Part 1 of Celebrating CHRISTmas

Well it has been waaaaaay to long since I last posted and so much has happened!

I wanted to start by highlighting our CHRISTmas first.

This Christmas looked a little different for our family, in a refocusing kind of way.  As the holidays were approaching I had a growing irritating spirit that was coming out.  I found myself getting so annoyed with all the hoopla, from traffic to long lines to mean people cursing you out while trying to find a parking spot.  Even while I was shopping hearing people bickering with each other.  Seriously, what are "we" doing?  What are we celebrating?  Celebrating ourselves, perhaps?!

Our kids handed us their lists this year and my heart sunk and it hit me,  how is this celebrating our Saviour's birth? I wrestled with this for days.  We talk about generations past, present and future and  how kids and adults have a sense of entitlement.....no stinkin kidding!  The overindulging just gets more and more each year.  Sadly, it has taken precedence over the true meaning.  When was the last time you went to celebrate someone else's birthday and received presents?

I understand that the wise men brought gifts but that was for the One who was born.  The One who was sent to save us from ourselves.  The One who was sent to walk in the shoes of man, to come alongside the unlovly, to dine with sinners, to perform miracles,  to show us what true living is, how to live righteously,  to one day pay the ultimate price for man's sins by hanging his perfect, sinless body on a tree and shedding his blood for our wretchedness.

Is this how I celebrate Him?  Is this how I teach my children to celebrate Him?

I had no peace.

Bob was completely on the same page with me.  I talked with my sis,  Lisa only to find out she too was struggling and feeling the same things.  Quite refreshing.  It provoked me to stop what's "always been" for the sake of "that's how we have always done it....it's a tradition" mentality and start a new one.

Okay, so what does this look like....the brainstorming started to happen as I prayed to the Lord to please make my motives pure, allow my children and our family to celebrate you in a real and tangible way that would glorify you and not ourselves.  I prayed for my kids hearts.  Knowing full well that my heart and convictions aren't necessarily theirs...especially when you have teenagers who think and feel completely different.  But,  I have a responsibility before God to raise them as He says in His word and as He leads us as parents.  He was leading us this direction. (a little peek of what was going through my heart and mind)

For months Bob had wanted to make boxes with the kids that we could have in our car to give out when we saw a person in need.  We always see a certain couple of people when we travel back and forth from the shore.  With Bob working in the city often he sees it a great deal more.  So we took his idea and thought, lets do this for Christmas.  Shawn and Lisa were spending Christmas with us so this would be even more fun.  Bob took leadership in this.  In an attempt for our kids to see what our hearts were feeling we wanted them to get involved from the very beginning with the hope of igniting the passion within their own heart to truly love others more then themselves.

 Bob had the kids each make a list of what they thought people would need.  Bob and I loaded all 7 kids up and headed to Sam's Club and we started buying our little items to put in the boxes(which ended up becoming gift bags).  The kids had a blast picking out things they thought people would need.  We then hit some dollar stores for hats and gloves.   The assembly line started of making the bags and when all was said and done we had 70 bags to hand out Christmas morning.

I will share our experience on Christmas morning in my next post.

70 bags made with lots of love and prayers over them!