No season of the year comes close to spring, in my mind. I love the colors of fall leaves and the glimmer of snow in the winter months, but there are more outlets for my creative flow in the spring. Tulips are growing in our gardens, and I can’t hold my frown when I look at their beauty. The temperature is diving into the seventies now, and the days are coming when I can write outside in its perfect warmth, consuming the creativity our Maker puts on display. 

Even in my love for spring, though, I often look over the most important part of the season. This Sunday is Easter, and I haven’t thought much about it.

In the winter, there’s hardly a store you can walk into and not hear holiday music. It feels like Hobby Lobby puts up their Christmas decor in August. My family spends weeks decorating to celebrate the birth of Jesus. And I’m so very grateful for it.

But where is all the excitement for Easter?

At most a few decorations hang around our house and we make plans to eat a special family dinner. We dye eggs and have my nieces find them. But that’s the extent of our Easter celebration at home. 

Surely our Lord deserves unending praise for His sacrifice on the cross. We may not be able to change entire family plans or have the financial means to go above and beyond, but praise resides in the heart. So, there are little changes we can make to our annual routine to give glory to the One who saved us from eternal suffering.

On Easter, I like to take some time to myself before the party and talk to the Lord intimately. Instead of just a casual “thank you”, I seek to remember exactly why that moment two thousand years ago was so important. It puts my heart in a place to be truly thankful.

Perhaps more important is to invite someone to an Easter service. Everyone who calls themself a Christian, regardless of their personal faith, wants to attend Easter in some way. At my church, we give out invitation mugs that we can fill with candy. Targeting at least one person to reach for Easter furthers the kingdom of God. That’s our job isn’t it?

But the change that has been the most of a struggle for me is to praise with others. I hate to show emotion, good or bad. I never cry in front of others if I can help it, especially my parents. I don’t even like to show that I really enjoy something because I’m embarrassed about it. I find it easy to praise and become full of emotion when I’m alone with the Lord. But, as long as other people are around me, even if they’re the most believing Christian I know, it becomes unnaturally hard. During worship on Sunday mornings I remind myself to focus on the words at least twice, if not three or four times in the three-song run. My heart’s not in it.

So, my goal this Easter is to praise God like a lunatic. I’ll do it in words, I’ll do it in action. My God deserves the fullest attention, and I haven’t given it to him outside of my bedroom. It means sounding weird to others, but what matters is that my Father considers it a beautiful sound.

If you’re like me and haven’t given God the praise He deserves on Easter, I encourage you to find that place that’s holding you back and smack it to the ground. Let’s praise that we are redeemed from the power of death! For “He himself bore our sins on his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed” (1 Peter 2:24).

Scripture quotations are from The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.