Passing on Our Faith
by Lydia Harris
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“For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures” (1 Corinthians 15:3).
Read: 1 Corinthians 15:1-11
Do you have any Easter traditions? My mother baked paska, a lemon-flavored Russian sweet bread. She passed on her recipe to me, and now I bake it each Easter. But more important than favorite recipes, my parents passed on their spiritual heritage and strong faith in God.
My husband and I, too, want to pass on a godly legacy to our children and grandchildren. One meaningful tradition we started when our children were young was to save our Christmas tree trunk and make it into a cross at Easter. We would cut off the upper one-third of the trunk and nail or wire it to the lower two-thirds to make the cross. Sometimes our children decorated it with a grape-vine wreath to represent a crown of thorns. We displayed the cross beside the fireplace in our living room as a ready witness to share the Easter story with our children and others. This taught them the connection between Christmas and Easter: Christ was born to die.
In this passage, Paul writes to the Corinthians and reminds them what is most important to pass on. He stresses the essentials: The message of Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection. He wants them to believe and receive the gospel as he did and be saved.
What would you like to pass on? Paul’s priority is a good place for us to begin.
~ Risen Lord, thank you for the power of the resurrection and new life it brings in Christ. This Easter Season, give me opportunities and courage to pass on my faith to others.
Questions: What godly legacy are you passing on to your family? Do you have creative ideas to share with us? How can we take advantage of the Easter Season to share with others?
About the Author: http://talk.thelife.com/experience/devotionalforwomen/authors/lydia-e-harris/
24 Responses to “Passing on Our Faith”
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GROWING UP WE DIDN’T DO ANYTHING LIKE WHAT LYNDIA HAS DONE WITH HER CHRISTMAS TREE. MY MOTHER ON GOOD FRIDAY FROM 12-3 SINCE THIS IS THE TIME THAT JESUS CHRIST DIED ON THE CROSS KEPT US INSIDE THE HOUSE EXPECT TO GO TO CHURCH TO SAY THE STATIONS OF THE CROSS AS MANY CATHOLICS KNOW THEM. THEN WHEN WE CAME HOME WE WOULD DECORATE EASTER EGGS TO HIDE AROUND THE HOUSE THE NEXT NIGHT BY THE EASTER BUNNY LIKE MOST VERY YOUNG CHILDREN. I CAN’T SAY WHAT MY BROTHERS AND SISTERS ARE DOING EACH YEAR FOR EASTER WITH THEIR CHILDREN EITHER
I remember mom making hot cross buns for Easter. For a while at Easter my mom,husband and I would go to my sister’s church to listen to a Easter Cantata. When mom was in the nursing home we would still go to the Cantata stay over night in a motel and go to see mom. I would sing Easter songs to mom as she has Alzheimers disease. Last year changed as we spent our first Easter without mom here at home. We went to church on Friday and a concert in the evening. This year at our home my friend and my aunt are coming and we are going to share supper and a concert together. I still like my chocolate Easter bunny!
I enjoyed the devotional today. It was a timely message for me. I don’t really have a traditional event or activity to share. I personally like to be still and quiet for the three days of Easter reflecting on Christ’s sacrafice and great love.
S.Hunt
Easter is a season to celebrate new life. It’s also a season of hope.
One way to help children understand the story of Easter is with a carton of Resurrection Eggs, available at Christian bookstores and probably on the Internet. This egg carton contains a dozen colorful, plastic eggs, each with a small object inside that relates to Christ’s crucifixion. For example, one egg contains a coin, another a leather strip, and last egg is empty, because the tomb was empty! A booklet comes with the eggs, explaining the meaning of each item in the eggs. We have a carton of Resurrection Eggs at our home for our grandchildren to play with, and they also have a set at their home. Resurrection Eggs also make a great tool to share the Easter story with others who come to your home or to use with a Sunday school class.
A very simple food idea my daughter shared with me is to use donuts and donut holes to represent the empty tomb. Cut a glazed donut in half and stand it on the cut ends to make the tomb. Put a donut hole in front for the stone that sealed the tomb. Then children can roll away the stone and look through the opening of the tomb. This makes a tasty object lesson!
Lord Jesus, this Easter may the power of the resurrection take on new meaning in our lives. Just as You were victorious over death and the grave, give us victory in areas of personal struggles. Let our hearts and lives proclaim, “Christ is risen!” We can’t do this in our own strength, so we rely on Your strength and power. We give You our lives and our concerns and ask You to empower us to live for Your glory. Please show us ways to point others to Jesus, Who is the hope and Life of Easter. We pray, trusting in Your strong and powerful name, amen.
Ladies, may God bless your day and Easter season.
I do try, for our grandchildren, to focus on the meaning of Easter. We always have a dinner together and I am familiar with the Ressurection Eggs, which we do every year also. It is exciting to see the children’s eyes as we read the Easter Story. Now that they are older, they tell of what they have learned from Sunday School. How precious it is to hear the story from children.
Even tho, we do focus on the real meaning of Easter, there is always a sadness in my heart. One Easter very long ago, my heart was broken…and life was changed forever. My desire would be that this Easter, the Lord take that memory and put it away for me. I will take it to the cross and lay it at His feet.
God bless all you ladies and your family during this Easter Season.
Hello Patti,
Yes, I agree about making sure our grandchildren know the true Easter Story. I am so thankful for what the Lord has done for me in my life. And what He has done to show His Love for each of us. And I too have had a broken heart about 2 years ago that I am still working on because when I see that person it all comes back.( A best friend )I feel that I have forgiven that person. But why does it keep coming back ( the memories of it )? You have a great day and a Joyful Easter. Shirley
What a wonderful tradition–and tangible enough that even little ones can get the message.
Since my grandson was born, I have often wondered, considering that the perception of time passing is so much slower for little ones than it is for us adults, as well as how much time passes from December to March or April, how “real” the message that Christ came to die to save us can be for them (or if they even remember Christmas’ lessons by spring).
But this tradition is so concrete–which children are, too–that it is likely to make so much more sense to them than any illustration I have ever heard of before. Having a real object that is present (and changes in between) at both holidays, and is see-able, touchable, smell-able, has to be a great bridge for the kids.
…and you know, for adults too. For me, it wasn’t until I saw the “Passion of Christ” that I really understood the connection with my own heart: how this beautiful little baby who grew up laughing and loving and learning, and then working and hurting and teaching and advocating for others, was SO unjustly treated. And yet He chose to accept and follow through with His Father’s plan, knowing ahead of time what He was going to go through—out of love for His Father and for us…
It wasn’t until I got the emotional connection, until I felt the injustice of Jesus’ treatment at the hands of the lost, and until I was strongly reminded (actually made aware) that MY sins were part of the reason that He suffered that way, that Christmas and Easter finally connected for me.
I didn’t “get” that from the sanitized paintings and drawings and older movies made of Jesus’ life and resurrection. I needed the concreteness of seeing what His experience was really like (although, actually it was even worse than the movie depicts–in Isaiah, for instance, it says His face was mangled beyond recognition) to appreciate this lesson.
I have no idea what legacy I am passing on. I know that at this point, there is no question in my 5 year old grandson’s mind that Jesus is real, that He is our friend, that He lives in our hearts, and that He wants us to love everybody. But he is living under less than ideal conditions and is being taught some dangerous lessons to the contrary–even by by mom and dad. And, I am not always the most loving or reliable person in the world either, so I don’t know what that legacy will turn out to be in his life.
Will he fall into what he sees the most of, and turn his back on God, thinking it’s all a childhood fantasy or that God is bad, unresponsive, distant, uninvolved, etc.? Or will he grow up with a hunger that tells him “there’s got to be something better than this” and be driven toward God by the lacks in his life? Or will he see what’s wrong around him and find that “Jesus…in my heart” as a sanctuary?
I know I tried to help his dad and aunt to come to believe in Christ when they were little, but his dad wanted no part of it, and his aunt–though very passionate about it at first–was devastated when she was reprimanded by a Sunday School teacher for poor attendance, and as she grew up, she came to think it is wrong for hotels to allow Gideons’ Bibles in them.
My son did go to church with a neighbor boy’s family for a little while, but it sounds like their church was very legalistic, and that turned him off. Also, he may have been abused by a “preacher’s daughter” at some point in his life.
What needs to be said is that I was the non-custodial step-mom of my grandson’s dad and aunt (I haven’t been able to have kids of my own). I have been in their lives since he was 7 and she was 4–during some periods of time more than their mom was.
Their mom is bitter against Christianity because of her parents’ misapplication of it, and she became a wiccan witch some time during the kids’ pre-teen or teen years.
So when I was trying to help the kids grow spiritually, and was taking our daughter (the kids and I have had good relationships and I am considered “mom” also, and they are my kids, not my step-kids in my heart and mind) to Sunday school (she was 8 or 9 then), it was only on the weekends that she was with us. Their mom and step-dad never took them to church, except when people asked them to be in wedding parties.
Occasionally our daughter also slept in on Sundays (she lived a way busier life than a kid probably should), and I let her because I wanted this to be something that she wanted to do, not something that she was forced to do and then would eventually hate (which is what I experienced).
When this Sunday School teacher, not knowing our/her situation, threatened her with something like “God isn’t going to love you if you keep missing Sunday School” (I don’t remember exactly what she told me the teacher said, but this is what SHE heard from what the teacher said)she was very devastated. She didn’t even want to talk about it at first.
So, the legacies with my son and daughter are still out to lunch. Neither of them have been saved yet.
My daughter-in-law has a mixed experience. She has some church background, and has performed several years in an annual Christian musical, and she and our son introduced our grandson to “Jesus Christ Superstar” almost before he could even speak–which he loved.
She has a devout (I think) grandmother, but no one else around her that is Christian, except the two of us.
The town the kids’ mom moved to when my husband and she divorced is an economically depressed town, and it has an area called “The Strip.” The Strip was originally a resort area, and is now essentially a permanent county fair kind of place.
It is now 3rd generation low-income with a lot of “carny” and burned-out hippie and biker-types living in, or hanging around. It contains a several bars; a few motels-made-efficiency or rent-by-the-hour type places; video-game halls; a magic shop; and the like.
It is the “place to go” in this town, and at one point when the kids were growing up, their mom moved them there. Our son fell in love with the people and the lifestyles there, and hasn’t come out of it since.
Our daughter-in-law comes from a family that has been there a long time. There are a number of criminals in her family (so much so that a couple of weeks ago, at a family gathering, she was very uncomfortable when she learned that our daughter’s boyfriend–who was also there–is the Chief of Police in the town next to hers [she didn't want to be recognized as one of her family]).
She is the most stable and responsible person in her family (except for her grandmother), but in many ways she still lives what she learned. She considers that whole way of life glamorous and fun –which she teaches our grandson–and she has not learned a lot of the skills that it takes to live a stable lifestyle.
She works hard as the manager of a store, but life outside work is all about playing, and it is nothing to spend money on concerts, or the Rock Band interactive game (for our grandson), but the second car can’t be fixed and our grandson doesn’t get his speech impediment diagnosed as a hearing problem until he is 5 and in school—even though people have been raising concerns for 3 years.
And, yet, it is clear the she REALLY LOVES him, and she has done all kinds of things really well when it comes to his emotional and intellectual growth.
Spiritually, my daughter, my daughter-in-law, and my daughter’s mom see nothing wrong with tarot cards or with going to a fortune teller now and then. My son doesn’t believe that there is such a thing as “one god that is in charge over everything.”
This is what my grandson, and my soon-to-be-here granddaughter have to contend with in his day to day life when it comes to a spiritual legacy.
For my part, you already know that I’ve had, and still have, a rough road with my own walk with God, and because I struggle so much I am afraid that is going to affect my grandchildren. It would be a major spiritual injury if I raise the kids to believe, and then say or do something stupid that damages their faith–like happened through other people with the kids—and with their biological mom, too, for that matter.
I hope that my legacy will include the fruits of being a Christian when my grandson first came along (I wasn’t when the kids were growing up–I was in recovery, and trying to grow spiritually, but not a Christian), and will be transmitted to him, as well, but there is a lot in his life that could interfere with that, and I can’t say that I am not capable of doing that, too.
For instance, I often make unrealistic plans, and because I value the importance of a child knowing what to expect, I tell him what the plans are. Then, since they are unrealistic in the first place, I can’t follow through on them, and he ends up feeling disappointed or frustrated or bored. That kind of undependability can teach a kid that authorities can’t trusted, so the kid has to learn to count on him/herself. It certainly doesn’t teach a child that they can trust authority figures.
Another thing I do is that I get too stern with him sometimes, especially if he is being stubborn about, or ignoring something he is supposed to be doing. I don’t like his misbehavior—especially his sarcasm (a more recent development with us, but something he has been getting away with with his mother for at least a couple of years)—probably more than I should.
Sometimes I forget, or don’t understand, that he is still a kid, and that he’s not being exceptionally bad, he’s just being a normal kid. I was so blessed when his dad and aunt were growing up because they were really well-behaved. So, I was spoiled.
I don’t want to model to my grandson that authority figures get mad because their pride or desire to be in control is the reason they are disciplining the child. That is not supposed to be the reason God disciplines us. His discipline of us is supposed to be out of love and out of necessity for us. If I discipline out of the wrong motives, then I might be teaching him the wrong lessons not only about authorities on earth, but about God, too.
And yet, his basic understanding about God and Jesus seems to be solid, and he even prays on his own when he feels like it, so who knows what my legacy with him is going to be? I know he has already tried to convince his mom that Jesus is real (that was when he was still 4), so we might end up having a little evangelist on our hands.
Oh, I know this is going to be a book when it goes up because I have been writing a long time. Please don’t let that stop you ladies from writing many posts, too (sometimes it seems that when someone writes long, others write fewer posts–but I bet this server can still handle them all) :-}!
As for creative ideas, I don’t have any. I just really love the one in this devotional!
P.S. For those who have read about our friend Bill: he is now cancer free (of colo-rectal cancer)! They also finally found out what was infecting his forearm wound (yeast, not bacteria) so it is finally being fought effectively.
Now he can move on to having his bladder cancer treated. Spiritually, he is still struggling, though (doesn’t feel connected). He is not fellow-shipping very much with Christians, so that doesn’t help. So, he can still use prayers.
I don’t know if he can be baptised, yet, though, because he still has that open wound, as well as others in other places. And because we don’t have a baptistry anymore (we meet in a school building now).
I’m also not sure that he is feeling a need, or desire, or openness to do that anymore. He still hangs with a number of people who think other things are more important than that.
He IS saved, though; I just think that he might feel more secure in his faith if he could do that. Am I wrong?
Oh, P.S.: I am going to pass on word of this tradition to my mom who directs a Christian preschool. This could really be great for them, too :-}.
Sorry, just noticed that I it might be misinterpreted that I was putting the kids’ mom down when I wrote “and with their biological mom, too, for that matter.”
That’s not what I meant. I meant that she was also damaged by the mistakes of others.
I don’t have any children of my own but this year I bought a book that shares the Easter story. We have opened our home to friends and family.
Our Easter tradition as the children were growing up consisted mostly of baskets and candy. My father died on Good Friday. I was not a believer until 59, four years ago. My husband and I have since been blessed by our daughter being saved and beginning her own Easter traditions with her family that are not only about baskets, but also about teaching her children the true meaning of Easter, and other Christian celebrations. So for four years, my husband and I have worshiped and prayed together on Easter and we thank God that He in His wisdon, waited for us to come to Him in our later years. Our life is full and so happy now.
Tender Father, this week we eagerly await the glorious celebration of Your precious Son’s completed work on the cross, eternally thankful for Your sacrifice and love! Though a time of great joy, there are many who are burdened by wounds from the past, that hinder their Easter experience. I ask, Lord, that You would seize the memories that haunt our dear sister, Patti, and hold them hostage. Set her free, Father, to celebrate Easter with unhampered joy and exuberance! And, Lord, cast those memories into the depths of the sea, that they may burden Patti no more! In the precious Name of Jesus, Amen!
Lydia, thank you for today’s devotional. I have learned so much since reading these devotionals and gleaning from the sharing time. I do wish I had the information when I was a very young Christian with a young family and to have started some of these special Christian traditions.
I liked the ideas you shared about the Christmas tree trunk and saving it to make a cross for Easter, the doughnut cave, and the resurrection eggs. I have heard about the resurrection eggs before and actually was wanting to get them for our grandchildren for Easter. Our grandson is 3 1/2 and our granddaughter is 1. I thought if their mom and dad started reading the story of the resurrection eggs to them , it would be a special Easter tradition for them. Perhaps we could start doing the Christmas tree/cross, too. We still have the trunk left.
I miss our tradional Easter dinners that used be part of Easter. We had to move away from family about 9 years ago due to jobs and now we are here by ourselves. We’re 2 1/2 hours away from our children and grandchildren and 5 hours away from parents and other relatives. Those of you with family nearby, thank the Lord and know that it is precious and treat it as that.
Lydia, I am curious about your baked paska. Do you share recipes?
WE GO TO CHURCH THEN HAVE DINNER TOGATHER AS A FAMILY KIDS GRANDKIDS AND US. THE CHURCH AND WORSHIPING ARE THE MOST IMPORTANT PART
SHARON B
Hi PATTI,
Could you explain to me about the Ressurection Eggs?
Thanks….Shirley
Resurrection Eggs/Paska Recipe
You can see a photo and learn more about Resurrection Eggs at several Web sites including http://www.Christianbook.com. In search section of this Web site, type in Resurrection Eggs. When the information comes up, click on the picture and you’ll get a larger photo and a product descritpion. Hope that helps.
Here is our Paska recipe:
Paska
(Russian Easter Bread)
1 package active dry yeast
1/2 cup warm water
1 teaspoon sugar
1 cup milk
1/2 cup shortening
5 eggs, separated
1 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon lemon extract
6-7 cups all-purpose flour
l teaspoon salt
Dissolve yeast and one teaspoon sugar in water. Scald milk; stir in shortening until melted. Let cool. Separate eggs; beat egg whites until stiff and set aside. Mix yolks with sugar. Add lemon extract. Combine milk, shortening, yeast mixture, eggs, sugar; add salt and six cups flour. Stir with wooden spoon or mix with hands. Add up to 1 more cup flour until dough is not sticky. Mix in beaten egg whites with hands. Let rise in warm place until double in bulk, about 1 to 2 hours. While bread is rising, grease and flour loaf pans and/or empty soup cans. Punch down risen dough, shape, and fill pans half full. Let rise again until almost double, about 1 hour. Bake 350 degrees for 10 minutes. Reduce heat to 300 degrees, and bake an additional 20-30 minutes depending on pan size. Cool 10 minutes. Remove from pans. Cool on wire racks. Frost when completely cooled. Yields 2-3 large or 5-6 small loaves.
Powdered sugar icing: Mix together 1 cup powdered sugar, 1 tablespoon butter, 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract, and 1 tablespoon milk. Add more milk a teaspoon at a time until spreading consistency. Decorate with sprinkles or chopped walnuts in the shape of a cross.
Happy Easter
Thank you, Lydia, for the recipe for Paska.
Do you the story behind it? (Russian tradition)
You said loaf pans or empty soup cans. Is that what was normally use? Empty soup cans?
Again, thank you. I am going to print this out and save it. I want to try. :-)
Answer to Paska question
My mother made the paska in soup cans so each child could have his/her own little paska. They were tall and cylindrical. I like to make it in loaves, slice it, and pass the frosting to spread on like you would spread butter on a slice of bread. Paska is delicious toasted (scrap off fronting from top so it doesn’t melt off and burn). After toasting, spread with butter or frosting. My mouth is watering now.
Different countries/nationalities have traditional foods for specific holidays. My parents lived in Russia, and that was the traditional Easter bread made in their Mennonite village in Crimea.
If you want to Journey to the Cross and see what it was like for women of Jesus’ time on earth, try “Preparing My Heart for Easter, a Woman’s Journey to the Cross and Beyond.” This study will help prepare your heart during the season of Lent and who you how dearly Jesus cares about the women whose lives He touched and continues to touch.
If you want to Journey to the Cross and see what it was like for women of Jesus’ time on earth, try “Preparing My Heart for Easter, a Woman’s Journey to the Cross and Beyond.” This study will help prepare your heart during the season of Lent and who you how dearly Jesus cares about the women whose lives He touched and continues to touch.
http://www.preparingmyheart.com
Lydia, what a wonderful way to add to the celebration of Easter! I love hearing the traditions of our Christian holidays from other countries. What a blessing that you were raised in a home that did this. My home had no Christian teaching, therefore, God had to wait for me to acknowledge Him until I was 59! But oh, my life has been so wonderful since. Thank you, Lydia.
Thank you, Lydia, for sharing the recipe and the story behind paska. I look forward to making it . . . and of course eating it, too. :-) As Amy said, what a blessing to have grown up in a home which knew the Lord and celebrated Him and having this special tradition. Amy, I, too, love hearing the traditions from other countries and traditions in other families.
Ann, thank you for the website. “Preparing My Heart for Easter, a Woman’s Journey to the Cross and Beyond.” This study will help prepare your heart during the season of Lent and who you how dearly Jesus cares about the women whose lives He touched and continues to touch.”
http://www.preparingmyheart.com
I will check it out. RIght now I need to prepare for church.
It’s Palm Sunday, everyone. Rejoice in the triumphful celebration of Jesus, the prelude to His taking our place. . . my place on the cross. . . He is the sinless Savior and we . . . I am the sinner.
Thank you Ann,
For giving us the Web Site for ”Preparing My Heart For Easter”, I did look into it looks great. Thank you. Easter is a very special time for the Christian and knowing just how important Jesus is to have in our lives. His suffering on the cross proves how much He truly loves us. I thank the Lord that we have been given a free gift for the taking ”Salvation”. We as christians need to be a light to the world so they can see that they can have this same free gift it’s there for the taking. The world needs to see Jesus in us because we may be the only Jesus that they will see. I have some good memories when I was a child, I was raised by my grandmother and she always made sure that we were in Sunday School every Sunday morning and when we came home from church my brother and I she always had dinner on the table waiting for us. And then on Easter my grandmother and my brother and myself and other family members would rise up early Easter morning and go to a Sunrise Service. It is great memories to remember and then after the Sunrise Service we would go and prepare a big Easter Dinner.
The Lord is good and worthy to be praised. Thank you Lord for my Salvation…..I Love You Lord.
I have been so busy lately I haven’t had time to write in, but have been reading everyday. I just wanted to share what our daughter does for Easter……….last year was the first year we have spent Easter with our daughter, son-in-law and grandchildren for a long time. I was baptised on Easter last year, it was a wonderful celebration with all the family and it was also our granddaughter’s birthday. We had a big family (and others) dinner and then later our daughter went through the Easter story in the Bible and found refrences to different things that could be found in our house. She wrote the verses on pieces of paper and each one had a clue as to where to find the next clue and this went on until the end of the story in which there was the last clue where the Easter baskets were hidden…….I thought that was a wonderful way to let the kids have the candy, but they had to know the Easter story as well.
They will be up again this Easter and we will, go to Church, then once again have a big meal with family and a few others (I love to entertain) Then we will do the Easter baskets with the verses again.