Happy Easter!

Happy Easter!!

This Easter is so, so special to me this year.  I'm not sure how to explain it.  

I dove head first into Lent this year.  I don't usually do that.  I usually give up brownies.  I didn't meet all my promises perfectly.  I never do.  But I didn't give up either.

This year I prayed and put several do's and don't do's on the agenda for the 40 days.  I am most transformed though by the ones that required me to do something on a daily basis.  

I ran one mile every day, praying and exploring this verse:
"...with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace..."  Ephesians 6:15

I set out to read the whole Bible; not to finish it during Lent, but to begin the process.  First I finished the New Testament: a few small books and the Gospel of Mark.  I read the rest of the New Testament over the past few years, but I rarely crack open the Old Testament.  Whenever I tried before, I would fall asleep before getting very far.

Now I have read Genesis beginning to end (I finished it today)!!  It was incredible!!  I felt such Spirit-driven motivation to read it this time.  I felt so led, so inspired, and now I feel so educated.  I'm humbled, truly, by this piece of knowledge of Old Testament scriptures.  So much of it was incredibly, wonderfully new to me.

Seriously, I would ask Husband about something or tell him what I had read, and sometimes he was genuinely shocked that I didn't know.  I just didn't grow up reading the Bible, and I think my Vacation Bible School attendance is limited to one time with our neighbor friend Erica.  Our conversations usually ended in a biblical history lesson, during which I sat wide-eyed and nodded uh-huh.

I am eager and excited to keep up this reading!

I feel humbled, honored and joyful to begin this beautiful Easter season feeling so transformed by Christ.  I hope the same for all of you!  This is the scripture in my head over and over as this Easter season unfolds:
"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!"  2 Corinthians 5:17

At the same time, I am reminded that in this season of tremendous hope and life, we must nurture our soil.  It is too easy for this joy to be choked out quickly by the weeds.  We must nurture understanding, cultivate roots carefully, and seek life in Christ above the distractions of the world.

Read the Parable of the Weeds here.  Or find it in Matthew 13: 1-30.