Traditional holiday treats, family stories, and a sense of expectation in every heart...holidays bring joy to life! These set-apart days provide refreshment, strengthen family relationships, instill godly values in our children, and allow us to celebrate the goodness of God! Some holidays are truly holy days, set apart by Christians to celebrate God's grace. These holidays teach us about the Lord and His Ways. It's a fun way to learn more about our Heavenly Father, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. However, we can proactively use every holiday to instill godly values in our children. We must be purposeful in how we celebrate holidays so that we make time to participate in activities that train our children. It's easier than you think! We celebrate Christmas because Jesus gave the gift of His Son to a world that had rejected Him. This value of GIVING can be instilled in our children when we give presents to the people we love and, especially, to the poor and needy. We instill the value of thankfulness when we share things we are thankful for before saying grace during Thanksgiving dinner. We can also have a family Praise & Prayer time where we thank God for all His wonderful blessings. On Fourth of July, we can talk about godly Founding Fathers who fought for freedom and liberty. We can watch documentaries like Drive-Thru-History that teach about those freedoms and the men who fought for them. We can even dig out freedom documents like the Magna Charta, the Mayflower Compact, and the Declaration of Independence. On Mother's Day and Father's Day, as we honor our parents, we can explain to children why we honor parents--it started in the Bible with the 10 commandments and is the first commandment with a promise. If we honor our parents, it will go well with us and we will enjoy long life on earth. See Ephesians 6:1-4. You see, it's pretty easy to teach godly values at holidays. "Only give heed to yourself and keep your soul diligently, so that you do not forget the things which your eyes have seen and they do not depart from your heart all the days of your life" (Deuteronomy 4:9 NASB). As we look carefully at how we celebrate holidays, we can evaluate. Are we instilling godly values in our children with our celebrations or are we just doing what the world does? The world makes holidays self-centered, all about spending money. Advertisers get a hold of holidays, turning them into opportunities to make money. Satan works behind the scenes to commercialize even the most holy of celebrations. The most powerful miracle of all times, the RESURRECTION of JESUS, is celebrated with a visit from the Easter Bunny! Yikes! I love little bunnies, Easter eggs, and pretty Easter hats, but I relate them to the miracle that we celebrate! It doesn't take a long time to instill values, just proactive planning on our part. Grandparents and spiritual aunts and uncles can all instill godly values in the next generation during holidays and celebrations. What a wonderful time to remember God and all of His wonderful ways! For ideas on instilling values during the holidays and finding fun ways to celebrate, we have resources here: see my website PowerlineProd, the Celebration page. God bless you and your family as you celebrate every holiday this year. And don't forget to instill godly values. Warmly, Meredith Curtis
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorsMeredith Curtis Archives
February 2020
Categories
All
|