Moms, it’s so very important that we keep Christ before our children during the Christmas season. There is no account so grand as our Savior’s birth. Angels flying from God’s throne room far surpasses tales of flying reindeer. The star God placed in the heavens outshines a a red nose. And you want to talk about gifts? God gave us a priceless one. Let’s keep the focus on Christ. Read this poem with expression! When you get to “knock,” knock on something hard so they hear the sound of knocking. Flatten your palms to make the sound of “walking.” Let the …
Practical Planning Before the Holidays
If you’re like me, the holidays can sneak up on you, and before you know it, they are dragging you and your family around by your shirt collars. By the time New Years hits, you need rest before you can even think about resolutions. I’m not a planner, but a few years back, God led me to start being more intentional about how to keep the Lord front and center during the holidays. To rethink some of our traditions, to pray through necessities of time and money, service and giving. As a result, this handout was born. I can’t think …
The Indescribable Gift of Christmas
What gift have people from around the globe longed for since the beginning of time, arrived exactly as predicted over two-thousand years ago, is not able to be bought or manipulated with money, given to us freely but paid for by the death of the innocent life of a King, wanted by all but rejected by most? Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift! 2 Corinthians 9:15 Jesus Christ the Messiah, Lamb of God, the Way, the Truth, the Life, Rabbi, Son of the Most High is our Gift! Why is this gift a big …
Having A Happy Birthday Jesus Party: In Your House And In Your Community
I love December. There’s so much to celebrate as well as so much to do, but one of the most fun things we’ve done over the years is to have a Happy Birthday Jesus Party. What, you’ve never heard of that? That’s ok. It’s actually something we started doing in our Kids Ministry at church and over the years we have expanded it from what we do on Sunday mornings at church to the homes and neighborhoods of the families we serve. I would love to take a few minutes to tell you about having a Happy Birthday Jesus Party: …
The Well of Christmas Despair
Shocked. Yet honored. Placide Cappeau of Roquemaure, France, was a commissionaire of wines in 1847. Asked by the small town parish priest to pen a poem for Christmas, he was happy to share his talent with the church, even though he was known more for his poetry than his church attendance. Traveling to Paris in a horse-drawn coach, Cappeau decided to use the gospel of Luke as his inspiration and imagined he was a witness to the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem. By the time he arrived in Paris, he had completed “Cantique de Noel.” Moved by his own writing, …
A Mother’s Song of Praise
I’ve always loved the prayer Mary prayed after she visited her cousin Elizabeth and revealed the secret that would change the world, she was carrying in her womb the Son of God, the Messiah, the one who would save us from our sins. When I read Luke 1:46-56 I imagine Mary in such a humbled state yet not able to contain her excitement and fear for her future as the mother of the promised one. I can see her dancing as she sings, kneeling as she prays and lifting her hands towards Heaven in worship. I just cannot imagine …
The Unbusy Be of Christmas
It has taken me many years, but I can honestly say that I’ve been set free from being overly stressed at Christmas. Well, as far as the busyness of Christmas is concerned anyway. Certain stresses in life go on no matter what the season. I was asked awhile back what traditions I can’t live without at Christmas and what insights I’d learned each holiday along the way. Don’t cringe like she did when I tell you that I’m not a big traditions person. It’s a long story, I’m just not. But I do enjoy dwelling on the reason for the …
Released: Christmas for ALL children
Moms have a heart for children at Christmastime. It inspires us to fill Operation Christmas Child shoe boxes for Samaritan’s Purse, to give Angel Tree gifts for children with parents in prison, and to stretch our days and our dollars for our own children. Mothers long for kids to feel God’s love through His manger-born Son at Christmastime. But what about the children no one is taking care of? What about the children who have been bought, sold, or traded this year? Recent reports tell us 29.8 million people around the world are enslaved or exploited. This number includes a …
Affluenza!
I almost felt sick. How could it be? I just cleaned out my kids’ closets and you NEVER would have known it. They were still full! I didn’t think I was guilty of spoiling my children. But it was clear, I have participated in… overindulgence! Why do we (by we, I mean I) have so much stuff? I filled at least five big garbage bags of old stuffed animals, unopened crafts, half done word puzzles, clothes(some still with price tags), and shoes. After doing my mission of closet reduction, I organized the things to be kept and returned each to …
Surviving December With Small Kids
What do you get when you mix two young children, one tired mom, and a Christmas to-do list? Definitely not peace on Earth. “Don’t step there!” My hand jerked toward my toddler’s ankles, but too late. Her foot crunched a row of Christmas ornaments arranged meticulously on the rug, prepped for hanging. “I sorry, Momma!” Her sock hovered over a sparkly blue star, crushed into five pieces. “I told you to stay on the sofa! Sweetie, if you want to help Mommy decorate the tree, you need to be very careful around the ornaments. Now it’s broken.” Her bottom lip …