Good Friday Indeed

Today has been a great day and it’s not even half over yet…

The girls woke up happy and ate breakfast without any fussing.

They both played contentedly while I did my exercises (I’m doing Jillian Michaels’ 30 Day Shred…it’s going great!).

While Avery took her morning nap, Grace and I had fun playing in the living room while I drank my coffee which was delicious! I’m totally hooked on my So Delicious Coconut Creamer now and have no plans to go back to the artificial crap I was using before.

After we all ate lunch (Greek Veggie Wraps for me & Grace), we headed outside for a long walk in the sunshine. IT WAS SO WONDERFUL! Grace could hardly contain her excitement about being outside and getting a chance to run free! I took deep breaths of fresh spring air which were a welcome relief after months of breathing dry, recycled air in the house.

After our walk it was still too early for nap so all three of us headed into Grace’s room where I cleaned up and purged toys and books that she doesn’t play with anymore. Everything was sorted through and put back into its rightful place. We found old favorites that had been buried under piles of other stuff. We collected a whole garbage bag of toys to donate. It was awesome and made me feel even more accomplished than I already did from all the morning activities.

Both girls went down easy for nap and I took a long, hot shower and slowly got dressed and ready. I painted my nails and now I’m sitting here at the dining room table typing this post with the sun shining through the window onto my face.

The house is picked up and I’m not making dinner tonight because we’re going out for steak after the Good Friday service at church. Woo hoo!

I’m looking forward to breaking our fast tonight, but even more than that I’m looking forward to the church service. In keeping with tradition, my sister is joining us (along with her sweet boyfriend this year!) and I’m praying that God prepares my heart to receive the Seder “meal” (we do an abbreviated Seder).

Walking through the meal that so many thousands of believers before me have partaken of is truly special. So much symbolism is a part of each element and it tells the story of what God has done throughout history for His people and it reveals our beautiful future too.

This Lenten season I’ve learned that God is good. He is strong when we are weak and we need Him. The law is impossible to keep. Sometimes the fast seems impossible to keep. There were times we chose to break the fast over the past 40 days and honestly those times taught me about God’s mercy and grace more than I expected they would. Sure the pizza tasted good, but the knowledge that Jesus came to die for me and save me from my wretched sinfulness tasted so much sweeter. Realizing that I’m not all I crack myself up to be and that I’m weak was actually a sweet relief.

God is good. We need Him. He gave Himself for us.

We get to receive this beautiful gift and live life abundantly because of His Son.

Thank you, Lord.

Happy Good Friday everyone!