Sugar

Day 102.

He is Risen!
He is Risen, indeed!

Happy Easter everyone. Our day was fast and fun...brunch at church, a wonderful worship service, sunday school, a delicious elaborate meal at the in-laws, and an easter egg hunt in their backyard.

I am grateful for Easter.

It's hard to teach your young kids about the Easter story. Jesus dies on a cross (yikes!). The tomb is empty (really?!?!). He is risen from the dead (what does "risen" mean?).

Dylan was obsessed with the "Jesus Dies on the Cross" story in The Rhyme Bible for a couple of weeks (about a month ago). I appreciate that this story does actually show Jesus on the cross, with a small (tasteful) amount of blood I believe. That was helpful - to have a visual. All the Easter books I've looked at since reading that one - all just kind of glide over the crucifixion. They use pretty language and show a dark day with mean people or three crosses in the distance up on a hill in the background. It's very vague. (Except for the one book I saw when shopping at Yoder's department store with Emily last week - this Easter book for young children was complete with dialogue..."Kill him! Kill him! Kill Jesus!" Double yikes - I don't think I need to introduce the word "kill" into my preschooler's vocabulary just yet.)

So Easter is hard. It's hard to understand, even as adults...the resurrection is unfathomable.

But yet, isn't God's love for us also unfathomable? Isn't it beyond amazing how much we can screw up and disappoint ourselves, and how God still takes us back every time?

Unfortunately, because Easter is so hard to understand as a young child, the focus of Easter becomes easter eggs, the easter bunny, and....(drumroll please)...candy.

God help me - why do my kids love sugar so much? We're a pretty low-sugar household. We don't have cookies around. Never have candy around (minus valentine's day, halloween and yes...easter). What is it that just makes them go gaga for sugar?

It's quite frightening to see the transformation of quiet, calm and well-behaved children into crazy, manic and wild beasts running around the house...all brought to you by...sugar!

So, NO Dylan, you can't have a piece of carrot cake with icing when you've already had two cinnamon rolls, 10 jellybeans, a chocolate bunny and a cupcake in Sunday School. Yes, EVEN if it has carrots in it.