10 New Year’s Resolutions for Christian Moms
Megan Breedlove
What are your New Year’s resolutions? Share them in the comments below.
December 2013
Mall Treasure Hunt
During the Advent season, the kids and I do various special activities all meant to help us focus on Jesus and His birth. One of the kids’ favorite activities is the mall treasure hunt.
I print out an identical sheet of paper for each child with pictures of things like candy canes, Santa, wreaths, stars, and presents. Then, we go to the mall with papers and pencils, pens, or crayons in hand.
When we get there, each child begins looking for the things pictured on the paper and crossing them off as they are found. All of them are usually pretty easy to find except one—the last picture on the paper. That’s because it’s a picture of the Baby Jesus.
As you can imagine, it’s always more difficult to find the Baby Jesus at the mall (they’re not allowed to “cheat” by going into the Hallmark store and looking at the ornaments) than any of the other items. That fact has led us to some great questions and discussions as we answer those questions.
Why is it so hard to find the Baby Jesus at the mall? Why is it so much easier to find Santa? Why don’t people want the Baby Jesus there like they want Santa?
But these questions aren’t the only point of the treasure hunt. That’s because there is more to teaching our children about Jesus than simply decrying the fact that Christmas is too commercial, or that Santa is more welcome than Jesus in many places. The real practicality of the discussions comes from the following questions:
Is Jesus welcome in our home? Is He welcome in our hearts? What can we do to show both Him and others that He is welcome here?
The answers to this second set of questions are what I want my children to take away from our Advent activity. I don’t want them merely to remember that they didn’t find the Baby Jesus again this year; I want them to make it a habit to evaluate their hearts to determine whether Jesus is truly welcome, and to consider how they can show Him and others that He is.
Have you ever thought about these questions? About, first of all, whether Jesus is welcome in your home and your heart? Jesus isn’t just a character we use for basing Christmas on; He’s the very Son of God, and as such, He deserves to be welcome. But have you ever welcomed Him into your heart and life?
If you have, that’s wonderful. If not, tell Him that He’s welcome now. Tell Him you want Him to make His home with you and be found with you whenever people are looking for Him. In fact, one of His names is Emmanuel, meaning “God with us”. Is He with you? Have you shown Him that He’s welcome?
Think about it, mom. What can you (and your children) do to welcome Him? Why not make sure you’re doing it this Christmas?
Matthew 1:23—”Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel” (which means, God with us). (ESV)
What do you do to show Jesus and others that He is welcome in your life and home? Share in the comments below
Digging In
Yesterday morning, I took Lindsey sledding. (The other kids didn’t want to go.) This is a big deal for us, because we have sledding weather exactly…well, almost never. But a few days ago, we had an ice storm, and now the ground is covered with ice, and has been for the past few days.
So Lindsey and I went to our favorite park, where there’s a hill that’s just perfect for sledding. We took along a cardboard box, since we don’t own sleds (almost nobody down here does). When we got there—driving slowly and carefully all the way—we managed to cross the icy street on foot and made it through the park to the bottom of the hill.
There, we picked up a large piece of cardboard from among the several that previous sledders had left behind, knowing it would be better than our small box. Carefully, we trudged to the top of the hill.
Walking to the top of a small hill might not sound like such a big deal. But it was, because remember, the ground was covered not in snow but in ice. Walking uphill on smooth, glassy ice is a next-to-impossible task.
We had to step in the places where people who had gone before us had broken through the ice slightly as they trudged uphill. Placing our feet in these small depressions allowed us to dig into the ice better and gave us the ability to make it to the top.
Once we were at the top of the hill, Lindsey took the first turn down, perched on our piece of cardboard from someone’s old television box. I took the next turn, a treat I hadn’t had in almost thirty years. Then it was Lindsey’s turn, then mine again, as I demonstrated how to slide down without turning sideways and getting dumped off.
For the rest of the time, I stood at the top of the hill and watched Lindsey slide down and climb back up to do it all again. Coming up carrying the cardboard was hard for her, and each time, I watched her try to find places for her feet where she could really dig in, as we’d had to do on our first ascent
And I wondered what you and I do, as moms, to dig into the spiritual hills we have to climb.
The problem is that sometimes we don’t do anything to dig in, and partway up, we slide back down again we don’t have solid footing. Or we do fine digging in for awhile, but then we hit a patch where we can’t figure out how to dig in, and down we go.
We’ve all been there. We’ve all faced challenges in our lives that we’ve tried to overcome, and sometimes we’ve been more successful than others at reaching the top.
What makes the difference between making it to the summit and getting stranded halfway up (or sliding a few feet or even all the way back down again) is whether or not we dig in.
It’s obvious how to dig in on an icy hill. You use your feet and maybe your hands, and up you go. It’s actually equally obvious how to dig in on life’s figurative hills, because we all know what we’re supposed to do. Read our Bibles. Pray. Attend church. Seek Christian fellowship. Confess our sins and ask forgiveness.
The problem is that sometimes we don’t do those things, because we don’t understand how vital it is to dig in.
After all, if you can get to the top of the hill by yourself, there’s no reason to dig in, right? The only reason to dig in is if you need the help. But let me tell you, my friends, we all need it. We are sadly mistaken if we think we don’t particularly need to dig in because we can make it on our own. God hasn’t designed us that way, and there’s not a single one of us who can make it to the top without prayer, Bible study, and all those other things we mentioned (and then some).
Make no mistake about it, you are on a slippery hill. Maybe the going seems easy for now, but you could hit an icy patch any second, and when that happens, you’d better be dug in before you hit it unless you want to wind up at the bottom.
What are you doing to dig in, before you hit an icy patch? Will you make it up the hill?
1 Corinthians 10:12—Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall. (ESV)
Fences
This past Saturday, my husband went out to mow the yard. Yes, it was November 30, but because we live in Texas, the grass keeps growing, and the yard has to be mowed periodically, even during what passes for winter. So out he went.
The kids, of course, wanted to go out and play since Daddy was back there. I gave them permission, and they ran outside toward the swing set and our large backyard.
There came a point where my husband had to unlock and open the back gate in our fence and mow a narrow strip of grass between our fence and the alley. As he was doing so, Lindsey came running up to him, begging to be allowed out in the alley. “Pretty please?” she pleaded.
My husband said yes. It’s not a well-trafficked area (we hardly ever have vehicles coming through our alley), and besides, he was going to be right there. Lindsey bounded out past our back fence, exulting, “I’ve never been out here before. This is great!”
She had a grand time playing beyond the boundaries of our fence. And as I’ve said, she was safe.
On the other hand, when you and I go not beyond the boundaries of our yards but beyond God’s boundaries, are not nearly so safe. In fact, we are guaranteed to be in danger.
God has fenced off certain areas of life from us, knowing that on the other side lurk sin, danger, and death. But sometimes, we ignore the fences (in other words, His commandments) that He’s put up, and we blithely venture beyond them.
“This is great!” we exclaim. “I’m having so much fun!”
But make no mistake about it: this kind of fun brings consequences. Yes, sin appears to be fun for awhile (Satan is well capable of making sin appear fun and exciting, so that people will want to commit it), but it’s only a matter of time before the consequences come crashing in.
Sometimes, those consequences will be obvious, such as broken relationships or even getting arrested. Other times, they will be less obvious, when they don’t seem to come immediately or when the consequences are spiritual distance between ourselves and God.
But there will be some kind of consequences. Oh, yes, there will be.
And that is why God has warned us to keep out of certain areas and away from certain activities. Not because He’s a killjoy, but because He wants to keep us away from danger. Not because He wants to take all the fun out of life, but because He wants to spare us from the sorrow that sin ultimately brings.
We make a terrible mistake when we assume that God’s got it backwards—that the stuff He has forbidden is what will make us truly happy, or that we really won’t be harmed by it like He’s said He will.
Eve would have understood. When Satan, disguised as a serpent, was trying to tempt her to eat the forbidden fruit, he said, “Did God really say you’ll be harmed by it?” Eve began to doubt God. She made her choice, and the rest is history.
You and I have the chance not to pass that history on to our own children. Yes, we all bear a sin nature now, including our precious kids. But what we don’t have to pass down is the idea that God doesn’t know what He’s talking about and is merely out to destroy our fun. Instead, we can show our children what it looks like to remain willingly within God’s boundaries, and what kind of joy that brings—not the least of which is joy knowing that you are exactly where God wants you.
Is there something with which you’re out playing in the back alley? Return to the yard. Come back inside the fence. Repent, which means to tell God you’re sorry and acknowledge that you never should have been outside the yard in the first place and won’t go back. That’s where your joy will begin—in being forgiven and restored to fellowship with the Lover of Your Soul.
Not in playing beyond the boundaries.
Psalm 119:9-10—With my whole heart I seek you; let me not wander from your commandments! I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you.
