It is our tradition to always decorate the weekend of Thanksgiving. I'm now breathing a sigh of relief because all outdoor and indoor Christmas decorations are done! Now to enjoy them for the next five weeks before it's time to take them all down.
Lauren's Bedroom Decorations
This family devotional will be one that we continue over the next few weeks, leading up to Thanksgiving day. Our goal is to focus on and maintain a spirit of thanksgiving this month. To kick off this devotional, we placed a basket of blank leaves on the dinner table. After talking about week one's topic, we each listed something that we are thankful for on a leaf. We explained that this would be done each night at dinner. After listing our things, we placed the leaf back in to the basket and recited our family memory verse for this month: "Give thanks to the Lord for he is good." ~Psalm 106:1. After dinner we ended our devotional time with a prayer in which each of us gave thanks for what we wrote on the leaf. This will be the routine we follow each night at dinnertime over the next three weeks.
Week 1 - Giving thanks reminds us that we are dependent on God. We acknowledge that all that we have comes from God, which frees us from the lie that we don't need Him. Read and discuss Colossians 3:15-17 through out the week.
Week 2 - We are all born with a propensity toward discontent. However, in Philippians 4:6-7 Paul urges believers to be thankful in all circumstances. We do so not as a gift to God, but as a gift from God. Read and discuss 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 through out the week.
Week 3 - Thankfulness is a learned discipline that cures our discontent and fosters joy. Read and discuss Psalm 100 through out the week.
On Thanksgiving day we will take turns removing the leaves and reading the things we are thankful for, while adding them to a large tree cut out. This will give us the opportunity to see the abundance of blessings God has given us and rejoice in God's provision for our family.
The game "Angry Birds" is a favorite of Lauren's on Ramiro and Nana's iPhone. After looking at the prices, we decided that we would make them on our own. It ended up taking more time than we anticipated, and we ran into a few snags, but all in all it was a fun endeavor for Nana and I.
The whole family was able to dress up, including Jax as one of the small disbursing blue birds. The costumes ended up being a little warm for the 70 degree evening, but were a big hit through out the neighborhood. We had several people ask us to stop so they could take a picture. Jax enjoyed the evening walk, the whole family was involoved and Lauren ended up with a bucket full of candy. Who could ask for anything more!
Our pumpkin carving came a little late this year due to our busy schedule the past couple of weeks. The focus of this devotional was to reemphasise that God wants to use us to shine the light of Jesus to nonbelievers. Being a Christian isn't always fun or easy, but it is reassuring to know that we are a child of God and that He loved us enough to send Jesus to die for us.
Here are some of the things we talked about while cleaning and carving our pumpkin: When we say "Yes" to God, we begin the process of sanctification. God begins cleaning out anger and bitterness that's grown inside us. Convicting us to forgive those who have let us down or hurt our feelings. Revealing sin in our life. This process can be uncomfortable and even hurt sometimes. Some circumstances make you wonder what God is trying to do. Jeremiah 29:11 reminds us that God has a wonderful plan for our life. We also know that He is our helper during these times.
While lighting the pumpkin we talked about how God wants the beauty of Jesus to shine through us, so others can see the way to Him. We are not better than nonbelievers. We're just better off, because Jesus has taken us out of the darkness and into His glorious light. Matthew 5:14--16 tells us we are the light of the world, and to shine it in front of others, so they will praise our Father who lives in heaven. We are choosing to "Shine with the Light of Jesus" this Halloween by wearing pins with this message, placing our pumpkin on the front porch for other to see, and handing out Halloween gospel tracts to Trick or Treaters.
We ended our devotional by giving thanks for being a child of God and for Jesus' sacrifice on the cross. We prayed over the tracts asking that the Holy Spirit work in the lives of the families who will be receiving them. So they may come to know more about Jesus and become followers of Christ if they are nonbelievers. As well has help each of us to be a light of His love to share with others.
We checked Lauren out of school early on Friday and headed to Inks Lake in Burnet, Texas. This was our first visit to this state park. The Swanson's were able to join us for this weekend camping trip. The campsites weren't the greatest, but the rocky hills were a breathtaking sight. A friend let us borrow his GPS so we could give Geocaching another try. (Thanks Kevin!) We were able to find 3 out of 4 on the first day; and it made hiking adventurous for the kids. Lauren ended up with a Pathtags.com trinket and wooden Shiner token. After lunch we headed to the Longhorn Caverns where we got to experience being 135 feet below ground. We saw beautiful crystals, 3 small brown bats, and amazing natural formations caused from water erosion under the earth's surface. The second day was spent fishing, packing, and going on another Geocache hike. The terrain for this one was a lot more difficult, but Ramiro was able to find it and Lauren ended up with a white seashell for all his hard work. On our way back to the Jeep we ran across five white tail deer. The first two flew across the path in front of us. I was so upset I didn't have my camera ready. However, just around the corner three younger bucks were in the brush. We stayed there a good 5 to 10 minutes watching them about 30 feet away. It was amazing! It's always nice to get away to see different parts of God's creation, and we were not disappointed on this trip.
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