Easter Thoughts

I know Easter was over a week ago but is it ever too late to post a message about Jesus? I think not. I just wanted to write down a couple of thoughts I had leading up to Easter that were started with a short and frustrating story. About two weeks before Easter we were cleaning up the kitchen after dinner and asked the boys to clean up the living room to get ready for Family Home Evening (FHE). The usual whining and complaining ensued. However; the Silly One, for whatever reason, decided to throw a plastic dinosaur at the Small One and hit him right in the face. Now this wasn't done from across the room, he was a couple of feet from him. This also wasn't done with one of those little plastic dinosaurs, it was of those those about 6" or so. I was immediately so frustrated and could not comprehend the logic that caused this action.

The FHE lesson I planned was no longer going to happen as consequences were such that the Silly One was going to bed ASAP. They both got ready for bed and I remembered the Bible story picture books we have so I pulled out the Easter Story one.

We read it quickly and at the end I was struck by something so simple. After the Savior has been resurrected he appears to his disciples and in the book he said, "Go and tell the world what God has taught us: if we do bad things, we should be sorry. If other people do bad things, we should forgive them." We finished the book and had family prayer, the Silly One said sorry and the Small One forgave him. It was amazing to me what a profound lesson came from such a mess. None of our lives are perfect and not one of us is perfect, but because Jesus dies and rose on the third day we have hope for tomorrow. Hope to be better and become better. Peace through forgiveness because of His atonement. I know He lives!