Jesus vs Santa: round 1

I felt very convicted at church on Sunday that I haven't been faithful about doing morning devotions with the girls. They are like sponges at this age and it's so important that they know how much God loves them what his word says. So as of yesterday I have made it a a priority that the first thing we do when Mr. Handsome goes down for his morning nap is we stop playing to spend time in prayer and do our morning devotion. The girls actually love doing it. It's so sweet to hear them pray. Of course not everyday can be rainbows and sunshine, thunderclouds rolled in about halfway thru and Haylie had a minor meltdown, but we stopped and prayed that Jesus would help her behave and she asked for forgiveness. Clouds rolled out and we were back to our perky morning and sunny time with the Lord. I decided I'm going to make the verse we go over on Monday our verse for the week and have them learn to read it and memorize it. So far so good and it's only Tuesday. Our verse this week is "The grass dies, the flowers fall, but the word of Our God is forever" - Isaiah 40:8 I love how such a simple verse can have such great meaning & really put things into perspective. Today we talked about how God is our shepherd. Yesterday our lesson is pretty much summed up in the verse I just shared. Now a story that will probably make you gasp. When Madison was asking me about things that are not forever {flowers, grass, we tried to keep it simple) versus what is forever (I brought up 'Heaven-where God has a house for us' and somehow it got interpreted as "Kevin's House", so one day we'll all be together in Kevin's house with the Lord...alrighty). Anyhow, she happended to bring up Santa and him being forever. (Brace yourself) I swiftly told her Santa is not real, but Jesus is and He is forever. NOW, she may not even remember this convo by the time Christmas rolls around and if she so chooses to envelope herself in the magical wonderness of there being a Santa I will not rip that from her. HOWEVER, when it comes to Santa versus Jesus, I am not going to fight tooth and nail for her to believe in a fictitious being (ps I will explain the story of the real St. Nick at one point) the same I will strive for her to recognize Jesus as her Lord and Savior who will bless her beyond any gift Santa could ever bestow upon her if she gives her heart to him.

I am really enjoying this time with them and times like these make me want to homeschool even more which I have started looking into, seeking out information and opinions of those who do it or have done it. If you have little ones I would highly recommend doing devotions with them, even if it's not daily, when you can. We only take 10-15 minutes to do it. It's good for them and it's equally wonderful for you!