Happy 2012!

 "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!"

2 Corinthians 5:17

  

HAPPY NEW YEAR NEW LIFE FAMILIES!

It may be cliche', but I LOVE being able to re-access my life at the beginning of the year and make changes for what works for our family. It's like a fresh start... and I LOVE having a fresh start. So, as I am figuring out ways to better organize my office and more efficient ways of meal-planning, I am also pondering ways to purposely focus our family's attention more on Christ in the year 2012.

One goal that I have set for our family this year is to really step up our scripture memorization. We always use our drive to school in the morning as our time to go over our scripture songs (I put all of our scriptures to cute little songs to make them more fun and easy to memorize). The kids love it and I find that it gets us all focused on the right things early in the morning. I found this really great site that gives me ideas for scriptures to memorize with my children. Check it out here at Seeds Family Worship: Verse Memorization Check-list. (If you find it hard to come up with songs yourself, or if your kids are struggling in the memorization, there are plenty of scripture memorization songs available online for you to purchase/download. Even if you have them playing each morning and say nothing, those songs/scriptures will make their way into their memory by default! Seeds Family Worship has some GREAT ones HERE)

 Another fun activity I am excited about it going through the ABC's with scripture. I did this when I was young and can still remember most of the scriptures for each letter. Here is a cute little website that will get you started (just click on each of the letters to get the scripture and some activities to go with it.) It might also work great to have the kids write out the scriptures for each letter and display them in their room or playroom to keep them reminded.

Lastly, I am starting a prayer wall for my kids. I remember Tommy and Keri having this up in their apartment when they first got married, and have wanted to do it every since. Just get some poster-board, or a large sheet of paper, and have the family keep track of prayer requests over the year on the board. (If the little ones are too young to write, have them draw pictures). It is also neat to write down when a prayer is answered and the date God made it happen! How fun to look back next New Years Day at all the things you prayed for throughout the year, and how faithful the Lord is to answer! (Here is a similar idea from "Kids Prayer" called a "Kid's Wailing Wall")

Some links for Resources for the New Year:

"One Thing" Lesson for New Year

3 Biggest Dreams Printable

3 Happiest Moments Printable

25 Day Challenge Chart Printable

50 Day Challenge Chart Printable

Progress Road-map Printable

Merry Christmas

We want to wish all the wonderful families at New Life a very Merry Christmas. Enjoy your time together.... make lots of memories... and remember God loved you enough to send His Son into the world He created. Amazing!

Here are just 2 more resources that our family LOVED this Christmas season.
{Keep your eyes peeled for after-Christmas sales!}

1.  What God Wants For Christmas. There are 7 boxes for the kids to open that tell the story of the 1st Christmas. We loved being able to read the story together and talk about what happened.
2. The First Christmas Sticker Book. This was also a very fun way to talk about the Christmas story. The kids took turns putting the stickers on the nativity scene and took turns telling the story themselves.

"In everything give thanks..."

I think it is so important, especially during this season, to always remain thankful. In fact, in 1 Thessalonians 5:18, it says, "In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you." I had an opportunity to talk to my kids this month about being thankful when we had a conversation about buying presents for our AngelTree family. They had so many questions about why these kids couldn't spend Christmas with their father (he is incarcerated.) I was reminded once again, that we are so blessed and our family needs to remember the blessings of the Lord during this crazy time of "give-n-GET." One thing our family has done over the years (this dates back to when my sisters and I were very young) is go around the room on Christmas and share with everyone the things that God has done over the past year. It's such a wonderful tradition because we are reminded of how many of our prayers were answered and all the ways God has had our back. Try to make time with your family this year in reflecting on the things God has blessed you with.

Merry Christmas

We pray you have a very Merry Christmas!

For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And He will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Isaiah 9:6

The Christmas Angel

I've talked to a couple of people who have been looking for something new this Christmas season to help remind their kids of the true meaning of Christmas.... something fun and exciting. There are a lot of ideas out there for fun Advent Calendars, but I found something a little different that I think could be a lot of fun. The Christmas Angel. It's sort-of the "Elf On A Shelf" idea, but the Christmas Angel is found everyday with messages about the true meaning of Christmas. It might be too late to do it this year, but I am going to order one for next year! You could even make or buy something and do it yourself.  Enjoy your Christmas season and remember to teach your kids why we celebrate!

Excerpt from their website:

"What an amazing opportunity we have as parents to instill values and principles into our children. The Christmas season is about a precious story to celebrate a gift that none of us deserve, but have an opportunity to receive. The birth of Jesus is the greatest example of love. So how can we show the same love to others? Simply by putting others before ourselves. We should help our children focus on giving rather than receiving, for that is the true spirit of Christmas."

Last year my kids did The Christmas Story Advent Coloring Pages. It was a wonderful and easy way to share the Christmas story with them at their age. Plus, they loved looking through the book again this year and remembering all the things we learned.

You can find the Coloring Pages HERE.

December CONNECT

Last night, we had an amazing turn out for our Family Ministries December CONNECT. We partnered with Angel Tree to help connect parents in prison with their children through the delivery of Christmas gifts. At our event, families received the name of the children they will be outreaching to. What an opportunity to show these kids that their incarcerated parent is thinking about them this Christmas, but most importantly that God has not forgotten them and cares deeply for them!!

We had many volunteers to help decorate our angel tree Christmas Tree to make it perfect for the night.

Enjoying our snack station:

After families received the names of the children they would be reaching out to this Christmas, they headed to our Christmas card section where kids could make Christmas cards for prisoners and encourage them this Christmas also. 

After a fun-filled night, we then got cozy with friends to watch our premier movie VeggieTales "The Little Drummer Boy" on our projected big screen.

Our youth found a room to have an intense game of spoons and other fun games.

Thank you Bob the Tomato for passing out fun games and stickers to our guest as they left!

We had a wonderful time being with our church family. Thank you to all who came out!!