Family

Today I am thankful for the gift of giving! I have always lived by the mentality of it is better to give than to receive. I love giving gifts and trying to make people smile. I often get asked, how I can just go up to someone and start a conversation. I definitely get this from my dad. I do not meet a stranger and I can do me some talking ;). I love to talk and try to bring an smile to one’s face. I definitely can do some klutzy things at times, so I can get quite a bit of laughs out of people. I am just thankful that God has given me this personality and I hope that it will always shine.

This evening we were invited to the Veggie Tale’s Screening at Samaritans Purse. We are heading into the Operation Christmas Child season. There is a new Veggie Tale DVD out this wonderful Christmas season named Saint Nicholas. We were able to watch it tonight and my whole family was so intrigued. (Make sure to read all the way to the end of this post for a chance for your family to win their very own copy of Saint Nicholas.)

It presented such a great message and is actually based on the concept of Operation Christmas Child. My girls were glued to the screen the entire time as well as hubby and I. It really captivated what Christmas is all about. Quoted text from the Big Idea website about the new DVD.

“A Story of Joyful Giving! Find out as the Veggies discover the true joy of giving to others — at Christmas time and throughout the year!

Laura Carrot’s Christmas stocking might be empty this year because her dad is in danger of losing his job. While Larry thinks a letter to the North Pole should fix the problem, Bob knows what will really help … and tells the story of a little boy named Nicholas who made a discovery in Bethlehem that changed Christmas forever. But what did Nick learn and how can it possibly help Laura and her family?!”

Also at the beginning of the screening, we were shown a short video of kids receiving their shoe boxes last year. Seeing these reactions first hand was priceless and would bring you to your tears. I had told the Human Resources Manager last year, that the song “I Can Only Imagine” comes to my mind when I think of these shoe boxes being given out overseas. I was right… when I got to see first hand in the video tonight. The smiles and the joy these kids show by opening up their shoe boxes is what makes the gift of giving worth it all. We are making these boys and girls day by a simple shoe box of goodies. I took some pictures of the kids reactions:

We are going to fill a shoe box this year for every family member in our family. We are actually honored to live in the same town as Samaritan’s Purse where Operation Christmas Child takes place. My dad is a yearly employee and my mom is a seasonal employee, so as you can tell this really touches deeply to my heart. I am so happy to get the girls involved and we are actually going to participate in family day this year so our girls can see firsthand what all goes in the cycle of the shoe boxes. Hubby and I are also going to volunteer one night to help on the shoe box line at Samaritan’s Purse.

I am going to challenge you this Holiday season to pack just one shoe box in your family. If you can do more, that would be awesome as well. Here are the directions of what you need to do. Now, remember make this a family affair. Let your whole family be a part in picking the items. I would make this a yearly tradition as well so your kids can pass this tradition onto their kids as well. Here in America, we are very spoiled with lots of material possessions. Can you imagine what a kid overseas will do when he opens just a piece of candy? Even a notebook to draw on? Or a little pocket radio to listen to tunes? All these things we take advantage of and don’t realize how a small child is sitting and yearning for the chance to experience these things. Please pray about it and my hope this Holiday season is you will make one special little boy or girl the happiest person on Earth :). Here is a video from Operation Christmas Child that is very touching and will let you in on the excitement of these boys and girls!

Happy Holidays Everyone!!

I would like to giveaway one Veggie Tales: Saint Nicholas DVD to one family courtesy of BigIdea.com. Please leave me a comment below if you would like to win. I will pick a winner next Monday, November, 9th, 2009. If you tweet this post, I will give you an extra entry. Please leave an extra comment below if you Tweet :).

I am starting a challenge for myself for the month of November. Since this is the wonderful month of Thanksgiving, I wanted to take each day to do a blog post of what all I am thankful for in my life. It really helps me to actually sit down and think this month for all that I truly am thankful for!

Today is the 1st of the month and I want to say how thankful I am for being a child of our Jesus Christ! He is awesome and I love serving my Lord. I will be the first to admit, I am not perfect by any means. I make mistakes all the time. I try not to, but no one is perfect so mistakes are going to happen. That is what is so great about our wonderful Lord, that he will forgive us and lead us into the right path. I am so thankful for accepting Jesus Christ into my life back on that fall day in November when I was in the 1st grade. It was an amazing day and so thankful he has steered me back in the right direction for my life and my family!

This has been on my heart all weekend. My family celebrated Halloween this weekend and its so sad that I had to read messages that were trying to question my relationship with my wonderful Lord! First off, we do not celebrate evil. We take this time to celebrate some good ole fashioned fall fun with our families and friends. The girls loved picking out costumes and let me tell you… I got brave for the first time and created M’s costume. Let me show it off to you 🙂

and my beautiful L wanted to dress up as Cinderella. Can you tell she was a little excited?

Mommy and her happy girls!

Do you see any evil? I don’t :). I see some good family fun. We went on Friday night to a Church fall festival in our town and then Saturday we went to our local library and then to our Church Fall O Rama. We had so much fun just letting the girls play great and creative games… then eating lots of good food/candy as well. I promised myself that I ate the last piece of candy tonight.. tomorrow is back to counting points ;). They girls got to hang with their friends and just seeing their smiles was worth it all. We are not bad Christians at all for celebrating this weekend. I do not judge others that do not participate.. that is their wish. I should not be judged either and told that I am not following God’s Holy word. It’s all in the fun and how your family treats it. My family chooses to celebrate it as we do, and the girls have always celebrated it this way. We will in fact continuing celebrating it this way as well.

My good friend Sarah at Real Life posted a blog post about this topic and I wanted to share with you a portion.

How is Carving a Pumpkin Like a Christian?

First, God picks you from the pumpkin patch and brings you in from the field. The Bible says He selects us out of the world. We are in the world, but no longer of the world.

He then washes all the “dirt” off the outside that we received from being around all the other pumpkins. All the outside influences of our former life must be cleaned up. Old things are passed away and all things are become new.

Then, He carefully removes all the “yucky stuff” called “sin” out from the inside. Look at this! Yuk! Sin will not have such internal power. He then changes us from the inside out by the Power of His Word. That’s why it is important to go the church and learn about God’s Word.

He carefully removes all those seeds of doubt, hate, greed, and fear. He replaces them with the seeds of faith, hope and love. After Jesus is invited inside, you begin to experience the changing power of God’s love in your life.

Then He carves a new smiling face. Our countenance is changed by the power of His presence in our life. We then become so grateful. It can even show on our face!

Now we are going to light this candle inside. Look! This pumpkin now reflects the light from inside out. So too, when Jesus, who is called the Son of Light, lives inside of us, He shines through our life for all to see. We can let His light reflect through us to reveal His presence. “Let your light so shine before men that they may be able to see your good works and glorify your Father, who is in heaven.”

So you see, we Christians are really like this pumpkin! We will never be the same with Jesus inside of us. We can say like this jack-o-lantern, “Thy presence, my light!”

Isn’t that awesome? My light is in full presence indeed

I am not going to judge anyone. It all comes down to how your family chooses! How does your family celebrate?

This weekend was just a very fun weekend and I’m so sad to see it come to an end… but we are going to push this great weekend all into the week. Hey… by the way… aren’t my girls just so adorable dressed up?

This post included in Real Life’s Your Life Your Blog!