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If you normally go to church on Easter, but you are not this year...


rainbird2
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What are you doing instead?  I am cooking a ton of food (a blessing), taking a nice walk with my family (a blessing), and we're going to spend some time singing our favorite hymns (always fun...and a blessing). 

...I'm still struggling, though.  My kids, too.  We miss church, but we can't go back...it's hard.  Will someone please remind me to focus on the good?  There is so much hope in the message of Easter.  I must focus on that message.

 

 

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We did our normal easter morning stuff, I heated up gluten free donuts (one kid with celiac), I made myself a nice breakfast, and then we put on a church service on youtube in the living room. I had printed out Easter coloring pages for the kids to color, and word scrambles, etc. I put a white cloth (ok...a folded white pillow case, lol) on the table the TV is on with a candle and our pre-consecrated communion elements I picked up on Friday. I put the bread in a pretty crystal bowl (found at a thrift store forever ago - maybe it' for jelly, or sugar?) and poured the wine into a pretty cordial glass (it's a cheap one, but cut pretty to look fancy). If I didn't have communion I'd put maybe a cross or religious item there.  We snuggled up on the couch and watched. Now I'm cleaning the kitchen up to be ready to prepare food. Going to make some fun cupcakes in addition to other stuff. 

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I used to go to church on Easter, but my anxiety got the best of me and now I avoid church altogether, unfortunately.  One day, maybe...

today we are grilling burgers, so spending lots of time soaking up the sun.  My son and his gf and her dad are coming over.  My son was upset with me earlier in the week and said he wasn’t coming, so today feels extra special.  

It’s a gorgeous day and I’ve been outside with the dogs and watching the birds play.  We will probably ride the golf cart around the neighborhood later in the day.  
 

I’m focusing on the stillness of the day and the family around me.  I hope your day brings you much joy.    💛💛💛

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3 of the 4 of us watched a streamed church service.  Before that we enjoyed breakfast together. We are preparing a nice early dinner. Our away-at-college kid came home for the first time this semester so we are enjoying getting caught up.  Heading back to school later today, so it's a very short visit. 

I wish I liked Easter hymns more; we don't listen to special Easter music as we do on Christmas. But there is a lot of noise anyway - mixers running, talking, laughing.  It's a good day. 

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I attended online church.

After church I will run to the grocery store for some simple foods to eat today.  It's just dh and I (empty nesters) so I really can't be motivated to do a big spread.  Plus - I have been without a kitchen since October (remodel). 

Oh and I plan to do laundry so that I have clothes to wear tomorrow! 

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We have "General Conference" the first weekend of April every year, and sometimes it coincides with Easter.    So, we watched conference on TV just as we normally would.   I finished our home theater last fall (which has been a bigger hit than I was expecting), so this was the first time we could go down there to watch conference.  Even dudeling - the pathologically demand averse to everything (yeah, it's a legit ASD sub-type diagnosis.  in the UK.), has been sitting and watching it down there with us.

This morning was really nice - music was prerecorded, and included several groups of children from different countries (singing the same song, spliced together) the speakers were all natives of different countries (at least one from each continent, and the pacific islands) - each speaking on the healing power of The Atonement of Jesus Christ, and what it means to them personally. 

I will also be listening to the Messiah- which is one of my all time favorite pieces of music.  While it is normally played at Christmas, it was written for Easter. 

 

I'll be skyping with 2dd later, and 1dd and 1ds will come to dinner.  Dh is trying out his new traeger to roast lamb.

Edited by gardenmom5
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I was hoping our church might do an indoor service (we''re just getting back to that but only a limited number can go), but they did a drive-in service. I'm not crazy about drive-in services, so I watched the livestream which was great--could hear and see everything!

 

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Watched a morning service, and will watch another favorite later on youtube.  No kids this year either, but will have a friend over for dinner.  I watched as always, The Ten Commandments last night and binge watched The Chosen, season 1 last week. Tonight, will catch The Chosen livestream, 5pm PST. I think this series will become my new favorite every year.  

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I snagged a vaccine appointment for this morning 1 hour 45 minutes away, so we were up early for a road trip. On the way back, we stopped at a state park for a 5.5 mile hike and a picnic lunch. 

Very non-traditional. We did get together with some family yesterday. Gorgeous day, grilled a ham and were outside all afternoon. 

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We went on our first of many camping trips and had a great time! Yesterday we fished, biked, played games, told stories, and watched a marveL movie. Today we colored eggs, hunted eggs, listened to music, had a devotional, and are heading home. It was a wonderful change from watching online services, and I think it made the weekend special. 

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DD hunted Easter eggs around the house, one clue leading to the next until she ended at her Easter basket. (12 isn't too old for that, right?) 🙂 We had cinnamon rolls for breakfast. I watched our church's online service, then we went to my in-laws for a traditional Easter lunch. (It was just the five of us, and they are fully vaccinated.) I took a nap while the other four played cards, then we walked to a pond and fed some fish. Lovely!!! 

He is RISEN! So amazing. And we have a vaccination that works! So much to be thankful for today. 

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18 minutes ago, MercyA said:

DD hunted Easter eggs around the house, one clue leading to the next until she ended at her Easter basket. (12 isn't too old for that, right?) 🙂 We had cinnamon rolls for breakfast. I watched our church's online service, then we went to my in-laws for a traditional Easter lunch. (It was just the five of us, and they are fully vaccinated.) I took a nap while the other four played cards, then we walked to a pond and fed some fish. Lovely!!! 

He is RISEN! So amazing. And we have a vaccination that works! So much to be thankful for today. 

Mercy, that's what I kept thinking today - about how we see that light at the end of the tunnel. I prayed many extra prayers of thankfulness for the scientists and lab workers and factory workers that brought us the vaccines!

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We watched an online live service from a church near us that I have attended a few times. In fact, if my own church does not get back to 2 services by tgr beginning by April 25, when dh and I are fully vaccinated and immune suppressed by the vaccine.  

My church has had in-person church since mid June but even now, they still have one service with both awful praise teams recorded plus live orga. Music and a our amazing choir director.  I cannot tolerate being in church w music that 6o me sounds like fingernails on a chalk board.  The other church has separate traditional and contemporary services and their band for the contemporary actually is good.

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Well the day's nearing an end, but two of our dd's came over and we had an Easter brunch.  My dh and I were vaccinated yesterday, and I wasn't feeling great and as the day wore on, my dh began feeling worse so back to bed he went!  The rest of us colored Easter eggs, went out to our apt. building's giant roof-top patio overlooking the river for awhile and visited (it was a strange, beautiful day for this time of year), and then came back inside to watch our church's online sermon from this morning.  

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This was my first Easter feeling hopeless.  I am painfully grieving this year, and I had such little hope today.

I read Isaiah 25 (God Will Swallow Up Death Forever) and held on to that all day.  I made it through Easter without crying, which was my goal.  Trying to be strong for my kids.

I enjoyed reading your responses throughout the day, so thank you for the replies.  I kept reminding myself that I don't have to be at church to celebrate.  There is Easter joy in family, nature, food, and scripture.  My kids' hymn singing lifted my spirits.  We can be anywhere and have the joy and hope of Easter.

 

 

 

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7 hours ago, rainbird2 said:

This was my first Easter feeling hopeless.  I am painfully grieving this year, and I had such little hope today.

I read Isaiah 25 (God Will Swallow Up Death Forever) and held on to that all day.  I made it through Easter without crying, which was my goal.  Trying to be strong for my kids.

I enjoyed reading your responses throughout the day, so thank you for the replies.  I kept reminding myself that I don't have to be at church to celebrate.  There is Easter joy in family, nature, food, and scripture.  My kids' hymn singing lifted my spirits.  We can be anywhere and have the joy and hope of Easter.

 

 

 

I found this helpful for dealing with the hard stuff this Easter. Hallelujah anyway, indeed. 

 

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On 4/5/2021 at 9:25 AM, Dreamergal said:

((Hugs))

I grew up in church in my country of origin. It was a church my family went to for generations, it is liturgical (Anglican) and the order of worship is like what the Queen does. It is a church with history from old British days. I loved the service. We sang hymns with the music of a pipe organ, the observance of church seasons, the majesty of processions, the smell of incense and candles burning in the altar, the real wine during Christmas, we even had silver or gold cups which were brought out for festival occasions and lived in a bank during the rest of the year. Caroling, sunday school, choir, youth. I loved my church, my pastor who is a mentor even now. 

When I came here I missed it terribly and so to find something normal I looked for a church home. To make a very long story short, I have not found one for close to 20 years for a variety of reasons. I have assimilated completely to life in the US and it was very sorrowful and a thing to be ashamed of that I did not find a church home in a christian country when a large part of my life was spent in church in a non-christian one. I did pray a lot for church and have church shopped throughout.

The thing though is, what I found was I need not have a church home to be close to the Lord or walk with Him. I strongly believe in "When two or three are gathered in my name, I am with them". In many cases, I was the only one in the room, the other two or three were across oceans and continents and it was over the phone. When I got married, DH and I were the only two before we had our son. Often it is our inlaws and parents who visited and lived with us. Our parents and inlaws never understood why we could not just pick a church a go. But I always say we are part of the universal church, so we do not need to go to a building.

The Lord knows how much DH and I prayed for a church, but we have been led on this walk. I think of all the people throughout history who had no church building or a worship service and still were strong Christians. The many secret Christians around the world, the persecuted church. I truly believe the Lord has led us on this walk. It has taught both DH and I the value of individual prayer and family worship. What we are doing will probably never fly theologically, but for us it has been about Christ always and how best to walk with Him even sans church.

I still miss the beauty of community worship, a church family and sometimes wish my kids have that. So we use online church a lot long before the pandemic. We go to church occasionally, more for the sacrament because I could not imagine getting that from an unordained person. Even that, the Lord has been slowly changing us I believe. DH and I gave each other communion throughout this past year, the longest we have done. Our priest blesses it through a screen. 

Sorry for the length. I essentially want to say, sometimes even if you cannot go to church for whatever reason, you will mourn the loss of it especially if it has been a big part of life. But it will be ok and your walk with the Lord will be more personal in my experience. Sometimes like Moses we are called to walk differently I believe. Immanuel, God with us is beyond a building, He is in the quiet times spent with Him, the lonely times when you cry silently and in hiding when you cannot be strong, when you are afraid, when you teach your children, when you pray with your  DH, you pray for someone.. I hope you find joy in quiet moments spent with your loved ones, doing things that matter to you and time spent in His presence. ((Hugs))

I appreciate you taking the time to write this.  Your words were really encouraging and helped me put things in perspective.  Thank you, from the bottom of my heart.

 

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