Kind Echoes

I have come to realize that the hardest lessons for me are the ones I need to learn myself. So often I can reason with my kids, friends, and family what I think and know to be good, right, and Godly, but then, I fall into my bad habits. One of the best ways for me to beat these bad habits has been to read devotions and positive writings each day.
Right now at dinner each night, we are reading “One Year of Dinner Table Devotions & Discussion Starters: 365 opportunities to grow closer to God as a family” by Nancy Guthrie. Ok, so my desire is to read it every night, but we don’t always read one every night. It is truly a good discussion starter because it gives us Bible verses, a devotion, and 3 questions to keep us talking. It is cool to hear what our 17-year-old and 12-year-old think and always funny and adorable when our 3-year-old raises her hand and shouts out an answer to one of the questions. This family time is precious. It is bringing us together and we are sharing. This good habit is helping to teach me lessons about some of my bad habits.
So…even though my intention for doing Dinner Devotions was to expose my children to God’s Word, I have found it is also helping me! SURPRISE!

Whenever someone asks me what my favorite holiday is I always say “Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday because it involves spending quality time with the people that I love.”

I cringe in September when I start to see hints of Christmas as I shop. Thanksgiving gets thrown away in November as we become bombarded with Christmas every where we turn. The day after Thanksgiving has become the BIGGEST holiday ever for shopping for bargains. I admit that I have gotten caught up in that need to spend more, get more, and charge more than I have to make Christmas memorable for those I love. I have become so disillusioned. It didn’t feel right. Then I read “Advent Conspiracy: Can Christmas Still Change the World?” and I saw that on page 13 “..the amount of money we spend on Christmas in America is close to forty-five times the amount of money it would take to supply the entire world with clean water.” And from page 96 “Let’s confront that reality again: nearly four thousand children die every day…from dirty water.” 45x, 4,000 children die a day…what am I doing buying things that my loved ones don’t need or want?

I have always wanted Christmas to be about Jesus and his birth, but have allowed myself to get swept into the worship of consumerism. After reading the book, I have decided that I want to break that cycle this year. I want Christmas to be about Jesus. I also got the DVD that accompanies the Discussion Guide in this book and I intend to watch it with my husband. I want my family to do Christmas differently this year. I want my family to do Christmas right this year. I can’t believe that I have been the Grinch all these years, but, now, after reading this book I too feel like my heart has grown three sizes today.

The ideas are simple in the book and easy to follow. The chapters include: “Worship Fully, Spend Less, Give More, Love All, What If?”

I am starting to feel better about Christmas already. I may even be able to tell people that Christmas is my favorite holiday. I think it is time for me to join the Advent Conspiracy…we are all invited…
Check out their website http://www.adventconspiracy.org/
Here’s a video blurb promoting it too http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s6g6PkSa9Bk