happy easter + he is risen free print

Growing up, my Easters were never incredibly festive. As a young girl, I would decorate easter eggs with my brother. Then it just became me decorating easter eggs. Somewhere between childhood and adolescence, I think my family, including me, just slowly outgrew the whole decorating ordeal. Nowadays, Easter consists of me going to church alone and sometimes family getting together for lunch or dinner.

Because of these things, Easter has never been my favorite holiday. Sure, I look forward to celebrating it. But there's something bothersome to me about the easter bunny (they always look kind of creepy, don't they?), the endless amount of pastel everywhere, and, well, the lack of family traditions. If you really want to know, my favorite holiday is always Christmas. Hands down.

It's interesting, though.

Christmas is the birth of Jesus.

Easter is the death and resurrection of Jesus.

The two holidays bring Jesus' life into full circle. In a way, it also brings our own faith into full circle. One man's existence brought us from death to life. Weak to strong. Broken sinners to sinners with grace. As believers, we know we should place our hope in Christ and live by faith.

But do we always? I don't.

I wish middle school me didn't allow the girls I thought were my friends to bully me. I wish high school me didn't care so much about what others thought of me, the music I listened to, the clothes I wore, the people I called my friends. I wish..I wish... because all of these moments in my life have brought me to here. Current me who still feels like my self worth is in my outer beauty, the resume that seems to be plastered to my face, the number of likes on my Instagram posts, the list goes on. How silly to be in my 20s and still struggle with feeling better-than-okay about myself.

I want to be that popular girl, but I'm not. I want to have perfect, glowing skin, but I don't. The thing is, these are just wants and nothing more. Why is finding that balance between expectations and reality so difficult? Nothing (not even me) can really fix my self worth unless, perhaps, in a moment of God's grace, He gifts me with the clarity that who I am right now, in this very moment when I have spot treatments covering my pimples and pajamas I've been wearing for the last week, is enough.

Today makes me think a lot about that. Value. Feeling that we are enough just the way we are. Because deep down, I know it isn't just me struggling with this self worth. It's everyone around me - from the girl sitting across from me at the hiring info session to the friend constantly refreshing his Instagram feed. Somewhere down the road we all got sucked into the lies society kept feeding us because we're human and we have wants and desires and feelings and faults. Deep deep down, we know we don't have it altogether, we're pretenders hoping others will love us the way we think we should be loved.

Somewhere down the road we also forgot about the truths staring us right in the face.

Jesus died for us even when we were still sinners.

God loves us even when we really suck.

Isn't that incredible? It makes me tear up sometimes. That God's love for me is based on the fact that even though I am not beautiful and perfect, He still chooses me. He loves me and that makes me beautiful - not the other way around. He accepts me even when I don't have it all together. He gave us Jesus even when we denied Him.

I wish I could turn back time and tell my middle school and high school selves these truths. It would have saved me a lot of tears and emotional anxiety. Heck, I wish I could turn back time and tell my yesterday self that come on, Breigh, the Gospel. Helllooo. But God works in funny ways. He uses our worst moments - when we forget about the Gospel and worry ourselves down to the ground - to remind us of who we are. That we are loved. That we are enough. That He is risen.

This is what Easter is about. Bringing us back to the simple foundations of our faith. Having confidence in the things not yet seen. Feeling worthy because Christ is enough.

If you are a believer, wherever you are and whatever you're doing today, don't forget that your self worth is in Christ. He is risen, just as he said.

To celebrate today, I made an easter print that I can hardly believe I made all by myself. I hope it can serve as a small reminder of Christ's love for you.

Click the above picture to download and print. Or click here to download a digital version. It prints as a 5x7 and would probably look best on plain card stock, but anything works. I hope you enjoy it and feel free to share it with your friends and family.