Easter lesson

I want my children to always remember why we celebrate Easter. It's important to me that they know what our Savior has done for us. He gave his own life for us and was resurrected.
I found this AMAZING story that helped them to understand some of what our Savior had to go through in his last hours before his death, and then to testify that he has risen.
What better way to grab the attention of children, or adults for that matter, than with food! The story I found is called The Easter story cookies.

Here are the supplies we needed. We had to make these cookies right before bed on Easter eve, so they could work their magic over night. I had to set the oven to 300 degrees before we started. What is cool about this story is it had a scripture to go with each ingredient we added to our bowl.

First, we hit a bag of pecans to illustrate how the soldiers beat our Savior and broke him.

Second, we let each child smell some vinegar. We explained that when Jesus was thirsty on the cross, he was given vinegar to drink.

Third, we added egg whites to the vinegar. The eggs represented life. We explained that Jesus gave His life to give us eternal life.

Next, we sprinkled a little salt into each child’s hand. We let them taste it and brush the rest into the bowl. We explain that this represents the salty tears shed by Jesus’ followers, and the bitterness of our own sin.

We told the kids that so far, the ingredients were not very appetizing. So we added 1 cup of sugar to the bowl. We told them that the sweetest part of this story is that Jesus died because He loves us. He wants us to know and belong to Him.

After all the ingredients were added to the bowl, we had to beat the ingredients with a mixer, on high for 12 to 15 minutes until stiff peaks were formed. (This took forever!) The color white represented the purity in God’s eyes of those whose sins have been cleansed by Jesus.

After we had peaks formed we folded in the broken nuts and dropped teaspoons of fluff onto a cookie sheet covered with wax paper. Each mound represented the rocky tomb where Jesus’ body was laid.

We then put the cookie sheet in the oven, closed the door and turned the oven OFF. Each child put a piece of tape on the oven door to seal it. We told them that Jesus’ tomb was sealed.

Then we went to bed! They felt a bit sad to leave the cookies in the oven overnight. Especially because it took to long to mix, But the lesson here was that Jesus’ followers were in despair when the tomb was sealed.

On Easter morning, we opened the oven and gave everyone a cookie. I had them notice the cracked surface and had them take a bite. The cookies were hollow! On the first Easter, Jesus’ followers were amazed to find the tomb open and empty.

This is something I plan on doing each year. It is truly a story they will always remember!