We are well into the season of Advent. This year I've been intentionally trying to enter into Advent and create space for anticipatint Christ's birth in my daily life.
Here are a few resources for you and your family to use to prepare for Christmas together:
Village Church 2014 Advent Guide
What's in the Bible - Everyday Emmanuel December Homefront (Hard copies are available at the Kids Check In Station in the foyer) May God meet you and your family deeply and meaningfully this Advent season!
Although the rhetoric of this article is a little over the top I appreciated the point that it is trying to make.
Whatever happen to Saint Nicholas: Some of you may know that old St. Nick was actually a bishop from Turkey (the country, not the festive dinner). He famously slapped the heretic Arius for insisting that the Son is less God than the Father - oh and he also gave money to families to rescue their children from impeding indentured servitude. The link takes you to a fun post on how that guy became a fat man in a red suit.
The Santa Question: Staying on the Santa topic (what can I say, he is kinda a big deal) here are some good thoughts on how to navigate the Santa question with your children.
Psychology of a messy room: Those of you who have seen my desk in the middle of the week (and occasionally it is not cleaned up for Sunday either) need to read this to understand my hidden genius.
Why mess causes stress: In the interest of fairness, here is another (clearly wrong) perspective on mess complete with 8 reasons and 8 solutions.
What is the Church pt 3: What is a Christian: The third part of my series on what the church is. This one focuses on those who make up the church: Christians. Those of you in Grow pods (which is all of you, right?) may notice a few things.
The question, then, isn’t whether kids are free to make up their own minds about religion with independent objectivity. Rather, the question is which tradition of rationality is shaping children’s reasoning ... Letting kids make up their minds about religion implicitly makes up their minds for them, because it teaches them that they have the sort of minds that Enlightenment rationality assumes.
