Service

Random acts of kindness.

I found this really good post on a friend's pinterest page.  It is something that could be done most anytime.    

35 Random acts of kindness

Sabbath

Church Bag items

A lot of people bring a bag of special goodies to church for their kids to occupy them during the service.  These are "toys" that are saved only for Sabbath.  Our daughter looks forward to her special playtime during church, and she gets upset if we leave after Sabbath school.

This is a book of puzzles.

You can get them here.  There are a lot of different options.





Felt bible story book

This is a little book with different Bible stories. The children can use the pieces to tell the bible story.

This book can be found here

Other books are also available and can be found here.

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Christmas is an amazing time of year with so many opportunities for focusing on Jesus.  We had our first Christmas at home last year and these are some of the things that we did and are repeating this next year.  It was a blessed Christmas focusing on Jesus.  

Christmas Eve, waiting for baby Jesus

Nativity:
This is our nativity but each piece gets wrapped up and put under the tree.  I only have 15 different pieces, so each evening (the 15 days before Christmas) our daughter opens up a present.  She is delighted with each one and our worship that night focuses on the part of the Christmas story that the object represents.  As she get older we will get more in depth with the lessons.

Christmas morning opening up baby Jesus

Presents:

We have asked everyone in our family give our daughter one present for Christmas.  We do the same.  We don't want Jesus to get lost sight of in the midst of "getting."  We have talked a lot this year about the way we give Jesus presents for His birthday is by giving to others.  “The King will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me."  Matt. 25:40  Therefore we are looking for the "least of these" to help.  Growing up, we adopted a family every year and brought Christmas to them, we are wanting to continue that tradition.  We are also planning on visiting an elderly person with no family on Christmas day and taking them dinner.  We want to focus on giving special gifts to Jesus.

Advent Wreath of sorts:

Instead of a wreath we have four candles on the mantle (hard to see in picture, will put up a better one soon).  Each candle represents a different part of Christmas, we did peace, love, joy, and hope.  The four Friday nights before Christmas we would light a new candle until all four were lit.

After lighting the candle, we had little cards to hang on the Christmas tree.  One for each person present. On the card we wrote how we had experienced each of the four characteristics (love, joy, peace, and hope) of Christmas that year.  Then we wrote how we thought God had experienced each (love, joy, peace and hope) because of our lives in the past year.  Then the card was hung on the tree.  

Birthday cake for Jesus:

We have a birthday cake for Jesus after Christmas dinner.  My mom sent some ideas for the cake.  Here is the link if you are interested. 

Cards:

One fun part of Christmas is receiving Christmas cards from friends and family.  At dinner each night, one can pray for the families of the cards that were received that day in the mail.  

Santa:  

At this point we are telling our daughter about the historical character St. Nicholas.  We have also been telling her that Santa celebrates Jesus birthday by giving presents to people.  Trying to focus it on the giving aspect.  

These are some of the things we are doing this holiday season.  I would love to hear about traditions you have. I will try to post more as I get time, time has been lacking lately...  

Chad Stuart, a pastor and good friend, has a blog that is really good for those who are interested.  He shares thoughts on things of God.  I am referring you to a post he wrote called "What My Parents Did Right."  He shares some good things to consider and apply. 

Sabbath Pajamas

We have previously posted on Sabbath PJ's but have added some elements.  On Friday evening baths are taken and then white pajamas, worn only on Sabbath, are put on.  While dressing we talk about how Jesus takes away our dirty clothes and gives us clean white clothes.

Some verses that we use to go with the lesson are: Zechariah 3:1-6, Rev. 3:4-5, 18

REQUEST:
I know most people have special things for kids to play with during church, things they only get during church.  If you have anything that is special, that your child likes a lot, I would love to know what it is.  If you could send a picture of it to growingtoknow@gmail.com, that would be wonderful!  Thanks so much! .  

scripture songs

Heather Steinke, wrote quite some time ago about a CD she found.  The CD is all scripture songs and is amazing.  I have to admit that the other scripture songs I have are good but they are for kids.  I love this one!!  It is one of my favorite CD's and I hope this group continues to write more songs.  Heather says she leaves it in her car so while driving it is playing for her little one.  She says they are still not tired of it.  I highly recommend it!  You can find it here.  They allow you to listen to a sample of all the songs. 


If you like that, here are some blogs that she also recommends.  They have some great ideas and are very helpful.  
http://www.doorposts.com/blog/

http://www.icanteachmychild.com/

http://www.makeit-loveit.com/

http://raisingolives.com/

Thanks so much Heather for all the great resources!  

Operation Christmas Child

Here is a great way to focus kids on helping others.  We are looking forward to doing this next week.  November 14-21 is the collection week.  You can find more information for packing your shoe box here.  We are hoping to make it a little party for the kids.