For this year’s Easter letters, I wrote a commentary on The Lord’s Prayer, teaching my girls about how Jesus led us to pray. If you’d like this printable document already in Spanish, click here. In addition, I shared short message about the tradition of Easter egg decorating and how it symbolizes new life- including photos of the Easter egg museum in Ukraine and a coloring page for them to decorate their own Easter egg. In the folders with their letters, they will also each receive a homemade card with their name on it.
Hello beautiful! I am sending you this letter in March 2025. We will soon be celebrating Easter! What are you doing for Easter? I will go to church, have dinner with my family, and probably decorate Easter eggs with my friends. In the United States and Europe, it is a tradition to paint chick eggs as a symbol of new life, like the new life we have in Christ when we receive Him as our Savior. In my friend’s home country of Ukraine, they have a whole museum of the most beautiful painted eggs for Easter!
This year, for Easter, I want to write to you about the Bible passage where Jesus teaches us how to pray. It is Matthew 6:9-13. The words in red are Jesus' words. The notes in black are my comments on it.
Our Father who is in heaven: When we pray, we must remember that we are children of God. Remembering that He is our Father, and a good Father, reminds us to approach Him openly, because He loves us and is on our side. Matthew 7:7-11 tells us that God is a good Father who knows how to give us good gifts.
Hallowed be Your name: When we pray, we must acknowledge that God is Holy, which means He is set apart from others. He is the most powerful.
Your kingdom come. Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven: When we pray, we must remember that God's ways are the only perfect ways, and pray that His perfect plans come true even if we don't understand what they are; Perfect as they are in Heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread: We should pray for God to give us all we need for that day and not worry about the future, because He will be with us in the future too and give us what we need for each day. Matthew 6:26 talks about how God gives wild birds everything they need for each day, even if they cannot save for the future; and how He cares for us even more than He cares for them.
And forgive us our debts: If you have accepted Jesus as your Savior, your sins have been forgiven. When we pray, it is good to remember that since we have been forgiven, we can be children of God and go to Him freely in prayer.
As we also have forgiven our debtors: Forgiving other people, as Jesus forgave us, helps us approach God with a clear mind when we pray, so that we are not held back by our lack of forgiveness.
And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil: When we pray, we must remember that we are all human beings who can be tempted and make mistakes. Even followers of Jesus are not immune to this. It is important to pray for Him to keep us from these temptations.
For Yours is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen: It is important to praise and celebrate God in our prayers.
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