before the Lord.
39:07
SPEAKER_00: Right.
39:07
SPEAKER_00: And that the Lord takes pleasure in his people when they celebrate.
39:10
SPEAKER_00: And so I thought, okay, we're gonna do this.
39:12
SPEAKER_00: I don't know how it's gonna work, but we're gonna do this.
39:15
SPEAKER_00: So I actually hired a friend to come and take pictures, and so she took pictures of us doing this all day, all afternoon.
39:22
SPEAKER_00: Um, and then I took the pictures and just created a a little book of of our Easter celebration because I thought, you know, we do this for Christmas, but I want to do one for Easter.
39:32
SPEAKER_02: Oh, I love it.
39:33
SPEAKER_02: So, did you make one copy to have it, you know, grandma's house and all the kids can look through?
39:37
SPEAKER_00: I did, I made it and I made a copy for each of my kids so they can have and it's fun when I when I've been to their houses, they have it sitting out on the coffee table or somewhere, yes, somewhat promptly.
39:49
SPEAKER_02: Those are the books my kids look at.
39:50
SPEAKER_02: Whatever Grammy makes of our time together, I mean they're religiously looking through them.
39:56
SPEAKER_02: I mean, they're breaking apart because they look through them so much.
39:58
SPEAKER_02: It's awesome.
39:59
SPEAKER_02: That's okay.
40:00
SPEAKER_02: Yes, I hope they do.
40:01
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it's treasure.
40:02
SPEAKER_00: I want them to remember those moments.
40:04
SPEAKER_00: And I have another friend who did the same thing last year too.
40:06
SPEAKER_00: So the idea is starting to catch on in a few places, but I think it helps us celebrate.
40:12
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
40:13
SPEAKER_00: Um, and I think we're gonna have to push ourselves outside of our comfort zone to find ways to celebrate.
40:19
SPEAKER_00: Um, we all know how to celebrate Christmas, that's pretty easy to figure out, but Easter's a little harder, and so it's gonna take more time and a little bit more risk and a little bit more creative energy, and we're gonna have to spend some money and go for it.
40:36
SPEAKER_02: But I think it's worth it.
40:38
SPEAKER_02: It's so worth it, and it's interesting because a few other conversations have led this idea of our comfort, like comfort being our God.
40:46
SPEAKER_02: And this is one of those moments that we're going to have to be willing to let that idol in our life die a little bit because it's uncomfortable.
40:57
SPEAKER_02: Uh it just requires more of us.
40:59
SPEAKER_02: It it demands intentionality, demands our energy and our time.
41:04
SPEAKER_02: But this is worth being intentional and fighting for and figuring out what what might work for us, what would it look for our family to celebrate really well and to leave this impression on our children and then our children's children.
41:16
SPEAKER_02: Exactly.
41:17
SPEAKER_02: Oh, that's good.
41:18
SPEAKER_00: And everybody, everybody else isn't doing it, and that's what makes it hard.
41:21
SPEAKER_00: If everybody else is putting up a Christmas tree, putting up a Christmas tree is just easy.
41:26
SPEAKER_00: Right.
41:26
SPEAKER_00: But if not everybody else is creating a big party for Resurrection Sunday afternoon, then you're then you're pushing against all kinds of envelopes.
41:35
SPEAKER_00: And it it's hard to do that because as you said, we all like our comfort.
41:39
SPEAKER_00: We like doing what everybody else is doing, it makes us feel safe.
41:42
SPEAKER_00: That's pretty good.
41:43
SPEAKER_02: So well, what are some other celebrations that you remember through the years, maybe when your kids were little or you know, even as they grew that you're that you love continuing within your family traditions for Easter specifically?
41:58
SPEAKER_00: The things that I the things that we did the most that I uh that I think have continued on uh through the through the years is um going to Good Friday services.
42:08
SPEAKER_00: I remember some really meaningful Good Friday services that we took our kids to, and and our church always made a big deal of Good Friday and had some really special events uh on Good Friday, and we always took our kids and went as a family to our Good Friday services.
42:26
SPEAKER_02: I think that's really important because a lot of churches may not be able to or they don't for whatever reason, and to just find a neighbor church, neighborhood church that you could go celebrate that.
42:35
SPEAKER_02: That's great.
42:36
SPEAKER_00: Well, I think that's really, really important.
42:38
SPEAKER_00: And so I think that's pretty easy to do because most churches do something for Good Friday.
42:43
SPEAKER_00: Um, a lot of churches do something special for Palm Sunday, and of course we were always there.
42:48
SPEAKER_00: We were at church every Sunday, and so that was always a part of our Easter celebration when the kids walk down the aisles waving the palm branches.
42:55
SPEAKER_00: Um, another thing that we have done a couple we did a couple of times with our kids that I think is really easy and really important for our children, and that's to act out some of the stories of their yeah, and our kids love doing that.
43:09
SPEAKER_00: I mean, our kids loved creating plays, and I remember them doing several of them, and I remember that at watching them, and as they were acting out some of these Bible stories, the lights kind of I could see in their eyes the lights kind of went on like oh yeah I get there.
43:26
SPEAKER_00: So I think acting out Palm Sunday, I think acting out the Last Supper or whatever, whatever you want to do, whatever your kids think is a fun idea, let them do it.
43:35
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, my friends done that with their cousins a couple years, and it's been fun.
43:40
SPEAKER_02: Of course, all the adults have to be dragged drug in after the bellies are full, but but I love seeing the kids talk about ahead of time, think through it, you know, they they have to read the Bible to figure it out what it is they're gonna do and take on those roles.
43:55
SPEAKER_02: It's beautiful.
43:56
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I love it.
43:57
SPEAKER_00: And I think it makes them, I mean, they're much more engaged.
44:00
SPEAKER_00: Because it's their idea, yeah, and they're thinking through.
44:03
SPEAKER_00: And so it's a it's just a great way for them to become to put themselves in the Bible stories, and that's how we learn when we put ourselves in.
44:12
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, one other idea, too, that's a really great one, and this would be probably for families with somewhat older children.
44:18
SPEAKER_00: I think any elementary agent up is to watch the Jesus film every year.
44:24
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
44:24
SPEAKER_00: We have uh good friends who watch the Jesus film every Saturday, between Good Friday and Easter Sunday, they watch it on Saturday.
44:32
SPEAKER_00: Oh, that's a cool idea.
44:33
SPEAKER_00: And they say, isn't it a great idea?
44:35
SPEAKER_00: Because Saturday's kind of lost.
44:37
SPEAKER_00: You know, you can go to church on Good Friday and you have a really meaningful um service with your family, and you've always got Easter Sunday to look forward to, but it nobody kind of knows what to do with Saturday.
44:48
SPEAKER_00: Right.
44:48
SPEAKER_00: I call it Silent Saturday because Saturday, of course, was the Sabbath for the Jewish people, and I think everybody just stayed home and cried all day because the cross happened on Friday.
45:00
SPEAKER_00: But um, but I think watching the Jesus film on Saturday is a great idea, and this family they stop at the part of the movie.
45:08
SPEAKER_00: I think it's right at I think it's right at the cross anyway.
45:13
SPEAKER_00: And the the the parents serve everybody communion and they do communion together.
45:18
SPEAKER_02: Oh that is such a great idea.
45:21
SPEAKER_02: I know, I love that.
45:23
SPEAKER_00: I know, I would have too.
45:25
SPEAKER_00: I didn't hear about it until our kids were gone, so we couldn't steal it.
45:28
SPEAKER_00: Right.
45:28
SPEAKER_00: And then they finished watching the movie on Saturday afternoon or Saturday evening, and I think that's another really easy but great idea of how to do how to make the whole week more special.
45:40
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and to even play into the tension of the waiting of what it must have felt like to have Silent Saturday, to have that, you know, what what just happened?
45:49
SPEAKER_02: Wait a minute, he was supposed to save us and and to just remember true hope.
45:54
SPEAKER_02: Uh true hope and how we find that.
45:56
SPEAKER_02: That is really good.
45:57
SPEAKER_02: Oh man, these are great ideas.
45:59
SPEAKER_02: I I mean, I'm just like bursting.
46:02
SPEAKER_02: I'm so ready.
46:03
SPEAKER_02: I'm so ready to implement these.
46:04
SPEAKER_02: I'm so ready to hop onto Ever Thine Home and order, you know, your product and get it in, you know, use it and practice it with my family because I want I want to recapture the importance of it and put the value back into my kids' hearts and show them the value of Easter.
46:23
SPEAKER_02: I think it's really, really good.
46:25
SPEAKER_00: Well, I agree with you, and I wish my kids were still here because I would I would do it with them if they were around.
46:30
SPEAKER_00: So now I have to watch them do it with their kids.
46:32
SPEAKER_02: Now, how many grandkids do you have?
46:35
SPEAKER_00: Uh, we have 24.
46:37
SPEAKER_00: Are you serious?
46:39
SPEAKER_02: Oh my gosh.
46:39
SPEAKER_02: Are you is that it just takes my breath away every time I say it because I think how did that happen?
46:44
SPEAKER_02: Oh, Barbara, what a blessing.
46:47
SPEAKER_02: That is beautiful.
46:48
SPEAKER_00: That's just it really is.
46:51
SPEAKER_00: I never imagined that we would have that many.
46:53
SPEAKER_00: I don't know why.
46:54
SPEAKER_00: I mean, if you just do the math, it's it's gonna be a bunch.
46:57
SPEAKER_00: It's gonna be a lot of six kids, but I just didn't really think it through.
47:01
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
47:02
SPEAKER_00: So here we are.
47:03
SPEAKER_02: We have an even two dozen.
47:04
SPEAKER_02: Oh, I love it.
47:05
SPEAKER_02: Now, do they get to come home for Easter?
47:07
SPEAKER_02: What does that look like for you guys?
47:09
SPEAKER_00: Well, typically not because most nobody lives in in town.
47:13
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
47:13
SPEAKER_00: Um, everybody's away, everybody lives two of one in state and everybody else is out of state.
47:18
SPEAKER_00: So it's just not easy.
47:19
SPEAKER_00: They don't come home for Christmas either because it's just too much travel.
47:23
SPEAKER_00: Um, yeah.
47:24
SPEAKER_00: So a couple of them are within driving distance, but most of them it's a plane ticket.
47:29
SPEAKER_00: So um we don't gather very often for holidays.
47:32
SPEAKER_00: We try to get to our kids together in the summer every other year and do a beach trip or some kind of a gathering with the whole thing.
47:41
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
47:41
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
47:42
SPEAKER_00: Although we did when I was talking about the Easter um book that I made, we did get everybody together that year because I thought, okay, I want to try doing Easter as our gathering time.
47:52
SPEAKER_00: And so we did that and made the big to deal, make big to-do out of it, um, renting the barn and everything for a weekend.
48:00
SPEAKER_00: So we've we've done that, and I may do that again in another year or two when it works out for everybody's schedules.
48:06
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
48:06
SPEAKER_00: Because that was really fun.
48:07
SPEAKER_00: Oh, that's true.
48:08
SPEAKER_00: We all loved it.
48:08
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, well, for sure.
48:10
SPEAKER_02: We've been asking, you know, uh the different guests just as a fun question because obviously our culture um encourages us to buy plenty of candy at any given holiday.
48:22
SPEAKER_02: So I, as a mom, don't mind too terribly because it means I get to buy some candy I wouldn't otherwise buy for myself and steal a few pieces.
48:33
SPEAKER_02: So, for you, if you were going to be filling plastic Easter eggs for the kids or the grandkids, what candy would be your go-to that you would want to make sure you get?
48:42
SPEAKER_00: That's a fun question.
48:44
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
48:44
SPEAKER_00: You know, I always bought my kids those Reese's eggs.
48:47
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
48:48
SPEAKER_02: And it's because I love those things too.
48:50
SPEAKER_02: I know.
48:51
SPEAKER_02: I saw them the other day and I was like, oh, maybe I should buy one just for me.
48:56
SPEAKER_00: I know, I know.
48:57
SPEAKER_00: I saw them in the grocery store a couple of days ago and I went, oh, it's here.
49:00
SPEAKER_02: The Easter candies are it is finally here.
49:03
SPEAKER_02: That's so great.
49:04
SPEAKER_02: Well, Barbara, besides, um, I I our moms and you know, other young women and families who listen to this podcast, they they might be, you know, doing dishes or driving around town in the minivan or, you know, on their way to work.
49:20
SPEAKER_02: And so they're listening and they're remembering in this conversation that's already given them lots of different ideas of things that they want to act upon and maybe implement this Lent season.
49:30
SPEAKER_02: But is there anything else that you would love to make sure our listeners take away?
49:34
SPEAKER_02: Maybe, you know, just one or two things that you would love for them to think about or remember through this Lent season as we build up anticipation in our heart for our Savior.
49:45
SPEAKER_00: Well, I think Lent is a great opportunity to remember.
49:49
SPEAKER_00: Actually, it's all year long, but but some there's something about this season that causes us to reflect.
49:55
SPEAKER_00: And I think the most important thing for us to remember is that we just need Jesus every day.
50:01
SPEAKER_00: We can't do marriage without him, we can't do parenting without him, we can't get along without him.
50:08
SPEAKER_00: I mean, we are so bankrupt.
50:10
SPEAKER_00: And the longer I live, the more I see how desperately I need Jesus to help me do anything, everything, because my my best attempts are not good enough.
50:23
SPEAKER_00: Um, I struggled with loving my kids, I've struggled with loving my husband, I've struggled with everything God asks us to do.
50:31
SPEAKER_00: And I think Easter is a perfect time to remember that I can, I can become more like Jesus because he died and because he rose again and because he lives in my heart, I have hope that he will help me live the way he wants me to live.
50:47
SPEAKER_00: Because on my own, I can't be holy.
50:49
SPEAKER_00: On my own, I can't love the way I need to love.
50:53
SPEAKER_00: On my own, I have zero patience.
50:55
SPEAKER_00: But with him and with his presence in me, I can I can change.
51:01
SPEAKER_00: He can produce change in me.
51:02
SPEAKER_00: Actually, I can't produce the change, but he can.
51:05
SPEAKER_00: He can change my heart.
51:06
SPEAKER_00: And I think to me, that's the great, that's the great lesson of every day, but especially of the Lent and Easter season, is that we have hope because he went to the cross and because he was victorious over sin and death.
51:22
SPEAKER_00: We have hope that his presence in our lives, the more we submit to him and the more we surrender to him, he will change our hearts.
51:31
SPEAKER_00: And it's our hearts that need changing.
51:33
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
51:34
SPEAKER_00: So to me, that's the great reminder of this season is that we we don't have to we don't have to live in our failure and our sin and our shame and our brokenness.
51:46
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
51:46
SPEAKER_00: He came to lift us out of that if we'll let him.
51:49
SPEAKER_00: I think the real trick is, will we let him?
51:52
SPEAKER_00: Um, one of my favorite stories is when um Jesus came to the man who was um lame and he'd been that way for 38 years, sitting by the pool, and he said, Do you want to get well?
52:04
SPEAKER_00: And I remember reading that um when I first learned that story and thinking, well, why wouldn't he want to get well?
52:10
SPEAKER_00: Of course he wants to get well.
52:11
SPEAKER_00: What a silly question is that.
52:13
SPEAKER_00: Right.
52:14
SPEAKER_00: But I think Jesus knew his heart and he knows all of our hearts, and he knows that sometimes we don't want to get well.
52:19
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes we just want to be mad at our kids, or sometimes we just want to be angry at our husbands.
52:25
SPEAKER_00: We really don't want to get well.
52:27
SPEAKER_00: And the message of the cross, the message of Easter is that we can get well.
52:33
SPEAKER_01: Right.
52:33
SPEAKER_00: We can have new hearts, we can be loving, we can be patient, we can be all of those things, but only if we let him do the healing work on our broken, damaged hearts.
52:45
SPEAKER_00: And he wants to do that, but we have to open the door, which is one of the one of the um names Jesus said about himself.
52:54
SPEAKER_00: I am the door.
52:55
SPEAKER_00: If we open the door and let him in, he can do that work, that life-changing work that we are not capable of doing on our own.
53:02
SPEAKER_02: Amen.
53:03
SPEAKER_02: We can be free, we can find our freedom in him if we want to.
53:06
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
53:06
SPEAKER_00: And I'm so glad, and it's why we need to celebrate and sing and dance and shout on Easter Sunday, because we can be free.
53:13
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
53:14
SPEAKER_02: Oh, so good.
53:14
SPEAKER_02: Barbara, I'm provoked by our conversation in such a good way, and I'm blessed, and I really believe my friends will be too.
53:22
SPEAKER_02: So thank you.
53:22
SPEAKER_02: Thank you so much for your well, it's been a real treat to do this.
53:26
SPEAKER_02: Well, thank you.
53:26
SPEAKER_02: It sure has been for me as well.
53:28
SPEAKER_02: I love it.
53:34
SPEAKER_02: Didn't you love listening to her?
53:36
SPEAKER_02: I think she has one of those great mothering voices that's so tender and full of wisdom.
53:42
SPEAKER_02: And I'm convinced that the invitation for intentionality is worth our efforts, especially when this season gives us an opportunity to point our families and our hearts towards Christ.
53:53
SPEAKER_02: I would really love to know what one tradition or practice you've decided to implement this Lenton season.
54:00
SPEAKER_02: I also love Barbara's Evertine Home Shop and so appreciate that she is offering a very generous discount code for our community.
54:08
SPEAKER_02: It's only good for the next two weeks, so you'll want to hop onto her website right now, and I'll link all of that in the show notes.
54:15
SPEAKER_02: Use Easter 10 on any of the items still in stock and get some of her great resources which will help your family celebrate this Lint season.
54:24
SPEAKER_02: Now be sure and stay tuned because we are sharing more stirring conversations like this during the whole Lint season to encourage us as we reflect, remember, and celebrate Rebirth.
54:35
SPEAKER_02: We would love to have you invite your friends and family to join us.
54:39
SPEAKER_02: Also, remember tomorrow we'll have yet another fantastic podcast.
54:43
SPEAKER_02: Anne Watson is not only a good boxer friend now, but she is also fun and feisty.
54:49
SPEAKER_02: I can't wait for you to meet her.
54:51
SPEAKER_02: Of course, we are going to talk about the Annegram, but she is also passionate about helping other women better understand or articulate their unique calling and passion.
55:00
SPEAKER_02: I think you're gonna love what she has to share tomorrow.
55:04
SPEAKER_02: So be sure to invite your friends and family to tune in with us as we continue to pursue perspective, purpose, and plans for a simply wholehearted life.