Easter To Remember

One might say this was an Easter to remember, and it definitely was, but it was also an Easter that God used to help me remember…

Last Easter (2022), I purchased “Mission Accomplished” by Scott James and our family walked through the devotions from Palm Sunday through the week following easter. It was some of the sweetest days and memories I will cherish forever. I vividly remember the conversations with Bryleigh and Will each night as we read the devotion. I could see the Lord stirring in their hearts, and I knew God was drawing them to Him. I prayed throughout the Easter season that they would come to know Him personally and make Him Lord over their lives, but we wrapped up the book without any decisions on their part, as it was something we were letting them lead the way on for sure. We were not going to force or prompt any decisions because we want their faith to be their own.

We continued conversations and prayers, and over the summer, on a very unsuspecting night after Bryleigh had spent the morning at Vacation Bible School, BOTH of them asked Jesus into their hearts. It was the sweetest night and we celebrated them, but we knew baptism would be treated similar to their salvation - something we talked about and walked through with them, but not something we forced or prompted. We once again wanted it to be their decision.

Because of Bryleigh’s desire to have a little more private baptism, we were planning a time where my brother would come in and we would have a little party at Brad’s parents, using their pool to baptize Bryleigh and Will. Being baptized in public in front of the church is one thing that kept Bryleigh from asking Jesus in to her heart to begin with, but Will would have been dunked the very next day in front of the whole world!! Summer time ran out quicker than we anticipated and we realized we’d need to wait until this summer to make it happen, and although we talked about it some, we didn’t have specific plans yet.

But that all changed Easter morning. Our little guy who has marched to the beat of his very own drum his entire life started a little drumming that morning. All three kids were going to be in children’s ministry on Easter Sunday morning, but Bryleigh decided last minute to come to the service with us…so Will decided even more last minute to come as well. (I’ll admit that I wasn’t the most gracious during this part of our morning, but it’s something we’re ALL working on in our relationships with each other and it’s part of what God has used since that morning to truly speak to my heart - but more on that for another day and another post.)

The moment we walked in the sanctuary, William looked right at me and said, “I’m getting baptized today.” And he did! He was hopeful and excited the entire service, singing and dancing to the songs (especially “I Thank God”) and listen to the sermon as Pastor Matt preached about seeing and believing. The moment Matt made the altar call, Will didn’t hesitate - he just started walking up front.

Since that moment, there have been so many things I wanted to put down on paper so that I could remember them, and so that I could pass them on to Will for him to remember as well. Last night I pulled out a journal I’d been given when I got pregnant with him but never used and began to write a letter to him about the most special Easter I’d ever had, the Easter he boldly walked to the front of the church to let everyone know that he believes in Jesus Christ as his Savior and Lord of his life, in his very 6 year old terms that is!

As I began to write in that journal to him, God used it to remind me of His goodness in my life and how He has been using Will to show me His love and faithfulness to us. God has used Will to redeem some major heartbreak in my life, and it wasn’t until writing that journal entry that I realized his baptism on Easter Sunday was another piece to that.

Easter 2015, we had just found out 12 days prior that we were pregnant, and over the course of the next week, we would also find out that we were no longer pregnant. It was heartbreaking and crushing to go from so high to so low so quickly. We’d planned to tell our family on Easter Sunday since we would be with so many of them, but instead, we were sitting quietly in the midst of immense grief. We were so grateful to celebrate Jesus’ resurrection and the hope we had in heaven because of it, but it was such a tough time and one that made Easter a little bittersweet…until Easter Sunday, April 9, 2023.

Which reminds me so much of William’s birth story as well. That precious babe that was lost right at Easter 2015 was due Thanksgiving Day 2015, which made Thanksgiving an extremely tough holiday. We got to that day and I still hadn’t gotten pregnant again, and after struggling with infertility before, it was just crushing. But by the following easter, we were officially pregnant again…and that baby, our wisest William, was born on Thanksgiving day 2016, redeeming what had been such a hard and heartbreaking holiday the year before.

God redeemed the memories of both of those holidays with William’s life - a life that God has been relentlessly and fervently pursuing since his life began. There are pieces to Will’s journey that I’m not ready to put out into the world in such public ways, and I may never or we may together when he’s old enough, but his life is one that has already experienced spiritual warfare in ways I’d never seen in my 35 years of life...and I honestly am not sure we’ll ever truly know the extent of what Will personally experienced. As hard as that has been, it’s been incredible to know that if the enemy is fighting that hard for Will’s heart - God has incredible plans for him that Satan doesn’t want him to accomplish. But we know that God will prevail.

The front of Will’s “new” journal I’m writing in quotes Psalm 93:4, “Mightier than the waves of the sea is His love for me.” And I SEE this. God’s love for William is MIGHTY! And I am so thankful for that! Will might be marching to the beat of his own drum, but I’m confident that God is the one composing the song. I pray that Will would have the discernment, wisdom, and humility to live a life surrender to our Great Composer and not try to write his own beats. I pray that he will FEEL and KNOW how fiercely God loves him.

One other sweet memory I want to take down and hold on to forever is our sweet Bryleigh Girl. As I mentioned earlier, she’s apprehensive about the whole “getting baptized” thing - more so about doing things in front of people, but up until last year, she wasn’t comfortable in water outside of taking a bath! So it was a double whammy of fear for her. But we’ve talked through it a lot and helped her to understand - salvation comes through believing in Jesus, not getting dunked in the water, among many other things.

My mom hung back with Bryleigh while the rest of our family gathered on stage to be with William (including sweet Carson!) because she wasn’t even comfortable with that. The second we walked off the stage, she ran up to Will and gave him the biggest hug and kissed his cheek. She had the brightest eyes and biggest smile and told him how proud she was of him. It was just the sweetest!! She gushed over him all morning and kept saying, “I can’t believe he did that! I’m so proud of him!!” She was the sweetest little cheerleader for her little brother doing something she’d never done herself before. I’m so thankful for their relationship and pray their friendship and support of each other will continue to grow over the years!