Easter traditions are fun. The bright, springtime colors, decorating eggs, eating yummy food. Easter egg hunts. Waiting for the Easter Bunny to come drop off gifts. All sorts of happy things.

But to be honest, Easter was a holiday I only enjoyed because it meant I was going to wake up to a basket full of treats. That’s it. Pure and simple. Then, when I got a bit older, it was about food. So much good food. I didn’t think about the greater purpose behind the Easter celebration because I didn’t understand or comprehend it. And maybe that lack of understanding stemmed from being a child. Children often aren’t aware of the bigger picture, meaning, or purpose behind a lot of the holidays we celebrate. I certainly wasn’t.

Either way, today, Easter has taken on a more significant, personal, and spiritual meaning. I don’t wake up to candy and treats (but I still get to eat good food, praises be). Nope. Now I wake up and try to focus my thoughts and gratitude toward Jesus Christ.

We celebrate Christmas each year as the birth-time of the Savior, and that is certainly a holy and sacred time. Who’s to say if Easter is more holy, but it deserves at least as much reverence and appreciation as Christmas. Because around Easter is when Christ atoned for the sins of the world, was cruficied, and rose again on the third day.

Without the matchless gift of his life, we would not be able to continually repent and repeatedly cleansed from sin. He lived a perfectly righteous life and was willing to undergo pains and afflictions of every kind for MY sake. For YOUR sake. No one who ever lived or will ever live on this earth would have been less deserving of what he went through.

And he did it so that we have the ability to repent and become better. Because without his infinite atonement for mankind, we would not be worthy or spiritually clean enough to return home to be with our Heavenly Father again.

So this Easter, that’s what I’ll be (trying) to focus on. Amid the food, fun, and games. And hopefully the nice weather (bc heaven knows it’s about time we had some decent weather). Jesus is the Christ, our Savior, and Redeemer. I love Him. I hope you can each take some time this weekend to think about what He means to you personally.

XOXO,

Lauren