Therefore, brethren, stand fast and hold the traditions which you were taught, whether by word or our epistle. 2 Thessalonians 2:15 (NKJV)
By Bro. John L. Cash
For all of you who still have children at home, here’s some advice from a dad whose kids are grown: Dye some Easter eggs with your family this year and every year.
Here in the Cash household, we’ve been dyeing Easter eggs on Holy Saturday for almost 30 years. (That’s how long this particular “Cash household” has been in existence.) I know sometimes it’s tempting to dye the eggs after the kids have gone to bed. After all, you can avoid all the mess and headache of stained clothing and spilled Paas dye cups. But if you do that, you’ll be missing out. You’ll miss out on fun with your family, and you’ll also be failing to establish a tradition that will pay off for you in the future.
Face it. Everybody likes to dye Easter eggs. Even the most hardened curmudgeon will join in when they see the fun everybody else is having. Trust me on this one.
Some advice here. Put old clothes on your kids and a cheap plastic tablecloth on the table. Buy some traditional egg dye but also whatever freakish thing they have come up with this year. We always dye some eggs the regular way but also whatever is in style at the time. So far, we have had mottled eggs, sparkled eggs, eggs covered with little plastic pictures that you dip in boiling water, eggs dyed with Kool-Aid, and eggs dyed with natural dyes made from vegetable peelings. The traditional eggs always turn out the best, but it’s fun to do what the “in crowd” is doing, too.
And for Heaven’s sake, dye lots of eggs! It’s absurd to mix up 8 vibrant colors of egg dye to color just one dozen eggs. Eggs are cheap. So boil several dozen. That way, everybody can join in the fun for a long time. Plus, you can eat some of the eggs for breakfast the next morning, and you will have more eggs for the kids to hide and hunt over and over. (Be sure to lose one egg under the couch until Independence Day — when it will become easier to find.)
But the most important thing of all is to start dyeing Easter eggs with your family now. If your kids don’t start dyeing eggs when they’re little, they won’t know they’re supposed to come home to do it when they’re grown. You’re going to miss them when you have an “empty nest.” And you’ll be glad when your grown children stop by to see you and dye eggs. After all, that will be your Easter tradition.
So, take time to dye some eggs with your babies. Time is passing so quickly, and they grow up so fast.
Jesus Christ has risen from the grave. We’re going to receive new bodies. And Death shall die.
Every one of these things is going to be important to you in the future.
Dr. John L. Cash is the “Country Preacher Dad.” He was raised in Stuttgart, Arkansas, and has spent the last 28 years being a country preacher in the piney woods five miles south of the little town of Hickory, Mississippi. (On week days has a desk-job at a public school, and until recently taught Latin on closed-circuit-television.) He and his lovely wife, Susan, live in the parsonage next door to the Antioch Christian Church (where Spencer Cash made one Easter egg with the word “Dookie” on it this year, as he does EVERY year—because his mother hates this word. ‘Cause it’s a tradition.) Their kids include Spencer (age 22), his wife Madeline (age 22), and Seth (age 19).
