So proud of my kids!

I am so proud of my kids this morning! Well, I was yesterday too but just now got the chance to sit and blog about it! ;)

Anyway, we have a tradition in our family that each of our kids get three presents from us for Christmas. We did that partly to limit ourselves and what we spend on them and because three gifts were mentioned as being presented to Jesus when the wise men visited him. So, if three was sufficient to be mentioned in the Bible, we figure it's plenty for our kids. Usually they each get one BIG thing, an outfit and one little thing...

Well, we also like to participate in Operation Christmas Child. If you are not familiar, this is a ministry that sends out shoeboxes filled by families here in the U.S. to children around the world who might not otherwise receive anything for Christmas. Anyway, as my kids get older, I get more concerned about making sure that Christmas is not centered around them receiving gifts but about the gospel message. My original plan was to fill one shoebox as a family. But, I approached my kids yesterday with the idea of each of them having a box to fill. Here's the catch: they would each give up one of their three gifts to send out a box for the cause. To my surprise, there was no hesitation. I am so proud of them. So, off we went to the dollar store to fill all of our boxes with goodies: crayons, fun jewelry, socks, stickers, candy, puzzles, books.... it was fun! I figured we could stuff WAY more things in the boxes from the dollar store and the kids receiving them would think it as gold!

So, that was my most recent proud mommy moment! Now we will take pictures of them with their boxes to put under the tree as a reminder of their sacrificial giving this year and so they remember, hopefully, that our lives are about sharing, not receiving!

Thank you Jesus for giving to us - Your life, Your Spirit, Your creation... EVERYTHING! May we as parents live out the spirit of giving and sacrifice in front of our kids so we can develop that within them!