Helping parents establish God's Word in their children
Today we are moving most of our children to California. We are a close family and are trusting God to keep us close even 2300 miles apart. I don’t like the changes but it makes me cling to the One who never changes.
Check out Josh and Jeremiah’s blog about why they are doing this at Adventures in Filmmaking
Susanna Wesley had 15 children and spent an hour a week with each child individually, helping he or she to be totally submitted to God. When she was asked about her method of preparing her children for spiritual maturity she replied: “No one can, without renouncing the world, in the most literal sense, observe my method; and there are few, if any, that would entirely devote above twenty years of the prime of life in hopes to save the souls of their children, which they think may be saved without so much ado; for that was my principal intention, however unskillfully and unsuccessfully managed.” (Read more about Susanna in the book, Susanna: Mother of the Wesleys
May you have a fulfilling year training up children!!!!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY JESUS!!!
Luke 2:11 For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. This was first announced to the shepherds, who were the lower class citizens of that day . . . Jesus was born for all mankind, rich and poor.
Have a birthday party for Jesus, complete with cupcakes and candles and singing happy birthday to Him. Our family does this sometime during the season when we can give Jesus full attention apart from the gift giving to each other. The present for Jesus is always the first to go under the tree, wrapped in gold or silver paper. It is filled with papers from previous years where we have all drawn on one side pictures of several things we are thankful for through the last year. On the other side we have written the things we want to give Jesus in the coming year such as more time with Him or showing more compassion for others, etc. We open the gift at the birthday party and read what each wrote the previous year, make the sheet for the present year, and then wrap it back up. We end the evening with singing Christmas carols by candle light.
Thank you for celebrating the birth of Jesus each day this month with us through this blog. We wish you a very Happy Christmas Day!
According to a Gallup poll, the average American expects to spend approximately $763 on Christmas this year. Those earning at least $75,000 a year plan to spend more than $1,100. There’s always something new to buy, from iPods to Xboxes to MP3 players. What kind of TV do you want? . . . plasma or LCD? . . . flat screen or projection? Your cell phone can take pictures or play music . . . hey, it can even make phone calls!
In an earlier era, the general store stocked about a thousand different products. But today, the typical Wal-Mart superstore stocks 130,000 items. Not long after the Halloween candy is eaten, the sounds of Jingle Bell Rock start to invade department stores and the “happy holidays” greetings begin to be heard. The rush is on! The traffic increases. People spend the night at Toys ‘R Us just to have a chance at buying a Nintendo Wii.
So how do we transform this to make it a reminder of the birth of Jesus Christ?
For a long time, we have incorporated an activity into our Christmas traditions, called ‘The Christmas Web’. Recently we visited the Antebellum Plantation at Stone Mountain and saw that this was done way back around the turn of the 19th century.
The idea is that the true message of Christmas has become lost in a ‘web of commercialism’. We tell our kids that it is their job to find the true meaning of Christmas. We put all of them in one bedroom with the door closed while we take 5 rolls of yarn (one for each child). We weave the rolls like a giant spider web all over the house into every room and out onto the patio. It is hard to even move when it is complete. At the end of the roll, we tie a small symbolic gift. The gift has been a small flashlight that symbolizes ‘turning the light on to dispel the darkness’ in our world, or a new cup that symbolizes ‘being the kind of vessel God can use’.
While the children follow their own web through the house, we talk about finding the true meaning of Christmas that is mysteriously hidden in all the hustle and bustle of the season. Mark 4:11 And Jesus said to them, “To you it has been given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God; but to those who are outside, all things come in parables.” In Col. 1:26-27, Paul writes, “the mystery which has been hidden from ages and from generations, but now has been revealed to His saints. To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles: which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. This is the real meaning of Christmas.
Theodor Seuss Geisel was born March 2, 1904 in Springfield, MA. During WW II, Geisel joined the army and was sent to Hollywood. Captain Geisel wrote for Frank Capra’s Signal Corps Unit and won Oscars for Hitler Lives and Design for Death. He also created a cartoon called Gerald McBoing-Boing which also won him an Oscar. In May of 1954, Life published a report concerning illiteracy among school children. The report said that children were having trouble reading because their books were boring. This inspired “Dr. Seuss”, as he became known, to write The Cat in the Hat, using 220 words. In 1960 someone bet him that he couldn’t write an entire book using only fifty words and the result was Green Eggs and Ham.
Dr. Seuss completed How the Grinch Stole Christmas! in 1957. The Grinch, a bitter, cave-dwelling creature with a heart “two sizes too small,” lives on snowy Mount Crumpit, a steep, 3,000 foot high mountaijn just north of Whoville, home of the merry and warm-hearted Whos. His only companion is Max, his faithful dog. From his perch high atop Mount Crumpit, the Grinch can hear the noisy Christmas festivities that take place in Whoville. Envious of the Whos’ happiness, he makes plans to descend on the town and steal their Christmas presents and decorations and thus “prevent Christmas from coming”. However, he learns in the end that despite his success in taking all the Christmas things from the Whos, Christmas comes just the same. He then realizes that Christmas is more than just gifts and presents. His heart grows three sizes larger, he returns all the presents and trimmings, and is warmly welcomed into the community of the Whos.
So how do we transform this to make it a reminder of the birth of Jesus Christ?
Christmas transcends gifts and trees and stockings and credit card purchases. A Christmas without presents or decorations is still Christmas, which is God’s awesome statement to the world that He loves us, and no one can take that away. Romans 8:38-39 For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.