Easter

We spent Easter Sunday down in Utah at Michelle and Rob's house. Grandma Julie, Heather, Jason, Ethan, and Brogan all came down from Idaho.  It was a pretty low key day.  Usually I have new matching Easter outfits for the kids to wear to church.  Then the Easter Bunny comes and leaves a small gift and hides our candy filled eggs.  But this year I had no desire to try and match my kids in new clothes or search for an Easter gift...and you know what?  Not one asked me where any of that stuff was.  Surprise!  The things that I thought were so important are actually not very. 

We did try and sneak out and hide the eggs that were filled with candy.  Later on that night Bennett came to me and said, "I know the secret. Daddy, Jason, and Rob hid the eggs for us to find. Didn't they."  He seemed a little sad, and I was a little sad too.  A little piece of his childhood slid away.  He's growing up so fast.  I kept thinking maybe I should have tried a little bit harder to keep the secret of the Easter Bunny going.  But as I pondered over the things I thought I should have done that day, I realized that I failed do the most important thing of all.  I didn't remind them of our Savior, Jesus Christ.

I didn't tell them of how Jesus went to the Garden of Gathsemane and prayed to our Heavenly Father, taking upon him our sins.  I didn't tell my children how Jesus was taken, and beaten, and then nailed to a cross.  And I didn't tell them about how our Savior died on the cross, his body taken to a tomb, but on the third day he rose from that tomb, resurrected and lives.  I didn't remind my children eternal life with our Heavenly Father was made possible through the Atonement.

All the clothes, candy, kites, eggs, and bunnies can never come close to replacing the precious gift that our Heavenly Father and our Savior Jesus Christ has given us.  Although my kids know this already, I feel like I failed to show them the importance of it all by my omittance of talking to them about the Atonement in our lives.
I am grateful for my Savior, Jesus Christ and for his sacrifice he made for me.  I am grateful the gift of free agency to choose right over wrong and good over evil and to be able to repent of my sins so that I can return to my Heavenly Fathers presence someday and enjoy the blessings of eternal life.