Happy New Year!

Well, it's good to be on this side of Christmas and looking ahead to a new year! We ended up going over to Oxford on Christmas Eve and celebrating Christmas with Steve's family. We came back on Wednesday, and after getting to the bottom of the laundry and dish piles, we are enjoying a relaxing time in front of the TV.... watching, yep you guessed it FOOTBALL. I'm actually enjoying football right now because the playoffs are starting and the bowl games are going on. It's not as exciting as playoff baseball but it's pretty fun to watch.

The kids are enjoying their new toys and DVD's, and I'm trying to figure out how to not feed their greed next Christmas. It's really challenging to teach them how to appreciate everything they get. Instead, they would like to keep opening more and more gifts enjoying the "surprise" factor in greed. A couple of things have been on my heart about this - we need to "train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it" from Proverbs 22:6, so we need to teach them to have the fruits of the spirit: "love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faith and self control" from Galations 5:22-23.

I've often said that I wished there were more "how-to" steps in the Bible about raising kids instead of high level guidelines. But, the truth of the matter is every situation is different and has to be addressed accordingly. You have to just apply these guidelines... easy enough right?? wrong... it's very challenging especially because a lot of society doesn't teach these things. They feed our desires instead of helping us have self control and gentleness. They teach us to get what we want and do what we want to do instead of love and patience. They tell us that we have to be better than that person and we have to believe in ourselves instead of peace and faith in God.

So, how in this world do you teach kids the Biblical principles above? I don't know exactly, but we keep trying to do creative things every day - every second. Our kids are beautiful gifts from God and we pray that we will not be stumbling blocks to them. I know staying connected to God through prayer is one of the ways to keep us on the right track. We pray they will grow up "in the way they should go" and live for God all the days of their lives. I'm also praying we can do things differently next Christmas to help them have fruits of the spirit instead of sinful lusts of the heart. I think it goes far beyond cutting out faith in Santa. I think it goes beyond doing the advent calendar and the family parties......... what ever we do, it has to get into the heart so it affects the response of their hearts (and mine,too). That's a biggy!! I'm glad that this goal has a whole year to find some resolution.

Here's to the new year!!

Love,
Nikki