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Fewer Toys make Happier Kids
With ads, and discounts galore, I find it hard not to get caught up in shopping this time of year, but . . . is the key to happier kids actually fewer toys? As Christmas shopping winds up, I’m doing my best to recognize the benefits of fewer toys for my children, but part of me just wants to spoil them rotten. I want my kids to remember magical holidays filled with gifts and surprises, so it’s hard to balance my desire to watch her and her brothers’ faces light up with joy on Christmas morning with the knowledge that fewer toys is better for them for so many reasons.…
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Giving Tuesday
Today we started Advent, marking days toward the celebration of the greatest gift mankind has ever known, celebrating the birth of Christ. How fitting that this year, today is also Giving Tuesday. We follow days of gluttony and excess, perhaps self-absorption and consumption with a sweet day of being focused on doing good. How do you find your heart for Giving Tuesday? Giving Tuesday only started a few years ago, but is growing as more and more people recognize that we need to focus outside of ourselves. While, a calendar day set to tell you to give can make it feel compulsory, God doesn’t specify what to give or who…
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The Empty Chair – Have you Missed God’s Invitation?
How it hurts when we crave the presence of someone special in our home and around our table that doesn’t come. How convicting it is to realize that we’ve been the invited, treasured guest who did not come to the feast. (this site uses Affiliate links-purchases support our ministry through a small referral fee that never affects your cost.) My sweet stepson is visiting for Fall Break, an all too short five days, into which we’ve crammed pancake breakfasts, a pumpkin patch trip, elaborate dinners, family movie nights, football in the yard, ice cream truck purchases right before dinner, a decadent chocolate cake, and a fishing trip with daddy today…
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A Review – The End of Me by Kyle Idleman
I’m an admitted book nerd. I can spend hours in a bookstore and need a bigger Kindle budget than I do for Target. So I was giddy with excitement when my Amazon package arrived last Thursday. I had pre-ordered The End of Me by Kyle Idleman, actual paper pages . . . ooh I was so excited. But I got even more excited as I read the words of Jesus made real and relevant. While not necessarily written to be a series or even sequential, I really felt like this book starts where his last book left off. Not a Fan asks us to get serious about being a follower…
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Love Goggles – my daughter is the most beautiful girl in the world
Do you have Love Goggles? I bet you do. I have whispered a shocking secret to my daughter many times since she was born. “You are the most beautiful girl in the world,” I would say, gently kissing her cheek or forehead. Then add, “to me,” lest she wake up one day completely surprised that she isn’t. That day came sooner than I could have ever imagined. My daughter had a wonderful playdate with a friend that turned emotional quickly. Hangry is a real thing. It was such a dramatic meltdown, from perfect harmony to disaster in less than a minute, that it was almost comical. Our emotional center of…
