This article comes from my friend, Dana Bailey at Living Stones Ministry. Dana’s mission is “Encouraging Moms to Build their Homes to God’s Glory!” Dana is a beautiful writer, who’s love for the LORD is contagious. After reading Dana’s articles, I can’t help but feel motivated and encouraged, in the most healthy way, to be the best Mom God planned me to be.

After you read Dana’s article here, go over to Living Stones Ministry and join her RSS feed. Dana’s archive is full of great reads. It is time well spent.

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Christmas Traditions, by Dana Bailey

When I was young our house was full of Christmas traditions. My mother made Christmas gifts, we baked and we decorated our house as much as possible. It was so much fun. There was always some Christmas music playing in the background. I loved it, because we did things that I wanted to do all year, but it was reserved for Christmas.When I became a mother I wanted to create my own traditions for my family, but what I have found is that we have created traditions without knowing it. Our traditions became the things that we just loved doing the most so it was expected that we do it every year.

I love to bake so that is one thing that we do a lot of. We like to bake up a nice variety of goodies and then package them in little baskets and deliver to our friends and neighbors. This is our agenda for next week. The girls and I are scanning the cookbooks already looking for new recipes to try!

Here is a short list of simple things we do to get ready for Christmas. I try to make sure that my youngest ones understand that no matter what the TV says, Christmas is not about presents, it is about Jesus.

• Create a paper chain to count down the days until Christmas. On each piece write someone to pray for, an activity to do or a scripture to read.
• Pray for those who send you a Christmas card. Thank God for them and ask him to bless them this new year.
• Bake goodies and share it with your neighbors. Include in the basket a tract or a homemade card telling the Christmas story from the Gospels
• Volunteer at a local food pantry or homeless shelter.
• Find a family to secretly bless this Christmas with gifts or a meal.
• Starting a week before Christmas start reading the Christmas story and build your nativity set. Each day add another figure to your scene so that by Christmas Eve Baby Jesus finally arrives.
• Attend your church’s Christmas Eve service or a service closest to you.
• Pray together as a family on Christmas Eve and read the Scriptural account together. Spend some time together sharing what God has done for you this past year.

Living Stones Ministry

For while we were still weak at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. But God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us. Romans 5:6-8

In this love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. 1 John 4:10

Occasionally, I struggle with the order of life and it’s events. I trip over minute details that without real wisdom cause scratches on my spiritual knees.

I asked Jesus into my heart when I was eight years old. Since then, I have made many terrible decisions. Decisions that , every now & again, I think God will punish me for because they’re too big not to go overlooked.

Then, He reminds me in Romans & 1 John that He didn’t save me from my sins when I was eight, back in 1976.
He saved me back in A.D. 30.