TLP 252: Easter, Part 5: Make the Resurrection Important in Your Home

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Is your daughter having trouble in her new school? Does your son struggle submitting when he doesn't agree with the command?

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Are your children concerned about how they're going to afford college? Well, we can parent through all of these situations, in part, by touching on the truths of Easter.

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Welcome to Truth, Love, Parent, where we use God's Word to become intentional, premeditated parents.

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Here's your host, A .M. Brewster. Today, we're concluding our thoughts about Easter by discussing how to make the resurrection more important in our homes.

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And even if you make a big deal out of Easter already, since we're all sinners and none of us are perfect, even when we do things well, we can always do them better.

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So I pray that today's episode will help all of us parent our children better through this season. And I know this discussion is ending nine days before Easter this year.

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I did that for two reasons. The first is that Creation Day follows right after Easter this year, and I wanted to get our

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Sanctified Sustainability episode in before that. But also, we have other Easter episodes you are more than welcome to enjoy between today and Easter.

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Episode 46 is called How to Be Jesus to Your Kids, and episode 145 is How to Have a

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Valuable Family. So if you're looking for Easter -related episodes to continue your study this season, we have them for you.

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But before we go any further, let me ask you to take a moment to leave a star review in iTunes, as that helps us connect with other

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Christian parents across the globe. And I'd like to thank Scott and Mindy for making today's show possible. They give faithfully every month to support

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TLP. That means that all of us are indebted to Scott and Mindy. But I know they ultimately give not for us, but for the

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Lord. He's worth it all. So if you think the Lord would be glorified by you worshiping Him by helping to support

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Truth Love Parent, you can click on the 5 ways to support TLP link in the description of this episode to learn more about your options.

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And even if giving financially seems too hard at this point in the year, you can always pray for us and introduce us to your friends.

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Okay, let's apply everything we've learned about Easter to our families. I hope the free episode notes at truthloveparent .com

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will be valuable for you in this process. The first truth with which we have to grapple goes back to the gospel.

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Number one, the individuals in your family cannot truly celebrate Easter if they are not children of God.

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Are your kids born again? Are they in Christ? Like Paul outlined in 1 Corinthians 15, have they received the truth of the gospel?

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Do they stand in it and are they continuing in it? If not, then Easter is another fantastic time to guide your children into the knowledge of God.

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Listen, if you really want to do the Easter egg hunts and baskets of candy, fine. But are you willing to sacrifice your children's eternity because you focused more on the bunny than you did the

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Savior? This is a glorious season for everything we do to be brought back to the significance of the resurrection, and that goes for families where their children are all born again as well.

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Number two, Eastertide should be a time of rejoicing and celebration for children who are born again.

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We can celebrate God's love for us in sending Christ. We can celebrate God's power in raising Him from the grave.

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We can celebrate the fact that we too will one day reign with Him in sinless bodies. We can celebrate that the same resurrection power has been given to us to start the process of change here and now.

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And each of these ideas can easily be woven into our daily lives. First, you can use the direct approach.

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You can remind your children of these blessings as you're sitting around the table. If you like the direct approach, that's a fantastic idea.

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You can also take some family devotional times to study any of these elements and praise God for them. That's another really good direct approach.

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But second, for those of you looking for more organic ways to work spiritual truth into daily life, consider these examples.

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You can celebrate God's love for us anytime a member of your family does something loving for another. I'm so proud of you for preferring your sister over yourself.

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That reminds me of how Jesus preferred us over Himself when He died on the cross for us. You can celebrate

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God's power every time your child completes a task. Great job changing the oil, man. Takes a lot of skill to do that well without making a huge mess.

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That makes me think how skilled and powerful God must be to be able to raise Christ from the dead.

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That also makes me think that just like I can trust you to change the oil, I can be pretty sure I can trust

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God when it comes to matters of life and death. You can also celebrate our eternal state after a child has sinned.

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Assuming your child is born again, you could say, Thank you so much for apologizing. Won't it be amazing when we're with God in the new earth and we no longer have to apologize because we'll never have to sin again?

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And you can very easily work in the sanctifying power of God whether your child has been good or bad.

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If it's a sin issue, remind your child that Jesus died and rose again to give us new life in the future and now. And if your child is growing in their conformity to Christ, take a moment with them to thank the

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Lord for exercising his resurrection power in their lives. And I can hear it now, Aaron, that sounds great and all, but that's just not me.

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That's not how I talk. I know those things are true and I know they can be worked into daily conversations, but honestly it would be weird.

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It just wouldn't sound like me. Well, how would you respond if your unkind child said,

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Dad, I know I should be nice to my brother, but it won't sound genuine. So I'll just keep doing what

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I do best. I know it may be uncomfortable at first. I know it may not sound natural and I know that even your older kids may look at you sideways, but I also know that Christ's resurrection power can change you too.

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The more you allow God to change how you parent, the more natural it will be and the better model you'll be to your kids of allowing

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God to change who you are. Okay, so number one, the individuals in your family cannot truly celebrate

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Easter if they're not children of God. Number two, Easter should be a time of rejoicing and celebration for children who are born again.

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And number three, the Passion Week is worth observing. One of the reasons I took the time to discuss when

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I believe Christ was crucified was the festival considerations. I believe God purposely matched the

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Passion Week point for point with the Jewish celebration He had established hundreds and hundreds of years before. In the same way that the earthly tabernacle and the temple were a picture of the heavenly reality, so too the selection of the

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Paschal Lamb, the Passover, the Feast of Unleavened Bread and the First Fruits were a past image of the coming substitutionary

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Atonement of Christ. Therefore, I believe it's valuable to our families to not only observe the triumphal entry, the crucifixion and the resurrection, but to also explain the significance of the events so as to better understand our

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Lord and celebrate His eternal love and grace. Do your children know the story of the original

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Passover? Do they understand what God was doing and the part that Jesus played in that Old Testament account?

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We don't have time to discuss it here, but I think there's so much to learn from the fact that in the Old Testament, I believe Jesus Himself was the angel of death that slew the firstborn of Egypt.

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But in the New Testament, He's gloriously switched roles from the harbinger of destruction to the sacrificial

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Lamb itself, slain to protect everyone who receives Him. The more we know, the more we can believe, and the more it can impact our lives.

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And I'm sure you know, we haven't even begun to scratch the surface of the imagery and the significance and the grandeur of Easter.

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But hopefully I have whet your appetites. Okay, so number one, the individuals in your family cannot truly celebrate

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Easter if they're not children of God. Therefore, we should use this season to point our kids to Christ. Number two,

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Easter should be a time of rejoicing and celebration for children who are born again, and it can be woven into the very fabric of our daily lives.

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Number three, the Passion Week is worth observing as it can deepen our appreciation for God and what He did for us.

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And four, the Passion Week is worth using as a tool in our parenting. What do I mean? Well, consider the

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Feast of Firstfruits. Jesus was the firstfruits of the resurrection. He was offered up as a way of offering to God.

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This is obviously something to understand and appreciate, but how can this be used in our parenting? Hebrews tells us that Jesus not only presented

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Himself as the way of offering, but that He still intercedes before God as an advocate for those who put their trust in Him.

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Is your daughter having trouble in her new school? Does your son struggle submitting when he doesn't agree with the command?

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Are your children concerned about how they're going to afford college? Is your middle schooler uncertain about their standing with God?

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Does your toddler hate to share? We can parent through all of these situations, in part, by touching on the advocacy of Christ.

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He intercedes for our born -again children and desires to do so for our unsaved kids. We should remind them of this fact when they feel like they're all alone in the world or shouldering a responsibility by themselves.

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Jesus appeased the wrath of God for us. This truth can refresh and calm our spirits when we have to admit our guilt.

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When God looks at a born -again believer, He sees His only begotten Son. He loves us with the same love

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He lavishes on Jesus. That reality should embolden and encourage our hearts that God is only going to do for us what is best.

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But the onus lies on us, as the parents, to make these connections for our children. God gives us to our kids in order to help them understand how

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God and His Word needs to be applied to every moment of our lives. But another facet of this concept is that we have to have a foundation.

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We need touchstones in our parenting. I've invited you to have your children sit in on this study, or you could obviously take the time to digest the truth and reformat it for your family, but either way, we need to teach it to our children.

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And then, at a later date, when our kids are struggling with an entrenched sin or doubting or needing encouragement in their submission to Christ, we can reach back and remind them of what we've already been taught.

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Sometimes we view our parenting as courses in school. This year, you're attending the General Cleanliness course.

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We'll talk about what it means to keep a clean room, and by the end of the year, we will have discussed every facet, and I shouldn't have to reteach this, ever.

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Next year, we can move on to personal hygiene. And then we do that, just like that. We never really revisit the lessons of the past, we expect them to just get it and understand it, and we get annoyed if we have to repeat ourselves.

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But in reality, parenting is about one topic, and how that one topic can be applied to every behavior, question, stage, and phase our kids will ever experience.

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Parenting is also a cumulative task, filled with topics we'll revisit until the day we die in forgettable conversations no one will ever remember.

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So enjoy the process, lay the foundation, and return to it often. So in conclusion, number one, the individuals in your family cannot truly celebrate

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Easter if they are not children of God. Two, Easter should be a time of rejoicing and celebration for family members who are born again.

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Three, the Passion Week is worth observing. And four, the Passion Week is worth using as a tool in our parenting.

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I hope your appreciation for the Passion Week, the crucifixion, and resurrection has deepened your faith and been a blessing to your family.

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And if you'd be interested in some personalized guidance for how these truths can be applied to your unique family situation, please feel free to reach out to us at counselor at truthloveparent .com.

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On our next episode, we're going to broaden our understanding of the creation mandate by discussing how your family can reduce waste in your home, because God hates waste.

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Please know that Team TLP loves you. We share a bond in Christ, and we're here to help your family glorify

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God. So to that end, Happy Easter, and I'll see you next time. Truth.

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Love. Parents. Is part of the Evermind Ministries family and is dedicated to helping you become an intentional, premeditated parent.

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Join us next time as we search God's Word for the truth your family needs today.