An Empty Life or an Empty Tomb..which one I am thankful for

                                                                      

After  a long and frustrating day at work yesterday Saturday , when I got off at 6pm all I wanted to do was to just sit on my carport in the quiet. As much as I adore and love my son Devon , his wife Jessi and of course the light of my life ( besides Mark  lol) is Raleigh , they all came to the house at 6 pm just as I was getting done with work . It was a headache day at work and though I thought I just wanted to sit and enjoy some quiet time , Im so happy that Devon, Jessi and Raleigh came over.

While I was working yesterday , Devon and Jessi had taken Raleigh to an Easter Egg hunt at a friends church and later in the evening they attended an Easter Egg Hunt at our church Mercy Baptist with Pop. Since I was not able to attend , Devon and Jessi brought Raleigh by so I could see how much joy he had in hunting them little eggs


                                                                  

Jessi hid about 10 eggs in and around my flower garden and then Raleigh went to find them. When he would find one he would get the biggest smile on his face and say “YES”  and then tell MiMi what color the egg was . This made my rough day at work turn into the best day ever , seeing my little grandson  enjoy the beginning of an Easter weekend. Not only did it make me smile and happy seeing Raleigh enjoy the hunt but also seeing my son Devon enjoy the hunt smiling and laughing , I think Devon was just as excited about finding the eggs as Raleigh was because Jessi had to keep telling him “Devon let Raleigh find the eggs”.. right before Devon Jessi and Raleigh came over, my youngest son Dylan came over to sit a while.......
    
                                                            

 and after Devon Jessi and Raleigh left , I thought I was going to get some quite time and then came my middle son Cody and his g/f Erica . When I went to bed , I was thankful for my day.

                              

                      

                                                                          

As much as this brought happiness to me, it also for a moment brought me sadness. For all the years as a child I did not get to participate in an Easter Egg Hunt and for the first 10 years of my sons life they also did not get to enjoy the eggs and Easter bunny .

Jehovahs Witnesses do not celebrate Easter , they do not celebrate the resurrection of Christ , they only celebrate the death of Christ .

As a child, seeing other girls getting beautiful , frilly dresses for Easter ..I was always jealous , how fun that must be to get that new dress, go to church , have a big family dinner get some Easter Eggs and oh how I wanted a Chocolate Easter Bunny… come to think of it , Ive still never had a chocolate bunny..hmmm.. and as a child , seeing other kids hunt those plastic eggs , I often wondered what was in those eggs they hunted ..perhaps diamonds, 100$ bills or what …

Yes, as Christians we know that the Easter bunny isn’t real , we know that hunting eggs isn’t biblical , we know this , Easter is about Jesus rising again after his death and we teach Raleigh the story but I cant help but think how the Lord loves little children and how much happiness it must bring to him to see the little children play and be free for the day picking up eggs and eating chocolate bunnies. I think it would make him happy to see this not sad for the little Jehovah Witness kids who aren’t allowed to do anything.

Jehovah’s Witnesses don’t celebrate Easter they only celebrate the Memorial of Christ death. As a fellow blogger explained :  As a child, your only chance at any type of party is the occasional wedding, which means dressing up in your uncomfortable Sunday clothes, sitting through a long sermon about marriage, then some boring party with grownup dancing.  As an adult, once you have your small and cheap wedding reception and a baby shower or two, your days of fun are over. If you think it’s difficult for children to give up holidays and birthdays, you would be absolutely right.

Jehovah’s Witnesses have often said in their publications that not being obligated to observe holidays like Christmas can actually be very freeing.  Note these quotes from the December 2010 Awake magazine:





“Our family has been set free from the problems associated with excess eating and drinking and the cost of gifts we could not afford,” says Oscar.

“I love giving and receiving gifts,” writes Elfie. “But I don’t like the kind of giving that is done under pressure. When our family stopped celebrating Christmas, it felt like a vacation!”

Peter writes: “When I was celebrating Christmas, I borrowed heavily in order to purchase gifts and pay for lavish meals. Of course, all this meant that I had to work overtime, which took me away from my family. How thrilled I was to be set free from all that!”

Let me first of all digress from my point about holidays and simply ask if these quotes sound real to anyone. How many people would use the phrase, “problems associated with excess eating” or “how thrilled I was to be set free”?

Jehovah’s Witnesses also claim in their magazines and publications that they don’t need holidays and birthdays as they can give gifts out of love and “at any time of the year.”  Yes, they absolutely can do this, but in my experience, they absolutely do not do this, at all, ever.  Growing up and and as an adult in the religion, I never once saw a parent give their child a gift for any reason or at any time, ever, other than for their wedding.  As said, some are now having small graduation parties for kids, but this is a relatively new occurrence.  Parties for kids were few and far between when I was in the religion, and at most might have been a few hours doing crafts and then having a slice of cake. What fun!

While some might enjoy the idea of not being obligated to give gifts, rather than being “set free” from just overspending and giving gifts they couldn’t afford, the Jehovah’s Witnesses I know were “set free” from ever having to host parties, buy gifts, or make life fun for their children in any way.  Children have all these holidays and celebrations taken from them, but are never compensated with any type of festivity or gift or party or fun of any sort

A JW parent might shrug off this information by reasoning that parties and holidays and gifts are not needed in a child’s life, but this overall lack of gift-giving and festivities can hurt children who are growing up as Jehovah’s Witnesses.  They aren’t stupid; they see other children getting gifts and fun parties from their parents, and then see their own parents, who are all too happy to be stingy and miserly and who never give them anything other than their basic necessities.  What are children supposed to think about how their parents feel about them?

Children see fun holidays and celebrations and festivities enjoyed by other kids at school, and then see their own religion, which not only takes these things away but which then involves constant dull meetings and assemblies, sermons, preaching work, dressing up, home bible studies on top of weekly meetings at the Kingdom Hall, and always being told what you’re doing wrong.  JW parents really think this isn’t damaging to children?  What impression does this leave on children as to what type of personality Jehovah has? What type of life does this give a child?

Not only do children see that they don’t get gifts and parties and festivities like other children, but they too can read in the JW publications the statements of those who see giving up holidays as a “vacation,” as if they’re now happier that the “burden” of having fun and being generous to their own families is gone.

They too read the claims JWs make about giving gifts “at anytime of the year,” and can see that these are just hollow words.  Might they start to question the false front that JWs put on, when it comes to statements made in their publications versus the reality of their everyday life?

I’m not telling Jehovah’s Witnesses what they should and should not celebrate, but I would ask how they think their children feel when they take away so much from them without giving anything in return.  You can say all the words you want; you can claim that Jehovah is a happy god and that you serve him with rejoicing and that you give gifts all the time, but what about your actions?  Yes, you can create happiness and fun and festivities for your children and give them gifts at anytime, but do you? Do you really make your children happy with gifts and fun times and festivities, or do you just make them victims of your religion by taking away anything and everything that might make their lives more enjoyable, as if the more miserable you are, the better Witness you are?



And are these too just more lies printed in your magazines to make outsiders think your families and your religion are much more loving than they really are? I would go with the latter choice myself.

So today , I am working again, but my little grandson will be coming over after church so I can see him in his little Easter outfit and you betcha Im going to make over him encourage his smiles and while letting him be happy with the Hippity Hoppity Easter Bunny , I will make sure he knows that today is all about Jesus  and how Jesus bore the bitter so he could taste the sweet chocolate bunny and  I know I once had an empty life but I am so thankful for that empty tomb today.