December 2010 Entries
What are your New Year’s resolutions? Do you plan to set aside more family time? Have a more organized home? How about just a clean car? All these could easily apply to any mom or dad. My own New Year’s resolution is simple; I intend to pray more. As parents, prayer sometimes is the only help we can give our children.
Christmas activities for toddlers and preschoolers that focus on Jesus’ birth have been on my mind all week. As I mentioned in my previous blog, my husband and I are making a huge effort to build our Christmas celebrations around Jesus’ story, not the legend of Santa Claus. My initial idea led to a Christmas tree design in which the kids would paint construction paper ornaments for Jesus.
My oldest daughter, Sage, recently asked me, ‘what is your favorite part of Christmas?” I automatically said, Christmas Trees, twinkling lights, peppermint candy canes. My list grew even longer before I realized what I was omitting. A huge pang of guilt hit me, as I recognized I failed to mention the Reason we celebrate. The true wonder and majesty of this holiday is Jesus Christ.
It’s the most wonderful time of the year; but sometimes I can’t help but get a little blue around the holiday season. I think of all the waste and all of the material things, and it makes me wonder if people are looking at that man on the street corner begging for a meal or just some spare change. It makes me think of all of the families this year who are going without; let’s face it most of us have been hit pretty hard by the economy.