It’s the most wonderful time of the year… a time we can bring God so much glory by enjoying the love story between Him and us.  A story we want to share with our kids over and over every Christmas because it’s the greatest love story ever told- that the God of the universe would want to come down from Heaven and be with us!

Every year as Christmas creeps closer and closer, I am filled with anticipation for the joy of the season, but also anxiety sets in as I wonder if I will be able to get everything done in time. From preparing kids for Christmas plays, to hosting and attending parties, to determining the perfect gifts for each family member… it’s a crazy time of year! 

What do your kids love about Christmas?  Mine love decorating the Christmas tree (my husband’s least favorite part), making, icing, and eating Christmas cookies, and spending time with their cousins…  Christmas is fun and full of exciting activities, but with so much to look forward to, if we are not careful, it can become easy to loose sight of the main reason for Christmas.

With Thanksgiving around the corner, it’s fun to think of something special to give our kids to celebrate the occasion. I enjoy giving my kids Thanksgiving books and books about thankfulness. Reading books together on thankfulness is a great way to encourage our kids to be thankful and get them excited about celebrating Thanksgiving!

Arielle Lewis is an amazing mom and woman of faith who has a passion to help people with disabilities find acceptance and thrive in their lives and communities. She has been a special education teacher, special needs director, consultant, and more recently, God has given her a beautiful second daughter named Charlotte, who happens to have Down syndrome.  She and her husband started a blog, The Lewis Pride, to help people see ability differences through “mighty eyes,” and they started a non-profit, The Mighty Waffle, a career development center that offers jobs and internships for those with intellectual and developmental disabilities, as well as providing education to the community about disabilities . 

What do you want your children to look like when they are grown?  Do you desire for them to be focused on success, materialism, and entertainment? Or do you want them to be living in communion with God and raising your grandchildren to live for the Lord as well?  

Recently the Lord connected me with Charmé Fletcher, founder of the blog, Covenant Heirs, and coauthor with her husband of Making a Spiritual Discipleship Plan.  My husband and I enjoyed using her spiritual discipleship plan resource to come up with our own discipleship plan for our family.  It is an amazing tool and really helped us develop a vision for our family, so we stay centered on what matters most in life.  I asked her to guest blog for us to tell you more about this wonderful tool… 

One of the most profound gifts that we can give our children is to teach them to pray.  It is such an honor that the God of the entire universe wants to have a RELATIONSHIP with us.  And this relationship can only happen through prayer, communing with God… I believe one of the best ways we can encourage our children to have a relationship with Jesus is to teach them to pray.  And the best way to teach them to pray is to pray with our children.