With Your Children at Christmastime

December

5. Put up your Christmas tree – get everyone around to decorate it.

6. Teach the children about St. Nicklaus, the generous 4^th century Turkish bishop.

7. Set up the Nativity scene – remember Baby Jesus isn’t there yet, nor the Kings.

8. Christmas is a season – not just one day.

9. Simplify. Alter traditions to suit YOU and YOUR family. Simplify.

10. Put aside (hide) or make biscuits and other treats to put in the freezer now.

11. Invite your neighbours over for a barbecue – be as lights in the world.

12. Have a gift card making session with your children, maybe invite some friends over.

13. Wrap the presents and place in a ‘safe’ place.

14. Make an Advent chain with 10 loops of paper and countdown – take off one each night and read the Bible verses or love notes (from God) you’ve written inside.

15. Together recall the enjoyable memories of Christmas past.

16. Sing carols or put on a music tape to play through the day.

17. Sit outside in the countryside on a fine dark night silently. Think of the shepherds, angels, Mary waiting.

18. Have a family only (half-) day to sit and be and do. Relax – in the park, on the beach.

19. Have an Advent candle lighting ceremony.

20. Go on a pyjama ride with the littlies to see the Christmas lights.

21. Oohh! The anticipation – Jesus, the Way, the Truth, and the Light, is coming.

22. Visit or volunteer at an old folks’ home, women’s refuge, Night shelter.

23. Watch a Christmas video or DVD with your children, telling the story of Jesus’ birth.

24. O Holy Night, … the weary world rejoices for yonder breaks a new and glorious morn. Sing this carol or check out the various versions on YouTube.

25. Happy Birthday, Jesus – Emmanuel, God born as man. Who is coming to your party?

Shalom, God is with us!

© 2004, by Johanna Whittaker for MOPS (NZ) Inc. www.mops.org.nz

Advent Calendar – December

Top Line : Theme for each day.
Sing songs, read Bible passages, read stories, do activities. For set times with your family or as you go about your day.         

1 Angel -
Make angel or cut from card for tree

2 Baby Jesus            -
Talk about a baby being born (play with dolls)

3 Bethlehem -
Luke 2:1-5 What’s a city? Visit. (put up house lights)

4 Donkey –
The ‘car’ of Mary & Joseph (play ‘Donkey Ollie’ tape)

5 Tree  -
Decorate.  Psa. 100:5 – God’s love never changes (set up tree)

6 Santa Claus -
Find out about St Nicholas, 300 AD

7 God’s Gift -
God’s gift of grace is given to us because He loves us (* hide gift)

8 Love –
What is love? Love is what love does

9 Inn -
What is a Middle Eastern stable like? (set up Nativity Scene)

10 Joy -
Practice carols – sing & with instruments

11 King of Kings -
Listen to parts of Handel’s Messiah

12 Lamb -
Luke 2:1-12

13 Family -
Talk about your family photos & family trees (*)

14 Silent Night -
Sit outside at night quietly - look, listen. Imagine.

15 Shepherds -
What did they do? (visit farm)

16 Angels -
“Hark the Herald Angels Sing” (sing carols)

17 Faithful -
Luke 2:15-20 (Tigger & Rabbit –race -story)

18 Presents -
Make/Wrap a present for someone in need (visit and deliver)

19 Far Off Country -
Christmas around the world … (visit library – languages)

20 Star -
Showed the Wise Men the way to Jesus (*)

21 Visit -
Jesus had visitors. Who can we visit?

22 Wise Men -
Gold, frankincense, myrrh?

23 Remember -
Last Christmas, traditions, family (last Christmas video)

24 Thank you Jesus -
What are you thankful for? (write on balloons and hang up)

25 Jesus’ birthday -
Celebrate! (have a party – sing HBTY Jesus)

- ideas gathered by Johanna W,  2003

http://www.mops.org/forms/Prayers_Oct08.pdf – short, sweet and from a mother’s heart

Take heart.

When out of your comfort zone, know that God all the more is with you.

Ask Him for the help you need.

He is able!

Learn to love your role of mother,  teacher, counsellor, helper, …
Johanna

Sinai Covenant and Marriage Covenant

It is an enlightening exercise to compare the Sinai covenant with the marriage covenant by interpreting the Ten Commandments as ten principles of conduct for married people.

Paul Stevens has produced a most perceptive comparison between the two covenants by means of the following table:

Covenant Between                           Covenant Between
Israel and Yahweh                          Wife and Husband

1. No other Gods                           1. Exclusive loyalty to my spouse

2. No graven image                     2. Truthfulness and faithfulness

3. Not taking the Lord’s name in vain 
                                                             3. Honoring my spouse in public and private

4. Remembering the Sabbath day 4. Giving my spouse time and rest

5. Honoring father and mother 5. Rightly relating to parents and in-laws

6. No murder                               6. Freedom from hatred and destructive anger

7. No adultery                            7. Sexual faithfulness; controlled appetites

8. No stealing                             8. True community of property with the gift of privacy

9. No false testimony             9. Truthful communication

10. No coveting                        10. Contentment: freedom from demands.

http://www.angelfire.com/journal/oneflesh/commandments.html

R. Paul Stevens, Married for Good (Downers Grove, Illinois, 1986), pp. 87-88

Cooperative effort makes life much sweeter for EVERYONE.

There’s a Maori (native NZer) saying that goes:

Nau te rourou Naku te rourou Ka ora ai ki te manuhiri
With your (food) basket and my basket It will be good health for all our
guests

Everyone helping everyone, life is about giving and taking,
“It’s more blessed to give than receive” (Acts 20:35),
shalom,
johanna

Remember, keep things simple and make life work for your situation without sacrificing any family member’s sanity.

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Homeschooling

 - also check out www.nzhomeed.wordpress.com for New Zealand homeschooling information and helps

Recipes

Lapbooking

Mum-e-Mail 

includes parenting

My family’s web presence:

The Counsellor

Kiwikids

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-1193520/ALLISON-PEARSON-No-madam-burkha-offended-MY-values.html

humph!

Fire in my Bones by J Lee Grady

http://strangmail.com/newslettersignup/ - subscribe to his newsletter

http://charismamag.com/index.php/fire-in-my-bones/22308
http://charismamag.com/index.php/fire-in-my-bones/22308-from-the-deep-south-a-cry-for-racial-healing

excerpt:

Jesus told the Pharisees that their holier-than-thou traditions actually nullified the Word of God. They were obsessed with washing their hands and dishes to keep themselves pure; Jesus was focused on touching the untouchables of society so that God’s love and mercy could spread to everyone. We have a choice: Sterile religion or radical compassion.

I’m convinced we won’t achieve true racial reconciliation until we all become more intentional about it. Healing won’t happen if we don’t make it a priority. What will it require? If we truly want to be a prophetic people, the church must address racism from every angle:

• We must offer Christ’s healing to those who have been treated unjustly (this includes Native Americans as well as immigrant communities).
• We must challenge Christians to let go of racial offenses rather than tolerating a climate of bitterness and resentment.
• We must build multi-ethnic churches led by multi-ethnic leadership teams.
• We must be willing to feel the pain of those who have suffered discrimination so we can truly “bear one another’s burdens” (Gal. 6:2, NASB). That means we have to educate ourselves about the history of racism in our own communities—and dialog with the people who have been most affected.

This week would be an appropriate time for all of us to jumpstart our reconciliation efforts. June 19 is Freedom Day, otherwise known as Juneteenth—a holiday commemorating the emancipation of black slaves (an act President Abraham Lincoln said was a response to God’s leading). Instead of viewing Juneteenth as a “black thing,” all churches that care about justice and compassion should celebrate the fact that God heard the cries of American slaves and blessed them with freedom and dignity. Then we should link arms across racial lines and work to bring that dignity to everybody.

http://www.juneteenth.com/ - more … June 19th  .. since 1865

Two of my computers ‘fried’ in the last week or so. Can you believe it?!

Sadly my collection of writing, articles, and graphics of the last ten years are no longer intact. Trojans and worms from my kids games computer (it’s a long story – this is the Reader’s Digest version here), where I stored my MOPS ’stuff’, nibbled through the documents – sniff! wah!! I’ve regrouped some folders and files from older back-up disks and hope to get more from the office computer, but there’s holes that I guess will be noticed for some time yet.

What a character-building month … Give me a break!!

But there is a happy ending … I have a new computer (to me) with plenty of RAM ROM disk space and other important computer bits!

Anyway, spent a bit of time in the last 24 hours putting updates and essential programs in, and I have some lovely friends extricating files off the other pakaru disk, so I have hope – and now I have a new thing to try out with WordPress – post by e-mail. Could this get better?

Holding onto hope!