Family Devotions for Holy Week

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This Sunday starts what many commonly refer to as Holy Week. Simply put, Holy Week is the final days of Jesus' earthly ministry that lead to his arrest, trial, crucifixion, burial, and then resurrection on Easter Sunday. It all kicks off this Sunday with Palm Sunday.

As we get ready for the events of Palm Sunday, Holy Week and Easter weekend, we wanted to offer some resources that might help you and your family prepare and celebrate this special season of the year. So stating this Sunday, Palm Sunday, and continuing through Easter Sunday, we will be posting a daily blog with a Holy Week Family Devotion. With this devotion, we will share some family friendly activities, videos, and resources that you can use with your kids.

To help you get started, we have gathered a few resources that might help you understand Holy Week and the significance of the events that transpired about two thousand years ago.

If you are from a traditional church that utilizes the Liturgy and the church calendar, you might be familiar with Holy Week. But if you are new to the faith, church, or you attend a more non-traditional church, you might be wondering what Holy Week is and why it's such an important week.

You might also be wondering why I used terms like traditional and non-traditional church. Well, a traditional church might be a church associated with a denominational connection. These would be churched that refer to themselves as Presbyterian, Methodist, Lutheran, Baptist, of Catholic. A non-traditional church might consider themselves as non-denominational or independent. Traditional churches generally, maintain or follow a Liturgical or church calendar that marks specific seasons, celebrations, and/or sacred days throughout the year. Some non-traditional churches choose to step away from those "traditions." Whether traditional or non-traditional, what's most important is that the church stay faithful to the gospel of Jesus Christ while maintaining Biblical teaching.

But what is Holy Week, and how do I share this with my kids?

That's a great question. As we've said, Holy Week marks the week between Palm Sunday, when Jesus enters Jerusalem to cheers and palms while riding the colt of a donkey, and Easter Sunday when he is raised from the tomb to life.

Consider these two videos. The first, the video just above, is from the question and answer website of GotQuestions.com, an online resources that answers questions relating to the Bible, church, God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, and faith. They do a great job explaining Holy Week, also known as Passion Week.

The second, the video below, is from Phil Vischer's, What's In the Bible, video series. Phil is the creator of VeggieTales and What's In the Bible, a video series that teaches kids the Bible. In the video below, Phil and his friends talk about Easter and the importance of what Jesus did for us on the cross. The video is crazy helpful and great to watch with your kids.

Take a few minutes to watch both videos.

Hopefully you now have a better understanding of what Holy Week is, and why we take time to reflect and celebrate the events of this week. If you still have questions I would suggest you reach out to your pastor, youth pastor, or kids pastor and ask them to help you better understand Holy Week.

If you are not connected with a church, feel email us here at Life in the Higham House. We would be happy to help you in any way we can. You can also leave a question in the comments below!

Be sure to join us starting this Sunday, as we begin Family Devotions for Holy Week! Then check in with us every day through Holy Week for the daily devotion. Each day's post will go live at 1 PM EST.

It's going to be a great week.

Happy Easter!

​- the higham family

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