Two Christmases ago, I wanted to do a 25-day advent that would help us focus more on Jesus, and so every night, we watched a "Jesus video" (the Bible videos created by the LDS Church) and we talked about the things Jesus did and the qualities he showed. Fast forward to a few weeks later, and I kept thinking about how wonderful it was to talk about Jesus every day and how Easter should be even more of a big deal than Christmas, and I decided to put together an Easter advent. Tim helped me focus my ideas and I made a plan, and we just went for it.
And the results?
It was so much better than I thought it would be.
Here's what we did last year (and what we'll do again this year):
- We decided to share stories about Jesus every night, starting with a few of the prophecies of his birth and going through his life until his death/resurrection. We included a handful of Book of Mormon stories and we broke down the final days of Jesus's life into several parts to meet our goal.
- We chose to do 40 days partially because 40 days is significant in the scriptures and partially because it coincided with Lent, which I usually like to celebrate. This year, Lent starts today on February 14th.
- Rather than sacrificing anything for Lent though, we decided to focus on doing service. Lent is actually 47 days long because Sundays traditionally don't count, so we decided to do stories for 40 days and service as a family on the extra 7 days.
Here's how it actually turned out and what we learned:
- Because we were focusing our actions on service, we ended up focusing all of our nightly stories on how Jesus served people and how he showed his love for them. Once we framed everything in the context of love and service, it went much more smoothly.
- While I initially mapped out which days were most likely to be good service days over the seven weeks, we were flexible as unexpected opportunities have come up. Some things we planned, other things we didn't, but we learned that if you look for service opportunities, you'll find them.
- One thing that really made a difference was the Bible videos. I can't praise them enough. Even on nights when there wasn't a video to go along with the story (for example, the story of the 10 Lepers - how did that get skipped??), we ended up watching our favorites again. This year, we are adding in one or two Living Scriptures movies, but we very much prefer the Bible videos.
- Another thing that helped is that when we broke down the events leading up to Jesus's death and resurrection, I made resurrection eggs for the kids to open. If you haven't heard of this idea, here's a good example of some easy resurrection egg ideas. (I'll create a separate post about ours and what we included when we're closer to Easter.) [UPDATE: As promised! Here's our Resurrection Eggs explained.]
- I should also note that last year, we wimped out and didn't try to read the stories directly from the scriptures. Instead, we explained the story in words the kids could understand, then we watched the video (occasionally pausing to make sure they were following), and then we talked about it after and asked them questions. And then we'd usually watch it again! Because the kids are older, we plan to read the stories from the scriptures for our daily family scripture study this year.
The main thing I remember about last year was that although I originally planned this for my kids, I needed it for myself, too. I learned so much and gained insights and was strengthened through the opportunity to bear my testimony to my kids over and over again.
I remember that one of the most rewarding moments came during church when we were about 2/3 of the way through our 40 days. I opened up the Gospel Art Book and showed the girls all the pictures from Jesus' life, and they were able to tell me the story behind every single picture that we'd covered so far. Even Rosie could tell me the stories, and up to that point, I had serious doubts that she was listening when I explained the stories in kid-speak. The whole experience made Easter better for all of us and I'm excited to try it again this year! Yes, 40 days is a long time and yes, it's a big commitment, but yes, it was absolutely worth it.
Here's the full 40-day list of Jesus stories/scriptures/videos. (Sorry it's not in a better/easier format - I couldn't get the table formatting to work.) This does not include the extra days of service, so remember to work those in before the last week. (The stories assigned to the days between Palm Sunday and Easter Sunday are scheduled for specific days.) And if you decide to join us or do your own version, please let me know how it turns out!
Easter Advent: Forty Days of Jesus Stories
Day 1: Prophecy of Christ’s Birth (Isaiah 9:6) Mormon Tabernacle Choir - World’s Largest Virtual Hallelujah Chorus
[There is a Living Scriptures video "Samuel and the Sign" but it's not available online unless you have an account]
“An Angel Foretells Christ’s Birth to Mary”
Day 4: The Nativity (Luke 2:1-20)
”The Nativity”
Day 5: The visit of the Wise Men & fleeing into Egypt (Matt. 2:1-15)
Day 6: Jesus teaches in the temple (Luke 2:40-52)
Day 7: The baptism of Jesus (Matt. 3:13-17)
Day 8: Jesus turns water into wine (John 2:1-11)
Day 9: The Samaritan woman at the well (John 4:5-26)
“Jesus Teaches a Samaritan Woman”
Day 10: Fishers of men (Matt. 4:18-22)
“Follow Me, and I Will Make You Fishers of Men”
Day 11: Jesus heals a man of palsy (Mark 2:1-12)
“Jesus Forgives Sins and Heals a Man Stricken with Palsy”
Day 12: Jesus heals a lame man on the Sabbath (John 5:2-12)
Day 13: The Sermon on the Mount (Matt. 5:3-16)
“Sermon on the Mount: The Beatitudes”
Day 14: Jesus heals the Centurion’s servant (Matt. 8:5-13)
[No video]
Day 15: The Widow of Nain (Luke 7:11-16)
Day 16: Jesus calms the storm (Mark 4:37-40)
Day 17: Jairus’s daughter is healed (Mark 5:22-24, 35-43)
“Jesus Raises the Daughter of Jairus”
Day 18: The woman with an issue of blood (Mark 5:22-34)
Day 19: Jesus feeds the 5,000 (Matt. 14:15-21)
“The Feeding of the 5,000”
Day 20: Jesus walks on water (Matt. 14:25-33)
“Wherefore Didst Thou Doubt?”
Day 22: The man blind from birth (John 9:1-12, 35-38)
Day 23: The parable of the good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37)
Day 24: The parable of the lost sheep (Luke 15:2-7)
“Jesus Declares the Parable of the Lost Sheep”
Day 25: The parable of the prodigal son (Luke 15:11-32)
Day 26: Martha & Mary (Luke 10:38-42)
[No video]
Day 27: Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead (John 11:1-44)
“Lazarus Is Raised from the Dead”
Day 28: The ten lepers (Luke 17:11-19)
“Chapter 37: The Ten Lepers” [from the LDS media library]
Day 29: “Suffer the little children” (Luke 18:15-17)
“Suffer the Little Children to Come Unto Me”
Day 30: Forgiveness & the unmerciful servant (Matt. 18:21-35)
Day 31: The rich young ruler (Mark 10:17-27)
“Christ and the Rich Young Ruler”
Day 32: The greatest commandment (Mark 12:28-34)
Day 33: The widow’s mite (Mark 12:41-44)
Day 34 - Palm Sunday: Triumphal entry (Matt. 21:1-11)
Day 35: Jesus cleanses the temple (Matt. 21:12-13)
Day 36: Mary anoints Jesus (John 12:2-8)
[No video]
Day 37: The Last Supper (John 13:1-35)
Day 38: The Atonement (Matt. 26:47-57; Mark 14:32-42; Luke 22:40-46)
Day 39 - Good Friday: Christ’s trial and Crucifixion (Matt. 27:11-50; John 19:25-27)
Day 40: Signs of Christ’s death in the Book of Mormon (3 Nephi 8:3-23; 3 Nephi 10:9-10)
The Testaments: One Fold, One Shepherd of Jesus Christ [full movie on YouTube]
Day 41 - Easter Sunday: The Resurrection (Matt. 27:57-60; Matt. 28:1-8; John 20:3-18)
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