Happy Easter (A Little Late)

“Yea, come unto Christ, and be perfected in him, and deny yourselves of all ungodliness; and if you shall deny yourselves of all ungodliness, and love God with all your might, mind, and strength, then is his grace sufficient for you, that by his grace ye may be perfect in Christ” (Moroni 10:32-33).We had kind of a crazy day, but it was still very nice. We started with the Easter Bunny. In my attempt to help my children understand the "true meaning of Easter," I created a hunt using pictures of Christ that I got out of this month's Ensign. There was a different picture for every clue. Eventually, they found their Easter baskets in the dryer. Greg said that he remember his mom doing something like that every year, too. She wanted so badly for them to "get" the true meaning of the holiday. That made me feel a little better. Maybe they really do understand more than I give them credit for.

I had attempted to make oatmeal before they ate too much chocolate. It was a nice try, but pretty worthless. Paige was hilarious. I put a couple of candies in a small basket for her, and she just sat down and shoved them all in her mouth at once. She looked like a chipmunk with chocolate oozing out of the corners of her mouth. Then, she just followed the other kids around waiting patiently for someone to drop something...anything.

I left at 10 a.m. to sing in another ward with my sister, Lisa. We sang "I Wonder When He Comes Again" and a medley of hymns ("The Lord is My Light," "I Know that My Redeemer Lives," "My Redeemer Lives," and "I Believe in Christ." It has turned into one of my favorite arrangements. It really set a beautiful tone for the day. I got home at 12:30, frantically did Macy's hair, and headed to our church. I had to speak on the Atonement, and I only had 12 minutes. I had so much information, and I did my best to narrow it down. I couldn't believe how nervous I was. Luckily, they changed the program around so the Primary kids sang right before my talk. Our Song Leader did a great job at teaching them the song, but she had a baby about 3 weeks ago, so I actually led the song. The kids did so great, and it really helped to calm my nerves.

After church, we headed to Mike and Annie's house for dinner with Greg's brothers. It was such a gorgeous day. I'm pretty sure the kids didn't eat anything except cookies and strawberry shortcake, but they had a blast playing outside with all of their cousins. It was a very pleasant day.

One of the speakers in the ward that we visited spoke about how Peter denied Christ. She talked about how he must have felt so tormented for those three days after Christ died. Then, the scriptures tell us that Christ sought Peter out after his Resurrection. She discussed how we each deny Christ in our own way. Maybe we lust after "things," maybe we put television shows before scripture study, or maybe we don't take full advantage of the Atonement. Whatever it may be...we need to do exactly what Christ asked: "Come follow Me." It really touched me, and I have considered ever since the ways in which I deny Christ.

One of my favorite quotes that I found on the Atonement:
“If we could truly understand the Atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ, we would realize how precious is one son or daughter of God. I believe our Heavenly Father’s everlasting purpose for His children is generally achieved by the small and simple things we do for one another. At the heart of the English word atonement is the word one. If all mankind understood this, there would never be anyone with whom we would not be concerned, regardless of age, race, gender, religion, or social or economic standing. We would strive to emulate the Savior and would never be unkind, indifferent, disrespectful, or insensitive to others.” - M. Russell Ballard