Expand Your Easter with Service and Sacrifice

By Zoey Diede

Church Magazines

More than a week or weekend celebration, Easter can be an extended season of sharing Christ’s light and the joy of helping others.

Expanding our Easter celebrations can bring greater joy and help us grow closer to Jesus Christ. “We have been encouraged to move to a higher and holier celebration of Easter,” said Elder Gary E. Stevenson of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.

In The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, we are commanded to offer “a broken heart and a contrite spirit” as a sacrifice (3 Nephi 9:20) and to strive to repent, follow Jesus Christ, and align our lives with His commandments. Sacrifice and serving others can help us better celebrate the Savior during the Easter season.

Some Ways to Serve and Give

Consider the following suggestions to amplify Christ’s influence in your life and expand the Easter season, or create your own plan.

Give time and energy to serve in your calling. “When ye are in the service of your fellow beings ye are only in the service of your God” (Mosiah 2:17).
Cease complaining. “Do all things without murmurings and disputings” (Philippians 2:14).
Donate money to a good cause. “Inasmuch as ye impart of your substance unto the poor, ye will do it unto [the Lord]” (Doctrine and Covenants 42:31).
Provide food for someone in need. “I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat” (Matthew 25:35).
Exercise the law of the fast through fasting and prayer and donate a fast offering for those in need. You’ll grow closer to the Lord Jesus Christ. “Inasmuch as ye do this, the fulness of the earth is yours” (Doctrine and Covenants 59:16).
Choose someone to serve. “By love serve one another” (Galatians 5:13).
Create a playlist of holy music and share it with others. “Be filled with the Spirit; speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs” (Ephesians 5:18–19).
Worship in the temple more often. “For I will raise up unto myself a pure people, that will serve me in righteousness” (Doctrine and Covenants 100:16).
Work to develop a new Christlike quality in yourself (charity, love, understanding, patience, long-suffering, kindness, empathy). “Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls” (Matthew 11:29).
Forgive someone. “Forgive, and ye shall be forgiven” (Luke 6:37).
Volunteer with local food banks or community groups. Visit JustServe.org for opportunities. “Let us do good unto all [people]” (Galatians 6:10).
Arrive early to church to prepare for the sacrament. “Do it with an eye single to my glory—remembering unto the Father my body which was laid down for you, and my blood which was shed for the remission of your sins” (Doctrine and Covenants 27:2).
Study about the Resurrection. “There is a death which is called a temporal death; and the death of Christ shall loose the bands of this temporal death, that all shall be raised from this temporal death” (Alma 11:42).

He Is Risen, by Dan Wilson, may not be copied

He Is Joy

If we follow Jesus Christ’s example of sacrifice and spreading light, we’ll grow closer to Him and be happier. “Joy comes from and because of Him,” said President Russell M. Nelson (1924–2025). “He is the source of all joy.”