I wrote a family Easter devotional!

Here are five ways you can use it.

Happy Friday! If we’re friends in many places on the internet, you may know that my second devotional, Easter Changes Everything, has officially launched into the world.

It feels a little funny to talk about our Spring holiday this week. As I type, the snow is quite literally piled outside my door. But if you’re anything like me, you know holidays sneak up on us quickly. Almost every year, I find myself praising God that two-day shipping exists because after I realize that Palm Sunday is *tomorrow.*

I wrote Easter Change Everything with parents like me in mind. Easter Sunday always proves to motivate me to do a better job of sharing the gospel with my kids, so Easter Changes Everything is designed for families to do together after Easter.

It begins with a retelling of the Easter story. Then, each week, families can read one illustrated Bible story about how Jesus’s death and resurrection changed everything for Jesus’s first followers. It’s kind of like reading a storybook Bible. Families complete three devotions together throughout the week where they read from the Bible together and answer questions about how Easter changes their lives too. It ends with a six-week challenge to continue reading the Bible together, sharing the gospel more often, and diving deeper into local church ministry.

Here are a few ways you can use this devotional this Spring.

With your family

This is the primary way the book was written to be used. Gather together one evening at the beginning of each week to read the story. Depending on your family, you may choose to read the stories directly from Scripture using the passages listed or the illustrated stories from the book.

When your family has consistent time together throughout the week, read the Bible verses listed for each day and answer the questions. There are only three devotions per week so that busy families don’t fall behind. You can also fly right through it, starting a new “week” as soon as you finish the devotions from the previous week. There are 18 total devotions across six weeks.

With a group of families

Think of community groups, playgroups, school groups, etc. Grab a group of families, and get together right around Easter to read the Easter story together before starting the devotion as individual families. Start a group text to share funny or meaningful answers your kids had to the questions. Then, you can gather again to plan how you’ll tackle the six-week challenge as individual families.

With your parent friends

Or any group of friends with kids you meet with regularly. Instead of sending kids off to play when you get together, you could read the story and ask the questions altogether, involving kids in the adult hang time.

To give to friends

A big part of this project was making sure the price stayed low so that people could afford to give it away. If you’re the person that friends text to ask what kind of Easter devotional you’d recommend, grab a few (or lots) at a bulk discount on Lifeway.com and then give them away.

To give away at church

If you are making decisions in your kids or family ministry at your local church, consider buying these in bulk and giving them away on Easter Sunday. Not only could the families in your church commit to family discipleship in a new way, but new families visiting on Easter Sunday could also have something to take home to 1) remind them of the church they visited, 2) allow them to continue to read or hear the gospel for several weeks afterward, and hopefully 3) beckon them back to the church before Christmas or the next Easter rolls around.

If you use this devotional this Easter, I would love to hear about it. If you have other ideas for how this can be used, I would love to chat about it in the comments.

You can purchase on Amazon, Lifeway, Christianbook, Target, Barns & Noble, or wherever books are sold!

Grateful for you,

Lauren