Bringing Joy to Others at Easter
Christmas is such a wonderful time of year (yes I know it’s April) : ) and we all get in the spirit of it each year with our giving but sometimes we forget there are eleven more months of the year when those in need need help. Easter is a great time to reach out in a special way to those who could use a little boost or some encouragement.
There are so many children who don’t get an Easter basket, a chocolate bunny or a pretty new Easter dress– kids in foster care, children’s homes, juvenile detention centers or just kids in a family going through a rough patch.
You don’t always have to do something big. There are many different things we can do to help.
- You can often get a pair of little white gloves or a Easter hat can at the dollar store or other similar discount store. Add some ribbons and flowers to the hat, sew a couple of pearl beads to the gloves and you have something very special.
- Bake Easter cookies to give to someone.
- Invite kids or families to church and have an Easter egg hunt afterwards.
- Don’t forget our older friends and neighbors. A pretty little primrose in a pot, one carnation in a vase, or a chocolate egg can brighten so many people’s day.
- Remember those who are sick and in hospitals: children, adults and their families.
I remember as a young mom I had walking pneumonia for three months and had cracked a rib from coughing so hard. I was so weak I could hardly get out of bed. One gloomy March day right before Easter I received a pot of tulips. I can’t even describe how those flowers made me feel. It was so wonderful!
Call places like your local fire department, police station, children’s home, nursing homes and women’s shelters. Don’t be afraid to ask what help they need. The nicest people usually work at these places and are so tickled when you call.
If you need help, ask your sewing guilds, Sunday school classes or church youth groups for help.
One last idea. After Easter, watch for good clearance sales on stuffed animals. So many places like fire departments, police departments, foster care homes, women’s shelters and hospitals need stuffed animals to give to children who have been taken away from their homes quickly for whatever reason. Often they have lost everything or need comfort of some sort. Sometimes that little animal is all they have of their own.
What better way is there to show how much we love and appreciate Christ’s suffering for us on the cross and to celebrate His resurrection than to show love to those He died for and loves so much. You know what it feels like when someone is kind to your children and He feels the same way when we show kindness to His children. Let’s try to keep the Christmas (Christ like) spirit all year long.
-Jill
Photo By: Emilio Labrador
This is such a good reminder.
One year a few years ago while talking to friends on my fibromyalgia board they were talking about easter and what meals they were cooking for family and friends. Sounded really great until almost in a whisper (yes I know it sounds silly) one of the women said she was not having easter dinner because all she had in the house was enough coffee for 2 days.
What amazed me was that no one else on the board even acknowledged the post. We all had fibro and other problems but to me they took a back seat to no food.
Now she lived in California and I am in Ontario Canada so trying to figure out how I could help I got on the internet and found a safeway store where I could order on line and pay with visa.
There I was 2 days before easter sitting in my housecoat ordering groceries in California. My husband and I did this for a year. Every 2 weeks I would spend about $145. american to make up the difference in our dollars and get the family food.
It sure brought home to me just how lucky we were to be able to do this. And it kept Christmas alive all year.
The thing I found silly about it was. I could order her groceries while sitting in my housecoat and had to get dressed to go the grocery store for my own groceries a five minute drive down the road.
What amazed me was that the store delivered at no charge and did not accept tips from the lady. Just a store policy.
So I helped a family who I have never met and probably never will but in a way I helped myself at the same time.
It didn’t take much time or effort but it made me feel I was helping change the world in a very real fashion.
It wasn’t the money doing it. It was the sharing with someone things I had or the feeling I was sending that someone cared about her.
Great ideas Jill! plan on making 5 little Easter baskets for my grandkids, but will also put something together for two girls whose parents are having a hard time right now. I might even get my 1st grade Sunday School class involved with making baskets to put in our church’s food pantry the week before Easter. Thanks for the ideas!
What you wrote is so beautiful that I could feel the Holy Spirit while reading it. For me, it all boils down to being a thoughtful, loving person all thru the year. Because God is Love. And little, thoughtful, caring, gestures mean so much to people. After all, so many of us could use a little cheering up once in awhile, so we know how nice it is to do it for someone else. And God repays any generosity we show to other people back to us. I’ve experienced it many times in my own life. Like they say, “You can’t outgive God.” And yes, Jesus died for us so we need to be grateful for that by helping in any way we can our brothers and sisters in Christ. We are to show mercy to others.
Thank you ladies for you sweet response. I always think sewers (seamstress? the spelling looked weird), crafters and our readers have hearts of gold.
That is good to know about being able to order the groceries like that. Tawra had a reader once order pizza and had it delivered to us and she lived in another state. We were so exhausted at the time we thought that pizza was manna from heaven.
Jill
This is a comment from your blog today regarding being prepared. We lost our income from our second job. We didn’t get laid off, he still had work & workers, he just suddenly died. So it does really help to be prepared.
What a timely article. Had to run some errands today so I slipped by my great aunt’s retirement home and took her a loaf of my zucchini bread and chatted for about 45 min. She was so grateful for the company, she cried, and it made me feel great too. Plan to do this more now that the weather here is manageable!! Little things like this mean so much to so many!! Keep up the good work- love all your blogs and newsletters!
The little pot of tulips made me smile a mile as i read about it here. Thank you for making me realize a litte something i’d lost touch with.
God bless you :)
thank you jill for posting this… its a wonderful reminder to all… :D
this was truly touching and inspiring, and I appreciate the reminder and motivation to keep on giving! What a wonderful message of love.
To Grandma in Canada — May God richly bless you and your family for not only providing food for this family but for all the time and effort that was involved doing it.
Joyce Meyers says that we should always look to bless at least one person (three would be better) each day, even if it’s only with a smile and a word of encouragement.
I’ve done different things to help others – buy school supplies & bookbags for needy people, donate money for a utility bill, a gift card for a military person, donate surplus items from coupons to the needy and also to Walter Reed Hospital, etc. It helps you remember that it’s not about you, it’s about everyone else. It feels SO good to do something unexpected for others. Try it!
Another small way I help is when the grocery store flyer comes out there is a coupon if you spend so much you get this item free. It is usually something I am allergic to so I get the item and leave it at the drop off box for the food drive.
When they were trying to expand into clothing like the big city stores the coupon was for childrens clothing. Not to my taste and since I didn’t have small ones people looked at me strangely when I always picked out a cute outfit. I would have about 12 brand new outfits to donate at Christmas time.
Neither of these things cost me any money and since I love shopping for clothes for little ones I had fun and someone benefited.
I have always used my crafts to donate to toy drives in town. Hand made wooden toys and knitted mittens slippers and puzzles are all a part of my christmas spirit giving.
I am not religious by any means but I try to live by the rule treat others the way you would like to be treated.
I unfortunately have been told by too many religious people that since I don’t go to church or pray that I am not worth their bother. So I live life the way I think it should be.
I don’t mock religions, since I do not like my non religion mocked.
The one that hurts the most is that my father says I am a bad mother since I don’t take my children to church. My mother in law says I am raising my children to be criminals and bad people.
Wish they could have seen how well my sons treat others and their own children.
I enjoy this site because of the advice and tips and the non judgmental attitude.
Grandma, it seems to me you’re living the type of Christian life that so many people only give lip service to. I congratulate you for following your heart.
me too grandma kitty… i agree with you wholeheartedly!… grandma you sound more like what a christian should be like than most people i know who call themselves christians!…
in our household, we have 4 people with 4 different ways of believing …. all coming to the same conclusion that there is a higher power…
granted, i didnt take my children to any “church” but me and hubby spoke to them constantly about what it is to be a good and responsible citizen and to treat others the way you would want to be treated… and i must say, they are very caring adults… always giving too… but they do not believe in any secular type of religion…
let others talk grandma, you are a wonderful person and showing the kind of qualities JESUS said we all should be like! …
*not bringing religion into this, just commenting*
thanks for all the reminders jill to share with us…
i just love coming to this website… its so uplifting and positive…
thank you for making sure your website is such a joy to be a part of! …
and thanks for all the people who post wonderful thoughts and idea’s… i learn alot from this website…
i cant thank everyone enuff…
rose :D
Don’t forget! You can save and make baskets out of plastic milk jugs! Wash them out and let them dry and cut a shape in the middle. I have used green construction paper cut into long strips and then curled with scissors to make grass for the inside of the milk jug. I have used tissue paper twisted and glued to the milk jug and then put glue on the tissue paper and sprinkled them with glitter! I have also put stickers all over the milk jug and it looks very nice. I even made a flower out of tissue paper and glued it on the top of the milk jug! Use you imagination and your basket will be perfect for stuffing with treats! I go to the $ store and stuff it with all kinds of candy and treats. One year I found marbled eggs and put them in the baskets! You can also make one for the egg hunt! They are easy but very pretty! I make them every year for my pre-school class and stuff them with treats that the children can then pick from. The basket was so popular I had to raffle it off! Also it saves money o buying a basket with barely nothing in it as well!
Also on the matter of helping others Jesus said “There is MORE happiness in GIVING than RECEIVING! Why? Because you can fill a need and that is always a wonderful feeling! I was at the grocery store the other day and a woman let me go ahead of her. I than payed it forward to someone else. This is a great way to start a whole line of giving! It used to be called random acts of kindness but why be random about it? Why can’t everything we do be a deliberate way to help someone, whether they reward us or not! Again Jesus said that God will repay us for kind acts and that we will be blessed.
I’d like to add two other sayings from Joyce Meyers:
(1) Jesus didn’t die for you to have a religion – He died for you to have a relationship with him.
(2) Help someone else and get your mind off yourself.
Another way to reach out at any time of the year is with your children.
If you live a great distance from your parents have your children call them. Leave the room and let the little ones talk to grampa and grandma all on their own. It will make the little ones happy and it will thrill the grandparents no end.
We feel left out of their lives and it is not always easy for grandparents to find the right time to call for a chat.
So you pick the time and let grandma know she is not forgotten and is loved.
Letters or pictures drawn by little ones go a long way to bridging the miles as well. Nothing beats going to the mail and finding a badly written address from a 5 year old that simply says grampa and grandma with the address written by an adult.
Can you tell I am totally depressed and miss my little ones badly today?
anyway that is just a small way to make older people in your own family feel more a part of the family.
luv and hugs.
When I was a little girl, my dad used to take me with him to distribute food to the poor. Once I asked him why we were giving them books. Dad replied “So their children have something to open for Christmas.” Forty one years later when I celebrate the feast of the incarnation and the resurection I ensure that I feed the hungry, cloth the naked, contribute to shelter, and visit the imprisoned rather than contributing to the increasing cultural conformity of “Christian holidays” with Santa and bunnies. Once a made a birthday cake December 25th for my Divorce Care Kids class, and my sister even asked whose birthday it was! Let’s remember the reason for the season isn’t about buying my mother in law another pair of gloves or insisiting that the sales clerk says “Merry Christmas” instead of happy holidays, but a celebration and rememberance of the gift of God’s son as payment for our sins. Not only do good works “show that we are Christians by our love”, they also make your realize how incredibly blessed we are with peace in our land, sanity, health, family, employment, medical care, pensions, and more gifts than ever occur to us. Have a Christ centered resurection Sunday and season and behave as though we are blessed!
Jill, If you would like to make a pretty cookie for Easter you could make a batch of chocolate chip cookie dough WITHOUT the chocolate chips, and substitute JELLY BEANS instead, for a colorful and Easter looking cookie.
Good ideas Bea and liked the tomato bread recipes too. Those certainly are different but sometimes the most unusual ones are the best tasting ones. Thanks
Jill, I saw a picture of the cookies with the jelly beans and they look so pretty. There are so many kinds of jelly beans too that can be used. Some of the real pastel ones would be pretty. Also, since tomatoes tend to be so plentiful in gardens, the bread ideas are good. I think they would taste good with cream cheese. Yum!
Thinking next year I will get and stuff a bunch of plastic easter eggs and donate them to our local food bank. New to our area this year, so didn’t get a jump on it, but will shop the 50-75% off sales and be ready for next year.