We’ve been praying with Juliet ever since she was a tiny baby. Every night before she goes to bed, all three of us get together and have a family prayer time. And although, we have made a habit out of this, the actual process we go through has evolved over the years.

When she was an infant, Ben would hold her in his arms and we would stand together and pray with her before placing her in her crib at night. Our prayers would always be about her and about how grateful we were to God for sending her into our lives.

As she began to understand and speak herself, we added praying for others to our prayer time–for our family members, friends, and Compassion children.

To help her get involved in the praying, I decided to borrow an idea from Ben’s family and also from some missionary friends of ours.

Ben grew up with the tradition of placing all the Christmas cards his family received into a basket and then choosing one card at every mealtime. The family would then pray specifically for the family on the Christmas card. Our missionary friends do something similar. They have family photos of all of their supporters and then choose one a day to pray for. My friend Kristi tells me that her kids really connect to the photos and are able to pray more specifically when they can see who they are praying for.

I wanted to make our prayer time more concrete for Juliet and also give her a way to feel like she was part of the process, so I searched for a box that would be our “prayer box.”

It’s an old cigar box that I had picked up awhile back and didn’t know what to do with it. It said “Julieta”, so I couldn’t resist! I thought it was beautiful and it is the perfect size for holding pictures.

Inside, you can see we keep photos of our family members, friends, and Compassion children. Every night, Juliet reaches in selects who we are praying for and then holds it in her hands as we pray. She LOVES it!

We have a lot of Christmas cards in the box and also a few birth announcements. For our family members, I tried to print out pictures of them with Juliet in the picture as well. This always makes her smile when she sees herself with Mimi or Poppy or one of her cousins.

Lately, our process has changed again. Instead of drawing a picture from the prayer box, we simply ask Juliet who we should pray for tonight. Each night, she comes up with someone new! She has grown out of the prayer box–as she no longer needs a visual cue to help her decide who to pray for. And she has even begun to chime in and add her own thoughts to our prayers!

And even though I am kind of sad to see it fall into disuse, I am happy to see my daughter growing and able to take an active role in our nightly prayer time. And I’m sure I’ll be able to find another use for that beautiful box.

What about you? How do you get your children to pray with you? Do you have any family routines or traditions?

I usually don’t listen to Christmas music until AFTER Thanksgiving. Sometimes I’ll let my Christmas-y husband play a new Christmas CD during Thanksgiving dinner. But I usually try to hold off on Christmas stuff as long as possible.

Until this year.

This nativity scene was on sale AND I had a coupon for 33% off.

I don’t care if it’s cheesy or sacrilegious. I love it.

(check out our store to get your own play nativity set!)

Last night we did our first family devotional time. OK, it wasn’t exactly a devotional. But it was a family activity. And it was about Jesus. So, I’m going to call it a devotional.

We sat down together and read The Pumpkin Patch Parable by Liz Curtis Higgs. Then we acted it out. Here’s how it went:

First we picked out a beautiful pumpkin from the pumpkin patch grocery store. Then we washed it off and opened it up! (Psalm 51:10)

Then we cleaned him out–all the hidden, dirty things inside! (Ezekiel 11:18-20)

We gave our pumpkin a new face! (2 Corinthians 3:18)

Finally, our pumpkin was lit from the inside and shining for the whole world to see!
(Matthew 5:16)

The Pumpkin Patch Parable tells this same story in more details and gives scriptures every step of the way. The scriptures and the story point to the miracle that Jesus does in our lives–he chooses us, washes us off, takes away all our dirty sin, gives us a new heart, a smile on our face and a light to shine to the world! It’s a beautiful picture and a long-standing object lesson that we are able to see for  weeks to come! Lydia and I were chanting, “Let your light shine! Matthew 5:16!” the whole time we were looking at our shining new pumpkin. It made quite an impression!

I know this is a blatant rip-off of the Halloween Jack-o-Lantern. Liz Curtis Higgs describes it as redeeming something that God created–a pumpkin. And can I say something else? God knew. God knew people would use the pumpkin as something scary. And that his creation would be a symbol for a mostly evil holiday. And I think he put this symbolism together for this very purpose–to redeem it and remind us how He has redeemed us!

This is an excellent book with sweet pictures and a very profound message. I encourage you to get this book even if you don’t do the carving of a pumpkin together. It will help your kids associate a pumpkin (or jack-o-lantern) with God’s love instead of with Halloween!

See my review of Liz Curtis Higg’s The Pine Tree Parable! One of my FAVORITE Christmas books!

Elias and Donovan are almost exactly 2 years apart – the same difference as between me and my younger brother.  Even at ages 3.5+ and 20 months, they are already deep into a love/hate relationship with each other – and doing the same things my brother and I used to do to each other.

5 ways to annoy your brother:

1. Have something (anything) that he doesn’t have. It doesn’t matter what it is, but if you just pick it up, he wants it.

2. Touch him. ’nuff said.

3. Be sitting on Momma’s lap. Apparently, this gets to both of my boys equally.

4. Try to take his current favorite car.  Oh my – it’s like the sky is falling when this happens.

5. Try to hug or kiss him. If he’s not in the right mood, it’s the worst thing ever.

5 ways to love your brother:

1. Share. Anything – toys, food, couch space… and it always makes my heart melt.

2. Read him a book. He’s only 20 months old – he has no idea that you can’t read!  In his eyes, you can do no wrong!

3. Just let him be with you. My mom told me over and over that my little brother just wanted to be with me.  It’s fascinating to watch Donovan gravitate to wherever Elias is – following him room to room, doing whatever big brother does – just to be near him.  And when Elias lets him, it’s a huge sign of love.

4. Laugh together. Oh, I love hearing the boys laugh their little belly laughs together… knowing that they are loving each other at that moment.

5. Hug and kiss him. When he is in the right mood, the love that is shown is fabulous!

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It doesn’t snow here often and when it does, we get excited!

We were at church when it started. So we got to drive home with big fat snowflakes falling everywhere, roofs and mailboxes frosted white with snow. Lydia giggled and oohed and aahed all the way home.

We raced outside to take some pictures. Then took off our dripping clothes to take a nap. Lydia pulled on some snowflake patterned pants. Then we hopped in the bed to read Charlie & Lola’s Snow is My Favorite and My Best by Lauren Child.

Now she’s taking a nap with her white bear she calls Snow Bear. And has been promised that we will build a snowman in the morning. Yup, it’s been a pretty exciting day for Lydia.

“Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow;  though they are red as crimson,  they shall be like wool”. Isaiah 1:18-19