Our Easter Advent: 40 Days of Jesus Stories

You probably think it's too early to start thinking about Easter - after all, it's only Valentine's Day! - but last year, we did an Easter Advent that turned out really well, and I wanted to be sure to share it with you in time for you to participate, if you so desire. The full list of scriptures/stories/videos is listed at the end, but first some background:

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

Day 2: Samuel the Lamanite & Christ’s birth in the Book of Mormon (Helaman 14:1-6; 3 Nephi 1:4-21)
[There is a Living Scriptures video "Samuel and the Sign" but it's not available online unless you have an account]

Day 3: The Annunciation (Luke 1:26-38)
“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)

”The Wise Men Seek Jesus”

Day 6: Jesus teaches in the temple (Luke 2:40-52)

“Young Jesus Teaches in the Temple”

Day 7: The baptism of Jesus (Matt. 3:13-17)

“The Baptism of Jesus”

Day 8: Jesus turns water into wine (John 2:1-11)

“Jesus Turns Water into Wine”

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)

“Jesus Heals a Lame Man on the Sabbath”

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)

“Widow of Nain”

Day 16: Jesus calms the storm (Mark 4:37-40)

“Calming the Tempest”

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)

“Jesus Heals a Woman of Faith”

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 21: The adulterous woman (John 8:2-11)

“Go and Sin No More”

Day 22: The man blind from birth (John 9:1-12, 35-38)

“Jesus Heals a Man Born Blind”

Day 23: The parable of the good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37)

“Parable of the Good Samaritan”

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)

“The Prodigal Son”

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)

“Forgive 70 Times 7”

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)

“The Greatest Commandment”

Day 33: The widow’s mite (Mark 12:41-44)

“Jesus Teaches about the Widow’s Mite”

Day 34 - Palm Sunday: Triumphal entry (Matt. 21:1-11)

“The Lord’s Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem”

Day 35: Jesus cleanses the temple (Matt. 21:12-13)

“Jesus Cleanses the Temple”

Day 36: Mary anoints Jesus (John 12:2-8)
[No video]

Day 37: The Last Supper (John 13:1-35)

“The Last Supper”

Day 38: The Atonement (Matt. 26:47-57; Mark 14:32-42; Luke 22:40-46)

“The Savior Suffers in Gethsemane”

Day 39 - Good Friday: Christ’s trial and Crucifixion (Matt. 27:11-50; John 19:25-27)

“Jesus Is Condemned Before Pilate” &  “Jesus Is Scourged and Crucified”

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)

“Jesus Is Laid in a Tomb” and “Jesus Is Resurrected”

A need for compassion

The Mormon social media world has been abuzz the last few days with blog posts and articles and shared opinions on all sides about Kate Kelly (the founder of Ordain Women) and her disciplinary council that took place yesterday. (If you don't know what I'm talking about, a) you must have been watching the World Cup instead, b) lucky you, and c) just google it and you'll get plenty of info if you care to know.) I know that no one really needs one more essay on this subject, but I haven't been able to stop thinking about it for a few days and so I am going to unburden my mind and add my words to mix. 

So.

This is what I want to say: 

The whole thing breaks my heart. 

Not because I particularly support Ordain Women or Kate Kelly or have gender inequality arguments to champion (those issues are a separate discussion for another day). Not because I have doubts or questions or am struggling to feel accepted or heard and feel threatened by the situation. And not because of the PR damage that's being done by the publicity of it all, though that certainly makes me wince.

No, it breaks my heart because I believe in the goodness of people, especially the people of my church. I believe in their earnestness, their honest desires, and their faithful struggles. I believe that we are all - and I mean all - trying to do our best with good and honorable intentions. And right now, I see lines being drawn all around, and there are good people on both sides. But those lines are incredibly divisive and as soon as they are drawn, people stop listening and trying to understand. The lines create the illusion of an "us" and "them," but in reality, it's just "us": good people who are getting their hearts broken on every side.

I have been thinking about this beautiful definition and explanation of compassion given by Brene Brown (whom I absolutely admire and adore, fyi). This is what she says:

"I don’t believe that compassion is our default response. I think our first response to pain—ours or someone else’s—is to self-protect. We protect ourselves by looking for someone or something to blame. Or sometimes we shield ourselves by turning to judgment or by immediately going into fix-it mode."

Then she goes on to quote another writer, Pema Chodron: 

"In cultivating compassion we draw from the wholeness of our experience—our suffering, our empathy... Compassion is not a relationship between the healer and the wounded. It’s a relationship between equals. Only when we know our own darkness well can we be present with the darkness of others. Compassion becomes real when we recognize our shared humanity."

Where there are so many who are feeling hurt, wounded, angry, bitter, self-righteous, critical, defensive, and persecuted, I see such a need for some of this compassion. For reaching into our dark moments to sit with those who are in their own darkness right now. Like I said, I don't struggle with gender inequality issues within the church, but I know what it is like to feel out of place and alone, to feel that my concerns or opinions are being dismissed or belittled. I know what it is like to feel misunderstood and misjudged, and I hurt for those who are feeling it now. It's not a question of who is right or wrong, and arguing those points isn't going to help. Trying to cheer up or reason with those who are hurting isn't going to help. But sitting with them as they wade through their pain will keep those lines in the sand from forming deeper rifts.

I believe in "us" as a church membership and community, in our strengths and shared stories. I believe in the gospel of Jesus Christ and in the men called to lead the Church. I believe that I don't know all the details and that I don't have a right to pass judgment (especially where something as sensitive as a disciplinary council, which really shouldn't be publicized in the first place, is concerned). I trust my Heavenly Father to know the hearts of all his people. I also trust people to make mistakes, to have prejudices and misunderstandings, to try and fail, and to always always try again. I know this is not the first time, nor will it be the last time, that something divides us, but I truly hope that our compassion can bridge the lines that form and provide a safe landing for all our broken hearts.

Update: After I posted this last night, I realized there were a few things I wanted to clarify. First to say that there is a lot more that could be said about the specifics of the Kate Kelly and John Dehlin situations. I chose not to go into any of that here but I'd love to discuss it if anyone has something they want to say. Second, while showing compassion is not about who is right or wrong, there are rights and wrongs in this situation. I am having a hard time because I can understand both sides, but understanding doesn't compromise where I stand or what I believe. And while I don't feel like I can pass judgment, I do have opinions based on what I've read and my perception of events, but I thought that touching on those opinions might overshadow what I really wanted to say. So. There's that.