Tonight was our first evening of using the “Building Blocks” journals and the time went really well. I want to do this most nights as our quiet time, but I realized afterwards that we did not read any of the Bible. So, next time, we will read from their Beginners Bible, and spend some time praying and filling out our journals.

I found some of their prayers very interesting, so I pass them on to you.

Dear God,

I love you because,

Hannah-Grace – “You make my bad feelings go away.”

Caleb – “You are powerful”

Joshua – “You listen to my prayers.”

I am sorry I,

H-G – “yelled at Caleb.”

C – “hit my brother, Joshua.”

J – “accidentally hurt Isaac.”

Thank you for,

HG – “my ballerina, and my pencils”

C – “daddy, mommy, Granny, Nanna and Pop-pop, and Grandpa Bunny.”

J – “the toys I got for Christmas (R2-D2), and for making the earth.”

My prayer requests are,

HG – “please bring me a prince.”

C – “keep Santa safe, and the reindeer.”

J – “keep everybody in the whole world safe.”

I have learned tonight that my children are going to be teaching me some things about praying. Isaiah 11:6 “The wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion and the yearling together; and a little child will lead them.”

Vintage Faith

vin·tage adj. of high quality, especially from a past time period n. the date or time period when something was originally produced or existed

faith n. reliance and trust in a person or thing

The rethinking of my faith…

There is a rising feeling among followers of Jesus, that in many modern contemporary churches, something has subtly gone astray in what we call “church” and what we call “Christianity”. Through time, church has become a place that you go to have your needs met, instead of being a called local community of God on a mission together. Through time, much of contemporary Christianity subtly has become more about inviting others into the subcultures of Christian music, language and church programs than about passionately inviting others into a radically alternative community and way of life as disciples of Jesus and Kingdom living. We want to change this perception, and we are going to start with ourselves.

In our next series, we are going “old school,” as we look at how the prophets of old lived out their faith. Invite a friend and experience Vintage Faith together.

This exciting series will start January 30^th and go to February 17^th.

I wanted to make you guys aware of a resource that my children received for Christmas. It is called “Building Blocks” and is a journal for children aged three to seven. It is divided into three sections (My Daily Prayers, Counting My Blessings, My Personal Diary). The journal is designed to encourage and show children how to pray.

My children can not fully read and write yet so I am planning to have a time when we sit down and ask the various questions, and I will write down their response. I am looking forward to beginning with them. It asks them questions like: “I love God because . . .”, “I am sorry I . . .”, and “My prayer requests are . . .” and some others. On the back of the pages is an area for the children to draw a picture, paste a photo, etc…

If you want to check it out you can go to www.penmanpaper.com/index.php?cPath=34_40_47, plus their pretty cheap ($4.95). If you get one and try it out with your kid/s let me know how it goes, and I will give you an update in a few weeks.

It’s been awhile since we had a program designed just for our kids at church. But on Christmas Eve we abandoned our traditional candlelight service in lieu of allowing our kids to remind us of the meaning of Christmas. They came dressed in costume, so the Delaplaine was filled with sheep, wise men, Joseph, Mary, baby Jesus, shepherds, singers, and readers. There were also grandmothers, grandfathers, aunts, uncles, friends, etc… Sara T. reminded them that they were not there to be cute, but to bring glory to God but telling the Christmas story (and they did a wonderful job!) The funniest event of the night was when Callie T.(who was dressed as an angel) sat in the box/manger and was stuck right there in front of everyone.

The program was filled with a lot of flash photography! I believe that room could have been seen from the moon, because of the flashes (yes I was one of them). It showed me that sometimes we just need a time to celebrate the gift of children and what they teach us about the Lord. Usually we think of how we can show them spiritual truths, but they understand more than we often give them credit for.

The following is a portion of an e-mail that Sara T. sent out to the children and I couldn’t agree more with her comments:

“Hi guys! This is Miss Sara. I just wanted to say that I thought you all did a wonderful job on Monday. You all looked great and sounded great too! And you behaved beautifully! I am so proud of all of your hard work. And I know that on that night, God was looking down on all of you and smiling because of the beautiful worship you gave him and the wonderful blessing you were to everyone who was there. Thank you so much for being a part of our Christmas Eve service!”

Whewwww. . . its’ over. We started the day at the top of the stairs of our home, asking a series of questions (what is Christmas about? “Jesus” – typical pk’s response, — and what’s the best gift? – “Jesus.”) They know the right answers, and they are showing signs of living those answers out.

Then they ran downstairs, and it started. You know what I’m talking about. The craziness! Christmas day was a whirlwind of wrapping paper and bows. Well, ok not a day, but at least a good 20 minutes.

The day settled down to me opening and assembling various children’s gifts and making sure that no tiny parts went into the trash piles. Why do they have to put those twisty ties on everything?

The boys favorite gift this year was a star wars jedi light saber that cost us around $8 (when will we learn that the best is not always the most expensive?) Hannah-Grace’s favorite gift was a Barbie princess island doll. I have started a tradition (last year) of giving her a dress up outfit, so I found a Barbie princess island dress that was her size. She wore it all day, and we had to fight her to take it off for bed. We also found a Barbie princess island dvd – so she is set. The grandparents went crazy with gifts, but I won’t complain too much. I believe that if I were to ask them, they would say that that’s what grandparents do – especially since we live so far away.

We called and were called by various family members around the country, and over all it was a wonderful day spent together.

Merry Christmas!