The Third Best Gift

It is so fun to watch your kids open presents.  Honestly, I like that better than getting presents myself (not that I don't like getting presents, but you know what I mean).  Buying them things that I know they'll love and waiting for that reaction of delight.  Imagine how much more God loves to give us things that He knows we'll love!  But sometimes, just like the tantrums that sometimes erupt from the over-stimulation of gift-opening on Christmas morning (I can't tell you how tempted I've been to do the 12-days of Christmas idea to stretch out the gift-opening!  If we didn't travel so much this time of year, I probably would do it!) we can't always handle what we THINK we can handle in terms of gifts.  It's an interesting thought...and an encouragement to be faithful in little, and thankful for what we do have.  

Anyway, I was pondering what the BEST gift you could give your kids is...and I've come up with what I believe to be the top three...which we'll stretch out over the next couple days to keep you coming back. :)

James 1:17 Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.


Soooooo, here it is: The Third Best Gift you can give your kids: Intentional Parenting.  While many of us took planning, time and effort to become parents, others of us kind of fell into it.  Either way, getting through the "baby" months, as challenging as they can be, is only the beginning.  We have, roughly 18 years, a relatively small amount of time to invest in the lives of our children, to guide them and coach them into the adults they will be and impress upon them the things that will ultimately affect many other people.  The movie "It's a Wonderful Life" (which, if you haven't seen it, stop reading this blog and go watch it) is a good reminder to how many lives one life can touch- for better or for worse.

Someone spoke wisely once to say "the days are long but the years are short" when it comes to raising our children.  It is easy to get caught up in the day-to-day needs of our family...laundry, food, homework, dance lessons, soccer,  more food, more laundry, and (man am I making good use of cliches today) miss the forest for the trees.  But we need to begin with the end in mind.  What kind of people do we ultimately want our children to be, and what are we doing now to train them in that way?  I'm really excited about some of the things we'll talk about in January related to goal-setting for your family and your kids...so make sure you check back then!