Room At Your Inn

As busy as the Christmas schedule is for each of us we still need to make sure we are not missing the birthday celebration. One of the best ways to help your children get a proper Christmas attitude is to pick someone else to bless.

When the children were little we began making Christmas cookies in mid December. We made enough to wrap up five boxes of cookies.  There are four in our family and we each got to pick a person we would deliver the cookies to.  The fifth box was always for our pastor.  We wanted to teach that a pastor held a position to be loved and respected.

When we chose the person, our family delivered the cookies and sang “We wish you a Merry Christmas” when they came to the door.

One year our youngest child selected a elderly Jewish lady.  “Daddy, if we don’t give her Christmas cookies nobody will, she’s Jewish!”

I had great concerns about the delivery and the song…until we did it.  We came, we sang, she cried and I learned.

Pick a person that will be overlooked this Christmas and find a way to get the children to be a blessing.  That’s one of the best birthday gifts you can give to Jesus (Matthew 25:40).

Giving gifts that Count!

How do you decide what to give your children for Christmas? Do you give them a gift simply because they ask for it or their friends are all getting one? Or do you wait until the last minute and “walk” through a web-site to see what catches your eye.

Good giving begins with good assessment. Who is this child and what are his/her personal gifts. In order to follow the mandate to “train them up in the way they should go…” Parents do need to begin assessing direction in the personality and aptitude of their child.

When my youngest child was a toddler we watched him gravitate toward playing with things that he could build, such as blocks and even cardboard boxes. Sensing a potential builder or architect we gave gifts that would encourage this talent. His other friends were getting video games and he was getting Lego sets or an architectural program.

Is he an architect today? No, he’s the lead pastor of a church, but we did watch him grow up developing a part of his thinking process that has given him patience and long-term goal setting…very much like designing a building.

This Christmas give gifts that feed their gifts.  Instead of just giving gifts that cost, give a gift that counts … toward their future.