Christmas Decorating and Special Dinner, Our Giving Jar, Cookies, and God’s Grace!
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As I mentioned in my post about making a Christmas Bucket List, I sat down with the kids and we made a list of the special things they wanted to do this December. I thought I’d share a little about our week — how God’s grace was evident in our lives and we had a special week of making memories!
Since we were home-bound because of an ice storm here in Kansas the day after Thanksgiving, we made it a family day and decorated the house for Christmas!
It has always been a tradition since I was little that the day we decorated our tree, we always had a special “snacky” dinner that night. I have carried this tradition on to my own family and we enjoyed a fun dinner that night after we got done decorating. We also enjoyed watching a couple Christmas movies while we ate! Fun!
One of the things that we decided we wanted to do this year was to take our Giving Jars down to the bank and cash them in. We were shocked when it came up to $71.29! The kids were so excited.
I called our local day care and they have a special Christmas Gift program that you can participate in by purchasing gifts for children in the community whose families are struggling financially. I went down and picked a tag for a boy and a girl and we bought some gifts for them with our Giving Jar money!
Another item (actually several items) on our Christmas Bucket list, is to make some different kinds of cookies. One of my sons chose Peanut Butter Cookies so I made these this week. I put away a dozen or so in the freezer (and will do the same for the other cookies we make leading up to Christmas) and then we will have some to pull out to enjoy on Christmas Day.
Even though this week was busy and I have a lot going on trying to get packages ready to mail, etc., I felt God’s grace in my life allowing me to really enjoy these moments without being stressed.
As I was talking to a friend this week, we were discussing God’s grace and how many times we expect perfection of ourselves.
God shows us an area of our lives that we need to work on, and BAM, we expect to have it taken care of by the next day. But I am learning that God is more interested in progress than perfection. We will never be perfect until Jesus comes back. I need to focus more on making progress in my walk with God and in the areas He is showing me I need to work on.
This time of year it is easy to heap many expectations on ourselves. It’s time to take a step back, to look at the progress we are making, and rest in His grace.
Listen to this beautiful song and rest in His grace this Christmas season — savoring the time with family and friends, and rejoicing in our Savior – God with us!
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